Paul Cameron & Man of Fire

Hamid Khozouie · September 30, 2005

I saw MAN OF FIRE yesterday on dvd .I am very pleased with artistic work of Paul cameron.

In searching I can not find any article about cinematography of it.The only article which I know ; in ICG magazine is not available on line

Do you have any information about the technique of cinematography?

Negatives.......Cameras.......Process in lab........or......

Will be thank for your consideration.

Stephen Williams · September 30, 2005

I saw MAN OF FIRE yesterday on dvd .I am very pleased with artistic work of Paul cameron.
In searching I can not find any article about cinematography of it.The only article which I know ; in ICG magazine is not available on line

Do you have any information about the technique of cinematography?

Negatives.......Cameras.......Process in lab........or......

Will be thank for your consideration.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hi,

If that's man on fire 2004.

Multi Cameras for action 8 sometimes more .

2 at 24 FPS 35mm Panavision Wide + Medium

1x 48 FPS 35mm

1x 100-150 35mm Arri 435 Close Ups

2x Hand cranked Arri 2C

2x 16mm Aaton minima

The hand cranked cameras also double exposed in camera and cross processed!

There are many threads about this!

Stephen

Wendell_Greene · September 30, 2005

"Man on Fire" was covered in the April 2004 issue of International Cinematographers Guidld magazine [ICG]

Film stocks:

5284 Expression - often pushed 1-2 stops for night and day interiors and to supplement with 5274 and 5248 for daytime, Cameron mentioned the '84 "had significant grain that just boiled in the high [lights]

Kodak reversal 5285 cross processed and pushed as needed

Cameras:

(2) 35mm Panavision Millenium XLs

(2) Arri 2C hand cranked

(1) Arri 435 HS

(2) 16mm Aaton XTR Prod

(1) 16mm Aaton A-Minima

A total of 17 cameras were used in the scene where the club explodes, 4 in fireboxes and one over a mile away to catch the explosion.

Lenses:

several 11-1 zooms

135-420 lenes

complete set of Mark II primes

Super 35 2:40 - special ground glasses were made for the 16mm cameras

As mentioned in a previous post, they would often back crank the cameras, sometimes stopping down the aperture, and [sometimes] covering the lenses and then exposing the film again.

Lighting: (partial)

12K HMI Pars

1200 HMI Pars

7K Xenons

2K

Practicals

Par Cans

Kino Flos

12 light maxi brutes, used on dimmers at times.

Additional Info:

Cameron favors Rosco Cal Color gels and used a combination he has employed on other films like "Gone in Sixty Seconds' [American Cinematographer article online at the AC site] for a night scene outside the club that Denzel Washington's character, Creasy, destroys in the building. Apricot and Cal Color 30 on 12K HMI Pars for a sodium vapor look and Full Plus Green and 1/2 Blue on other 12K's for a Mercury Vapor look. When Denzel goes inside the club, Cameron used 20 Data Flash heads around the room in a circular chase pattern and 50,000 watts of light from another dozen or so Lighting Strikes units, combined with 2 7K Xenons hitting a disco ball in the center of the room. Another 20 + HMI 1200 Pars and 2Ks accented the architecture of the building along with 50 or more fluorescent cool white tubes.

The practicals were accented with Cal Color Yellow 30 to dirty them up. Other bulbs were left bare and Kinos were hidden around the room.

Tim J Durham · September 30, 2005

"Man on Fire" was covered in the April 2004 issue of International Cinematographers Guidld magazine [ICG]

Film stocks:

5284 Expression - often pushed 1-2 stops for night and day interiors and to supplement with 5274 and 5248 for daytime, Cameron mentioned the '84 "had significant grain that just boiled in the high [lights]

Kodak reversal 5285 cross processed and pushed as needed

Cameras:

(2) 35mm Panavision Millenium XLs

(2) Arri 2C hand cranked

(1) Arri 435 HS

(2) 16mm Aaton XTR Prod

(1) 16mm Aaton A-Minima

A total of 17 cameras were used in the scene where the club explodes, 4 in fireboxes and one over a mile away to catch the explosion.

Lenses:

several 11-1 zooms

135-420 lenes

complete set of Mark II primes

Super 35 2:40 - special ground glasses were made for the 16mm cameras

As mentioned in a previous post, they would often back crank the cameras, sometimes stopping down the aperture, and [sometimes] covering the lenses and then exposing the film again.

Lighting: (partial)

12K HMI Pars

1200 HMI Pars

7K Xenons

2K

Practicals

Par Cans

Kino Flos

12 light maxi brutes, used on dimmers at times.

Additional Info:

Cameron favors Rosco Cal Color gels and used a combination he has employed on other films like "Gone in Sixty Seconds' [American Cinematographer article online at the AC site] for a night scene outside the club that Denzel Washington's character, Creasy, destroys in the building. Apricot and Cal Color 30 on 12K HMI Pars for a sodium vapor look and Full Plus Green and 1/2 Blue on other 12K's for a Mercury Vapor look. When Denzel goes inside the club, Cameron used 20 Data Flash heads around the room in a circular chase pattern and 50,000 watts of light from another dozen or so Lighting Strikes units, combined with 2 7K Xenons hitting a disco ball in the center of the room. Another 20 + HMI 1200 Pars and 2Ks accented the architecture of the building along with 50 or more fluorescent cool white tubes.

The practicals were accented with Cal Color Yellow 30 to dirty them up. Other bulbs were left bare and Kinos were hidden around the room.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But seriously,

Could you give us a few details?

Hamid Khozouie · October 3, 2005

Thanks for your very good informations.

But now, I dont know any use of DI process, or bleach by pass.

Why they used hand cranked IIC ?

Over & under in hand held camera work is for DI or IIC or.....?

Mike Williamson · October 3, 2005

If you check the archives, there is an interesting thread about "Man On Fire" that I remember posting in, someone talked about Cesar Charlone (DP from "City of God") operating on the film, so have a look and see if you can find it.

To fill in a few more details, the film did go through DI at 2K resoultion at Company 3 with colorist Stefan Sonnenfeld. Paul Cameron did an initial color correction on the film in three days working with Sonnenfeld, after which Tony Scott came in and spent a few weeks making changes. At the end of that session, Scott brought Cameron in to look at the new version which apparently was much warmer and Cameron told him that it wasn't the film they had shot. In the end, Scott decided to go with the initial color correction that Cameron had done, and that's the film you saw. For more info, check out the article on DI's in ICG Magazine July 2005.

In terms of processing, I don't believe there was any bleach-bypass done. As Wendell notes, however, Cameron was pushing the film very aggressively, including at times the reversal stock that he was cross-processing (5285).

The hand-cranking is done with a modified Arriflex 2C and is not a digital effect. Hand-cranking allowed them to get flickering exposures and speed changes by cranking faster or slower. It gives the film a rough, jittery quality that you really can't approximate in any other way. If you look at the film, can you tell which shots are hand-cranked? If you can recognize them, see how those shots make you feel. I think they add to the tension and feel almost out of control at times.

Hope this information is helpful, I'd recommend ordering the back issue of ICG if you want to know more. Also, the special edition DVD has a documentary about the making of the film, I haven't seen it though so I don't know if it's worthwhile or not.

Rolfe Klement · October 3, 2005

Rent or buy the special edition 2 disc DVD - it runs through the whole thing in the doco. There is also a multicam scene where Dakota gets kidnapped and they show and title camera and lens info about 6 or 8 cameras running at the same time in one window - now that was a 10 min film school! :)

thanks

Rolfe