Eric Steelberg ASC

Jason is a great director, I knew that the first time I worked with him on a short film when we were 19. I'm very happy to see him getting all these accolades. Going into the DI tomorrow with Jason to clean up a few scenes we need just a little better continuity in. What we premiered was 98% complete color and sound wise. Doing the video mastering in a couple weeks.

Once on set, I get creative in my execution of how I accomplish the look I've already decided on in prep. I may not know how I'm going to light a scene before I shoot it, but I know how I want it to feel and look. I then figure out how to accomplish that with lighting. I don't want to be misunderstood. It's not that I don't try new things or challenge...I do on every project...I simply mean that when on set I try to be both true to the film and my intentions while simultaneously being responsible to production. I believe it's ok to take chances on set (exposure for instance) but not experiment. Believe me it takes a lot of creativity to keep it simple. All this being said, the film I just wrapped was the most complex I've gotten and I really liked some of the results, and other times I wish I had used fewer sources and less gripping. Regardless of how it's done though, the bottom line is always stay true to the tone of the film/scene/story.

Is it the shot in the trailer with George's name over it? The two planes? If that's the one you are speaking of then yes, that was done by my Bcam 1st Cale Finot, who also shot my 2nd Unit. It is a great shot but the time of day was closer to 4 pm in April.

Exactly, which is why David did a great job by creating that visual arc, thereby making the horror aspect much stronger. I was just giving you a hard time David. How could I resist!? You gave me a perfect setup to comment!! :P Personal and external pressures to do the right thing and deliver the proper visual tone can only drive us to do better work. If it had been so easy, you may have not done as well as you did. And it's not like you were indecisive, you just struggled (like every artist) to have your choices stay true to the material.

<_< But I like naturalism! :(

Yes the rack was good! I had one of the best focus pullers in the business, Zoran Veselic...a real artist. I also used him on 500. His resume is very impressive. The airports were all practical, all in operation, and all very very difficult to film in. We shot the airports of Detroit, St. Louis, Omaha, and Las Vegas. Each had different challenges and restrictions. One thing they all had in common was that very little in the way of grip and lighting was allowed in the secure areas, past TSA. So whenever we had shots at or near a gate, it had to be accomplished in a VERY narrow timeframe with minimal lighting. I was usually balancing our stuff to the existing fixtures, never an exact science event though it should be. For the most part all that stuff came out fine. In the ticketing areas and public areas of the terminals I was allowed to be a bit more ambitious both with lighting and composition/movement. We just couldn't spring anything new on the airport staff at the last minute. They needed to know exactly what we were going to do so Jason and I spoke about the shots we planned on and he then had them drawn up with a storyboard artist. I think the airport scenes, though brief, will be referenced and talked about after this film. Jason did a great job with them. On their own, all the airports were very different from one another bot in architecture and the way light penetrated them (or not). So we really just embraced those differences also because we wanted to really show he changing landscape of this characters life. In an airport like Detroit, you have this modern cathedral of steel of glass where in Omaha, an older design exists when airports were designed more for functionality than an symbol or gateway to the city...Omaha had lower ceilings and beige tile walls, but still beautiful in it's own identity. Clooney's character is most comfortable at airports and in airplanes so Jason and I and the production designer did our best to make all those things as visually appealing as possible.

The film was shot in super35, 1.85 on Panavision cameras and lenses. I'd say about 90% of the film was made using the new Panavision compact zoom, my new favorite lens. In fact that lens lived on the A camera, a Platinum, while the 11:1 mostly lived on the B camera, an XL. I wanted to test Fuji stocks but was told that would cause a huge stink at the studio since they, as well as the other majors have exclusivity deals with Kodak and testing would almost certainly start a series of unpleasant calls. I love Kodak stocks and have used them for every film I've done, and every commercial and most shorts. I had remembered testing Fuji for BANDSLAM and liking the gentler contrast and more neutral skin tones but thought it wasn't punchy enough for what that film needed. Anyway, 5219 and 5205 were my stocks. 5207 came out early on in the shoot and I used it in Las Vegas (one of the 5 cities we shot in). I never got to print it so I just shot it like the 5205, as recommended by Kodak. I couldn't really tell a difference in the DI between the 05 and 07 except that I could pull a bit more detail in the highs in the 07 and the 07 the skin tones went ever so slightly more saturated in the yellow direction. But again, that was judged in the DI suite. The lack of grain was important. It may sound a little strange, but I shot a thick neg to minimize grain so that the texture of the many locations was the only texture being presented. I didn't want grain to alter or overlay what was in front of the camera. Now of course all film has grain, but it can be controlled and worked into the aesthetic and visual design/language of the movie. On JUNO for instance, visible grain was important to me because I didn't want that incredible sharpness...I wanted a texture and middle america patina...because I didn't want anything to look idealized...the movie needed to feel real. Maybe it worked, maybe not...but I liked how my choice in using 5229 (Expression 500T and underexposing about 2/3 of a stop) altered the color, contrast, and grain. And so you mention the lack of grain in UP IN THE AIR, which I'm surprised you could judge online, and I'm glad you noticed something a conscious decision was made about. In terms of looking like Fuji, that was a combination of my exposure and the curves my colorist and I came up with in the DI. I generally like a softer color palette and like using the full range of a neg while still having and nice black level. But the Kodak stock, as always, performed beautifully. This was the first time I had used the 19 for a film, other than a couple of shots in 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, and I was knocked over by how well it scans. I've never seen anything so clean. It's hard to explain what I saw, but it's as if there is added color depth, sharpness, and overall clarity. I'm sure more technical people like David can explain the science behind those improvements. Truly impressive. Coming from smaller independent films, my tendency is to keep it simple but do what I need to do to light the scene properly. It's not like I cut corners, I prefer to think I am efficient. If I can help design the shots in a way that makes the lighting simpler, I try to do that and am usually more pleased with the results. I get hired based on my past work and my interpretation of material and just because I have more money or bigger stars doesn't make me decide that I need to change my approach. Why should I? Because it's expected? Maybe as I do more films and maybe even bigger films I'll experiment with complexity and see how that affects my sensibilities, but I do know I'll always only do what I think is necessary to set the proper tone for a scene within the visual grammar of the movie. Ok, enough rambling. Still awake?

I can't take credit for the aerials. We had an aerial unit spend a couple weeks flying around the country shooting based on notes from Reitman. All I did was push Jason to actually do the aerials which wasn't decided until later in the shoot. Glad you like them. I'm certainly impressed by them. Most of the aerials at the beginning of the movie were shot on film by Bob Mehnert and my A operator Matt Moriarty and the rest throughout the film were shot on HD by Dylan Goss. For the DI, I got to go back to my colorist at EFILM, Natasha Leonnet, who I did both JUNO and BANDSLAM with. I flew back from my shoot in NY on a few weekends to work with her on it. As always, she did a beautiful job. IMAX..hmm, don't think so on this one but we can always hope!

I didn't do a journal because with a studio film, I sign confidentiality agreements which are so in depth I'm not even allowed to say who is in the movie. So as this was my first major studio film, I thought I'd play it safe and keep my mouth shut. But now that it's premiered, I can talk about it. Telluride had a fantastic response. Toronto was always the goal, but during post Jason decided he wanted to push the schedule even harder to sneak at Telluride. We finished shooting the movie on May 15, it showed in Telluride on Sept. 4. Incredibly short post. The Toronto premiere was last Saturday and a huge success. Everyone was there and the screening was really well received. It played in the Ryerson, the same place we premiered JUNO two years ago. We showed a digital print and the projection was beautiful. All the reviews seem to be mentioning Oscar buzz for Jason and the actors and I have to agree about that. Really fantastic work (yes I know, I'm bias). Honestly, I can't say anything about Clooney that hasn't been said before. He's nothing less than 100% at any time, a total professional...a real actor, not a star. He stays on set between set ups to talk and hang with the crew, stands in line at catering, and sits down to eat with the masses. One of my favorite experiences with him was on the third day. We told him we were going in on a close-up and he asked what lens...I said "200" and he nodded. After "action" he repeated the scene but with just a little less movement and controlled his expressions just a bit more...knowing that everything would be magnified. I couldn't believe it. Not only does he know the art, but the technical as well and is able to effortlessly combine the two. It's small, I know, but it impressed me and had never seen that before or since. And that's how it was the rest of the shoot. I could ask him anything to help me out and he was always respectful of what was helpful for lighting and composition. I'm glad you enjoyed the clip online. And that's how the whole movie was approached...simple, elegant, and mature. I hope we succeeded. The official website is up and has the teaser on it. And some really good reviews: Variety Hollywood Reporter /Film In Contention Roger Ebert And the best news of all...the release date just got moved up to November 13 in LA & NY, and going wide November 25 for the holiday. I saw the first billboard for it last week at prominent location in NYC, couldn't believe it. My first film with billboards.

I didn't talk about it earlier this year while shooting the film, but the teaser was released today following a well received sneak last weekend at Telluride. The film officially world premieres at Toronto this Saturday. teaser Apple has also posted a short clip on their website.

Thanks guys. It warms me to hear what a great reception the film is receiving. Box office wise, it did as well as Juno when it opened in limited release so I'm crossing my fingers as it goes wider this weekend.

Less than 24 hours to go... I was just reading the NY Times review of the movie and noticed they have an Anatomy of a Scene feature which I think is unique to their site right now. It's a musical/fantasy sequence narrated by Marc Webb in which he discusses the use of color. I thought it may interest some people here. Anatomy of a Scene

The RED was used by the director to film a short based on dialogue between the characters in the movie. Part of the trailer alludes to them comparing their relationship to that of Sid & Nancy so Marc brought them together again to do this little promo. I wasn't involved in this shoot but I can only assume it was shot on RED as a cost consideration since it was a marketing piece meant for the web. I just saw it for the first time the other day....very good. I found out that my gaffer from the movie, Eric Forand, was hired to do this promo as well. So yes, you're correct. The movie was all 35 and 16 (b&w).

Glad to hear it! BANDSLAM is actually coming out next month. There are new trailers all over the web for it. Unfortunately I will probably miss that premiere too as I'm in NY on a film that starts photography on Monday.

Now that people are seeing the film I wanted to get the topic out of the "In Production" category. The movie opens next week and has been getting some really great feedback and reviews from free screenings the studio has been putting on. ICG also published a nice article on the film in this month's issue that contains a lot of behind the scenes information. I also highly recommend Fox Searchlight's website for the film as well as a fan site at www.500days.com. The marketing for the film is impressive and it's nice to be involved with this studio again.

I'm pleased you enjoyed it so much. I don't know what else to say, but I do appreciate your kind words. Since the film opens next week and there have been so many screenings, I'm going to open up a post in the "ON SCREEN" section of this site since I don't really think at this point the discussions should be filed under "IN PRODUCTION"

I didn't know that! Fantastic. I'm so glad this film is getting so much attention....we worked so hard on it.

I'm coming in monday for 3 months.

ah yes, I will try. I just got off a 4 month job and am trying to enjoy my 2 weeks off! It's a little hard to do the production blogs on the studio films because they are very protective about information being leaked and they make me sign paperwork keeping my mouth shut. I can talk about technical things while not being specific as to what they refer to, I suppose. The one I just finished was great, my second feature with Jason Reitman who I did JUNO with. It's called UP IN THE AIR and stars George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick. All the actors were phenomenal and absolute joys to work with. The shoot was a beast though...5 cities in 50 days. Got to use the new 5207 Vision 3 for a few days but didn't test it, just swapped it for the 5205 I was carrying. Results seem promising with noticeable improvement in highlight detail and roll off. The new film is called GOING THE DISTANCE, directed by Nanette Burstein. Leave for NY next week. Can't wait to work with her. Don't know how easy it will be to do a production blog but I will see if I can share some experiences.

I will not as I'm already beginning a new film in NYC but I suspect at least one of the actors and most likely the director will be there. I'll try and find out.

Thanks Steve! Laura Fox was a pleasure to work with and really helped me out. You can light as much as you want but you still need to point the camera at something that looks good and she created so much out of nothing in terms of materials and money.

Thanks guys. That train scene was very challenging since it was on a scheduled Amtrak run between LA and San Diego with no prep so I had to wing it as we were rolling, literally calling out stop changes and flying bounce cards in and out. We planned the trip based on the time of day which gave us the best chance for low afternoon light, since we were working with all natural illumination except fro a few kinos and bounce cards. The timelapse freeway photography was not done by me. We brought in a cameraman who specialized in that so I'm not sure what his exposure info was.

The film was renamed BANDSLAM and the trailer is now on You Tube and the TWILIGHT dvd. Check it out.

Hope you enjoy it!

Thanks guys. Yes, the Sundance premiere was wonderful. The film received a standing ovation and I couldn't have been more happy for the director Marc. A new HD trailer was just posted on Apple's website. In prep, Marc and I spent a lot of time at his house watching all kinds of films, many from the French new wave. Coming from music videos, Marc has a very strong aesthetic and technical knowledge so what we wanted to do is deconstruct these films he has always enjoyed and find out what makes them work, or doesn't. This way we felt we could come up with an approach for 500 that would give us the tone visual tone Marc sought. In addition to films, the work of still photographers was references for contrast and color palette, our favorite being Sal Leiter. The b/w 16 was chosen for these day dream sequences Tom (Joe Gordon-Levitt) has about himself or Summer (Deschanel). Since Marc is such a huge fan of the New Wave, he thought it would be fun if Tom was too and thus day dreamed that way. There is also a small Bergman reference. That was some of the most fun I had on the shoot. I spent a lot of my testing in prep figuring out 16 vs 35 b&w, different stocks, processing, color to b&w conversions, lenses, etc. to find something that was just the right look. 2.40 came out of wanting to keep Tom isolated and have tight compositions when he's with Summer. It was a little hard because of the importance of the downtown LA architecture which is so vertical. We just had to plan out shots carefully. The whole film was 5205 and 5218 with mostly Primo primes. I chose the stocks simply because I am so familiar with them and had a very accelerated prep, limiting extra testing. I also used 5219 pushed a stop with Master Primes fro some night time natural light shots around the city. Results were jaw dropping. The look we sought was very pastel, warm, and no primary colors. Our production designer used mid century design and colors exclusively, and reserved the color blue only for Summer.