American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 24

Right: Charlotte
Melville (Sienna
Miller) greets Laing
from her
apartment balcony.
Below: Anthony
Royal (Jeremy
Irons), the
reclusive building
architect, meets
with Jane Sheridan
(Sienna Guillory), a
glamorous
television actress.

left unanswered, although Rose feels that
"Ballard writes sci-fi. It's always forwardlooking, futuristic - but of its time."
In keeping with the '70s aesthetic,
Rose adds, "We did end up using zooms. I
used Cooke classics, and we used those
more than I thought we were going to."
With the Cooke Varotal 18-100mm (T3) and
Cine Varotal 25-250mm (T3.9), the
filmmakers were cautious to avoid stylistic
tropes that might be seen as dated rather
than historical. "Having watched lots of
period films, we realized how much zooming
was employed, but we tried to keep it from
being cheesy," Rose explains. "Ben enjoyed
that. The only thing I sometimes struggled
with was the speed of the zooms."
When more speed was needed, Rose
24

June 2016

used Mark II and III Zeiss Super Speeds. "I've
used Master Primes on commercials, and I
did a film on Cooke S4s," he says. "They're
beautiful, but they're all too lovely and
modern." Other older lenses were rejected
because of usability concerns. Rose explains,
"I tested Kowas and Super Baltars. [They
create] beautiful out-of-focus highlights, but
I struggled with their reliability. If [the lens'
performance is] different from one focus pull
to the next, it's going to drive everyone mad
- principally my focus puller Kim Vinegrad."
Shooting with the Alexa XT Plus
camera, the production captured ArriRaw
files to Codex XR Capture Drives; the camera
package was supplied by Arri Media (now
Arri Rental) in London. While 35mm might
have furthered the filmmakers' period
American Cinematographer

approach, it was not to be. "I would shoot
35mm at the drop of a hat," Rose offers. "I
think the opportunity is becoming less and
less."
The widescreen frame, however, was
an easy choice. "There is a different sensibility
on TV, but the [2.39:1] masked aspect
is a no-brainer [for a feature]," the
cinematographer opines. The filmmakers
didn't feel anamorphic lenses were an option
due to cost and practicality, but Rose remains
an enthusiast. "I shot a pilot for a comedy
show last year on anamorphic," he says.
"Just using anamorphic glass was a dream.
The way it dealt with light was incredible. It
was a joy to use."
Given the set build, Rose says he was
able to closely control "what light fittings
were used and where we wanted them. We
had our pick of these beautiful period
practical lights." In order to create both day
and night looks, the cinematographer
employed "a lot of HMI [units]. We carried a
lot of the [Arri] M series. We were always
using 1.8Ks; the output on those is just
fantastic. We used a lot of 2.5Ks and 4Ks
coming through big unbleached muslins and
nets to fill-in windows."
Rose exposed the Alexa at its native
800 ISO. Given the camera's sensitivity, he
often used the less powerful parts of his
lighting package, which was supplied by Cine
Electric Ltd. near Dublin. "For instance, I used
[a Kino Flo] Image 80 on a crane on the
balcony studio set," he notes. For a nighttime
look, he adds, "I was using Steel Green on
daylight tubes, eventually knocking [the
fixture] down to just two tubes."
Although the film relies on CGI for
exteriors of its titular building, practical effects
were not overlooked. For example, skyline
cycloramas were positioned beyond the
balcony and outside windows for the
interiors. Additionally, Rose explains, the set
build provided "two long corridors and one
short one. They were built in a 'U' shape
around our one apartment that we dressed
[to serve as] four different apartments."
The apartment set depicted the
residences of Laing, Melville and Richard
Wilder (Luke Evans). For a party scene where
Laing and Wilder are involved in a fight, Rose
explains that they mirrored the set in-camera.
"What you often have [in an apartment
complex] are complete mirrors of
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