Cinematographer Ueli Steiger Exclusive interview on 10,000 BC

(Courtesy: studiodaily)

Roland Emmerich’s prehistoric epic 10,000 BC opens in theaters worldwide. The film follows a young mammoth hunter as he leads a small group of hunters on a quest through uncharted territory to find and free his captured love interest – securing the future of his tribe in the process. The film features stunning visuals shot in extraordinary locations, and complex VFX. We caught up with cinematographer Ueli Steiger to talk about his experience on the film, and the new technology he used to address some uncharted territory of his own.
How did you become involved in 10,000 BC? worked with [director] Roland Emmerich on all of his films since Independence Day and he asked me to join this project as well.

What was his vision for the look of the film?

We both felt strongly that it needed to be rather straightforward and look naturalistic. It’s a grand epic, and we shot in extraordinary locations in New Zealand, South Africa and Namibia. The landscapes were incredible, so the idea was to keep it as true to nature as possible. We shot a lot at sunset and sunrise to get the most beauty out of it. We didn’t want to change the colors or do anything exotic with the grade in the DI. We just wanted to make it look grand and beautiful. We were also very mindful of the effects – about half of the film has effects – and we needed to make sure those looked believable. We had some big, big sets and huge scale models and we had to make sure we had the same lighting and look when they came together.

What were the biggest challenges you faced while you were shooting?

Without question it was the weather. The film is largely exterior and we had to keep continuity in lighting while the weather changed dramatically from location to location and from day to day. The first shooting day of the film (in New Zealand) was snowed out! We shot all of our cover sets that week and actually ended up re-writing the script to put in snow. When you see the film and how much snow is in it you’d never believe it wasn’t there to start with. The writers wouldn’t have dared to write that because it would have been so difficult to create. Then of course we ended up having to do artificial snow for other scenes – we shot two additional scenes on a stage in the UK during post-production.The other challenge was that we had to shoot as much as possible at dusk and dawn. It’s always tough to keep light consistent. We had three cameras going, and you try to tell the scene with these three setups, staged in a way that it can be cut together. We then only got three to four takes until we would run out of light. A few of those scenes we could shoot over two to three nights. We referred to dusk as ‘panic hour.’ I think I aged another year after every one of those days.

Did you shoot on film?

We did. We shot Super 35 and didn’t filter anything so we’d get the best quality for the DI.

Did you use film dailies?

No, we actually used HD dailies because we were going to be all over the world and it made sense. Using a lab would have taken a lot of time. It was my first time not having film dailies, and that concerned me a bit. But we ended up finding a great system for communicating with the dailies colorist.

I understand that you used Gamma & Density’s 3cP package. How did you hear about it and how did you use it on 10,000 BC?

I heard about 3cP (Cinematographer’s Color Correction Process) from Yuri Neyman, the cinematographer who developed it. It’s a system for on-set color correction and calibration, designed for cinematographers. It has variety of deep and effective controls and allows you to be very precise and grade every shot, change gamma, create the look — right on set, then pass those settings on to the dailies timer and the DI colorist, to maintain consistency. You can apply 3cP to the filmmaking workflow in many ways, and I used the system a bit differently on 10,000 BC, because we wanted to keep the look more natural. I used it primarily as a tool for communicating with the dailies telecine colorist and keeping things consistent without going overboard and being the dailies timer myself – I have no interest in that at all. There are so many variables with HD dailies – the projector, transfer, telecine process – and they all can go wrong! With 3cP I could establish a color direction for the dailies and pass it to the telecine operator. It was repeatable. If I had a photo of a shot in the system it was absolutely possible to reproduce it on the other side of the world in telecine because they had all of the same parameters which 3cP has. It was incredibly helpful. It was impossible for me to do every shot, but I was able to do enough 3cP reference shots to keep the look consistent across dailies throughout the entire film.

Did you use 3cP in the final DI as well as the dailies process?

I had the 3cP shots in my computer with me in the DI, yes, and it was great to have them – and also the original stills of the original, uncorrected shots – as a reminder for what we did on set. On a film like The Day After Tomorrow or 10,000 BC I was involved in the DI for a good three months, and in the room for about three weeks full time. Because the effects are delivered at different times, you end up having to readjust and continually go back to what you’ve done. The 3cP calibrated reference sources were really a great tool.

Where did you do the DI?

The film was finished and graded at MPC in London. Max Horton was the digital colorist.

What are you working on next?

I’ve just started shooting on a film called The Lonely Maiden for Peter Hewitt, starring Morgan Freeman and Marcia Gay Harden. It releases this fall.