WOLVERINE Cinematographer Signed; More!

[the a1ant]

XMF has exclusively learned that Oscar-nominated cinematographer Donald McAlpine has joined the growing crew of WOLVERINE!

The 73-year old McAlpine’s career has spanned nearly 4 decades in which he’s been nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Moulin Rouge!. Other credits include Clear and Present Danger, Predator, Mrs. Doubtfire, Peter Pan, and Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
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In addition to a cinematographer, sources tell us that Kenny Myers, makeup artist on X-Men: The Last Stand and The Prestige, will once again be working on Hugh Jackman’s makeup for WOLVERINE. Myers has worked on such films as How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Pirates of the Carribean: At World’s End, War of the Worlds and most recently Charlie Wilson’s War.


We’re also advised that director Gavin Hood and his crew were scouting additional locations in New Zealand this week.

Thanks to X-Effect!

Source: XMF News Blog
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[narrows101]

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XMF has exclusively learned that Oscar-nominated cinematographer Donald McAlpine has joined the growing crew of WOLVERINE!

The 73-year old McAlpine’s career has spanned nearly 4 decades in which he’s been nominated for an Academy Award for his work on Moulin Rouge!.​

Thanks Ant! Hugh is now working with Moulin Rouge! director Baz Luhrmann on Australia - I wonder if that fact had anything to do with the cinematographer decision.​

In addition to a cinematographer, sources tell us that Kenny Myers, makeup artist on X-Men: The Last Stand and The Prestige, will once again be working on Hugh Jackman’s makeup for WOLVERINE.

Hugh is obviously familiar with him since he's done his make-up for three of his movies.

 

[BMM]

Thanks for the info. Since Kenny Myers worked on both X-Men and The Last Stand, I hope he sticks more to Wolverine's looks in X-Men rather than his look in The Last Stand.

 

[JP]

Same her. X-Men Wolverine was ripped from the comics. TLS Wolverine, not so much. :/

 

[Mr. Socko]

What? I didn't notice a difference.

 

[JP]

It's kinda hard not too. There were differences in all 3 films.

X1... Rugged and messy.

X2... Slightly less rugged and a lot more product in his hair.

X3... this one is the worst. Hugh's hair wasn't long enough so he wore wigs. What's worse was that it wasn't even the same wigs. As you can se her, Logan's hair went from black to brown, and it's a lot more spikey. However, in his first scene with Beast, his hair is black and slicked back.

 

[Electrix]

I think the main issue on the whole trilogy was the characters hair

 

[JP]

I think the main issue on the whole trilogy was the characters hair

Yeah, I think so too. IMO, they got it right in X-Men. It just became a bit too tamed as the films went on. But, maybe that was the point.

 

[danoyse]

X3... this one is the worst. Hugh's hair wasn't long enough so he wore wigs. What's worse was that it wasn't even the same wigs. As you can se her, Logan's hair went from black to brown, and it's a lot more spikey. However, in his first scene with Beast, his hair is black and slicked back.

It was definitely obvious that it was a wig, but I still have to admit that that photo was the wallpaper on my cell phone for about 6 months after the movie came out.

I can't imagine them not going with the X1 look, since it's supposed to be a prequel. I remember Hugh said in an interview that one of the reasons the movie was going to be a prequel was because he felt the character had moved to far on from what he was in the first movie.

Like JP said, his hair wasn't long enough when they filmed X3 (I believe he had just finished The Fountain a few months before) so unfortunately he needed the wig. His hair's a lot longer now, going from the set pictures narrows has posted from Australia, so they can go a different route this time, thankfully.

 

[BMM]

It's good to see that they're getting the ball rolling with the crew. Maybe that means we'll be hearing casting announcements soon.

 

[narrows101]

Like JP said, his hair wasn't long enough when they filmed X3 (I believe he had just finished The Fountain a few months before) so unfortunately he needed the wig. His hair's a lot longer now, going from the set pictures narrows has posted from Australia, so they can go a different route this time, thankfully.

He finished filming THE FOUNTAIN in February 2005 (when his head was completely shaved) and it was only six months later when X3 started filming. Here's more pics of what Hugh looks like now - these were taken on Friday. He needs this hair now for AUSTRALIA but I hope he doesn't cut it if there's any lull between the two movies, although I think he's going right to WOLVERINE once AUSTRALIA is done (it's still filming).

 

[Mr. Socko]

It's kinda hard not too. There were differences in all 3 films.

X1... Rugged and messy.

X2... Slightly less rugged and a lot more product in his hair.

X3... this one is the worst. Hugh's hair wasn't long enough so he wore wigs. What's worse was that it wasn't even the same wigs. As you can se her, Logan's hair went from black to brown, and it's a lot more spikey. However, in his first scene with Beast, his hair is black and slicked back.

Ah, I see. Thanks.

 

[Retroman]

A documentary is been produced about Don McAlpine and the main focus of it his work on Wolverine. It comes out later this year and judging by how much access they were granted on the set it sounds like it's worth a look.

Adventures in the Film Trade

Cathy Henkel of Brisbane-based company Virgo Productions is the writer, director and producer of IF award-winning documentary The Burning Season.

Henkel is in production on the feature documentary Show Me the Magic about master cinematographer Don McAlpine. Henkel joined McAlpine (both pictured) in Canada, where he is shooting his 50th film, Wolverine with Hugh Jackman, and writes about her experience for Onscreen:

Vancouver Diary

A few days before Christmas, I received a call from veteran cinematographer Don McAlpine saying that he was heading to Vancouver in January to film the final scenes of the Hollywood blockbuster Wolverine, and did I want to come? The film, starring Hugh Jackman and directed by Oscar winner Gavin Hood, tells the backstory of the tortured X-Men character Wolverine. Even if it meant shooting outdoors in minus five-degree temperatures in Vancouver's Stanley Park in the snow, this was hard to say no to.

It's over four years since I started making a film about Don McAlpine. I met him during the shooting of a Spike Milligan documentary I directed in 2004. Don was the DOP on the Barry McKenzie films with Bruce Beresford in the mid 1970's and Spike had a small scene in that film. During my visit, Don showed me some of his archive from Romeo + Juliet and Moulin Rouge. It was stunning, compelling and fascinating to watch him at work on those classic films. I asked him why no-one had ever made a film about him, and Don said, in his now familiar, quiet, self-deprecating way: "no-one has ever asked me". "Can I make a film about you?" I asked. He looked at me, paused and smiled and said: "Why not?"

We agreed that the core of the film would be Don shooting his 50th film, and we had to wait a couple of years for that to eventuate. When he took the job on Wolverine, my filming began.

The first sequences were shot in New Zealand in February 2008, and then on Cockatoo Island in Sydney in April. Watching Don at work up-close on the set of a big-budget Hollywood film was one of the most unexpectedly exciting and fascinating experiences of my life (which hasn't been lacking in the unexpected, exciting or fascinating).

Most people have no idea what a cinematographer actually does, except that they are responsible for "the look" of the film. But how do they achieve this, and what is their relationship with the director and the stars of the film? Show Me the Magic will reveal some of the secrets behind the mystical and magical work of a master cinematographer who has worked consistently in the industry for the past 35 years.

Don, Gavin and Hugh gave me extraordinary access, and I was able to capture the wonderful humour, camaraderie and genuine enjoyment of their work, and the magic secrets of how some of the more dramatic scenes were shot.

I borrowed a lot of winter clothes, bought some boots and ended up enjoying the cold. I can't wait to watch the rushes, and feel that this film will provide a window into a world that is very much off-limits to the general public. Show Me the Magic will hit cinemas at the time the Wolverine DVD is released.

I am now in Los Angeles to film Don receiving the 2009 ASC International Achievement Award from the American Society of Cinematographers at a gala ceremony on Sunday February 15. He is the first Australian to receive this prestigious award.

To read an interview with Don McAlpine published in the February edition of American Cinematographer, click here.

SOURCE:http://www.pftc.com.au/pftc/news/content.asp?pageid=563&top=&menuparent=557

 

[neemer5]

credit where its due. The cinematography and art direction, even in the workprint, were easily the best part of the film. I hear that the post production screws some of it up, so it should be interesting to see.

 

[Retroman]

McAlpine wrote an interesting piece about his experiences on Wolverine.The article (pdf) includes 2 behind the scenes pics of him working with Gavin Hood and Liev Schreiber.

From the Australian Cinematographer Magazine:

WOLVERINE
DON MCALPINE ACS ASC WRITES FROM VANCOUVER

Second after Harry Potter’s reincarnation, X-Men origins; Wolverine is the most anticipated film of this year. At least that is what I have read in the trades. I believe this is the fourth in the X-Men series and each of the previous three has capped the other at the box office. This potential places incredible stress on the producers, Fox Studios, the director, Gavin Wood, the
cast, headed by Hugh Jackman and all of us who support them.My solution is to do what I always do and on a day-to-day basis do the best I can for the film. There is apparently a legion of disciples who follow this comic book-based series eager to praise or condemn any snippet of information that comes their way. The publicity, promotion organisations are actively controlling the information these followers receive.

The purpose of this explanation is to inform the reader of this article the limitations imposed on its author. However there are many areas of production I feel free to talk about and some more personal events associated with the production. For me one of the more amusing memories I have of this film is the way I got the assignment. Films I shoot usually come from two sources. The first is a film from a director I have known and maybe worked with who was developing a project and in the process has asked me to shoot it. As the film budgets grew and the organisation to start these exceedingly complex films became more difficult, I usually get a call from my agent that someone is interested in starting preproduction on a movie within weeks.I normally jump on a plane and have an interview with the director.
Wolverine followed this pattern and on a Tuesday afternoon in October 07, in an office in Los Angeles, I sat down to be interviewed by the director and the producer. The amusing part of the situation was that after an hour, I realised this wasn’t an interview but they were discussing the detail of how the film would be made. It was me who had to eventually question whether we were having a production meeting or an interview.In passing, Gavin Hood was a little perplexed and declared I had the job and the production meeting continued.

It’s interesting to look back at the evolution of contemporary filmmaking and the development of new skills we all have had to acquire. In my very early films I would develop a floor plan and place a series of Vs that indicated the coverage and connecting lines showing camera movement. Next came the storyboards, generally a series of frames from the imagined scene. In Romeo and Juliet and Moulin Rouge these storyboards were massively expanded to successfully impart the essence of the scene. Catherine Martin’s work on these “storyboards” was the visual connective tissue of the whole enterprise. For some scenes in Moulin Rouge we used animatronics. This is an attempt to animate the actual scene before you shoot it. This was extensively used in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, with some 10 artists producing an interpretation of nearly the entire film. Wolverine became an extension of this. The main advantage of this process is that the effects, stunts and all of us are talking about the same sequence. On Wolverine, as with all films I’ve used this technique, it does not become a slave to drive the camera. The director and I do know that if we deviate from the plan we must have a concept that will get this back to the plan. We tended to use animatronics as a helpful tool but often realise that the situation, the contribution of the actors and our own interpretation of the scene will be better than the original concept.

The equipment and recording media used on Wolverine were of the last century. We used a full range of Panavision cameras and spherical lenses. I am an advocate of digital cinematography but the perceived security of recording on film is a massive consideration for the studio. Any real or perceived cost advantage of digital is diluted in a big budget production. My real advocacy is for digital distribution. When you consider how much cellulose and “dirty” chemicals are used on prints each and every week around the world, the alternative of some digital delivery is impressive. To support this, I point out that with digital projection technology, an audience in Bourke will see the same quality movie as the elite of LA or New York. To get back to Wolverine, we used the super 35 format to be released anamorphic. This seems to be the case on most effects films as they love to have the ability to move the super 35 frame up and down the full camera aperture. Kodak Vision 3 was the stock of choice.

I’m writing this in Vancouver mid January, where we are shooting additional scenes and of course the inevitable pick ups. My gaffer, Steve Mathis, is the only crew member to be with me during the whole movie. Steve and I have persisted longer than most marriages. He has worked with me for the last 20 years on all my projects. His creativity and organisational skill have made my job much easier and more enjoyable. Fortunately, here in Vancouver we have moved most of our work on stage. On bad weather days I sometimes think even Canadians shouldn’t have to live in this climate. When we finish shooting
here, Jeanette and I are off to Los Angeles for some celebrations then home mid February. I assume I will be back in Los Angeles to do the digital timing. This will be done at E-film by a true gentleman, Steve Scott, the timer. He added Magic to what I consider possibly my most beautiful film, Peter Pan. As they say in the trade, this film is set for a 1 May release. I intend sometime after this to have Brad Shields and myself explain ourselves after a screening of Wolverine. on all my projects. His creativity and organisational skill have made my job much easier and more enjoyable. Fortunately, here in Vancouver we have moved most of our work on stage. On bad weather days I sometimes think even Canadians shouldn’t have to live in this climate. When we finish shooting here, Jeanette and I are off to Los Angeles for some celebrations then home mid February. I assume I will be back in Los Angeles to do the digital timing. This will be done at E-film by a true gentleman, Steve Scott, the timer. He added Magic to what I consider possibly my most beautiful film, Peter Pan. As they say in the trade, this film is set for a 1 May release. I intend sometime after this to have Brad Shields and myself explain
ourselves after a screening of Wolverine.

Source: http://www.cinematographer.org.au/freestyler/gui/files/AC41_Web.pdf
http://www.cinematographer.org.au/magazine/issues/ac41


Also, narrows101 posted this link in the magazines thread to an American Cinematographer magazine's piece which has gives more insight and pics.
http://www.theasc.com/magazine_dynamic/May2009/Wolverine/page1.php