Battle Stations

The World War II action drama Greyhound puts the audience on board a U.S. destroyer with its heroic but inexperienced captain and crew as they battle to protect a convoy of merchant vessels from wolf packs of U-Boats in the North Atlantic. It's a fictional account for which authenticity was the key. Established in the screenplay written by Tom Hanks who also stars as Navy Commander Ernest Krause that authenticity was reinforced throughout the production by director Aaron Schneider and cinematographer Shelly Johnson, ASC.

Our movie is very procedural, Johnson explains. The dialogue is freighted with technical jargon about rudder commands and nautical vectors, but the real story lies between the lines and is about the impact that these actions have on the crew. So many of the captain's commands are gut calls made in the moment, with life and death consequences. In order to convey the heroism and vulnerability of the characters, we had to give the audience situational awareness and context. We had to teach them this language.

Schneider asked Johnson to research everything he could about the mechanics of naval operation how to plot an engagement, when threat levels are raised, even how sonar navigation works. In the heat of shooting the movie, Aaron wanted me to tell him if anything needed clarification, Johnson says. For example, if Tom's script called for the vessel to maneuver 30 degrees starboard, then it was my job to ensure the procedures carried out on the bridge were represented visually. If I could find a place for the audience to stand within the pilot house [the destroyer's command bridge], I was doing my job.

A replica pilot house was built onstage in Louisiana. The close quarters of the 10'x18' interior set filled with charts, wheel, compass and other instruments, not to mention a camera operator, focus puller, and cast dressed in period- and climate-appropriate jackets naturally informed the filmmakers' decisions regarding the movie's visuals. To be able to get close to the characters, and particularly to Krause, from whose perspective the story is told, Schneider was keen to shoot large format.

The larger the format, the longer the focal length that can be used to get the shot you need, explains Schneider, who was a cinematographer before becoming a director and who remains a member of the ASC. By using a longer focal length closer to the actor, he says, you can actually make a more intimate film on a human level. That was particularly important for our story, which is set in the confines of a World War II pilot house.

If we were in a corner on Greyhound, he continues, instead of a 24mm, we could use a 35 or 40mm and get much the same shot but with a more natural focal length that didn't feel like we were looking through a peephole on a door. It meant we could get up next to Tom and explore the reactions on his face, which showed the weight of the decisions [Krause] had to make. Greyhound is a character study in that regard, so I wanted to get the audience up close to the actors. Large-format photography translates that proximity into intimacy.

We were less interested in showing the detail associated with large-format shooting than we were in how the optics would perform, Johnson says. An immediate advantage of having the camera in that 2- to 3-foot range [from the actor] is that, with the longer focal length, it adds a textural depth to the set. It's something the audience will respond to almost subliminally.

Knowing that the combination of set and story also called for a handheld approach, maneuverability certainly played into our camera selection, Johnson reflects. I knew I wanted the VistaVision-size sensor and ideally to shoot 8K. That led me straight to the [Panavision Millennium] DXL. It's not just a computer with a lens mounted onto it; it's set up like a true production camera. You can take it into the heart of a production with all the modules and inputs that make shooting so much easier. Plus, the full Panavision service and support is always reassuring on any project.

For his lens package, Johnson turned to the Sphero 65 range. I wanted them because they did everything that an old lens does exceptionally well, he shares. They had those unique imperfections,' distortions and aberrations instead of a sterile separation of sharp colors. When you get to the edge of the face, there's not that cut-out feel. Everything just kind of melds. It feels very analog. We couldn't get them until the last minute because they are in such demand. [Panavision's] David Dodson was digging through every corner of the Earth to pull together a set.

Johnson shot mostly with the 35mm, 40mm and 50mm focal lengths. There were a few things we shot from afar, as though from a chase boat, where we'd put on a longer focal length, he recalls. But most of the time we were right there next to the characters, specifically Krause and the faces of the young crew, so it made total sense to have a short depth of field, reasonably close focus, and expressive optics.

Tungsten practicals provided illumination through doorways and portholes of the set, augmented by some warmer interior sources all of which contrasted with the cool, stormy cyan and gray exteriors. Since we were going to constantly mix light as the actors moved from inside to outside and as the time of day changed, I expected to use filtration, but it just wasn't necessary, Johnson notes. I found the DXL color science separated the tones extremely well while the Spheros blended them together in a very unelectronic and beautiful way. The combination of lens and camera really is the look of the movie.

Working close to the actor in a confined space with large-format lenses presented an advanced task for operators Don De

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