Some of the negative from the Griffith Park tests was scanned into digital format with a Philips Spirit DataCine at 2K resolution using a proprietary look-up table developed for this application. Deakins viewed the digital images with Cinesite colorist Julias Friede. Together, they worked on manipulating the saturation of the images, and in particular selecting the greens of the trees and grass and turning them into dry browns and yellows. At that point, Cinesite recorded the digital file onto the same 35mm Eastman EXR color intermediate film (5244) that labs use for making internegative and interpositive masters for release printing. A Kodak Lightning film recorder with a high-intensity laser light source was used to convert the digital files to analog images on the intermediate film. The film was then processed by Deluxe in Los Angeles, which also made a work print.
The tests convinced Deakins and the Coen brothers. "They like to try new things," the cinematographer says. "We knew it would be taking a risk, but Cinesite gave us a good price, and quite honestly it was the only way we could see of achieving the look that all three of us wanted."
O Brother, Where Art Thou? was also the Coen brothers' first experience shooting in a widescreen format (2.4:1 aspect ratio), which Deakins had suggested because of the importance of the landscapes and the epic nature of the story. He recommended shooting in the Super 35 format, in part because he liked the perspective rendered by the spherical lenses he'd used on Kundun. "Every film defines its own palette of colors and textures," he says. "I didn't want glossy images. The spherical lenses have the effect of pulling the audience closer to the characters; it's more intimate [than anamorphic]. To my mind, the feeling of depth recorded on Super 35 would augment the picture-book quality of the story."
Deakins worked mainly with a single Arri 535 camera and the new Cooke S4 prime lenses. "I think it's important to work with the sharpest lenses you can get especially if you're going to convert the film to digital format but that's what I typically do anyhow. I rarely use filters to soften a look, so it didn't affect my decisions [regarding] lenses and filtration." The cinematographer notes that the Cooke lenses record "very clean" images with very little flare. A number of times he shot directly into the sun without any glare. There also were a number of night shots motivated by very bright flames, including burning torches. He says the pictures were sharp and clean with no double images or kickbacks.
After testing, Deakins settled on three film stocks. He used Kodak Vision 500T 5279 for night interior and exterior scenes, and Eastman's EXR 5248 100-speed emulsion for most daylight exteriors. While shooting daylight sequences in shadowy forest locations, he sometimes opted for the 200-speed Eastman EXR 5293, which he also used for recording bluescreen elements of composite shots.
The entire film was storyboarded, right down to exact angles of coverage. Deakins says there was considerable discussion about the boards during preproduction. "We stayed pretty close to the plan, veering from it only when something spontaneous presented an unexpected opportunity."
The locations in and around Jackson, Mississippi, were relatively bare, though there were some shacks and buildings that could have passed for 1930s structures. "We built a couple of sets in a warehouse, because the weather is a bit unpredictable in that part of the country at that time of year," Deakins says. "But we were only rained out once lucky, I guess!"
The camerawork in the film is more objective than subjective, revealing the story to viewers as if they are spectators rather than participants. Deakins offers that the result is almost like watching a play, although he notes that the picture also has moments that are like musical interludes verging on fantasy (a tactic previously employed by Deakins and the Coens in The Big Lebowski). "Those moments aren't structurally necessary for the plot," he says. "It is almost an operatic or circus experience, like a Fellini film in many ways."
The camera is almost constantly in motion, though not as much as it was in, say, Barton Fink. "I generally prefer to be on a crane arm with a remote head, but sometimes it proved more practical to use a Steadicam over rough ground," Deakins says. Much of the film was shot utilizing a Power Pod remote head and an Aerocrane jib arm. "[That rig] allows a lot of flexibility in terms of camera movement, and it's often a great time-saver. For one campfire scene, which leads the three main characters into a baptism ceremony, we shot all five setups with the Aerocrane on the same piece of track. We had been rained out all morning, but it brightened up enough in the afternoon to start shooting. We were in very thick forest; I knew it would be getting dark very early, so we had to work quickly.
"First, we did a pull-back with George Clooney to reveal Tim and John at the campfire, which became a wide shot of the whole scene," he details. "Then we shot three close-ups in quick succession just static shots with the Power Pod over the campfire. Next, we did a shot that circled around the group as they stood up to see these white-robed figures walking toward and past them through the forest. It was simple, really as the dolly tracked back, the arm panned from one side of the group to the other, then around as the dolly was brought back in. The difficult bit was combining the panning of the arm with the panning of the camera so that it would look like one fluid move. We just made it as the sun sank from the forest!"
Deakins says Joel Coen wanted an interesting shot of the three cons as they followed the white-robed figures, who would lead them out of the forest to reveal the river and the baptism ceremony. To enhance the reveal, the filmmakers went from a shot on an 11' arm to one on an 85' Akela crane. "Trying to track an Akela through a swamp was not such an easy thing," Deakins recalls. "We had to cut a road into the forest. My key grip, Mitch Lillian, decided to lay down 100 feet of railway sleepers to support the weight of the crane. Even those sank into the mud after a couple of takes, but we managed the shot with a slight wobble or two."
The largest sequence in the film was actually shot at the Disney Ranch outside of Los Angeles. "We had some night scenes with a lot of lighting and effects, so it was obviously more practical to do those near the service industries," Deakins says.
[ continued on page 3 ]