01_09 prod slate:00 production slate 12/5/08 1:23 PM Page 22
Right: Broken-
down wrestler
Randy “The
Ram” Robinson
(Mickey Rourke)
leans heavily on
the top rope
while trying to
recapture some
of his old magic
in the ring.
Below: The Ram
attempts a
reconciliation
with his
estranged
daughter (Evan
Rachel Wood).
On the Ropes We meet The Ram nearly two to keep the mood of each space,”
by Claire Walla decades after the peak of his fame. He’s whether it was a wrestling ring or the
still wrestling, but his real livelihood is a Acme Market where The Ram works.
There’s very little in professional minimum-wage job at a local supermar- Shooting Super 16mm, she avoided
wrestling that screams ‘realism.’ Partic- ket. He’s trying to foster a connection filtration and relied primarily on existing
ipants use fake, hyperbolic names (i.e., with a sympathetic stripper, Cassidy light at the locations, bolstering it when
Sgt. Slaughter); dress in flashy, skin- (Marisa Tomei), and when his troubles necessary. For a scene in which The
tight costumes; and perform an array of take a turn for the worse, he makes an Ram joins a number of his aging
choreographed moves that range from effort to repair his relationship with his colleagues for an autograph session at
Bodyslams to Tombstone Piledrivers. only child, Stephanie (Evan Rachel a local VFW hall, Alberti “tried to
The Wrestler photos by Niko Tavernise, courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.
But for Randy “The Ram” Robinson Wood). preserve the drabness of the room” by
(Mickey Rourke), the main character in In developing a look for The adding only a few Mac 2000s “to get
Darren Aronofsky’s The Wrestler, the Wrestler, cinematographer Maryse the light up to speed.” She adds, “For
world outside the ring is painfully real. Alberti says she and Aronofsky “wanted the most part, I was not afraid to come
in and say, ‘He looks great; I don’t need
to do anything,’ or add just one little
bulb and say, ‘It looks fine.’”
The filmmakers’ decision to
shoot Super 16 was influenced by the
production’s modest budget, but the
graininess of the image also served to
create the semi-documentary feel
Aronofsky had in mind. The mix of docu-
mentary and feature credits on Alberti’s
résumé made her “a perfect match for
the material,” says the director. “I was
excited about the prospect of working
with Maryse because she had done
features I was a big, big fan of, Happi-
ness [1998] and Velvet Goldmine [1998],
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01_09 prod slate:00 production slate 12/5/08 1:23 PM Page 24
see a show, and they only had so much
patience for the film crew,” recalls
Alberti. “But we were on top of every-
thing, and nothing went wrong.”
Aronofsky’s desire for an impro-
visational feel extended to the lighting
of a number of scenes. A-camera oper-
ator Peter Nolan recalls, “To get a shot
of Mickey at a phone booth at night, we
literally rolled up in a couple of vans, the
prop guys pulled out the phone booth,
and Maryse lit it with two 1-by-1
Litepanels LEDs. It was a very quick
setup, but it was right for the shot —
we weren’t skimping in any way.”
Alberti often does her own oper-
ating, and when she signed onto The
Wrestler, she planned to do that, “but I
very quickly realized Darren does a lot of
takes, and that physically it was going
Above: The Ram and she had spent many years working led the filmmakers to shoot The Ram’s to be too demanding — I wouldn’t have
is slammed into in documentaries.” (Her credits in that performances in the midst of real had enough time to really look at the
a corner support
by a younger discipline include Enron: The Smartest wrestling matches, or “promotions.” lighting,” she says. “I was very lucky to
rival. Below: The Guys in the Room and Taxi to the Dark Alberti explains, “We would go in with have Peter.”
filmmakers Side.) Mickey in the middle of a match, shoot a A longtime operator on the FX
captured most
match footage He and Alberti spent about five little bit, get out, and then come back in series Rescue Me, which emphasizes
during real weeks scouting locations and planning to shoot a little bit more.” They shot handheld camerawork, Nolan reports
wrestling events some shots, but roughly 40 percent of sporadically because The Ram’s that he was “basically shooting with my
with paying
crowds. The Wrestler was entirely unscripted. matches were so physically demanding, handheld bag of tricks to make sure I
“There were many ways I could have and because the time lapse allowed the could deliver the shot.” With the help of
chosen to tell this story, but Mickey real wrestlers to get back into the ring key grip Chris Skutch, he was able to
[Rourke] is very much in the moment — while the crew reloaded. The wrestlers bring some techniques he uses on
he’s very unpredictable between ‘Action’ were thus able to rile up the crowd for Rescue Me to The Wrestler. For
and ‘Cut,’” notes Aronofsky. “I wanted to when the camera got rolling again. “It’s instance, he often maneuvered around
create a visual language that would be hard to shoot in the middle of a scream- scenes with half an apple box tethered
as free as possible to capture that.” ing crowd when you have to keep a to his waist so that whenever he sat
The director’s quest for realism pace, because the people had come to down, he would always have a flat
surface on his lap where he could rest
his arms. “It looks very funny on set,
obviously, but it’s a great technique, and
it works,” says Nolan.
“When you’re in a very low
seated position with the camera on your
shoulder, your center of gravity is often
too high for you to stand smoothly and
travel with the actor,” he continues. “I
devised a system where my D-ring belt
could stick up out of my back brace,
creating a handle the dolly grip could
use to physically boom me up and
down. For quick height changes, I found
that by unlocking the medium eyepiece
on the Arri 416 so it could swivel freely,
I was able to use it as a left-hand grip
while cradling the camera with my right
24 January 2009
01_09 prod slate:00 production slate 12/5/08 1:23 PM Page 26
Near right:
Cinematographer
Maryse Alberti.
Far right: The
Ram seeks
emotional
solace from a
stripper (Marisa
Tomei) who
has also
experienced
her share of
hard times.
hand; that allowed me to go from higher- add a bit more contrast or a little more angling one to serve from full high reach
than-shoulder to almost floor height or definition, but I basically used what was to just below chest height, and I would
anywhere in between while following there.” look to the other for all the lower-angle
the action. Every single shot in this movie The final match in the film, when coverage of Tomei’s performance.”
was handheld, and it was the first time The Ram confronts The Ayatollah As for the shadows, “we had a
I’d used the 416. I love that camera!” (Ernest Miller), was a different story. grip flagging and then unflagging lights
Alberti’s camera package, This was the only match that wasn’t as I moved around,” he continues.
supplied by Arri’s Camera Service Center filmed at an actual promotion; it was “After 26 takes, we were eventually
in New York, included Zeiss Ultra 16 shot at a New Jersey theater the able to pull it off without giving away
prime lenses and two Angenieux Optimo production rented. Production designer the fact that there’s a camera following
zooms, a 15-40mm Lightweight and a 28- Tim Grimes fully constructed the ring, her around.”
76mm. Inspired by the camerawork in the and Alberti and her crew spent three Alberti says she is thrilled to
Dardenne brothers’ L’Enfant, the filmmak- days lighting it. She strove to maintain work in a field where stories like The
ers wanted the camera to be fixed on the lighting configuration used at the Wrestler come her way. “In the last two
Rourke most of the time, often following promotions, but because this was the years, I did a film on soccer and ended
him from a very close angle. “We wanted film’s climax, “we had to add a little up at the World Cup, I did a film on reli-
a strong sense of intimacy and intensity,” more panache,” she says. She achieved gious leaders and met the Pope and the
says Alberti. This created some chal- this by creating a horseshoe-shaped rig Dalai Lama, I did The Wrestler and a
lenges for Nolan during the wrestling of colored lights that the wrestlers movie about truckers, and now I’m
matches; he was following the action would walk under on their way to the doing a documentary on Eliot Spitzer. I
from within the ring on a wide-angle lens ring. The Ram, who represents America like that film takes me in so many differ-
— most of the movie was shot on a in this final match, is awash in red, ent directions, because to me, these are
12mm prime — which meant he had to white and blue, whereas The Ayatollah all interesting stories. Whatever genre
be very close to the actors in order to get is doused in red and green. it is, I want a good script with a good
good close-ups. “It was very tricky,” he One of the more challenging story.”
recalls. “Even when glass and debris scenes to shoot takes place in the strip
were flying everywhere and the wrestlers club where Cassidy works. In the scene, TECHNICAL SPECS
were throwing each other down, I had to the camera follows her in a long take as 2.40:1
try to finesse the shot so I wasn’t throw- she performs a striptease. None of the Super 16mm
ing shadows, getting hit or allowing [the crew saw the choreography until the Arri 416
actors] to bump into me. There was often day of the shoot, so in a very short Zeiss and Angenieux lenses
some kind of contact between us, but you amount of time, Alberti and Nolan had Kodak Vision3 500T 7219,
can’t see it in the film because it to figure out how Nolan could circle Vision2 200T 7217
happened below the lens.” Tomei without throwing any shadows Digital Intermediate
For the lighting of the wrestling on her body — tough to do in a room full I
matches, Alberti relinquished much of of moving colored lights. “She’s stand-
her control to the wrestling promoters, ing up, she’s on a pole, she’s crawling on
who have their own set of lighting stan- her belly, she’s in a squatting position Erratum
dards. “Different venues do different and then she’s standing up again,”
things, but it’s always a slight variation Nolan recounts. “We decided to mount In our coverage of Australia in
on the same theme of having lights a monitor on the camera but quickly the November issue, we inaccurately
directly on the four corners of the ring,” found that as I went off-axis while view- credited all of the photos to Douglas
she says. “Sometimes I changed the ing, the screen would go black. So we Kirkland. James Fisher took some of
ratio of light in each corner in order to mounted another on the other side, the shots.
26 January 2009
AMC_0109_pCV4:Layout 1 12/2/08 10:44 AM Page 1
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