Papamichael Focuses On Reality
For The Weather Man

By David Heuring

This article originally appeared in a 2005 issue of ICG Magazine

The Weather Man stars Nicholas Cage as a television meteorologist whose inaccurate predictions mirrors his inability to control events and emotions in his personal life. The cast also includes Michael Caine and Hope Davis.

Director Gore Verbinski (Pirates of the Caribbean, The Ring) and writer Steve Conrad imagined a realistic, human story with touches of comedy. Phedon Papamichael, ASC had previously worked with Verbinski on one of the director’s first feature film, Mousehunt.

In keeping with the realistic world envisioned by the filmmakers, the production shot the film entirely on locations in and around Chicago, except for one day in New York City. During 55 days of photography, which were scattered over several months due to weather and other considerations, the crew shot at more than 50 locations including Wrigleyville, Wacker Drive, the River Bend apartments, Belmont Harbor and Evanston.

Papamichael’s credits include Sideways, Identity, The Million Dollar Hotel, Moonlight Mile, Patch Adams, Phenomenon and While You Were Sleeping.

Papamichael says that shooting in Chicago gave a realism to the images that goes beyond the architecture. “The tonality of the light here is different,” he says. “It’s more neutral, and along with pale skin tones it helps to set a style. The photography for this film does not have an intrusive stylization, but it does have a style. It’s just subtle. We’re composing images as graphic tableaux. The editing will be slower-paced. There’s no hard light, and no backlight or rim light to speak of.”

Verbinski chose Papamichael in part because of his adaptability in location situations. “I think that in a way it can be more frustrating for Phedon to shoot on stage,” says Verbinski. “On stage, you’re trying to recreate a natural environment. Phedon is a great person to have on location because he sees opportunities. That attitude is very production-friendly when you’re making a smaller budget picture. You also get a raw simplicity that doesn’t get in the way. When you’re making Pirates of the Caribbean, you’re creating a completely fictitious world, and you want that ‘Curtain opens, orchestral score’ feeling. When you’re doing The Weather Man, you want ‘This is Wednesday morning in Chicago.’ It slowly becomes interesting because style isn’t shoving any message down your throat. You’re allowed to digest the characters and feel that they live in the same world that you do.”

Verbinski’s conversations with Papamichael centered more on character and story than on light fixtures and lenses. “Whenever I work with Phedon, we wind up talking more about the emotional undercurrents and the characters more than the look per se,” adds Verbinski. “We don’t really talk about lighting so much. We talk about what the character is thinking or going through, what the internal conflict is and how the world is spinning relative to that character’s wants and desires.

“It seems important that Phedon and I listen to the same music,” says Verbinski. “In a way, it’s sort of like having another director on set. In fact, Phedon has directed a feature film (Dark Side of Genius). For The Weather Man, we went through the process of looking at locations, and we built the look inspired by the natural light that nature was providing. It was a search for a way to capture the human experience rather than creating the human experience.

“That’s why Phedon was the right choice for this film,” says Verbinski. “He’s of the Cassavetes school. Even though he’s done plenty of commercial movies, his heart is with the Robby Müller-Fred Elmes approach. It’s fun to bend him and force him to do things he doesn’t feel comfortable with, like we did on Mousehunt. He did a great job on that film, and he also helped me navigate the political landscape. But I felt that The Weather Man was the kind of film he’s best at. Rather than style over content, this film is the absence of style in the service of content. When you’re trying to do a story that is a character piece, there is no better ally.”

Papamichael decided to maintain a shallow depth of field as part of his visual design. He shot the entire film at stop T-2.8. This sometimes required neutral density gels on the lens, as much as ND 15. No other filters were used. The film stocks were Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 in tungsten situations and Kodak Vision 250D 5246 in daylight.

The filmmakers chose to compose the film in the 1.85:1 aspect ratio in part due to the vertical lines inherent to the exterior scenes filmed in the urban canyons in Chicago, and also because they wanted to keep the skies in the frame, since weather plays an important part in the story.

“Gore is a very, very good technical director,” says Papamichael. “He comes from commercials and visual effects. He is very involved visually, and he controls every element. He spends a lot of time testing and is involved in all camera issues, including lens choice. He does his own storyboards, drawing out almost every shot. We go on extensive scouts, just a small group of us. We both have digital cameras, and we basically create every shot with stills. Then we print out the stills and paste them into storyboards, and he draws more on those. So we basically preshoot the film, thinking every sequence through. This gives us a pretty accurate assessment of what the costs will be and what we’ll need in terms of equipment and time.

“On the set, Gore shows up with a big board, like you see on commercials,” says Papamichael. “Each shot we plan to execute that day is represented on the board by a storyboard or digital still. Shots in one direction are highlighted in one color, and shots in the other direction are highlighted in another color. As we go through the day, we refer to the board, checking off what’s been accomplished.”

On a normal day the board would include a couple dozen shots, but often the crew would end up shooting as many as 35 setups, taking advantage of opportunities to grab other angles and shots that would expand the range of options in the editing room. Papamichael says that this efficiency helped make for short days, which in any case were a necessity given that they were shooting in Chicago during the winter, often in exterior situations.

Papamichael notes that Cage thrived in this environment and was often able to perform flawlessly without rehearsal. “Nick would come out of his car, step into the shot and we’d roll with no rehearsal,” he says. “He’s a very experienced actor and he had no problem doing that, which impressed me. Some actors actually prefer it that way. When you’re working with an actor like that, you have to be ready.”

Papamichael compares his experience on The Weather Man to his collaboration with director Alexander Payne on Sideways. “Gore comes in knowing exactly what the movie should look like in his head, and photography becomes about approximating that as closely as possible in the execution,” he says. “Alexander comes from the opposite extreme. It’s a looser process. His language is completely different. We would watch Italian comedies from the ‘50s, and he would tell me that he liked a certain shot, but he couldn’t really say why. We went through a long process of analyzing films and discovering each other’s sensibilities and tastes. There are no storyboards, and no video playback on the set. Hair and makeup people are not allowed in for final touches. We do a blocking, rehearse, and choose the shots on the spot, in a very organic, interactive, intimate process. With Gore, we create the shot, often rehearse without the actors, and then when the actors arrive, explain the shot and execute it.”

Papamichael notes that even with thorough preparation there was room for spontaneity on the set. “With Gore, the spontaneity and creativity is still there. But it happens during the earlier stages, when we’re out there with the digital cameras and no time pressure. We’re like little kids playing around, finding angles, getting excited and discovering things. On the set, it’s more like the Hitchcock method, where we execute the film. Gore is open to new ideas on the set, but he’s not the type of director who’s going to throw away the plan and start improvising.”

Papamichael’s crew included his regular first assistant Bob Hall and gaffer Rafael Sanchez, along with local Chicago crew including key grip Mike Lewis, with whom Papamichael had worked with on While You Were Sleeping a decade ago. This project was his first collaboration with operator Martin Schaer.

“Martin worked on several of Gore’s earlier films, and they have a special relationship,” says Papamichael. “Gore trusts his instincts around the camera and relies heavily on his creative input and technical experience. Although I’m accustomed to being the one having the dialog with the director about compositions and such, I really enjoyed having a dynamic creative trio concerning all camera matters. It helps sometimes to bounce something off of a third person, especially when you get stuck!”

Papamichael was educated in Europe and he often works on European-made films, so he has an unusual perspective on the differences in American and European procedures.

“I really appreciate American crews,” he says. “I have a hard time with European grip crews. In the States, everything is so much more efficient. When the electrician is moving with the light, the grip spots him and he’s immediately tracking him with a C-stand and top or bottomer, diffusion frames, everything. Scrims are hanging on the light, opal, 216 -- everything. It’s a system that’s been in place for such a long time and passed down from generation to generation. They know things that someone coming out of film school isn’t going to know.

“For us, cutting the light is so much more important. Of course, placement is important, but cutting the light is next. Being able to take away light precisely is really a craft, and it’s difficult, especially since I often work with big, soft sources. You really have to know how to do that. Of course I’m generalizing here, and I’m sure there are crews in Europe who do it well, but the distinction between electricians, who bring the light, and grips, who take it away, is very important in my opinion.”

Papamichael’s crew leaders have strict instructions to stay close at hand on the set. “I don’t want my dolly grip setting any stands,” he says. “When I turn around he needs to be there. I’m always running shots during rehearsals and with the second team to check lighting, so the dolly grip needs to stay focused on the dolly. He is an extension of the operator. I don’t usually let the gaffer or the key grip go to help their crews physically, because they are my means of communicating to the set. Inexperienced gaffers and key grips will run off all the time if they think the crew isn’t doing something right. I get mad when they leave. I want to be able to ask them what’s happening at any moment. They are my right and left hands.”

The Weather Man was Papamichael’s first complete digital intermediate (DI) on a feature film. He had previously done digital timing on some sequences of Million Dollar Hotel. Papamichael and Verbinski collaborated with Stefan Sonnenfeld at Company 3 in Santa Monica. The sessions used 2K digital files and lasted about eight days.

“It’s very similar to a telecine color correction session, but there is a learning curve,” says Papamichael. “The way it looks transferred to film is a little more desaturated, and reds and magentas react differently. We did occasional film-out tests and then went back and compensated.”

The filmmakers didn’t create or enhance a “look” in DI. “We used the DI process to flatten things out when we got hit with the sun,” recalls Verbinski. “We adjusted the contrast ratio and kept things soft where we didn’t have time to control everything on the set. At the speed we were moving, we didn’t have time to silk everything when we got a sunny day. On those days when we got nice overcast skies, the raw print looked fantastic, and that’s what we were trying to maintain. The DI process wasn’t so much about creating a look as it was maintaining the look that we got when the weather was right.”

In some scenes they adjusted grain, and in many cases applied a “cocktail” of processing they devised that included a slight desaturation, increased contrast and a subtle increase in the green tones. “Mostly we used the DI to create a consistent look and feel throughout the story, rather than adding an effect,” says Papamichael. “What we did was pretty subtle. We don’t want people to be able to consciously sense that it’s a DI.”

During 2004, Papamichael also photographed Walk the Line, the story of country singer Johnny Cash’s romance with June Carter. Walk the Line was directed by James Mangold. Papamichael likens his experience on that shoot to improvising jazz music. He notes that these differences in method are part of what makes filmmaking interesting.

“A good cinematographer can adapt to these different approaches and personalities,” he says. “Part of your responsibility is to figure out how to complement your collaborators. There is no one correct approach to filmmaking and I think that’s the most interesting part.”

Part of a successful career is finding and nurturing creative relationships, according to Papamichael. “In Hollywood especially, being a director of photography is only 50 percent your craft,” he says. “The other half is politics and relationships. That doesn’t mean you have to suck up. But you have to know your way around studio people and producers, and it’s different on every movie. There’s no rule to it. In a new situation, it’s hard to know what you’re getting into. A lot of people can talk the talk when you meet them, but on the set it can be a different story. My advice for people starting out is to find the people who want to make the same kind of movies you do. Then you can’t go wrong.”

Winter Light: Gaffing The Weather Man

One scene that illustrates the crew’s approach to day exteriors on The Weather Man was done on a stretch of Wabash as it approaches Wacker Drive and the Chicago River. The Chicago Sun-Times building is recognizable in the deep background. In the scene, Cage’s character is hit by a half-eaten fast food apple pie thrown by an irate viewer. Cage snaps and futilely chases the pie-thrower’s car down the street, shouting.

The scene was scheduled around the position of the sun, which was partially blocked by the buildings on either side of the street. Props included dozens of prepared, half-eaten apple pies. The A camera was mounted on a bungee rig that followed Cage. Two cameras mounted on dollies also captured the shot through zoom lenses, one an 11:1 Primo and the other a 4:1 Primo. Grips ran behind with a four-by to keep Cage out of the direct sun at the end of the shot, which finished out of the shadow of nearby buildings. Fake snow on the curbs and reflections in the windows of the surrounding buildings were also concerns.

Gaffer Rafael Sanchez notes that in initial discussions with Papamichael and Verbinski, the cool, wintry look was planned as an important aspect of the storytelling.

“The fact that this guy lives in Chicago, it’s winter, and he’s down on his luck are all related,” says Sanchez. “The whole visual feeling of the movie was to be very cool, very nondirectional, with soft, ambient light with that kind of winter feel. That meant we were going to need HMIs because there was a lot of day work on the schedule, and it meant we would need many of them because in order to get that soft ambient look you need powerful sources with lots of diffusion to really knock it down. You’re trying to recreate that indirect light, and it’s very difficult. You start with a lot of light, and then diffuse it down to get that quality. I also knew we were going to have to add a little bit of blue to the HMIs. HMIS are already blue, but our ambient light in this film is bluer still, in the 7000 degrees Kelvin color temperature range, keeping it a little cooler so it doesn’t look lit.”

Shooting in the urban canyons of Chicago meant that the lighting plans included careful calculation of the sun’s angle at various times of day. “We didn’t really want hard sunlight in the movie,” says Sanchez. “We wanted things to be wintry and overcast. We used a computer program to determine the optimum times to shoot scenes. We’d spent a lot of time in prep with AD staff determining when we would shoot what.”

Exteriors in fast-changing winter conditions required compromise. “Gore is very true to his vision,” says Sanchez. “That’s very helpful because he might go off and shoot something else while waiting for things to fall into place. But obviously there are going to be compromises. First, we had to worry about the sun, and then there are the reflections off the buildings. We often had people running alongside keeping the sun out, like the shot on Wabash with the pie. But you do whatever you can to keep the viewer in that world.”

The opening scene of The Weather Man takes place in Cage’s character’s apartment, which is on the 50th floor and has large windows all around looking out over the city. “We had to balance for the outside, building the level inside so that you can see the detail,” says Sanchez. “The trick was getting enough firepower up there to balance the exterior, and having enough neutral density on the windows so you can achieve that balance. The light that you add has to match in color and be soft and indirect enough that you don’t feel that it’s a light source. I think we had four stops of neutral density. As the light level dropped outside, we pulled the ND off gradually.”

Light through windows was often created using 18K HMI sources or 6K Pars. These lights were put through multiple layers of diffusion, a light or full grid and then muslin or another full grid in a larger frame. Sometimes there was even a third layer of opal or 250.

The Weather Man is Sanchez’s 17th film with Papamichael. “Phedon gave me the opportunity to move up on Unstrung Heroes, and he had that faith in me,” says Sanchez. “At this point, ten years later, we have an almost nonverbal relationship. I automatically know what he’s going to want. He allows me the freedom to do my thing, and then he makes his adjustments if necessary. It’s a great relationship.”