OSCARS 202 1 | PRODUCTION
PHEDON PAPAMICHAEL THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7
The court case dramatised in The Trial of the Chicago 7 comes together like a jigsaw puzzle, interspersed with scenes of the peaceful-turned-violent protests and the political rivalry between activists Abbie Hoffman and Tom Hayden. It’s a satisfying marriage between the subject matter and showy talents of the film’s writer and director, Aaron Sorkin, who has carved out a space as America’s most renowned screenwriter over the past 30 years. But this is just his second film as director, and his technical inexperience demanded more visual heavy lifting from the film’s cinematographer, Phedon Papamichael. “Sorkin’s the first to admit how much he relied on me,” says Papamichael. “He’s all about the language and the rhythm of the words. For example, creating a cinematic crane shot in the park, where the protests happened, would be useless to him and useless to the script. I had to learn how to convey the moment in a matter of seconds; to create visuals that wouldn’t alter or change the pace of the script.” Papamichael used three cameras to capture as much as possible in the courtroom, and the same large format set- up he experimented with on Ford v Ferrari ( released as Le Mans ’66 in the UK): the Arri Alexa LF with expanded anamorphic Panavision lenses to cover the sensor. He recalls: “On Ford v Ferrari , I wanted to stay anamorphic because I love that aspect ratio – the slight anamorphic distortion really helps convey the look of that period. The only problem is they don’t cover the sensor
CAMERA PACKAGE: Alexa LF & Panavision expanded anamorphic lenses
In contrast to the designed shots of the courtroom, Papamichael was inspired by Haskell Wexler’s Medium Cool documentary of the event and took a ‘cinéma vérité’ approach to shooting the riot scenes, which were scripted to function as rapidly intercut vignettes, interspersed with archival footage that had been processed in black & white. Nothing was storyboarded or shot-listed, and Alan Baumgarten, the film’s editor, used all of the footage from the four days spent shooting. “We would set the crowd, work out their beats and I would tell my two operators, who were shooting handheld, to immerse themselves and make a documentary about it,” says Papamichael, explaining the process. “The actual event had more than 10,000 people in the park, but we only had 200 extras, so we had to be smart about how we covered those scenes. It was helpful not to get wide.” For Sorkin, there was a visual beat that was important to hit, such as the throwing of a Molotov cocktail or the baton hits that caused bloody head injuries, but Papamichael felt it was also important to show the early tensions in the crowd, so he tried to capture key moments along the way. “It helps bring an energy to the film because, of course, my biggest concern was figuring out how to juice up the visual stagnancy of a courtroom drama.”
of the LF. So, I turned to Dan Sasaki, the lens guru of Panavision, and he told me he could expand them.” Chicago 7 is set in a similar time period and the story is not too dissimilar, either, with its themes of togetherness and friendship. “Expanded anamorphics lean into those themes, because even a close-up doesn’t isolate other characters. That’s because they’ve got a widescreen aspect ratio with classic anamorphic lens vignetting, so you get a beautiful fall-off in the background,” elaborates Papamichael.
The slight anamorphic distortion really helps convey the look of that period
ABOVE The courtroom was placed inside a light box to help convey the trial’s lengthy duration
MARCH 202 1 | DEF I N I T ION 09
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