Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/619377
46 P E R S P E C T I V E | J A N UA RY / F E B R UA RY 2 0 1 6 with a 300 hp jet engine hidden inside the stern and a smaller 80 hp jet engine hidden in the forward section. They also constructed a strong aluminum hull and the period wooden boat was built around it. This was done so the boat could navigate the rocky shallow rapids to get into locations that would otherwise be impossible. We knew the boat would have to move quickly to reset for additional takes before losing the light. In addition to multiple window openings on the boat, several top hatches were designed that could be opened as needed to light interior scenes. The film was shot with wide lenses often only inches from the actors' faces. These lenses provided a great depth of field, showing off the scale and splendor of the locations, and they performed well in low light. The only problem I had with them is that they lowered the mountains in the distance. The mountains surrounding the fort, at least, were close enough that they still looked imposing. A few of the sets, like the mountain of buffalo skulls and the remnants of a European church, had to be built modularly so they could be moved to yet unknown locations. The places for shooting these dream sequences were not dependent on continuity so their final resting spots were undecided until the company found a time slot for them in its crazy ever-changing schedule. Once we decided on a location for the buffalo skulls, the construction crew only had a few hours to erect it so it could be shot the next morning. We hardly ever shot anything in the morning, but it was decided that if we had it in place, Alejandro would shoot it at sunrise and at sunset while we shot Glass riding his horse over the cliff during the day. The set was positioned to work in both easterly and westerly directions. The church I wanted to erect around fully grown trees was sculpted out of foam panels that could be moved by a few people or small equipment into any location. Because of its size, none of us ever saw the set completely together until it was erected in three days on Indian land outside Calgary. It was shot the same afternoon we finished putting it together. Sculptors headed by Aaron Jordon and the construction team headed by Craig Henderson incorporated a system of invisible supports that allowed the quickly erected church to withstand the 80 km/hr winds that were normal in many locations. A terrific greens department headed by Thomas Yaremko would move fifty-foot trees and create forests where there hadn't been any. Tom would freeze the bases of the large trees on steel pins into snow and ice to keep them in place. Once Alejandro realized we could build forests, new opportunities opened up as we turned mediocre locations into interesting landscapes. Top, left to right: The finished church, sculpted out of Styrofoam in sections that could be set up in a group of trees so that several of them were in its interior. The bell and bell tower remnant was a last-minute addition request by director Alejandro Iñárritu, incorporated into the structure in just two days as the church was being erected on location. Mr. Fisk used the app Sun Seeker to plot the path of the sun on a given day in the future to estimate if a location would work for the film. Michael Diner drew these SketchUp sun studies to indicate the progression of light on the church throughout the evening shooting hours. Bottom: While constructing the fort, this young moose came around to lick the salt off the bumpers of the carpenters' trucks. The Park service finally had to intervene and scare the moose off so he, or members of the crew, would not be injured.