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NAPOLEON www.postmagazine.com 19 POST NOV/DEC 2023 N apoleon, from director Ridley Scott, tells the story of the French leader's rise to power, his volatile relationship with his true love — Josephine — and his ultimate downfall and exile in the early 1800s. Oscar-winner Joaquin Phoenix stars as Napoleon Bonaparte, with Vanessa Kirby playing his love interest. The film is presented by Columbia Pictures and Apple Original Films, and premiered on November 22nd, before streaming globally on Apple TV+. Once again, Scott called on frequent collabo- rator Dariusz Wolski, ASC, to shoot the feature. Wolski has partnered with the filmmaker on nine projects, dating back to 2012's Prometheus, and more recently on 2021's House of Gucci. He calls the director a "star," which is why they were able to shoot the film — including its epic, historic battles — in just 60-days. The film presented numerous production chal- lenges. The French Revolution and Napoleon's rise to power take place before electricity, so Wolski had to work within the era's limitations when it came to artificial lighting. "It's not my first period movie, so you always photograph the movie based on whatever the pe- riod looks like," he explains. "It was just fireplaces, candle lights and the windows. "Technology is pretty remarkable right now," he continues. "My first candle-light movies were shot on film, and it was a bit of a struggle. But right now, actually, it's pretty amazing." Wolski relied on Arri's Alexa Mini LF for much of the shoot, as well as the larger Alexa LF. Napoleon's battles with England and Austria em- ployed as many as 11 cameras at times, but Scott is known to use multiple cameras on smaller, more intimate scenes as well. "Normally, with Ridley, we use like three to four cameras, even inside — even intimate scenes with three actors," he explains. "I've used [the Alexa Mini LF] for like the last four or five movies," he contin- ues, adding that his lighting choices always start with natural light. "You compliment, but you compliment as little as possible," he explains. "Sometimes you use very big lights, but it's just to make sure that you don't feel that they're lights." While he is shooting, Wolski says he is cropping the frame about 10 percent to allow for reposition- ing and visual e¢ects. And while this film was filled with production challenges because of the scale of its battles, he points to the "Siege of Toulon" as a highlight because of the way it was composed. "It's basically taking over the harbor fortress at night, and then destroying the English fleet," he says of the sequence. "We did exteriors (at) a real location. We build the top of the fortress. And then, when you look down from the fortress, it was blue screen. Then all the elements of the boats exploding, we shot at sea. So that's a combination of three things." One of the tall ships was practical, along with various rowboats, while other large ships were rep- resented during production by barges that were equipped with lights. The setup provided practical lighting during the shoot for explosions, with CG boats ultimately being composited over them. Wolski sets his color grade on-set, creating files that were passed on to Company 3's Stephen Nakamura. "We just basically give him a sketch," says the DP. "We give him the look of the film. What Stephen has to do is basically control the skies, control the faces through the windows here and there. But the look, the color, everything is basically designed while we're shooting. "The camera records raw, and then there's some kind of a look-up table," he continues. "We use it at the beginning…It's a pretty desaturated color tone. Most of it's greyish, because two battles are fought in the winter, so [it calls] for kind of a grayish, monochromatic look. The Battle of Toulon is more warm, because it's South of France…I travel with one DIT all over the world. He travels with me and we create color on the set… Of course Stephen does an amazing job fine tuning it." VISUAL EFFECTS Charley Henley served as the film's visual e¢ects supervisor, overseeing just over 1,000 shots for the feature, which were spread out across several studios, including MPC, ILM and BlueBolt. MPC is home for Henley, and their locations in Montreal, Bangalore and Mumbai all contributed to the stu- dio's individual e¢ort. Napoleon's invisible e¢ects work included replacing electric lighting used during production with CG candles, and adding CG fire to fireplaces. The film also used VFX to enhance architecture, making buildings that were shot in England look like they were, in fact, located in 1800s France. MPC created a dramatic shot that appears early in the film, as Napoleon is about to launch his siege on the British fort. Just as the battle begins, his horse is struck by cannon fire, killing his steed and throwing him from the mount. "I love the beginning of that scene because Joaquin played it so nervous," says Henley. "It was giving us this impression of being right in front (of a) major battle…and he looks scared!" Henley describes the shot as "a good mix" be- tween special e¢ects and digital e¢ects. The team built a practical rig in the shape of a horse, with an exploding chest, and figured out the motion needed to replicate it rearing up and being hit by the cannon ball. The motion was then programed into the rig, sending the rider and the rig over in reaction to the artillery hit. "We got the real rider doing the right perfor- Napoleon features several massive battles, with VFX created by MPC, ILM and BlueBolt.