Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1513564
32 C I N E M O N T A G E C O V E R plastic but how does that work for the rolls, and in the camera, and how it's developed at the lab? Those are aspects to consider." Several rounds of testing were neces- sary to achieve the desired result. Initial problems were the amount of dirt and scratches on the film as well as strange light arc eects due to the thickness of the back- ing. "We had to re-engineer the cameras a little bit — redo pressure plates in the cam- eras in order to omit reflecting issues," said Hoytema, who shot "Oppenheimer" with both IMAX cameras and the Panavision System 65 Camera. Additionally, the team had to convince the lab, FotoKem, to accommodate their processing needs for the new film stock. "They had to install gigantic tanks at their fa c i l i t y s o t h ey co u l d sw i tc h b e twe e n chemicals to develop the color IMAX film and chemicals to develop the black-and- white IMAX film," explained Hoytema. "At every stage along the way — from the man- ufacturer to the rental house to the camera technicians to the lab — everybody was engineering to try to make it work. But the first time we saw a test projected, we knew that this was going to be it. We knew exactly what we had to do to fix certain problems to make it a valid shooting medium. Once we decided this in our minds, we knew we had to convince the lab to do it because it was a huge operation for them, as well." FotoKem provided f ilm processing, duplication, and telecine. They liaised with additional editor Michael Fay — brought on to the film by Lame, who happened to be editing "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever" during the production of "Oppenheimer." Fay h e l p e d co o rd i n ate t h e p ro ce ss i n g schedule with the lab because switching from 65mm color to 65mm black-and-white took three days. "Processing 65mm black- a n d - w h i t e n e g a t i v e u s e s c o m p l e t e l y dierent chemicals than those used for col- or processing. So FotoKem had to devise a method to drain all the color chemicals, clean the processors out, and then reload them with the appropriate black-and-white chemicals. We got that down to about two days towards the end of the schedule," he said. Coordinating this changeover — to minimize downtime and allow the team to screen the footage sooner — was one of Fay's many tasks on the film. As was orches- trating the transportation of the film to the lab and back to set, which typically took two days depending on the distance between the shooting location and the lab in Los An- geles. For instance, when shooting in New Mexico, production would do a film break at 7 p.m. The transportation department had a team of drivers who would drive the Michael Fay. BOOM: Cillian Murphy watches an atomic test in "Oppenheimer." P H OT O : U N I V E R S A L P I C T U R E S .