Haris Zambarloukos BSC took time out during a lunch break, whilst shooting on location in New Mexico, to speak to British Cinematograher about his work on Thor, the forthcoming fantasy-feature based on the successful Marvel comic-book series, first published in 1962.

Photography on this epic live action/VFX-laden production, directed by Kenneth Branagh, and starring Chris Hemsworth as the eponymous hero, began on January 11th, 2010. The film has a scheduled global release date of May 6, 2011.

A Marvel Studios production, Thor is an epic adventure that spans the Marvel Universe – from present day Earth to the mythical Nordic realm of Asgard. In addition to Hemsworth, the cast includes Natalie Portman is Jane Foster, a young woman who befriends Thor on Earth; Tom Hiddleston as Thor’s evil brother, Loki, and Anthony Hopkins as Odin, Thor’s father and king of Asgard.

“We’re taking very much a Stan Lee (legendary American comic book writer and former president of Marvel Comics) approach to the story as our inspiration,” said Zambarloukos. “Both Ken and I love the Marvel Comics he created, like Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four, the X-Men, the Avengers, Iron Man, the Hulk, Daredevil, Doctor Strange and Thor. So we’re referring to the original illustrations and using lots of Dutch angles, as well as extreme use of colour and strong light to bring psychological uneasiness and tension to the film.”

The production filmed at Raleigh Manhattan Beach Studios in Los Angels, with locations including rural Galisteo and Santa Fe in New Mexico, used for many classic and modern Westerns including Silverado, Big Country and Wyatt Earp.

“It’s a very distinctive piece of US landscape, and it’s interesting to put a superhero into this contex,” he commented. “The original True Grit was shot here, and Roger Deakins is shooting the Cohen Brothers’ remake of that film here. We sometimes bump into him and the crew in Santa Fe.”

Speaking about his involvement with Thor, Zambarloukos said, “I had worked with Ken on Sleuth, and he called me to see if I was interested in shooting Thor for him. I’ve been a fan of comic books since childhood. Although I was more familiar with the modern comics like Watchmen and Simonson’s Thor, I started to research the subject and was fascinated to see how close the Thor books are to Nordic philosophy, with characters firmly rooted in the original mythology. I loved what Ken, and the costume designer, Alexandra Byrne (Elizabeth: The Golden Age, Phanton Of The Opera), and production designer, Bo Welch (Men In Black, Edward Scissorhands), had already done in terms of early visuals. My early inspiration also came from trying to find images that could represent a perfect mythical world. I was drawn to underwater photography by David Doubilet, who is in my opinion the greatest underwater photographer. His work is both magical and realistic at the same time.”

Zambarloukos started prep as long ago as March 2009. At the time, Branagh was acting in Sweden on Wallander, Zambarloukos was in London. So the pair used Skype, in combination with Cinesync, a remote review and approval system, to speak about the production and look at video test footage shot by Zambarloukos, as well as early designs.

“It was a great way for us to stay in touch and keep up with prep, as we could view the same material simultaneously, and make notes on particular frames and images. This allowed the VFX and production design teams to move forwards with their work, and not have to wait until September when we eventually got together in person,” he said.

Of course, choosing the format was a key decision. “We never considered digital, as the latitude would not hold up to the extremes of light and dark we were going to encounter on location in New Mexico – shooting into the sunlight at one moment before plunging into a dark interior the next,” Zambarloukos explains. “As we were creating a spectacular, engrossing film for the cinema, we considered 70mm as Ken has already done that on Hamlet, and also Super 35mm and 3D. But in the end we settled on 35mm Anamorphic 2.40:1. I gives a grand, epic look, and but gives a reduced depth-of-field. Having shot eight films in Anamorphic I was very comfortable with it. Also, knowing what the VFX team wanted to do – with starscapes and backgrounds that go on indefinitely – I knew it might be a challenge to accommodate their requests. We came up with lighting plan and lens choice that could accomplish this and everyone was happy.”

The cameras – Panavision Platinums and XLs, plus an ARRI 435 – plus the lens package, were provided by Panavision in Los Angeles. Zambarloukos selected G-series Anamorphics, including the 40-80mm and 70-200mm short zooms, plus some specials built by veteran lensmaker Dan Sasaki, in the form of 20 and 25mm super-wide lenses, with new optics to match the main G-series lenses.

“It’s nice to use a wide angle lens as you can get intimate with the actors,” commented Zambarloukos. “Anamorphics are more flattering in portraiture, and you can shoot wide and close-up and it’s still flattering.”

As for film stocks, Zambarloukos said tests using the new Fuji stocks provided interesting results, but he eventually opted for Kodak Vision 5219 500 ASA for studio work, and a combination of Vision 2 5201 50 ASA and Vision 3 5207 250 ASA for exteriors and location work.

“The 5201 is a low-speed daylight film, which also has an expansive dynamic range, that’s great for bright sunlight and gives supersaturated colours. I chose the 5207 as it has broad latitude for shots that go from bright sunlight into interiors and back out again, keeping detail in the highlights and the shadow areas,” he explained.

Proving the adage that time spent in prep is time saved on set, Zambarloukos said he spent time in plotting out the specifics of the lighting before production began. “I have a wonderful gaffer in the form of Cory Geryac, and I requested at an early stage that a dimmer op be brought board. We have DMX dimmers on every light routed through an I-Light console, and it’s worked out brilliantly. The plotting is extremely accurate, and lighting can be deployed and adjusted quickly and eloquently on set. This is especially helpful as we have up two Mega-watts per stage. I can shoot at T11 and have enough light to get the depth-of-field I need to.”

The shoot for Thor spanned 17 weeks, 77 days, in total, with Zambarloukos ensconced in pre-production for three months prior to that. Zambarloukos reported the production was shooting five-day weeks. “Ken has a reputation for keeping good hours on a film, and although there’s always stuff to be done before and after each day, we’re keeping good time, and think we might actually be ahead.”

Dailies are being done by Deluxe. Although the rest of the production team are watching dailies digitally through PIX, Zambarloukos is watching film rushes. “I’ve never shot a picture and not watched film rushes. I always make judgements based on film prints,” he said. “ARRI sourced a LocPro 35, and I had it set up in the conference room of a local hotel. I head down there every evening to review the rushes as soon as they come back from the lab.”

Zambarlokos said that whilst he has never shot a film with so many VFX before, the territory is not new to him. “There were 860 VFX shots in Mamma Mia!, and they worked out well because of the collaboration between the camera, VFX and production design teams. Thor has around 1,200 greenscreen shots, and like Mamma Mia! we’re using greenscreen for the right reasons – for set extenstions and backdrops, we don’t want imagination to stop. We’re working very closely with Wes Sewell, the VFX supervisor , and that typifies what has been special on this production – how intimate we are with each others work and requirements. Cinematography is about team effort and I am extremely lucky to have Peter Cavatuiti and Denis Moran SOC as operators and Al La Verde as my key grip.”