DP Cameron Shoots Dead Man Down

Bookmark and Share

Wed, 02/13/2013 - 19:00 -- Nick Dager

Dead Man Down  which cinematographer Paul Cameron shot for director Niels Arden Oplev is slated for March 8 release in the United States. Oplev director of the original Girl with the Dragon Tattoo cast Colin Farrell Noomi Rapace and Terrence Howard for the action thriller. Beatrice (Rapace) seduces and blackmails Victor (Farrell) to help her take revenge on his employer a New York City crime lord. Dominic Cooper and Isabelle Huppert round out the cast. “I was familiar with Niels Arden Oplev’s previous film ” says Cameron. “I didn't hesitate to take the meeting. A few days later I met with Niels and writer/producer Joel Wyman. I said I was in. We all knew it would be a very limited budget and a challenging schedule... Then I heard Colin Farrel Noomi Rapace and Terrence Howard were on board. I’d worked with Colin on Total Recall the previous year; I was thrilled to hear he was doing Dead Man Down as well our second consecutive film together. He's an extremely talented actor with a great spirit and an absolute pleasure to work with. He does his homework and when he shows up on set he's ready to go. It's great to work with this level of experience because he just gets it – he knows what I am doing with my shots when to play for close up and when to play for 3-4 cameras in an action sequence.” Cameron chose to shoot the film on the Arri Alexa due to its superior sensor which he considers “the most film-like” on the market using lenses including Cooke S-4 Primes Hawk 150-450 and Angenieux 15-40 24-290 zooms. “The bottom line ” he says “is that Alexa is a beautiful addition to the world of digital capture. Arri has always been one of the major motion picture camera companies providing complete production accessories and support.” He also utilized Assimilate Scratch a color correction system he describes as “a great addition to my new on-set dailies tools. For the first time in digital capture I felt what I shot exactly matched what I saw during DI.”