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#1: From interview [Sony, 2013]

#2: From interview [Plus Camerimage, 2012]

#3: "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" [2006]

 

   

CLAUDIO MIRANDA   ASC

 

Born: 1965, Valparaiso, Chile. Raised in Los Angeles, USA.

Career: Started as doph in 2000.

Ph commercials dir by David Fincher [3 for Nike with athletes Maurice Green, Marion Jones & Michael Johnson; Heineken ('Beer Run' with Brad Pitt), a.o.], Joseph Kosinski [for Mezzo], Antony Hoffman [for McDonald's, Motorola, American Airlines, a.o.], Joel Peissig [for Suzuki, Pocari, a.o.], Rob Cohen [for Pontiac], a.o.

Ph music videos dir by Bryan Barber, Paul Hunter [a: Michael Jackson], Joel Peissig, Little X [a: Foxy Brown], Motion Theory (collective) [a: Velvet Revolver], Marcus Raboy [a: Faith Evans], Hype Williams [a: Snoop Dogg], Jake Nava [2003, 'Baby Boy'; a: Beyoncé], a.o.

Member of the ASC since 2009.

Married to former tv-commercial prod manager Kelli Bean since February 2009.

Awards: Bronze Clio Award [2002] & 11th Annual Association of Independent Commercial Producers Show Award [2002] for Pocari commercial ['Tennis' dir by Joel Peissig; uwph: Pete Romano]; Bronze Clio Award [2004] for Xelibri commercial ['Beauty for Sale' dir by David Fincher]; MVPA Award nom [2004] for 'Baby Boy'; ASC Film Award nom [2008], BAFTA Film Award nom [2008], 'Oscar' AA nom [2008], Satellite Award nom [2008] & BSC 'Best Cinematography Award' nom [2009] for 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button'; 'Oscar' AA [2012], BAFTA Film Award [2012] & ASC Film Award nom [2012] for 'Life of Pi'.

Website: Claudio Miranda

Using the Thomson Viper FilmStream Camera on 'Zodiac' and 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button': 'David [Fincher] loves the workflow of the Viper. He likes seeing what he gets. He asked me once, "Don't you sleep better knowing it's all good, all in the can, with no scratches?" He also raved about how much time they saved on reloads on 'Zodiac'. 'Zodiac' has its own look, whether you like it or not. We're not trying to make the Viper look like film. The Viper has its own look. It's not HD – it's its own thing.

It's really amazing - some scenes, I'll put a light bulb in the middle of the frame and it looks fine. Some scenes are really beautiful. The way Viper reacts, the image looks like a painting in a way. One of my favorite scenes is a whorehouse scene, and the textures and colors that were produced looked really beautiful. To say the Viper does well in low lighting situations - I think you can underexpose film beautifully. We're not letting it go as dark as you can see in 'Zodiac'. You start losing color detail. I'd rather step on it. You can print it down so much easier – I don't think it looks good when you bring it up. We're aiming at printing down. But still, there are actually very dark moments in this movie – it is David, after all, he can't let that go. The Viper does shine in those moments. There are advantages: if we go dark and we need more light, the Viper can go to a 315-degree shutter. Sometimes, if I need light on a slow-moving scene, I'll go to a 270-degree shutter.

Everything is recorded straight to hard drive. I can get a little thumb drive of selected images - DPX image files that I can manipulate later.

I color-grade stills from each day's shoot at night and post them on a secure FTP site for David. He'll look at them and we'll talk about it, and sometimes the look changes. That's been great – I can grade the negative. With film, you're always relying on a dialogue with the dailies colorist. Now I'm the dailies colorist. David and I have the same computer – I color-grade for his Power Book, to make sure that what he sees on his screen is what I have. There's no real color calibration between the two of us. If I can make it look good on a $2,000 machine, I know I can make it look good later down the pipeline.

The Viper gives you no surprises. You're not surprised about focus, or if it's in focus. You know it. You see it. You're not surprised if it's too red or orange. There's a surprising lack of surprise.' [From interview with Debra Kaufman on the studiodaily website.]

 FILMS

2000

Tell Me Who Ruby Was [Carolyn Coal] b&w; short/25m

2003

Mute [Colin & Greg Strause] p/c; short/6m; sponsored by Alpine Electronics, Inc.

2003

The Angel of Chilside Road [Jonathan Darby] HD (Sony F900)/c; short/4m; ep 'Dreams 2004'-series (sponsored by the agency Young & Rubicam and Sony to promote 24p HD prod technology)

2004

A Thousand Roads [Chris Eyre] s35/c; short/40m; prod National Museum of the American Indian

2005

Failure to Launch [Tom Dey] s35/c; 2uc: Brian Agnew

2005

Margaret [Kenneth Lonergan] 35mm (+ D-Cinema)/c; addph; ph: Ryszard Lenczewski; filmed September-November; in early 2009, the movie was deemed 'unreleasable' due to different lawsuits concerning the director's failure to complete the movie during the extensive and troubled editing process; released in 2011

2005

Zodiac [David Fincher] HD (Thomson Viper)+s35-to-35mm scope/c; uncred addph (for 2 weeks); ph: Harris Savides

2006

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [David Fincher] HD (Sony F23 + Thomson Viper)+s35-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; aph: Phil Pastuhov

 

[Right] with actor Jeff Bridges - "TRON: Legacy" - photo by Douglas Curran

 

2009

TRON: Legacy [Joseph Kosinski] HD (Sony F35 + Phantom HD)-to-35mm scope (+ IMAX-70bu [3-D] & D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; aph: Hans Bjerno & Steve Koster

2011

Life of Pi [Ang Lee] HD (ARRI ALEXA 3-D)-to-35mm (+ D-Cinema [also 3-D version])/c; addph Montreal (reshoots in July 2012): John Schwartzman; uwph: Peter Zuccarini

2011

Oblivion/Horizons [Joseph Kosinski] RED Epic+HD (Sony F65)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Garry Waller; aph: David B. Nowell

2013

Tomorrowland/1952 [Brad Bird] HD (Sony F55 & F65)/c; 2uc: Bruce McCleery; aph: David B. Nowell & Hans Bjerno; plate unit ph: Hugues Espinasse; filmed 2013-14

2014

Star Trek 3 [Roberto Orci (was replaced by Justin Lin)] pre-production; C. Miranda was replaced by Stephen Windon

2014

Help [Justin Lin] c; short/5m; cph: Phedon Papamichael; ep #4 (2015) of the 'Google Spotlight Stories' (for mobile)

2015

100 Years [Robert Rodriguez] c; comm short/?m; will be released in 2115; for Louis XIII Cognac (Rémy Martin)

2016

Only the Brave/Granite Mountain [Joseph Kosinski] HD (Sony F65)-to-D-Cinema (scope)/c; aph: Michael Kelem

2016

The Circle [Sheldon Schwartz] filmed with the DJI Inspire 2 drone + DJI X5S camera/c; comm short/14m; for DJI (Dà-Jiāng Innovations Science and Technology Co., Ltd., China)

2017

Legacy [Sheldon Schwartz] RED (with the DJI Ronin 2 stabilizer)/c; comm short/7m; for DJI (Dà-Jiāng Innovations Science and Technology Co., Ltd., China)

2017

The Dig [Joseph Kosinski] HD (Sony VENICE/Master Scope)-to-UHD (2.66:1)/c; short/9m; aph: David B. Nowell; test film for the Sony CineAlta VENICE full-frame 6K camera

2018

Top Gun: Maverick/Top Gun 2 [Joseph Kosinski] HD (Sony VENICE)/c

 

 MISCELLANEOUS

1987

U2: Rattle and Hum [Phil Joanou; mus doc] 3rd lighting tech Denver crew; ph: Jordan Cronenweth

1988

Without You I'm Nothing [John Boskovich] electrician; ph: Joseph Yacoe
1988

Fat Boys: Are You Ready for Freddy [Harvey Keith; mus video] 3rd electrician; ph: Lenny Wong

1989

After Dark, My Sweet [James Foley] electrician; ph: Mark Plummer

1991

The Investigator [Matthew Tabak; short] gaffer; ph: Harris Savides

1993

The Crow [Alex Proyas] chief lighting tech; ph: Dariusz Wolski

1993

Cindy Crawford: The Next Challenge Workout [Peter Care] gaffer; ph: Harris Savides

1994

Crimson Tide [Tony Scott] chief lighting tech; ph: Dariusz Wolski

1994

Se7en [David Fincher] gaffer addph; addph: Harris Savides; ph: Darius Khondji

1995

The Fan [Tony Scott] chief lighting tech; ph: Dariusz Wolski

1996

The Game [David Fincher] gaffer; ph: Harris Savides

1997

Enemy of the State [Tony Scott] chief lighting tech; ph: Daniel Mindel

1998

Fight Club [David Fincher] gaffer; ph: Jeff Cronenweth