Director of photography Pierre Gill admits to feeling uncomfortable at times while filming the two-part miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil, directed by Christian Duguay for Alliance Atlantis Communications and U.S. broadcaster CBS.

‘When you follow the main character in a movie you have to like him,’ explains Gill, who, like Duguay, is based in Montreal. ‘But in this case the main character is Adolf Hitler.’

Having previously collaborated on the action feature The Art of War and the AAC mini Joan of Arc, Gill and Duguay reunited for the grueling shoot on the US$15-million to US$20-million Hitler. Principal photography took place over 62 days between December and March in Prague and throughout the Czech Republic countryside.

Hitler focuses on key events in the Nazi leader’s life from childhood to his ascendancy to German chancellor in 1933. Scottish actor Robert Carlyle (The Full Monty, Trainspotting) depicts Hitler as an adult, while Matthew Modine is cast as newspaper editor and Hitler opponent Fritz Gerlich and Liev Schreiber as Ernst Hanfstaengl, the Fuhrer’s foreign press secretary. Peter O’Toole plays the elderly President Paul von Hindenburg.

Gill says he realized the magnitude of the production while reading the script by John Pielmeier and G. Ross Parker, but also knowing Duguay’s passion for shooting movement and Steadicam.

‘I knew it would be nuts’

‘Sometimes filming for television can be boring, but that’s not the way Christian shoots,’ Gill says. ‘He goes for everything complicated. I knew it would be nuts.’ The DOP says their partnership works well because of a shared passion and energy, and Gill knows to be flexible to Duguay’s whims.

Director and cameraman discussed creating an arc in mood through lighting and movement, from beginning to end.

‘When Hitler is a boy [at the turn of the century], the lighting is softer and the camera moves smoothly. Toward the 1930s, I was trying to make the light harder, to create a Berlin/expressionist feel. There were also some scenes toward the end where there was no camera movement at all,’ Gill notes.

For realism, the DOP screened the infamous 1934 Leni Riefenstahl documentary Triumph of the Will, about the Nazi rally in Nuremberg, and the Steven Spielberg/Tom Hanks World War II mini Band of Brothers to get a sense of war sequences. ‘I didn’t watch many [dramatic] Hitler films at all,’ he notes. ‘I wanted to make the miniseries more contemporary than a period film, because it is something people will watch today.’ Gill says his approach to lighting was a mix between a modern and a 1920s/30s approach.

It was production designer Marek Dobrowolski’s authentic photos of the Reichstag parliamentary building and other images of Nazi Germany that inspired Gill the most. ‘We got along well right away and I spent my first days just looking over pictures with Marek,’ Gill recalls.

Gill’s favorite but most challenging scenes to light were those set at the Munich Hofbrauhaus beer hall, where Hitler gained popularity as an orator and drew up plans for the Nazi Party. The material was actually shot in a Prague studio.

‘I knew Christian was going to do some Steadicam shots and some 360s, so Marek and I started looking for places to put lights,’ says Gill.

Gill and Dobrowolski proceeded to build square columns around the studio in order to hide the fixtures. ‘We cut openings in the columns that I was able to open or close anytime I wanted. Inside the ceiling I also made openings that were hidden from perspective so that I could put some lights in.’ The result was a set that was fully lit for the panoramic shots.

The crew had four Arricams – one each mounted on a dolly and a crane, one for slow motion and second unit shots, and an Arricam Lite for Steadicam. Gill says early morning duties included prepping the Steadicam and crane, since this was a time-consuming task and the crew was on a tight schedule.

The DOP operated from the dolly using a long zoom lens while continuously watching Duguay actually manning the Steadicam himself. Gill expresses his amazement at his director’s Steadicam skill.

‘I was always watching what he was doing and would steal shots everywhere I could. I call my camera the ‘fishing cam.’ If Hitler shakes the hand of another man, I’m there getting the close-up,’ Gill recalls.

The DOP had various lenses at his disposal: Arri Ultra Primes, 14-135mm; Arri Variable Primes, VP1, VP2, VP3; a Thales Angenieux zoom, 24-290mm; and a Canon zoom, 17-35mm. Gill says he was most impressed by the Thales Angenieux: ‘I never use zoom lenses normally, but this one was unbelievable, and I used it everyday.’

Gill had a large lighting kit at his disposal. He says the production had five truckloads of lights to illuminate the numerous sets in the drama, which spans several decades and crosscuts among various characters involved with the German dictator. Three lighting crews were on hand to light the sets in advance.

Having only one film stock throughout the production proved a big advantage. The DOP tested Kodak Vision2 500T 5218 negative stock and was satisfied with the look it provided. ‘I knew that on a show like this with multiple cameras, it would be a major plus to have one film stock. It makes it very easy for the camera crew – when they load, they load.’

Gill credits the predominantly Czech crew that worked on the production. He says it was very much a reunion, since Gill and Duguay worked with many of the same people on Joan of Arc four years prior. But he admits he initially felt uneasy in the environment since the Czech Republic was part of the former Czechoslovakia, the second country to be taken over by Hitler’s Germany after Austria, in 1939.

‘I started to do some tests in the first month to see, in transfer, what I would do with the red of the Nazi flag. I also needed someone to dress as a Nazi. It was very disturbing because this Nazi-dressed person came out of the studio, with the SS code and the big red flags on the wall. But everyone was fine about it and as time passed it started to feel like the set of a movie,’ Gill explains.

Turning Praha into Munchen

The crew was challenged by having to transform Prague into last-century Munich. ‘We found some buildings that looked similar to those in Munich at the time and had to do a lot of CGI and green-screen work for the big shots. The shot of the Reichstag burning is a CGI-treated model,’ Gill explains.

The special effects house was Prague-based Universal Production Partners. ‘We were so grateful to them,’ Gill says. ‘Nothing was too difficult or too much of a problem for them to do. That was just one of the pleasures of working with the Czech people.’

Now that he’s completed Hitler, Gill plans on taking the summer off to read other scripts. ‘After a production like this you need a doctor, a masseuse and some therapy,’ he jokes.

Gill has won Canadian Society of Cinematographers Awards for the features Lost and Delirious, The Art of War and Souvenirs Intimes, as well as Joan of Arc, the latter two in the same year. He also won a Genie for Lost and Delirious, a Gemeaux for an episode of the mini Marguerite Volant and a Jutra for Souvenirs Intimes.

Hitler: The Rise of Evil premiered last month on CBS and domestically on Global affiliates CH Hamilton and CH Vancouver Island. The miniseries will air again on AAC’s History Channel June 21 and 22.

-www.allianceatlantis.com