American Cinematographer - January 2008 - (Page 65) tend to desaturate blood, but we accentuated it everywhere, making it much more striking and graphic.” To make the most of Todd’s murders, the filmmakers often captured the action with two or three cameras, even though in general, Burton prefers a single-camera approach. “In the killing scenes, when prosthetics and blood were involved and the cleanup time was so huge, we always used another camera for an extra angle,” says Wolski. “But Tim is really a onecamera director, which is fantastic. This was the first movie I’d done in years where I had the luxury of using one camera quite often.” Signor Adolfo Pirelli (Sacha Baron Cohen), a barbering mountebank who makes the mistake of trying to blackmail Todd, is the first to fall prey to Todd’s razor. After stashing Pirelli’s body in a trunk, Todd searches for a way to better dispose of his victims, and Mrs. Lovett proves an invaluable accomplice. Devising an economical solution that benefits them both, she proposes baking the victims into her meat pies. As Todd warms to her plan, the two swing about the pie shop, dawdling at the window to size up the passersby. “Dante built a beautiful set for that, and the window was like old, lead glass,” says Wolski. “All we had to do was put the camera outside the window, and the faces were distorted. It was organic, not induced.” For shots inside the pie shop, to create the impression that Todd and Lovett were dancing all around the room, the camera was set up on a turntable that the actors stood on, their steps created in camera as the table revolved. To expedite his victims’ journey from the barber chair to the bakery, Todd modifies the chair so that with the push of a pedal, it flips over and sends the victim through a trap door to the cellar beneath the pie shop, where a huge oven looms. To boost the base light level of the oven’s practical gas flames, the electrical department “made panels with 12 2K Blondes on six dimmer channels,” says Higgins. “Each panel measured about 2 feet by 1 foot, and we had six of them constructed with heat-proof cable so they could survive in the flames of the oven.” Additionally, MR-16 flicker units were strategically placed around the set to further enhance the light thrown by the flames. As Todd and Lovett apply themselves to their macabre business venture, romance (of a sort) begins to blossom, at least in Lovett’s heart. Her dreams of a happy life with Todd are outlined in a musical number that transports the two from such locales as a picnic site and a beach to a church and a cottage. 65 http://nevadafilm.com http://nevadafilm.com
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