American Cinematographer - February 2008 - (Page 29) famous Temple of Dendur. The temple is located in the Sackler Wing of the museum with a reflecting pool representing the Nile River and a stippled glass wall that offers a view of Central Park. “The glass wall was deliberately built facing north, so there’s no direct sun — the space is lit with ambient light,” explains Lesnie. “The Met was very concerned about possible damage from film equipment. My gaffer, Mo Flam, used 16K helium balloons to light the main area and Kino Flos laid on the floor to light the Egyptian artwork. The balloons were the perfect supplement to the beautiful natural light.” One sequence that clearly demonstrates both the logistical and aesthetic concerns of location work took place on the Grand Central viaduct, which crosses over 42nd Street. Securing the two-way-traffic viaduct for the required five days of filming necessitated shutting down the sections of Park Avenue that circle Grand Central Station, as well as parts of 42nd Street. The location was also notable for the extreme changes in the direction of sunlight. “The sun comes down 42nd Street in the morning and then rapidly disappears and reappears as it travels behind the tall buildings,” notes Lesnie. “It also hits the windows of buildings on 42nd Street, creating sunlight coming in at a variety of angles. Around midday, the sun comes straight down Park Avenue, goes in and out between buildings again and finally comes down from the other end of 42nd Street at the end of the day, again reflecting off multiple glass surfaces. Some of the New York crew commented that they’d never seen so many directions of sunlight!” Matters were further complicated by the requirement that the sequence have two different times of day. Neville arrives at the viaduct in the middle of the day and is trapped there and knocked unconscious. Much later in the day, he wakes as the Lesnie uses a crane to capture the action as the military tries to maintain order in the face of a mass evacuation. The cinematographer shot these flashbacks in Super 35mm but used anamorphic 35mm for the post-pandemic storyline. sun is going down and realizes he needs to get indoors. Lesnie explains, “For the first half of the sequence, I was happy to have slabs of sunlight because it helped us sell an early time of day, so some of that part was shot with the sun coming down 42nd Street. For the second half, however, we definitely didn’t want direct sunlight; shooting was therefore scheduled to enable us to swap the scenes to capitalize on changing light. The major machinery was kept off the viaduct itself because we were doing a lot of handheld work, and this enabled Will to have repeated runs of the whole sequence. We had only one scissor-lift up on the viaduct; the rest of the machines were parked down on 42nd Street, which is a really busy intersection. There were two Condors with 20-by frames that we could skin with either Duvatyn or diffuser for shading. Another Condor had two 18K Pars through a diffuser in case we needed to bolster Will’s ratio to help the shots cut in with the footage taken in direct sunlight.” The visual motifs of light and dark play a significant role in I Am Legend. The villainous “dark seekers” are fatally sensitive to ultraviolet light, and Neville is only safe in the full glare of daylight. A scene dubbed “The Haunted House” allows the audience to feel the constant sense of terror darkness holds for Neville; it American Cinematographer 29
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