American Cinematographer - March 2008 - (Page 40)

Some Kind of Monster Right: Narrowly escaping the monster’s path, Bonvillain checks in with his crew. Below: Before the monster crashes Rob’s party, Caplan shares a moment with director Matt Reeves. some ambience through the windows while practicals illuminate the interior. “We were on the second or third story, and we were shooting day-for-night,” recalls key grip Tony Marra. “We weren’t able to tent the whole building, so we built little boxes around each window that we could put lights into to create a streetlight effect.” While the crew positioned sodium-vapor fixtures inside the tented windows, Bonvillain worked with the art department to bring an array of practical fixtures into the apartment. “There are probably more than a hundred practicals in that scene,” says gaffer Rick West, who slipped in a Chinese lantern fitted with PH211 (75-watt) or PH212 (150-watt) bulbs when the practi- cals needed to be augmented. (As they did onstage at Downey Studios, rigging gaffer John Manocchia and his crew ran every fixture to a dimmer board, which was operated by Craig “Shaggy” Campbell.) As the party — shot with the HVX200 — gets into swing, an event that feels like an earthquake sends the revelers up to the roof for a better look. Across town, an explosion plumes into the night sky, and everyone scatters. On street level, the degree of destruction becomes frighteningly apparent, and as skyscrapers crumble in the distance, a huge cloud of smoke, dust and debris rolls through the downtown neighborhood. Seeking shelter, Rob and his friends duck inside a small bodega, a sequence that was shot with a Viper on the New York Street on Paramount’s backlot. The street was lit with sodium-vapor units and an 8K balloon light, while the interior was lit with fluorescents and other convenience-store practicals. “We mixed color temperatures like crazy,” says Bonvillain. “Inside the bodega, we used Cool Whites. We took the harnesses from Kino Flos and put those in, and everything in the entire place was on a dimmer.” “We clustered certain things together, like the light over the counter with the beer sign, and the milk cooler with the two beer coolers,” adds West. “We had five or six different groups we could flash. Certain things were flashing inconsistently, and sometimes, the whole place would go dark.” With almost the entire film set at night, Bonvillain notes, “We shot pretty close to wide open most of the time, around T2.3.” The production carried a set of Zeiss DigiPrimes, a 6-24mm T1.9 DigiZoom and two Canon HD-EC zooms (4.7-52mm T2.1 and 7.5158mm T2.1), and all were used without filtration. As the military begins a mandatory evacuation of the city, Rob, Jason, Marlena, Lily and Hud try to make their escape via the Brooklyn Bridge, along with thousands of other New Yorkers. When the monster lumbers by, the bridge’s midsection takes a plunge into the East River, and the survivors make a beeline back to Manhattan. The first portion of the bridge shoot was done on Downey Studios’ Stage 1, where the production built part of the bridge’s pedestrian walkway. Marra recalls, “We had a 360degree greenscreen all the way around the bridge, going up to the ceiling, and we also had green on the floor in case [the camera] ever looked down.” Key rigging grip Gary Kangrga and his crew set up a traveler truss with 180 degrees of black cloth that could be positioned behind the camera to keep light reflected off the greenscreen from hitting the actors. To light the greenscreen, Bonvillain used 4' four-bank Kino Flos fitted with green tubes, and to emulate the lamps found on the real bridge, he used 30" Chinese lanterns built and rigged by West. “Each one has a top and a bottom with a screwin base for a standard globe,” explains the gaffer. “We put two 500watt globes per unit and mounted one fixture on each stanchion [on the bridge].” The bridge sequence was finished at the end of the 33-day shooting schedule, when the production 40 March 2008

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2008

American Cinematographer - March 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Short Takes: Bill Viola’s Ocean Without a Shore Production Slate: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Production Slate: Chantal: A Night at the Pyramids Magical Mystery Tour Some Kind of Monster Tantalizing Television Making Sitcoms “Sexy” Post Focus: Mega Playground Helps Set Look for Sibling Post Focus: Visual Effects Society Launches White Paper New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index In Memoriam: John McPherson, ASC ASC Membership Roster Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Wayne Kennan

American Cinematographer - March 2008

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