American Cinematographer - July 2008 - (Page 57)

The original Get Smart TV series opened with a famous credit sequence in which Smart walked down a corridor with a seemingly endless number of doors closing just behind him. Paying homage to this memorable staging, an early scene in the film shows Smart crossing the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., on his way to the secret underwater corridor that leads to Control headquarters. To capture the corridor sequence, Semler shot Carell walking down a set comprising only a floor, with stacked greenscreens to provide lighting separations. Visual-effects supervisor Joe Bauer worked with Zoic Studios to add the walls, ceiling and mechanically intricate doors as Smart heads toward the Control briefing room. To light the Cone of Silence set, Semler mainly employed practicals integrated into the walls by production designer Wynn Thomas. The room also featured wet concrete floors meant to suggest its underwater location. “The actual location was an old warehouse in San Pedro,” recalls Semler. “We put red practical lights off in the distance just to get reflections on the water. The actors were lit with soft light from Kino Flos.” After receiving his orders, Smart, now partnered with Agent 99, flies to Russia on a commercial airliner to investigate. Never one to keep things simple, he ends up falling out of the plane through the lavatory, and 99 follows with a parachute. “The parachute sequence, led by aerial-stunt coordinator Guy Manos, features some extraordinary photography captured by cinematographer Norman Kent in the skies over Florida,” says Semler. In addition to wide shots featuring stunt players, the aerial unit captured background plates; aerial-unit and second-unit plate work was supervised by Don McCuaig, ASC, who Left: Prior to his promotion, the paper-pushing Smart carries a stack of work through Control’s main corridor, which was created in post by visual-effects supervisor Joe Bauer and a team of effects experts at Zoic Studios. Below: On set, the Control corridor comprised a series of greenscreens that provided lighting separation for an endless series of sliding doors added in post by the effects team. American Cinematographer 57

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

American Cinematographer - July 2008 Contents Editor's Note Global Village: Torn from the Flag Short Takes: On a Tuesday Production Slate: Before the Rains WALL-E Batman Looms Larger A Not-So-Super Hero Spy vs. Spy Laugh Factory Post Focus: CineSynce Streamlines Dark Knight Effects New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index In Memoriam: Burton "Bud" Stone, Honorary ASC Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Bill Taylor

American Cinematographer - July 2008

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