American Cinematographer - September 2008 - (Page 17) After appropriating a car (above), Tom and Eddie dump the body in the woods (below). Narita positioned a handful of 2Ks in the trees to simulate the car’s headlights. driving scene, Narita reveals, “we had to use the same street over and over again. We couldn’t stop driving, we couldn’t stop traffic — it was downtown!” With lights hidden down an alley to create slashes of light, the plan was to roll the camera as the car was towed through the alley and then cut while the car was pulled back around the block. That was the idea, anyway. Scocchera recalls, “On the first take, I decided to just run the entire scene while the car was being towed around the block. We wanted that rolling pattern of light and dark across the actors’ faces as the car passed streetlamps and storefronts, but we didn’t have any lights on the other streets, and Hiro thought none of it was going to turn out.” The footage was timed at Post Logic in Hollywood, and almost everything from the first take made it into the final, edited scene. “The streetlights gave off just enough light,” says Narita. “We didn’t even scout those areas. Derrick took a chance and it looks great. I’m all for surprises like that.” Tom and Eddie do finally make it to the woods, where they rather ineptly plant the corpse in a shallow grave. This sequence was shot in San Francisco’s Presidio, where Narita contrasted hard slashes and pools of light with deep shadows, in order to make the most of his limited lighting package and provide a sense of atmosphere and depth for the film’s closing moments. Using 2Ks to simulate the headlights of Tom and Eddie’s borrowed car, Narita recalls, “we only used four or five lights altogether. The idea was that everything [in the scene] was lit by the car’s headlights.” Like Tom and Eddie’s scheme, Narita and Scocchera’s journey to A Perfect Place didn’t always unfold as planned. Still, Narita found a wealth of inspiration in the production’s challenges. “I have to have a kind of curiosity,” he remarks. “As much as I know what I want and what’s inside me, there is something I don’t know, which is outside. I have to be open to discover and pull more into me. For both students and professionals, it’s a constant tradeoff of looking out and in.” I THE ART OF LIGHT Color Correction Diffusion Color Effect Tel: 818-238-1220 www.leefilters.com 17 http://www.leefilters.com http://www.leefilters.com
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