American Cinematographer - September 1968 - 27

(LEFT) Stark key-lighting, with no fill light, helps lend raw impact to night-for-night action sequences filmed on location. (CENTER) Spectcular
explosions during assault on A-camp are visually dramatic, but require careful back-lighting for maximum effect. (RIGHT) Green Berets battle fire
in dispensary caused by explosion. True color of flame is difficult to capture on color film because low-key of supporting artificial light almost
invariably causes slight over-exposure of flame.

In the night battle sequences you might say that our
indicated "keylight" source was moonlight, but I made no
attempt to establish a single unified source, because on a
battlefield there might be several sources. If there was a
fire burning, for example, I would use that as a secondary
source and place spotlights so that the booster or auxiliary
light would seem to come from that direction. Of course,
in a case like that, the matter of color temperature should
be considered. I would use a lower color temperature for
that kind of lighting and would achieve it by using a large
incandescent unit (like a 10-K) without a filter. This is
where you can use the full efficiency of the bare lamp.
Obviously, the minute you filter a lamp you lose some of
the light.
The color temperature of our unfiltered incandescent
lamps is approximately 3200° Kelvin, which is not quite
as low as that of a wood fire flame, but it's close enough,
because by the time the flame image "burns a hole" in
the negative it doesn't look any warmer. Photography
doesn't often give you the true color of the flame because
of this overexposure factor.
Generally, I did not extensively use colored lights for
effect in this picture. The basic object was to maintain
color temperatures that were faithful to the particular
sources. This allowed quite a range in color temperatures.
In night filming, the arcs, with white carbons lightly fil¬
tered, provided the cold light. Incandescent units pro¬
vided the warm light. These effects could be exaggerated
by using MT-2 or blue filters, but it's wise to keep your
filter usage to a minimum. In a field operation like this,
one extra filter available for use on any lamp means that
50 filter boxes must be filled and maintained.
In the night battle sequences we used extended devel¬
opment for a fair amount of the footage, pushing the film
one stop in the laboratory. This, in effect, doubled our
film speed and, as a result, permitted us to work with

fewer lights and to operate more rapidly. Once you get a
scene balanced out, if the light level is a bit low, you can
usually force it one stop in the lab with no serious prob¬
lems. For this type of subject matter, if you have to bring
in extra lights, there is a loss of production time - and
you may also begin to lose quality. Frequently, when you
get too many lights involved, you tend to wash out the
shadows. Simplicity in lighting is extremely important, but
when I have achieved that simplicity I often find myself
fighting a lower exposure level - so I am caught be¬
tween the devil and the deep a good part of the time.
While most cinematographers like to work at a constant
light level and a consistent F-stop, I consider this ap¬
proach impractical for many night sequences. Of course,
if an extreme depth of field is required, the light level
and F-stop must be varied accordingly.
A Moving Camera For Action That Really Moves
In a straight action feature like "THE GREEN BERETS,"
camera movement becomes very important as a means of
keeping up visually with the surge of the action. Achieving
that camera movement in the rough terrain where we
were working was far from easy. The hand-held camera
would seem to be an answer, but in the anamorphic for¬
mat it becomes a pretty heavy piece of equipment and
is not as practical as I would like to have it.
The Arriflex, for example, was originally designed as a
combat camera with a 200-foot magazine. Used that way
it is a light-weight camera and you can do wonders with
it. But the minute you put on it a 400-foot magazine, which
is most desirable, you present the operator with a serious
handicap. Then, if you add an anamorphic lens, it may
become just too heavy a piece of equipment to handle as
you would like to use it.
For example, on one occasion we tried to have the
operator walk with it in order to follow some troops moving
through the jungle. I had a man on each side holding the
Continued on Page 684

(LEFT) Multiple cameras-as many as five at a time-were necessary in order to record the wide-ranging action of the battle sequences. (CENTER)
Dodge City as the name given to the A-camp constructed in a remote area of Fort Benning for "THE GREEN BERETS." The camp, designed by
Art Director Walter Simonds, was approved as "completely authentic" by Green Beret officers serving as technical advisors during the filming. It
was turned over to the Army for training purposes when shooting was completed. (RIGHT) Extras express genuine fear during A-camp evacuation
sequence. They were actually afraid of Special Effects explosive charges and the possibility of falling into open trenches.

American Cinematographer - September 1968

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