American Cinematographer - September 1968 - 54

FILMING "THE GREEN

BERETS"

Continued from Page 657

operator's elbows, trying to steady him, but he kept stum¬
bling over rocks. The result was not satisfactory. Switching
back and forth between operators in an attempt to get
the best possible handling of the equipment did little
good. It was just too heavy for what we were trying to do
with it.
The various types of optical compensators recently in¬
troduced promise to alleviate the problem somewhat. How¬
ever, at the present time, they are very expensive, an
extra battery is required to operate them, and it takes
about two minutes to bring them up to "stabilizing speed."
For scenes requiring camera movement, there were, of
course, times when we could level the terrain, lay tracks
and execute conventional dolly shots. When we started
the picture I was disappointed to find that a Chapman
crane was not available, but I voiced my appreciation of
this piece of equipment and, eventually, we did receive
one. On this film, because of the extremely rough terrain,
I used the Chapman crane many times in lieu of a dolly
shot. On an especially difficult follow shot I wouldn't ac-

occasion, they were extremely useful. There is no substi¬
tute for a zoom lens when you need to move in fast for a
really sharp impact. You simply can't do the same thing
by dollying. The zoom will sell the point where nothing
else will.
There were times, also, when dollying was impractical
and we had to use the zoom lens as a substitute. Of
course, you don't get quite the same feeling of perspec¬
tive as it moves that you get with a dolly, but I think that,
in many shots, this is not important at all. The zoom lens
is a most useful tool-if you use it only when that tool
becomes useful.
We also made good use of the Panafocal lens, not
necessarily for zooming (as its zoom ratio is only about
2-to-l), but as a variable focal-length lens. It is, in my
opinion, an outstanding piece of equipment and it saved
us a great deal of time. Instead of changing lenses, you
had only to turn the knob to get any focal length you
might require, from 50mm to 95mm, and you were ready
to go.
I might add that the Panavision people, at our request,
fixed us up with a remote control for starting and stopping
the cameras. It was simple enough to be activated in the

(LEFT) Interiors filmed inside actual buildings at Fort Benning were shot documentary style. Peaked roofs permitted a few small lamps to be mounted
up high, but most of the lighting was froim the floor. Low angle aeceuntuates drama of this sequence filmed inside dispensary. (CENTER) A sharp
change of photographic style, involving "glamour" lighting, was demanded for sequence shot in Saigon night-spot set constructed on studio
sound stage. (RIGHT) Cinematographer Hoch used his camera subjectively to draw the audience more closely into the thick of the fray. "The audi¬
ence must catch glimpses of the horror, but doesn't like to dwell on it."

tually dolly with the crane, but would simply swing the arm
to follow the action. I'm aware that this is nothing new,
but it was a very important usage of a familiar piece of
equipment.
With the extension arm mounted on it this crane is
capable of a considerable sweep. The beauty of that, of
course, is the fact that you can carry an arc lamp on the
arm, so that your booster lighting moves right along with
the camera. As the arm stops, the arc lamp operator can
fade up a double net so that actors moving close to the
camera won't "burn up'' - or he can simply swing the
lamp away from them as we get in close.
There are a great many ways in which the Chapman
crane can be used. It would take years to exhaust them
all, and I certainly haven't done so yet. You have so many
variables to work with, and these, used in various combi¬
nations, can give you a wide range of effects.
The Zoom Lens-A Most Convenient Tool
Zoom lenses were available for our cameras and, on

684

field without requiring the operator to "have a degree in
electrical engineering," and it worked very satisfactorily.
Filming In Actual Interiors
We photographed several sequences inside actual
buildings at Fort Benning, using a documentary approach.
There were no movable walls or ceilings as there are on
a studio set, so the placement of lights was, as usual, a
problem. Luckily, many of these buildings had peaked
roofs - which allowed us to mount a few small lighting
units up in the rafters. Otherwise, all of the lighting had
to be done from the floor. The few units we had clamped
up high provided a bit of liner for modeling and separa¬
tion.
One of these interior sequences involved an interesting
challenge in that the building had large shutters, instead
of windows, opening onto a verandah that ran all along
the sides. It was obviously impractical to mount 85 gels
over the open screens in order to balance the color tem¬
perature of the outdoor background with that of the in-

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, SEPTEMBER 1968

American Cinematographer - September 1968

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