American Cinematographer - August 1987 - 79

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The main

challenge involved

ing Close Encounters of the Third

screen as large as 120feet wide and 30-feet high is illumina¬

Kind and The Deer Hunter, around half
a dozen with Bill Fraker, ASC, and sev¬

tion. "Front-lit blue screen requires
much higher wattages," Erland says.

eral with Don Peterman, ASC.
McLean became a first cam¬
eraman in 1982, when he shot aerial

using

blue

"Using 'Blue-Max' we could light a
front-projection screen that size or larger
with only 5,000 watts. In comparison,
a front-lit Tempo fabric screen of the
same dimensions requires a minimum
of 700,000 watts of incandescent light
filtered through Lee 119 blue filters."
In addition, Erland adds, the

result is a broad band of blue light
which contains "an unfortunate amount
of green light." In comparison, "BlueMax" produces pure blue Mercury light.
Erland says that Apogee met
this challenge by developing a new type
of front-lit blue screen which uses four-

by-eight foot panels each densely
packed with 24 high-output fluorescent
tubes driven by a high-frequency, solid
state power supply. Both the tubes and
the power supply are new.
"These lamps are 20 times
more efficient than incandescent lights,
and there is at least

one

whole stop

separation between the blue and
green records (compared to incandes¬
cent light used in conjunction with Lee
119 blue filters)," he says.
If everything else is equal,
transmission blue light is by far the
quickest and easiest way to shoot blue
screen sequences. "You plug it in and
it's lit," says Donen. "All you do is
read the intensity. That's about as fast
a setup as there is.
Decisions regarding the use
of the 5295 emulsion originated with a
preproduction meeting between Donen
more

and McLean. One consideration

was

the

limited

availability of the 5295 emul¬
sion when production started. Brooks
was planning to shoot with video taps
on

the

camera

terrific tool for

all times. "It's a
director like Brooks.

at
a

Timing and reactions are everything in a
comedy like this," says McLean, "so
we anticipated that there would be
plenty ,of takes. As a result, we agreed
that we would just use the 5295 film
that

had for live-action blue

screen

sequences."
McLean is a native Califor¬
nian, born and raised in Santa Monica,
who came up through the ranks. Fie
worked on about 12 pictures as an oper¬
ator for Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, includ¬

THE RIGHT CHOICE

sequences for The Right Stuff, and he
has gone on to shoot about a dozen

BEAUTIFUL LOCATION

features

during the past four years in¬
cluding Short Circuit, The Goonies,
Twice in a Lifetime, Stick, City Heat,
Staying Alive and Stoker.
The synergy between
McLean and Apogee's special effects

R. □. C.
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Spaceballs is "tongue in cheek
reality," in McLeans's words. "Mel
(Brooks) wanted a bright, up-look. He
wanted to be able to see expressions,
interactions, the walls, everything."

CRYSTAL HIGH SPEED CONTROL

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crew was essential.
'Goonies and
Short Circuit had some special effects,
but nothing like this," he says.
Most of his films have been
noted for low-key, moody lighting. How¬

At the

SAVINGS

CALL

WRITE

time, Donen

telling him that he needed to shoot
the blue-screen sequences at Lorimar
with an aperture of at least stop T-4.5.
"I totally trusted Peter (Donen) when he
told me about Apogee's tests with the
was

5295 emulsion, and how it could re¬

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duce

requirements for lighting inten¬
sity," says McLean, "but, I wanted to
judge for myself."
It was an objective decision.
McLean shot tests side-by-side compar¬
ing the 5247 and 5295 emulsions. He
liked what he saw in the 5295 film.
"The tests showed that we could use a
lot less light on blue-screen sequences
without noticeably sacrificing color ren¬

dition, grain or sharpness. This meant
that

could

light for live-action and

blue-screen work on the
the same intensity."

same

stage at

There

are

variations

theme, but this is how

composite for

EASY TO ORDER
FOR ALL MODELS
The skilled craftsmen at Excalibur
are

Normally,for a theatrical fea¬
ture, Apogee shoots blue screen and
other visual effects photography in the
eight-perforation VistaVision format.
"This gives you about twice the nega¬
tive area, which translates to a sharper,
crisper image when you print down to a
35 mm intermediate," says Donen.
That's significant because
the various steps in the blue screen
process inevitably degrade the original
image by the time the composite is
made.

CAMERA

this

familiar with late model Arri

and other fine

cameras. They
experienced at fitting camera
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are

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isolation and years

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Matching
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blue-screen

theatrical feature is typ-

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12427 Foothill Blvd., Lake View Terrace, CA 91342

August 1987

818/899-2547

American Cinematographer - August 1987

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