American Cinematographer - November 1988 - 65

storms almost

daily, it was a typical
irony that it became neces¬
to create man-made rain for

location
sary

several

scenes.

"The red
rated and looked

redeco¬

car was

good, but it

was

old and the rain came right
through the roof," according to

very

Elsenbach. "I used little inkies
there

-

spotlights

-

in

small

incandescent

and worked with from
a
fog
filter inside to get a little atmo¬
sphere. In the story, the red car which is on fire and has a red light
15 to 20 footcandles. I used

in back

-

has been sidetracked and

the train almost

runs

into it. It's

night for night during a rainstorm,
complete with lightning, which
was
supplied by a 12K HMI
equipped with lightning shutters.
We had players coming out into the
firelight and closeups of Delta and
the girls in the doorway. For the
approach I rode with the camera,
which

was

mounted

on

the front of

the train, and we had another cam¬
era off to the side. It took us two

ors

of the red

car

Eastman filmstocks 5247, 94 and

97, because I've shot

times

time.
"I

shot

everything
so

on

much Ko¬

dak stock that I know what I'm

getting with it. When you go out on
low budget production it's not a
time for experiments - you can't
make tests and you can't take
chances. For day exteriors we used
47. For day interiors on the train we
utilized daylight with the 97
a

stock

-

rated 250 -because 47 is

just too much to light inside. You'd
have to really light 47 hard to get
exposure on the faces and try to
hold the outside. In a building you
can

do it. We used 47 inside

a

build¬

ing and
some

For

we lit very hot to maintain
of the outside background.

night interiors inside the train

used 94, which has so much
latitude that we had no trouble with
we

we

used

look that

we

had in

The Alamo.
"When

we

shot the interi¬

boose. Left:
Delta Burke and
Elsenbach.

director, the
operator and me, all packed tightly
in that small car, and the mixer had
to

work outside

on

the tail."

Elsenbach

emphasized
that practically all of the scenes
aboard were photographed while
the train was moving. "That hourand-a-half to two hours it took

us

to

get to the location was dead time.
when we
were
going to the locations to shoot
exteriors, the director chose to
We couldn't waste it, so

shoot most of the interiors in the

warm

ca¬

ative deal between the

caboose and in the red

soft,

the

on

side of the

lighting direction. We had actual
kerosene lamps in there and in the
caboose. One lamp was electric
with frosted glass, and Burt oper¬
ated a little dimmer to get the effect
of a flickering wick. It was a cooper¬

no

the

mounted

window for

a

it. We used all normal

ratings, with
pushing. Bill Bickford at Metro
Lab kept close tabs on us every day
and was very helpful. We wanted

Heavy
unipod
normally used in
shooting process
plates was
camera

candescent units,

quarter MTs on
everything, and a fog filter over all
to warm it up," Elsenbach revealed.
"We put trimming all around the
ceiling to hide the 3200K fluores¬
cent lights we put up there. Some¬

nights to do it, and we were being
assaulted by mosquitos the whole

Above:

I used small in¬

move.

car on

the

Also the exteriors of the cat¬

tle car, the flat beds with the mules
and horses, and the soldiers
with their rifles on top of the
cars

-

were

November 1988

shot

on

the

sitting
closed
move.
Very

seldom did

we

You

it in the film: when it's

can see

little

stop to make a shot.

Two electrical
were

a

bumpy, that's the real McCoy"
taken

on

generators

location to

assure no

time loss due to power plant failure.
One 250 plant was carried conven¬

tionally, via truck. The other rode
on a flat car of the train,
disguised
as a cargo of dynamite
being trans¬
ported by the Federales. Having a
generator aboard the train was a
wise precaution, because it proved
impossible to get any other vehicle
of the location sites. It

into

some

was

also necessary to

mules and horses

American

on

Cinematographer

pack the

the train

so

63
American Cinematographer - November 1988

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