American Cinematographer - November 1988 - 70

back down, Brinkmann was able to
create a nice soft light on the musi¬
cians. "Sun Studios has the

original

white sound tiles." Brinkmann

ex¬

plains, "They ended up making a
great bounce board. It was a very
photogenic studio. Usually sound
studios

dark but Sun is very

are

light. By just lighting one side of the
room there was a nice
key and
bounce light. The other side would
drop off, yet because the studio was
white it wouldn't drop off too
much. You could still

see

the white

in the

background." The session in
Sun Studios became a key sequence
in the picture as it was the first time
that U2 had

ever

recorded in Amer¬

ica. The session
new

which

songs

produced three
may be on the

album, scheduled to be re¬
leased with the film. Brinkmann
new

and

Joanou ended up shooting for

seven

hours straight.
Brinkmann also credits

the

ability to prelight a sequence
Calvary Baptist
Church in Harlem as a good exam¬
ple of advance notice making a
shot in the Greater

Brinkmann checks
the levels
ist Adam

on

Clayton.

and

running through them."

bass-

Travelling close to the
band, knowing that they would
have to be able to get into tight
spaces and, if necessary, climb into
a car with the musicians, Joanou
and Brinkmann tried to

keep every¬
thing as simple as possible. "We
had special hand grips made at our
hand-hold and
time.

zoom

us

to

at the same

They hadn't existed before,"

Brinkmann states. "Otto also had

shipped to us from Germany spe¬
cial ground glasses which had the
1.85 markings. We knew from the
outset that we were going to blow it
up to 35mm so we had to see the

zooms

because

we

we

used the

needed the flex¬

ibility," Brinkmann says. "Most of
the time we had enough light to use
the

zooms.

able to

At other times

we were

prelight."
Because the band did not

want

anything to

Brinkmann and
let anyone

seem

staged,

Joanou could not

know they were prelight¬
locations. It often
of deception. "Sun
is a good example,"

any of the
became a game

ing

Studios

Brinkmann confesses "We knew

world of difference. The band had

planned to rehearse a version of the
hit song I Still Haven't Found What
I'm Looking For, with the church's
gospel choir. "Since we knew in
advance the band was going to be
there", Brinkmann explains, "we
scouted the location and rented
some

HMIs

locally in New York.
everything in
all up before the band

We had the time to tie

and hook it

arrived. Since
small

our

crew

was

very

couldn't

light through the
large windows, but we were able to
put some lights in the church. We
we

going to shoot there be¬
pretty much the reason
we were in Memphis. The morning
after we arrived, I got the crew up at
3 a.m. We went to the recording
studios and hung some lights. We
camouflaged the cables so that no¬
body would know that we had been
there. Later that day we walked in

ordered HMIs and because we
didn't have to worry that it would

lowed Joanou and Brinkmann to
shoot for as many as seven or eight

with the band and turned it all

band tours Graceland in

By the time they had figured out

"It

hours

what

cult shoot

35mm frame. At that time there
were no

ground glasses in the

en¬
tire United States which showed

only the 1.85 frame. So

now

Otto

has two."

Working with two assis¬
tants and a

loader at all times al¬

straight. The

crew

brought

we were
cause

with them two

complete Arri SR
packages, Zeiss Superspeed lenses,
as

well

as

also took

68

some extreme
a 5.9mm and a

9.5mm, but most often

rental house, Otto Nemenz Inter¬

national, which allowed

small Mole units. "We

some

brought with us
wide angle lenses,

American

the faster T2

They
along Lowel lighting kits

Cinematographer

zooms.

the

it

was

we

on.

had done, it was too late."

By rigging Tota lights on
ceiling along one side of the

room, bouncing them into the ceil¬
ing and then letting the light fall

November 1988

look blue

stock) it

(it

was

black and white

gave me a lot more output.
Not all the locations pro¬

vided Brinkmann with the oppor¬

tunity to prepare and prelight. One
more
challenging occasions
was a
key sequence in which the
of the

was

Memphis.
probably the most diffi¬
we

had," Brinkmann

stressed. "The quarters are very
tight and a lot of the space is roped

off. There

was

around. All of

little
us

room

were

to move

trying to
American Cinematographer - November 1988

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