American Cinematographer - November 1988 - 72

three

stops down. Each light was

assigned

a number one through
three and Williams could simply

read the notes and

put the setting
computer so that it would

into the

up automatically. During the
concert, Brinkmann stood with his
come

gaffer at a second dimmer board for
the audience lights. While looking
the

at

video

assist

monitors,

Brinkmann could
as

necessary.

adjust the lights
Joanou had constant

communication to all of the

camera

operators so that he could adjust

positions.
Eight cameras were used,
including a Steadicam on stage and
a Louma crane
roving around.
Brinkmann

placed two cameras
down at the front of the stage on the
piece of dolly track and two
platforms. An addition¬
al camera was placed at the side
elevated eight feet on a dolly track.
same

cameras on

Brinkmann decided to
use

Flanked
eras,

The
es

by

cam¬

U2 guitarist

Edge rehears¬

in

an

arena.

empty

opportunity to capture the band on
stage with multiple cameras.
"Peter Williams was prob¬
ably the only person who could
have pulled it off," Brinkmann
says. "Because we had no time to
hang our lights, my lighting crew
was on the
stage during the same
time as the band was doing their
soundcheck. It

was

too

loud to

communicate. We had to add audi¬

lights because they didn't have
any at all. We hung our own trusses
ence

with 150 extra units before the band
ever

on

got there. We used PAR cans

the audience

rigged on theatrical

We also used the band's

trusses.

lighting which

was

overhead follow

made

up

of 21

spots. The band

didn't have any lighting below
these overhead trusses so we added
three banks of

sidelights on each
nine-lights direct¬
ly behind the band. We also put
some bottom
lights up front. The
bottom lights were one- and twolights and a few little mini-cools.
The side lights were PAR cans with
side and

a row

of

beam widths from
were
even

narrow

to wide.

"By the time the people
coming in the doors I hadn't
set

all of my

light levels

on

light levels. The

the band's overhead

follow spots were much too hot.
Each follow spot had to have a dif¬

70

American

Cinematographer

Arri BL's for the shoot. Six BL4's

ordered with

ferent

setting." When the band
stage Brinkmann had not
even patched all of his lights into
the dimmer board. Even though
the band was spending hundreds of

were

went

finders

thousands of dollars to film the

to-one. The Louma

concerts, the tour came first. There

Steadicam each had three-to

on

was no

stopping.

no

darkened show. Each
zoom,

zooms

"The first

night was pret¬
ty much a disaster," Brinkmann
confesses. "Everyone was relatively
happy that we got anything at all. I
guess it could have been worse. I
was
very disappointed. For exam¬
ple, there was one song that was
supposed to be lit only from below
by some floor lights. Bono, the lead
singer for the band, suddenly
stepped forward, and there was ab¬
solutely no light on him. And of
course we couldn't do
anything."
The second night allowed
Brinkmann and

have

glowing view¬

that the operators would
trouble seeing during the

so

either

camera

because

crane

with

a

a

five-

and the
-one

ofweight considera¬

tions. The slowest lens
one

had

a ten-to-one or a

was a

ten to

T4. Brinkmann decided

to

light everything to a T4. While
was
unfortunately a very high
T-stop for the ASA of the Double X
film, Brinkmann was happy with
the results. "Our F-stop made the
shadows drop off and gave us that
punch that you don't usually get.
While it doesn't give you very much
detail in the shadow areas, the high
T-stop gives it a certain edge. If you
open up a little too wide it becomes
a little flat and
mushy."
this

Brinkmann credits Otto

Joanou to learn

from the mistakes of the first

Nemenz International for providing

"Lights

him with the best

equipment avail¬

able.

was

night.
added so that Bono
couldn't escape," Brinkmann says
dryly, "Peter Williams knew his
lighting board and the music so
were

well that there wasn't

cue

he

could miss." Brinkmann broke

ev¬

a

ery light down into three levels for
Williams: (1) exposure or above ex¬
posure depending upon whether it
was a back
light or a front light; (2)
A

stop and a half down; and (3)

November 1988

"Otto's

terrific,"

Brinkmann

proclaims. "There are
certain things you have to watch
out for. First of all, you can't shoot a
concert film with a gear head. A lot
of operators prefer gear heads but
in

a

concert shoot you

able to

zoom

have to be
the

and operate at

same time. That
only works on a
fluid head. The fluid heads have to
American Cinematographer - November 1988

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