American Cinematographer - February 1990 - 32

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negative. In fact, when he knew
there were opticals, Richardson
used the finer grained 5247 stock
on
night interior scenes. Later on,

he shot a scene on the new East¬
man EXR 5245 film. This is a 50-

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there were opticals involved, were
recorded on the Eastman 5247

scene on a

chusetts,

a

rail line in Massa¬

late addition to the

script.
About 50 percent of the
footage in the picture was shot
with a Steadicam operated by
Toby Philips, an Australian who
now works out of Los Angeles. In

the movie as Kovic becomes more
involved and regressive, Rich¬
ardson made more use of the
Steadicam. Typically, in this situ¬
ation Steadicam shots are used to
establish a subjective point of view.
That wasn't Stone and Rich¬
ardson's approach.
"The Steadicam allowed
to open up entire sequences by
closely following Tom's (Cruise)
us

light complement¬
ing the natural ambience of the
"I never get used to mak¬
ing these compromises," he said,
"but I know Oliver made the right
decision. If you have to decide
between the quality of images and
your ability to tell a good story, the
story is always the right decision."
When he got away from
long lensing, Richardson princi¬
pally worked with 50mm and
100mm lenses. "I didn't want to

lose

backgrounds, so I worked at
comparatively high T-stops," he
said. "I didn't want situations
where we were tight on his face
and only his eyes to his ears were
in focus."
When Kovic first enters
the V.A. hospital, the tones are

and more upbeat. As his
hopes are shattered, the tones turn
icy blue reflecting his changing
emotions. In the beginning of the
sequence, Richardson used a
50mm lens and hung back with the
camera, putting some distance
warmer

movement.

between the character and the
audience.
"This sequence is more
judgmental," he said. "We are
waiting and watching as Kovic's

icam

hope fades. We let the doctors tell
the story."
This is another example of
a mid-stream change in concept.
The original plan was to shoot this
sequence, which runs for about 15
minutes, in extremely cold blue

movements," he said. "We used it
a lot at practical locations, a pool
room and a bar, for instance, where
shot

a lot of
The alternative would
have been to coordinate the action
with camera movement on a dolly,
but I think this had the right degree
of visual tension. We might not
have come to the same conclusion
with a less accomplished Stead¬
we

long takes with

operator."
Richardson said that the

in terms of

photo¬
graphic style, occurs in a fast food
restaurant. It's a big area, maybe 60
by 70 feet. Stone wanted 360 de¬
gree coverage so the audience
could see every corner of the res¬
worst scene,

taurant.

"I wanted to avoid
neric overhead fluorescent

a

ge¬

look,"

he said. "I worked it out with the

designer. We planned to use large
pyramid shaped windows and
hang incandescent lamps as pri¬
mary light sources."
Then, Stone decided he
wanted a long, continuous Stead¬
icam shot which covered twothirds of the area. Richardson ad¬

justed by not gelling the windows
-

which would have corrected the

color of light,

but would also have

tones.

"It was a dehumanizing
experience for Kovic," Richardson
explained, "however, at that point,
Oliver felt that if we emphasized
that mood for very long, the emo¬

tional content would be too intense
for the audience. It would strip
away all hope. So, we
earlier part of this scene
Eastman 5297 film, and

shot the
with the
kept the
There is a point

lighting

warmer.
where Kovic realizes he will never
walk on his own legs again. At that

point, the color of light is icy blue.
And with the
remote

use

of

a

Matthews

depict
prone Kovic."

camera we

less and

a

help¬

Kovic's hope is briefly
rekindled when he returns to

Massapequa. Lighting is softer and
warmer,

and

more

romantic and

reduced the intensity of light, light
which he needed for exposure. He

natural. This symbolizes his expec¬
tations and provides linkage to a

added warmth with

happier past. But there

February 1990

tungsten

are

also
American Cinematographer - February 1990

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