American Cinematographer - March 1990 - 42

Right: Trapeze
artists are brought
in to help rig a
safety net, which is
not merely a pre¬

caught at 1000th of a second.
Because there's no blurring of the
frame, the sharpness is dramati¬
cally increased, which gives an
almost magical look to the shot.
"It was perfect for those

caution. Below:

Greg MacGillivray
and

cameraman

particular shots, because the
purpose in that part of the film
was to
give the audience the feel¬
ing of the magical qualities of the
human body, and the beauty of
the body's form. Carl Lewis'

Brad Ohlund with

the "sidewinder"
IMAX camera.

Opposite

page: In
Moscow for the

ballet sequence.
From left to

right:
MacGillivray (at
camera), the ballet

muscles and his coordination,

photographed in this manner,
give the audience the impression

coach, ballerina
Nina Ananiashvili,
Ohlund, inter¬

that

we

are, as

human beings,

beyond belief."

preter Loudmila

To further display the
extraordinary capabilities of the
human body, To The Limit takes

Lopukhova and her
husband, technical
advisor Derek Hart.

the audience where most ordi¬

nary mortals would

(or schuss,

or

fear to tread
rappel, as the case

maybe).
"We wanted
to illustrate the

a
sequence
cardiovascular

system, and I have always
wanted to do in IMAX a sequence

depicting high speed skiing - to
put the audience on a pair of skis,
and let them go down a slope at
60 mph. So this whole sequence
was developed around the con¬
cept of conveying to the audience
the feeling of going fast, and us¬
ing skiing to explain the cardio¬
vascular

system," states MacGil¬

livray.
"Halfway through the
into the body's
decision-making process. The
skier has to make split-second
sequence, we get

synchronizer connector was in¬
corporated, allowing the shutter
to operate in tandem with strobo¬
scopic lighting.
"We used the strobo¬

nanosecond," says MacGillivray.

in the Carl Lewis se¬
quences," recalls MacGillivray.
"We photographed him at night,
in the rain, doing a long jump. I
wanted those images, raindrops
and all, to be crystal sharp. We
had a huge bank of stroboscopes,
all synchronized to the shutter of

"The speed of the image - flying
down the mountain, making
turns - underscores the speed of
what's happening in the skier's

scope

the camera, so that when the
shutter opened, the strobes fired.
As a result, the strobes, which can
fire at close to 1 /1000th of a sec¬
ond, become your shutter. So for
each frame, the motion is being

40

American

Cinematographer

decisions based on her senses.
Her eyes and ears couple with her
brain to make decisions in a

March 1990

body. The audience begins to
understand that these decision
are made almost
impossibly
fast."
"Another basic thematic

point I wanted to make is that
there's an interesting intellectual

dividing line between going just
fast enough to win the race or
going too fast and falling. Know-
American Cinematographer - March 1990

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