American Cinematographer - March 1990 - 44

Stroboscopes were
synchronized to the
shutter and fired at

1/1000th of a
second to capture
razor

sharp images

of Carl Lewis in

a

night rain. (Frame
blowup)

turns. I wanted to
ence a sense

give the audi¬

of edging, so we built

this rig so the skis would articu¬
late. The camera stayed level with
the snow, but when Tom would
lean the rig with the handlebars,
the edges would dig and the rig
would turn.
"We undercranked in

shots for speed, but usually
the camera was moving down the
mountain at about 40 mph. The
shots are really good. The audi¬
some

of vertigo is the detail that

you see in the ground below you.
The detail adds to your sense of

being way up there and being
frightened. It's very difficult to
show on regular 35mm film that
same detail. I felt that IMAX,
because it's so much higher in
resolution and it's projected so
much bigger, could really get the

audience the sensation of

film Solo, was the man for the job.
The challenge in this case

physical - getting the huge
camera up the side of the
mountain, and then mounting it
so that it was
absolutely steady.
"Most mountain climbing films

was

IMAX

are

done with handheld

cam¬

eras," MacGillivray states. "But
because the IMAX medium is

being

projected so big and the audience

up high, and therefore give them
the sensation of vertigo. For those

sits so close to the screen, hand¬
held shots are almost impossible.

I've always wanted to do

with a devilish giggle.

a

mountain climbing sequence -

It drives the audience crazy -it
would just be too jerky and

To The Limit finds dare¬
devil cameramen in other locales

I

always felt that it would be

bouncy."

hanging off the side of a moun¬
tain, for example. The mountain
climbing sequence gave MacGillivray an opportunity to present
the respiratory system, and to
shoot another long-awaited se¬

any

quence.

systems," explains
MacGillivray. "Part of what gives
someone on the top of a building

envisioning the sequence, I was
doing so with his skills in mind."
Hoover, whose experience in¬
cludes the climbing sequences in
The Eiger Sanction and the Acad¬
emy Award-winning climbing

American

March 1990

ence

says

gets petrified by them," he

-

"Certain

things lend

themselves to IMAX
above other

42

a sense

Cinematographer

over

and

reasons,

more

successful in IMAX than in

other medium.

"For 20 years I've been
friends with a guy who is an
excellent filmmaker and also an

excellent climber
Hoover. And when I

-

Mike

was

first

The solution was

a

"wall

pod," built by Hoover. It was an
actual tripod which bolted into
the vertical face and suspended
the

feet out. The
would then be guy wired
off to steel wires and turnbuckles.
"It was absolutely rigid," beams
camera seven

camera

MacGillivray. "You could drop a
boulder on it and it wouldn't
shake a bit.
"You

up

can

imagine setting

the shots. You'd spend five
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