American Cinematographer - July 1990 - 49

tage that we were forced to find
something in Mexico. It's much
better, much more interesting,
and it hasn't been used this way
before."
The film is set in the fu¬
ture, but not very far into the
future. The first part takes place
on Earth - "an Earth we all
know." But the real story unrav¬

els once Schwarzenegger returns
to Mars. Mars was the challenge,
but also the opportunity. As
Vacano tells it, "On Mars every¬

thing is special, everything is
unusual. There is no atmosphere
on Mars. The people have to be
either in spacesuits or in the pro¬
tected colonies. This is not a pic¬
ture about people in space suits.
we imagined a colony where
the miners live digging special
metals out of the planet. These

So,

people must have their own en¬
vironment."
Parts of the colonies are
built under large glass domes.
The domes provide a source for
most of the light. However, much
of the colony is built under the

Above: The red

glow of the
Martian land¬
scape is reflected
in the face of

planet's surface. "This decision to
build underground indicates al¬
ready that whatever is on Mars is
concealed," says Vacano. "The
second thing that makes Mars
very special is that everything is
red. Even though there is no
atmosphere, the surface is red,
the sky is red and the sun is red,
so

Quaid. Below:
The villainous
Michael Ironside
is photographed

by Vacano (right)
with

Haellmigk

(center) assisting.

whenever there is a connection
world on Mars, the

to the exterior

light is all red."
Just what color is Mar¬
tian red? Vacano

wasn't
swer.

explains that it

easy question to an¬
"We had a very funny
an

chose wasn't in production any¬
more. I tried to substitute with
another color from another com¬

a

pany, but the film tests didn't
work. Finally, Rosco agreed to
manufacture it for us and they
started production of this special
color again. Just barely in time we

in

big mining area near Mexico
City which is dominated by a lot

great. It was two weeks before

got what we needed."

a

shooting and I just figured we

Besides determining
what color Martian red is, Vacano
and Verhoeven decided on a

a

experience trying to get the gels
for that red light. Every director
of photography, every gaffer, has
these nice little swatch books
from Rosco or Lee or someone
else. You go through them and

say,

a wonderful color.'
film test and it looks

'This is

You do

a

would order what we needed -
two hundred or three hundred

rolls
Then

-

it

we

was a

huge amount.

found out the color

we

very bright sun because

no

there is
atmosphere to soften it. Some

of the exteriors of Mars

were

shot

a

of brown and red. We used that
location partly for wide exterior
shots. So we had the problem of

landscape lit by a blue sky, not
red sky and the shadows were

"very sourcy" lighting style for

all blue. You either need a tre¬
mendous amount of red light to
fill up these shadows - but that

Martian exteriors. "It has to have

disturbs the whole

July 1990

American

atmosphere

Cinematographer

47
American Cinematographer - July 1990

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