American Cinematographer - July 1990 - 62

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blue

blue spill on the desk and so
forth. Were we not to do this

Brevig notes proudly. "We

synthesis of red reflections out of

would take giant blue screens to
the set as opposed to doing what
is traditionally done, which is to
stick the screen on-stage and then
build the set in front of it. By

the blue ones, all these reflections
would go dead black as if they
were unlit in the
optical stage

doing it this way, we were able to
leapfrog from set to set to set, and
always have blue screens avail¬
able which were usually rigged
the day before we'd shoot and
struck the day following the

was

shoot

and each

-

was a

custom

rig."
The Hilton lobby was a
large set to light, especially
since everything out the huge
picture windows was blue

very

"For that reason, we
couldn't have lights shining
screen.

through the windows," Brevig
shudders, "so the room had to be
lit from way

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els completely ringing the win¬
dow all the way up the 50 foot

height of the stage. We had to
light the cloth but we couldn't let
the blue reflection spill into the
room, and we needed to get the
effect of sunlight streaming in but
couldn't because of the blue
It was a very complex and

screen.

self-contradictory set-up. The
optical department here had to
work that much harder."
Funke nods his agree¬
ment: "For this sequence and
some of the Cohaagen shots, we

actually optically synthesized red
reflections out of the blue reflec¬
tions in the sets. We wanted our
floors to look real, so they had to
be shiny like real floors, but if

they're shiny, it's almost impos¬
sible to keep the light of the blue
screen

off them. In the finished

shots, you can see the red reflec¬
tions of the landscape on the
windows and the mullions on the

you don't see but which has to be
there to sell the illusion."
One of the most exciting
illusions is the skeleton security
screen

-

an

X-ray detection

device that projects a person's
skeleton onto a black glass shield
as he walks
along a 30 foot ramp.
The half dozen aqua blue skele¬
tons

seen

walking

screen were

across the
created via

computer generated imagery
(CGI) by Metrolight, a computer

association

Quaid attempts to get

through the skeleton security
screen
carrying a weapon, with
Cohaagen's goons in hot pursuit.
The alarm immediately sounds
as red
rings radiate from the red
Quaid's skeleton's waist.
Realizing if he runs out the far
side, he'll be caught by the guards
manning the security checkpoint,
while if he heads back the way he
came, the goons are waiting to
shoot him, Quaid takes the only
option available to a character
played by Arnold Schwar¬
zenegger - he leaps through the
plexiglass wall of the security
screen.
Technically, much of the
gun at

effects work was the same as in
the standard operating skeleton

sequence, until Quaid
leaps through the screen. As his
skeleton begins to smash the
glass, it breaks up as Quaid's
body follows through the screen.
screen

"It

was

fairly tricky for the

com¬

floor, but in reality, there was a

puter graphics people," Brevig
says. "Of course we had a stunt¬

bluescreen out there

man

sst r a sse
West Germany

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tions on them, we could falsecolor them red, giving us the re¬
flection of what should be out
there in a way we could never
achieve in reality. It's something

graphics company, in
with Dream Quest.

-

*

so

coming in from the sides. Since it

we

Productioi

something unrealistic about
by using a very complicated
series of rotoscoping mattes to
separate the areas that had reflec¬
it,

charcoal

frontlit, we were constantly
trying to hide forty 10' x 5' pan¬

UNIC

when we took out the blue. We
tried it that way at first, but there

blue screen 40' x 60' just to get it
far enough away from the win¬
dows so it didn't flag all the light
was

IN THE HEART OF EUROPE

ally had blue reflections on-set,

screen
rigging of any show
that's been done, between the
size and number of screens,"

July 1990

so we

actu¬

coming through the glass
American Cinematographer - July 1990

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