American Cinematographer - August 1990 - 36

4 IN THE WORLD!
1 IN E U R O P E:
KENWORTHY-NETTMANN SNORKEL

compensate,

the

there's

never

knowing that
generations of film
to go through. I think that some¬
more

a mistake to do that.
Sometimes it's better to make a

times it's

very good clean negative. On
occasion I've noticed that the

FEATURING:

special effect image that was
placed in was much cleaner than
-ZOOM

the actual shot

-HORIZON
ROLL

through a window of a plane, and
outside the plane looks sharper

-

like

view

and cleaner than inside," he

-TILTING
MIRROR

laughs. "I think sometimes you
actually have to degrade the
image, to make it a little more
hard-edged. Otherwise it looks

-FILM AND
VIDEO

Technicolor-like
Kodachrome.
too

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"At

or

too

first, I really felt that

needed more rear projection
in the show. The time constraints
meant that we had to compro¬
mise and just use black backings
we

in many cases.

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other actors it doesn't work with.
It's very

instinctive.
"Of course, there are

certain

things that you can see
immediately about actors. Cer¬
tain technical aspects about
people - their physical charac¬
teristics or shape of their face -
these are just things that you tech¬
nically work out. For example, if
they have very deep-set eyes, you
have to put some light in. But the
real thing is how you relate to
them and the chemistry between
you. I had a very good relation¬
ship with Bruce Willis. We got
along great. It was a little appre¬
hensive at the beginning, but as
soon as the dailies started
coming
out, he relaxed, and after that it
was

fine," says Wood.

But when I saw
cut, I realized that

Early in his career, Wood
fashioned his style after the mas¬
ters of cinema verite, but all that
has changed. "I'm very much into

your attention never really
strayed from the action. And
quite a lot of continuity problems
were overcome
by the fact that
the action carried us along,
through thick and thin."
The action helped make
up for problems in following
source
light logical, too. "After a
while, especially for exteriors, I
had to make a compromise be¬
tween honoring a source light
and showing the action - after
all, the entire thing is based on the
fallacy of being able to see any¬
thing in a blizzard anyway - so
I felt my first obligation was to
ensure that
you could see what
was
going on," says Wood.
Lighting actors is an in¬
stinctual process for Wood. "My
feeling about lighting actors is
that it's all chemistry," he posits.
"If the chemistry's right between

fantasy - drama and fantasy.
Anything to enhance what's
going on dramatically. I'm sort of
the master of the cheap trick," he
laughs.

the sequences
there was so much action in¬
volved that it really didn't matter
-

the

cameraman and the actor or
the actress, the lighting will work.
If it's not, it won't and you usu¬
ally have a bad scene on your
hands. There doesn't seem to

really be any explanation for this.

CINEN/MTOemPU/i

lighting and everything. I've
been able to explain it.
Some people it works with, and

It

to be sort of

seems

process

a

chemical

that affects the film and

USA

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August 1990

"We took a lot of license
with what happens in an airport.
The first shootout takes place in
that mysterious place that your

luggage goes after you check it in.
luggage conveyor belts lead
to a room that is far larger and
more
spectacular than anything
you'll find in a real airport - it

The

had smoke and steam and auto¬
matic things - all sorts of things
that of course don't really exist. I

just feel that these dramatic

en¬
hancements add to the film."
Another location that
can't be found at a real airport
was the
underground power

system. In the original Die Hard,
McClane had one man on his side
remember Sergeant A1 Powell,

-

on the other end of the radio?
This time, his ally is a janitor who
lives in the bowels of the airport,

steamy, warm world of indus¬
generators and labyrinthine
passageways - a completely

a

trial

fabricated world.
American Cinematographer - August 1990

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