American Cinematographer - November 1990 - 57

nie & Moskoivitz, as well as more
than twenty television produc¬
tions and numerous commercials.
How does it feel to set up
and photograph scenes in which
the camera makes deliberate mis¬
takes in the name of comedy? "It's

refreshing and fun/' says Margulies. "Most of the gags are
throwaway, but they each take a
certain amount of time to set up
and execute. If the script is writ¬
ten

properly and the director in¬

terprets it properly and commu¬
nicates what he wants, then it's up
to the director of photography to

interpret it visually, with the help
special effects, art department,
wardrobe, makeup, and all the
rest. The real fun is putting that all
together."
of

The first filmmaking
cliche to get burned in Repossessed
is an easy target - the "Sam

Spade shot," which features hori¬
zontal shadows from Venetian
blinds slashing dramatically
across a character's face. "The
whole gag in this scene depended
on

Opposite

page:
The climactic

(and potentially
profitable) exor¬

having sharp Venetian blind

cism is nation¬

shadows. It's a normal effect, but
when Leslie walks over to the
corner of the room and continues

ally televised.
Above: Leslie
Nielsen (as Fa¬
ther Mayii)

the scene, the shadows stay on his
body, and where he was standing,
a cutout shadow silhouette re¬
mains on the wall. It sounds

snips the wires
on a

left: Blair's turn
as a

pretty simple, but it took some
space and time to set up.
"In order to throw

levitated

Linda Blair. Far

possessed

housewife

spoofs her Exor¬

a

cist role. Left:

sharp pattern, we needed a big
space to get the big lamps back far
enough. Too close, and the pat¬
tern wouldn't have had enough

Margulies at the
camera.

definition. The location where

part of the sequence was filmed
was too small, so a set was built
on the
stage. For the second shot,
when the shadow is maintained
on his
body, the stripes were

painted on. It was a combination
of light, makeup and paint, and it
took a few minutes to get it lined
up perfectly."
Later in the film, religious
fanatics find out about the "repos¬
session" and decide that

a

takes place, therefore, on and
around a series of television

stages in a studio facility. The
exorcism is attended by all the
world's religious leaders, and of
course this
provides fertile com¬

edy material. Shooting the scenes
on

actual TV sets made for

venience in

"The TV studios

nation¬

ally televised exorcism is exactly
what people need to refind their
lost faith. The final act of the film

like

con¬

lighting.
were

lit

a practical TV studio," ex¬
plains Margulies. "We had racks
of lamps hung from above, and it

November 1990

lit relatively
would light a TV

full, like you
talk show, or
any three camera show. For the
early part of the sequence, the
actors were were just sitting down
was

behind a desk, so there wasn't
much change there. The other set,
where the actual exorcism takes

place, had to be lit with different
cues. At various
points in the
scene, the lights go down, light¬
ning strikes, a thunderstorm rains
down

on

American

the set, smoke pours out

Cinematographer

55
American Cinematographer - November 1990

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