American Cinematographer - November 1990 - 76

other. I grew up in a house where
could see three layers of wall
it was a natural thing. In the
San Fernando Valley you don't
find that; it's a different world."
Zanetti doesn't consider
it a problem to be a European

the stage, because on the stage
you have to produce magic before
people's eyes. Some of it is simple
but extremely efficient. For ex¬
ample, if you can see through a
wall, you don't have to dissolve
and go to a lab. There's a differ¬

creating American settings in an
American studio. "The first pic¬

ence,

you
-

ture I did

here, Slamdance,

was

about Los Angeles," he
"It was directed by a

laughed.
Chinese
American, Wayne Wang, and
photographed by Amir Makri, an
Iranian, and I think we really dis¬
covered a different Los Angeles.
I think that's the reason why the

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one Los
Angeles, a very strange
Los Angeles, but it is always
there. Then I did a piece of Ameri¬
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72

feels that

different feel¬

ing. The Russians have done
things with mirrors,
going into a mirror in one shot
and then going into a different
world. It requires time that
American movies don't usually

wonderful

have

-

we

have to rehearse and

go. We have an incredibly fast
schedule for the kind of movie
that it is."
Minimal use was made of
the inventory of props and walls
at the studio. "At the beginning I
wanted to use much more, but
then I discovered that, unlike the

Angeles, for example, the sky is
essential. In big European cities
you rarely see the sky. It's the

stroyed because they've been
struck so fast that things are
demolished. But you find pieces.

with Americans abroad,

going to other countries and get¬
ting great things. What they did
with Dangerous Liasons was won¬
derful
they got the essence."
Despite the fantastic as¬
pects of Flatliners there are a mini¬
mum of
post production special
effects other than the matte paint¬
ing shots, which were necessary
-

one of the houses,
Art Deco apartment

In

which is

an

of the Thir¬
ties, I found a couple of wonder¬
ful windows that were huge, with
a
very complicated curve.
"Mostly we worked from
scratch and the craftsmen here
wonderful. They built the

were

props, the statues, they did
murals and the paint - they

special effects in the lab as much
as
possible, for two reasons,"
Zanetti explained. "First, because

the
did
everything. They are frustrated
because they don't get to do many
things like this, because most
people prefer to do this kind of
movie in Europe. I did a movie,

audiences know in their blood
when a special effect is going on,

Some Girls, in Montreal, and we
built everything. The two weeks

because everything has been so
overdone - it puts them at a dis¬
tance. If we really want to deal

winter

for realism. "We tried to do the
visual effects on camera, avoiding

seriously with a subject that is

so

'interior,' it should be done in

of exteriors that

we

did there in

unnecessary. It is
inexperience that
people think they need it; they'll
were

because of

simple way-the simple magic of

say, 'Yeah, but I need New York.'
Maybe they need some things in

life. So

New

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a

haven't been there before, you
find what is essential. In Los

we

ments that
Salamin

camera

theater, sometimes it's more ex¬
pensive just to bring in a flat than
to build it," Zanetti stated. "It may
take six people 12 hours to move
it. Also, many of the sets are de¬

understanding what America is.
"The thing is that when
you arrive at a place and you

same

SHOOT IN

and the

and the film has

a

try to work with ele¬
can

be done on camera.

"Jan de Bont did a lot of
things in the camera,
many of them are ideas from

York, but all their scenes can
be done in the backlot. We had
one

establishing shot to do in

wonderful

New York and when

and

the

November 1990

scene

it

was

we

went to

hell. I would
American Cinematographer - November 1990

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