American Cinematographer - August 1993 - 42

"We always tried to use fine grain
stock, which required a lot of light,"
Warren observes, "but the gorillas

very high ratios on 16mm, but our
ratio on Mountain Gorilla was only
about 7 to 1 in the end, which is

black and soaked up all the
was. It's actually very
difficult to photograph gorillas,
because they have this deep ridge
over the
eyes. So, unless they
looked up, we couldn't get any

very light.

were

light there

light into their eyes. We couldn't
bring lighting equipment in be¬
cause there was no
way the goril¬
las would have tolerated it. That

tough to work around until
two of the gorillas became
tolerant enough of us, seeing us day
after day, to allow us to use flexfills,
which are round pieces of reflective
material that bounce light from the
sky. A few of the gorillas would be
fascinated by the camera and curi¬
ous
enough to look at their reflec¬
tion in the lens. By moving very,
very slowly, we began to get them
used to the idea of having this
white thing under the camera
which punched natural light up
was

one or

into their faces."

If Warren and

Rettig
fairly certain their shots
be usable, sometimes they

weren't

Porters
a

gather in

semicircle to

lug film
equipment up a
mountain for

a

day of filming.

occasionally became a logistical
nightmare. "Hiking several thou¬
sand feet up the mountains every
day was pretty tough, no two ways
about it," Warren says. "It was
rainy and muddy and there were
lots of fallen logs and stinging
nettles. Plus, we never knew where
the gorillas were going to be. It

might take us up to four hours just
to find them and as long to get back
to base, which didn't give us much
working time. Once we found
them, we had to slowly move the
equipment in piece by piece. Often,
by the time we were ready, the go¬
rillas decided it
on, so

was

time to

move

after hours of climbing and

over," Warren

avers.

"A 1000-foot

magazine only lasts three minutes,
and that's very expensive not only
to buy as raw stock, but to process,
so we had to be
pretty selective. In
terms

of animal behavior, three

Even when the
at their most

there

were

American

other

gorillas

cooperative,

complications.

Cinematographer

man ever

to

study mountain gorillas in the wild,
required the design of a special rig
to elevate the director,
cinematog¬
rapher and heavy Imax camera
above the forest canopy. "That was
developed from Neil's and my ex¬
perience working in rainforests
with small format," Warren recalls.
"I

designed the rig at the story¬

board stage. It took about six
months to develop. Essentially, en¬

gineer Richard Reeve built
cablecar out of carbon fiber

so

a
it

very light. Then we hung it by
pulleys on a steel cable that was 100
meters long, rigged between two
very strong trees and winched to
4000 pounds of pressure. The cable
had a three-degree slope, which
was
very critical because the
cablecar ran from top to bottom by
gravity. I operated a system of bi¬
cycle brakes to control the speed
was

while Neil filmed. That was a beau¬
tiful shot: from a slightly elevated

angle above the giant stinging
nettles, we could see the people
moving through the environment.
It was simple, but it worked a

Sadly, this shot was com¬
pleted just as war broke out in

predict what was go¬
ing to happen and how long it
would last. We'd start filming with
a fresh roll, but if
nothing much
happened in the first 40 seconds, I'd
start to panic a bit. If the behavior
started, I'd panic again as the roll
ran

out! We didn't have

a second
there to fall back on because
couldn't afford it; it's also too

camera
we

change rolls. By that time, the

were

'50s became the first

treat."

able to

and follow them. This

days on end with no film pass¬
ing through the camera."

for good luck."
They also had to plan very
carefully, sometimes months in
advance. For instance, a proposed
aerial shot of a party led by biolo¬
gist George Schaller, who in the late

to be

heavy to carry up there, and it can
take as long as ten minutes to

might go on

well and then pray

minutes isn't a long time, so we had

looking for the gorillas, we would
have to disassemble our equipment
for

40

would
wouldn't shoot at all. "With Imax
film being so expensive, if the go¬
rillas weren't in a very good situa¬
tion for filming, we didn't dare turn

We had to be very selec¬
tive, get to know our animals very

go¬

Rwanda. "Throughout our stay, we
would occasionally hear distant
bursts of gunfire, but we hoped that
our

being remote, would re¬
unaffected," Warren sighs.

area,

main

"But when a group of rebels
headed in our direction, the
Rwandese military ordered us off
the mountain for our own safety.

The

following morning

we

ourselves in the midst of

a

found
battle

rillas may

have moved on! It's
tough capturing animal behavior

that lasted all day, with us lying on
the floor of our little hut in

with Imax equipment because of
the roll size, but it's really unwieldy

Ruhengeri helplessly listening to
the fighting outside. That was the

to have

end of the filming.

bigger rolls. I tend to shoot

August 1993

We were evacu-
American Cinematographer - August 1993

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