American Cinematographer - August 1993 - 49

tion and

bloop lights. The cameras
synchronized with one Cin¬
ematography Electronics Precision
Speed Control for speeds from ap¬
proximately 6 to 50fps. Synchroni¬

Opposite, top:
The Bugaboos in

zation of all nine

Postcards

are

cameras

is

British

Columbia,
Canada, as seen
from the

con¬

crew's base of

firmed by a remote sync light on the

operations.
Opposite, below:

bloop control box. For shooting
time lapse and speeds up to 4fps,
the cameras are configured to run

The title card
and logo

Left,this page:

Single Frame System. A Norris
Motor attaches to each
a

camera

Hippos lounge at

via

sunset in

belt drive, and a single control box

Botswana,
Africa. Bottom,
this page:

operates all the systems."
for
a

Iwerks noted that slating
synching dailies is done with

Herrmann poses
with Postcards

remote-con¬

writer-director

trolled

bloop
light. Clairmont

you're not living on the edge and
not risking it, you're only
shooting
average stuff. So I support you to go

Camera modi¬
fied each cam¬
era
with
a

bright

out there and do stuff that you

know is

pushing the edge of the
envelope with this system.' The
shots kept coming back fine, so I
kept pushing the edge farther and

LED

behind-thelens board and
wired through a

farther. There are a number of tech¬
nical considerations inherent in

spare pin in the
four-pin main
power recep¬
tacle. Remote

aperture or fo¬
cus

control to all nine

cameras

is

provided by Preston Cinema Sys¬
tems Micro Servo controls. Micro

Servo motors
camera

and

attached to each
cabled to a single

are

are

control unit.
Herrmann noted that

ev¬

erything in the system is custommade. "You can't fudge at the last
minute
everything has to be pre¬
-

planned. Our preproduction pe¬
riod was only two weeks, a busy
two weeks. You can't just call at the
last minute and say 'Send me a
camera or a crane.' We
actually car¬
ried

an

extra 32mm lens and a spe¬

cially constructed camera body as
a
spare! Because this 360 was a pro¬
totype and there was no time for
testing in advance, tests were made
on the road. The clients
gathered to
watch the filming of the first scenes,
and we were shooting for the first
time with the camera upside down!
"The picture starts in Ko¬
rea with a
single-camera POV of
our

young actress

at the

for

Postcards.

with the Norris Film Products

thing, so you soon start looking in
just one direction."
Next stop: Paris.
"Foots was indispens¬

around

able," Herrman enthused. "I told

screaming. Randy Jonsson
actually pulled focus remotely on

would drive

camera,

enthusiastic with every

take. We finally had to put a line
around the camera so they

wouldn't smash into it.
"I

in her bedroom

computer," Herrmann re¬
ported. "Then it opens up into

him I needed to have a
over

had

my

fingers

system

during the
production's
Paris stop.

rig built that

it into

a

three-wheel low-rider,
as the

which became known

Footsmobile. We

were
doing fullspeed travelling shots with kids

roller-skating around

us, across

"Craig Bartlett said, 'Y'know, if

open streets, through downtown
squares and right into a little

August 1993

American

crossed," Herrmann recalled.

camera

the cobblestones

lengthened a golf cart and turned

came more

same

the Iwerks 360

you go to a single panel times nine
of a different image there is too
much information; your head
won't turn fast enough to see every¬

We did four takes and the kids be¬

at the

Randy Jonsson
(far right) and

some shots in the film didn't utilize
all nine cameras: "In looking at
other 360 movies, we found that if

of Paris and go as fast as kids
could roller skate and bicycle. He

cameras

cameraman

-

time.

all nine

assistant

shooting in the format and one
mode of creativity that is taken
away is the ability to change lenses.
We started composing scenes in
three dimensions
get right next
to something in one or two panels
and let the others go off into infin¬
ity."
Herrmann explained why

closeups where we're up in some
Korean maples in the fall, and it's
really colorful. It booms down and
we
dolly forward as Yung Hee
rides into frame on her bicycle and
lays down her postcard. We had
the camera on a Fisher dolly with a
special head on it that Foots had
made up so it would bear the extra
weight. With a dolly move in 360
you can't go much more than 10 or
12 feet, otherwise you start seeing
the dolly line.
"Then we did a really in¬
teresting shot. We had about 400
school children in a huge circle all
us. When we said 'Action!'
all the kids came running at the

Craig Bartlett
(left), first

Cinematographer

47
American Cinematographer - August 1993

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 1993
