American Cinematographer - August 1993 - 50

Left:

Grip Dave

"Foots" Footman
and assistant
cameraman

Mark Bosch

clarify the
helicopter take¬
off procedure in
the Grand

Canyon while
camera

technician

Gary
last-

Louzon gets
minute

instruction from
Herrmann.

Middle:
Footsman and
Louzon
the

steady
rig

camera

before takeoff.

Right: The
helicopter
ascends,
camera rig
properly in
place.

pastry shop, which I had to light.
That was quite a balancing act,

stands.

noon

We left the Foots-mobile in Paris

and

production company there
bought it. The last we heard, they
were
using it in the Louvre."
A tightly scheduled show
being shot in seven different coun¬

banks of color-corrected fluores¬

of the rainy season. The pilot had to
buzz the landing strip to chase ze¬

tries is bound to

them up on top

coming in from outdoors in 360!
a

run

into weather

problems. "The show didn't allow
for any 'weather days.' I was put in
a
position of 'You've gotta make
this work,' so I was constantly
reaching into the bag of tricks.
What do you do when it starts rain¬
ing? It's the one time when you
don't want backlighting!
"I was always mixing day¬
light and tungsten, trying to pick
up the life of an overcast day and
put some color into it. It works out
great if you hit that magic moment.
We had incredibly good luck with
weather 'windows.' Several times
in the show I'd be shooting a big
exterior and I'd wait until the sun
at just the right level of inten¬
sity. The whole foreground would
be lit with tungsten so it would
come
up properly, and the back¬
ground would go a beautiful blue
color. It added a sort of 'pop!' to the
was

lights. They yield a bouncelight quality without noise or
cent

flicker. "Later I switched over to
HMI Sun Guns - and actually had

of the camera and
bouncing off the ceilings or a white
card. I could gel them or bounce
them. Always they were armed off
the camera, either off the top or just
out of view below

when they came
close. If you're backed up to a
building you can put a cable down
from the top of the building and put
lights on top of the camera. In Paris
we used HMIs, a
couple of PAR
1200s on top. You not only have
nine possible surfaces for reflection
into the lens, but you also have nine
possible surfaces of reflection into
the mirrors. You're constantly
watching out for whether it's flar¬
ing into the mirror or into the lens,
so it
really becomes a juggling act."
Another problem: "One bug on one
up

mirror will ruin

had bug
mirrors."

Herrmann

cameras.

standard

"You can't

explained that

light with
lighting equipment be¬

you'd

American

an

entire

shields

we

shot,

over

see

ever

all the cables and

Cinematographer

so

all the

rica, arriving just at the

bras away,

dogs? "If the

sun was

sun

in the shot,

beginning

and when the plane

landed, the landing gear was bur¬
ied in the ground above the wheels.
Four twin-engine turboprops
hauled in the equipment. The party
went

immediately to the Savuti

Plain.
"We went there

primarily
little African boy
named Sachaba, who invites Yung
to

photograph

a

Hee to come to Africa to see the
wild animals," Herrmann said.
"We set up a

shot at

waterholes, where

one

of the

we were sur¬

rounded

by 25 bull elephants! If
imagine these elephants
270 to 300 degrees around you, vir¬
tually filling the frame while you're
shooting with 32mm lenses, it's
quite an experience. They aren't cir¬
cus beasts, but
very wild guys who,
with just a flick of a trunk, could
wipe you out. We had been briefed
to not make any sudden moves and
to stay in the vehicle-they're used
to vehicles, but a man standing by

you can

himself is

What about flares and

lighting for 360 is limited to what
can be
kept out of range of the nine
cause

it, for a little kick

in the actors' eyes

show."

48

all the time."
After Paris the company
hopped a plane to Botswana, Af¬

Early in the show I was us¬
ing KinoFlos, basically for fill light."
KinoFlo lighting systems are com¬
pact, lightweight units utilizing

a

threat. We would

get

fifty feet away and roll the camera
in very

quietly in the land cruiser.

then it was fine. Otherwise we kept

Nine cameras taking off at the same

the

time makes

camera

in the

shade,

some¬

how, looking out and putting the
shade towards the back. Other¬
wise we'd end up

August 1993

shooting at

and the

a

considerable noise,

elephants would look.
Then, coming up from below
frame, was Sachaba saying, 'Shhh
American Cinematographer - August 1993

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