American Cinematographer - February 1995 - 28

Investigating Incident at
Deception Ridge

the camera's

ing

a

weight, he was carry¬
total of 80 pounds.
"I needed to be there be¬

of the

cause

at that

Careful

planning and ingenuity - and
spectacular locations - give this cable

movie the feel of

a

changing light situa¬

tion," he explains. "In that canyon,

particular time of day,

start out in full

into the

sun

you

and progress

shady side of the

canyon

and then into the woods. There

feature.

was a

major exposure difference all
across."

the way

Geddes relied

by Jean Oppenheimer

many years

of experience

on

as

his

both

operator and director of photog¬
raphy to judge the exposure. At
an

Cinematographer David Geddes,
CSC, perched atop a suspended

can

you get away

with more

O'Keefe, a raging waterfall empties

than one large-scale stunt or set
piece, because you simply don't
have the money. In addition, the
shooting schedule is so tight it usu¬
ally precludes the amount of prep
time needed for setting up more
than one major stunt."
Incident at Deception Ridge
contained five major stunts. The
tram sequence illustrates the care
and ingenuity practiced on all of

into

them.

tram, hoists a Panaflex onto his

shoulder, adjusts a 40-pound bag
of lead shot

hanging down his

back, then cautiously leans out
the tram's side

over

-

way over.

Twelve feet below him,

hanging

rope attached to the bottom
of the metal cage, is actor Michael
O'Keefe. Three hundred feet below
onto

a

a

foaming, churning river that

snakes its way down a picturesque
Canadian gorge.
The tram, the cables carry¬

ing it across the 400-foot-wide
chasm, and a cabin sitting along
one
ridge were all designed and
built

expressly for the production
not an unusual under¬
taking on a feature film. But Inci¬
dent at Deception Ridge isn't a fea¬
ture film; it's a TV movie being pro¬
in progress,

duced for the USA cable network.

The elaborate stunts and compli¬
cated set pieces are just two of the

The
tram to

scene

calls for the

the gorge

cross

(actually,

Cleveland Dam) with four cast
members inside - and the bad

in hot pursuit. Hero O'Keefe,
jump
aboard, grabs hold of a rope,
swings under the tram as it pulls
away from the dock, and climbs
guys

who hasn't had time to

into the bucket.

Set

designer Doug Higgins
special effects coordinator
Gary Paller worked with Canadian
ski-lift engineers to design and
and

times O'Keefe would be in the
shade while the waters surging

below him

were in the sun,
requir¬
ing an operator who could in¬
stantly and instinctually split the

ratio.

Shifting light conditions
just one of the hurdles to
overcome
during four days of
shooting inside a moving bus on a
winding mountain road (this se¬
quence ended with the vehicle
crashing through a barrier and
plunging down the side of a cliff).

were

McPherson wanted the
move

not

to

rig

some sort

overhead

tious," concedes Geddes, "but
[director John] McPherson and I

leap, then blue-screening O'Keefe's
close-ups, but the budget wouldn't
allow for a traveling matte shot.
O'Keefe was game to do

wanted to

give the film a big screen
feel, to open it up and take advan¬
tage of the beautiful Canadian vis¬
tas and forests we were working in.
used the cranes, remote-con¬
trol cameras and skylifts usually

So

we

reserved for the feature

people. I've

his

own

stunts, and was attached to

the tram with

a

body harness. Eight

cameras were

used to record the

jump. For the close-ups, Geddes
elected to operate himself (partially

worked with all that equipment
before on TV shoots but usually,

in order to minimize the number of

because of the time and

bucket and partially because he
knew it would be a fun shot to do).

constraints, you
one or

two

have to pick just

days to

Executive

Brown agrees.

American

budgetary

it."
producer Kevin
use

"Very rarely on a TV

Cinematographer

people in the eiglrt-by-six-foot

Between the Panaflex

shoulder and the lead

on

his

hanging

down his back to counterbalance

February 1995

to

concept was

of dolly tracks on
Geddes, "but we

the seats, down the aisle in both
and to do 180-degree

McPherson

stunt double for wide shots of the

camera

and down the

the floor," says
eliminated that because John
wanted the freedom to go any¬
where in the bus - over the tops of
directions

a

up

been too restrictive.
"The original

build the tram, which had to pass
strict government safety codes.

contemplated using

only

aisle but from side to side as well.
The space was too narrow to ac¬
commodate a Steadicam and a
handheld approach would have

distinguish this
character-driven, non-stop actioner
from its small-screen competition.
"It was extremely ambi¬

elements which

26

movie

-

turns. We

began examining the
luggage racks, [because]
they looked like a built-in system
that could be used for dolly
tracks."

Key grip Dillard Brinson

designed what became known as
the "bungee-cam." He and his
built tracks down each side of
the luggage rack, with little pieces
of aluminum tubing that made
crew

them appear as if they were part of
the rack. Then, using a series of
skateboard wheels, they attached a
second set of rails, so that tubes

going both laterally and hori¬
zontally. This produced a "dollywithin-a-dolly," with the second
set of rails spanning the aisle.
were
American Cinematographer - February 1995

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