American Cinematographer - February 1995 - 77

Defying Gravity in
the Bonneville Salt Flats
by Mary Hardesty

i

The world's

brightest
controllable
One of the last places you want to be
during a violent thunderstorm is standing
beneath a 40-foot-tall steel structure in
the middle of the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Yet that's exactly where director/cin¬

ematographer Craig Henderson found
himself this past fall when he filmed a
national Honda spot.
"Our three-day shooting sched¬
ule was extended to four because every

actually ran down
the hill, not up."
Ti
„ 0
The 42-year-

The camera at right
was not visible to

the

mam camera,

'

'

but the crane

Oregon

resi-

painted out in post.

dent, whose

com¬

old

was

mercial credits include national spots

for

Lexus, Lincoln Mercury, Bank One and
Alamo, claims to come from the old-fash¬
ioned school of cinematography. "Maybe
it's because I went to an art school that
didn't have any money, but I like to do ef¬

day a lightning, wind and rain storm
would roll in around three or four in the
afternoon and stay for about two hours,"
recalls Henderson. "But then, one of the

fects in-camera whenever possible,"
notes Henderson. "We had many talks
with the agency about how we were go¬

reasons you go [to the Salt Flats] is
the dramatic atmosphere and light."

ing to accomplish the illusion of defying
gravity."

for

In the end, the illusion was

According to Henderson, the
area's very simple look made it the ideal
location for this 30-second spot, which
features a Honda defying gravity as it
drives up and across a giant seesaw
without lowering the other arm of the
balance.
sembled

a

"We wanted a place that re¬
table's surface to shoot these

big toys on," says the former art director/
still photographer. "The agency wanted
to reduce the complexity of this spot and
keep it very simple and geometrical."
While the finished spot is dra¬
matically simple, the actual shooting pro¬
cess was quite complicated. "We had to
consider how much traction to put on the
wheels to get the car up the seesaw,"
says Henderson. "We ended up shooting
some of the footage backwards. The car

light source

created

using

and several
the

an

in-camera technique

cameras.

profile of the

One

camera

shot

while another
positioned directly

seesaw,

and crew was
behind the seesaw, hidden from the first
camera. In order to capture the same
camera

background and sky images, the
lenses, framing and film stocks

same
were

used for both cameras. This tactic pro¬
vided the necessary footage needed to

paint out the crane holding up the
seesaw's arm in postproduction. "We
shot simultaneously using the same
heights, angles, filters and f-stops," says
Henderson, who used

a

third Arriflex

to shoot

close-ups.
"This type of spot almost ne¬
cessitates having one person be the di¬
rector and cinematographer," observes
camera

IVIOBILE LIGHTING. LTD.

Nationwide:
515/673-0491 * 800/354-4448
Los

Angeles:

818/988-1791

February 1995

75
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