American Cinematographer - March 1995 - 70

rectly to the editing room,
where George could look at
them quickly. Then we sent the
finished composites off our Sabre
system for their review, which
shortened the time for us to get
effect back to the edit-bay."
But reviewing digital

an

matte
on a

All

Speed, crystal Camera Motors,

Mitchell GC,

Mark II, SS and NC

Adaptable to most other cameras.

Traditionally, effects shots
are
projected on film to ensure
that they work in the large format
of a movie theater. "Actually,
part of the trick here was to see
how much

we

could avoid do¬

ing that," Kennedy says. "Our
compositing system has a stan¬
dard 19-inch screen, not all that

large, so we ended up putting our
noses

to the screen a lot." This led

to at least

one

unexpected fix-it

QuickSync 1

shot: "We had Michael Lerner

Intervalometer, Single Frame, and

coming out of a car and there was
a scratch on the
negative. We
didn't want to have to go back

Remote Controller for

Lynx Camera

Motors.

and reshoot, so we fixed it be¬
cause it was
cheaper than going
back into production. That was
classic

filming in a hurry, not get¬
ting film dailies."
Some mundane, but vi¬
tal, fixes included flopping a shot

where

Century Motor Drives
Low cost, high speed Stepping Motor
Drive Systems. For Kuper and Lynx
Motion Control

Motion

Systems.

Control

Breakout

Panel

-

auxiliary motors, encoders and I/O
Functions.

For

an actor entered
through
the wrong door, extending the
audience in front of performers,

adding a policeman on either side

Provides discrete connections for

Kuper and Lynx motion

control systems.

of a stairwell as an actress runs
off and multiplying the number
of generators charging up the ra¬
dio station. "Those are what we
call 'enhancements,'" Kennedy
states. "We did approximately 30
shots where we composited
found elements or added a
muzzle flash to a gun because the
armorer was not on set that
day,
etcetera. A good portion of the
work involved just putting more

punch into a shot or putting two
elements together to address con¬
tinuity problems that came up.
Systems

For example, we needed a wide
shot of the stage with micro¬

Stage, animation

phones, but the wide shot we had

Full feature Motion Control
8 to 32 channels.

stand and

specialty uses.

Custom Software and Electronics

Design, Production Support.

wasn't intended for that purpose
and didn't have microphones, so
we

painted microphones in. We

had two shots of Corbin Bernsen
6924 Canby Avenue #116

in the control

Reseda, California, 91335
(818)609-9620

IT
68

<*-«,

Fax (818)609-8153

r-41/ \t!\.

the windows. All the time, we

experimenting and watch¬
ing to see the learning curve as
we addressed
multiple shots us¬
ing some of these same tech¬
niques."
were

Much of ILM's work in¬

paintings for a feature film

computer screen is problem¬

atic.

C-50

continuity reasons, we had to
place digital Venetian blinds over

JJ
March 1995

booth, where for

volved

stretching the Radioland
budget by duplicating extras
(when you consider the period
wardrobe involved, that alone
saved a bundle), creating exteri¬
via matte paintings, and uti¬
lizing miniatures. "The sets were
built to the size they would ap¬
pear in the film, with the excep¬
tion of the lobby," Kennedy re¬
lates. "The lobby consisted of just
ors

the streetside wall, but we ex¬
tended the wall's height and
added green windows over each
of the three doors that the showaudience filed through. The scene
shot static but we reduced
the live-action element and
added a slight push-in. Since

was

there

were
only two scenes in the
lobby, these shots established the
scope of the radio station and
saved the production $20,000."
In the editing bay, Lucas
was
returning to the frugal days
of his independent first feature,

THX-1138. Radioland Murders

was

about

using special effects tech¬
niques not to dazzle, but to make
shots cheaper to achieve - an
almost-forgotten concept in the
wake of big-budget effects films
like Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park,
which ILM also worked. But
films like Forrest Gump and
Radioland Murders are changing
the role of effects, leading inexo¬
on

rably to
cost

a time where they will
less than other filmmaking

techniques. Soon Radioland Mur¬
ders' fix-it shots and digital set
extensions and enhancements

will be
not

commonplace we will
regard them as special effects.
so

In the

spirit of that future reality,
only three sequences can be said
to truly utilize effects: the open¬
ing and closing shots of the film;
a
slapstick, Harold Lloyd-esque
stunt on the WBN sign; and the
climax atop the radio station's
American Cinematographer - March 1995

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