American Cinematographer - December 2000 - 30

says.

"We also had

a

couple of high-

school students who occasionally swung
with us. Vincent Wren was my gaffer; he
had worked

best boy

for me on a
previous summer,
but Skeletons was the first project he'd
ever gaffed on. Bill Brady Majors was my
grip. They both worked incredibly hard,
and we had a really good time. I look
forward to working with them again."
Like the crew, the lighting pack¬
age was also small-scale, consisting of
three 1.2K Pars, two pocket Pars, a
couple of small Kino Flos and a small
number of tungsten units - "basically,
everything that can plug into a wall,"
says Barrett with a laugh. "It worked out
as a

feature I'd done the

Above: In this
frame from the

film, Will takes

a

closer look at

a

penny-token
machine, another
clue that leads
Will to believe
his son is guilty
of murder. 1.2K
Pars were aimed
into the

yellowish awning
over the patio
to provide
background
ambience. A 750watt

Zip was
placed low to the
ground and
aimed through
diffusion at Tina.
A small Kino Flo
on

Will boosted
the light

emanating from
the machine.

Right: In another
frame grab, an
overly stressed
and paranoid Will
nearly whacks his
boss. A film-look
software process
was

applied by

The Post

Group,

whose staffers
added motion
blur and

a

film

grain structure
that resembles
Kodak EXR 50D
5245 stock.

roughly the same
with different focal
the

cameras

angle using lenses
lengths; occasionally,

would be used to capture

One technique used
in several scenes consisted of locking off

opposing
one

coverage.

camera

with

a

wider lens, while

well, because
can

same

"There

uneasiness in the viewer's attitude

news

bad

don't know if

we

could have done

as

much

shooting in 19 days without that
other camera," Barrett says by telephone
from New York, where he is currently
shooting The Perfect You. "Jeff found a
way to set up that second camera for
almost every other shot. Usually by the
end of the day, our setups numbered
more

than 30."
The third

for Steadicam

Sony camera was rigged
use

at all

times, and

Powers notes that the liberal

use

of the

"The Steadicam worked best for

us

in

following Treat Williams's character into
a room," he says. "We, as viewers, are

was no

converter to the side of the camera.

toward Will

show's A-camera/Steadicam operator,
while Barrett operated the B-camera. "I

HD output

for the
points out.
"Zbigniew Twarog at Rule worked on it
night and day to attach a YEM downWhen

by presenting a still shot of
him followed by a cut to the handheld
close-up.
The small production's camera
package,
obtained
from
Rule
Broadcasting Systems in Boston,
comprised three Sony HD-700 cameras
equipped with Canon and Fujinon zoom
lenses. Jeffrey Hunt, SOC served as the

time he is."

Steadicam monitor," Barrett

using the second camera to shoot a
handheld, long-lens close-up of the same
action. This helped to create a sense of

gyrostablized rig was inspired by the POV
camera style of Roman Polanski's films.

28 December 2000

seeing things and discovering them at
the

good

we

showed up,

news

and bad

is that I
news

was

he said, I've got
The good

news.

able to convert it; the

is that it's the size of

a

Volkswagen!' When the whole thing
was flying,
it was bigger than a
Panavision

camera

with Primo lenses.

found that in HD, you
light. You want to
open up the lens as much as possible to
we

have too much

limit the format's seemingly infinite
depth of field, which screams 'video.' It
was something we were very conscious
of. We tried to stay on as long a lens as
possible. Unfortunately, the lenses we
were using seemed to be designed more

for the automatic focus of the camera,
and the lens markings weren't great. My
two assistants became a bit frustrated at

times.

Although I had been warned
against lens diffusion when shooting HD

That's not

for film transfer, there were a few times

was

when I couldn't

saying it weighed more - it
bulky but rather light, and Jeff
quickly got used to it. The camera was
moving in every scene, and we didn't
even have a dolly."
In addition to frequently manning

would

use

the

help myself, and we
lightest grades of Classic

Soft filters.

"Anticipating five days of color-

the second camera, Barrett also had to

correction gave me more freedom with
the lighting and saved us a lot of time -

help his skeletal lighting crew move and
equipment. "I had a crew of two
guys, one electrician and one grip," he

specifically in locations with fluorescents," he continues. "Usually I might
change out the fixtures with color-

set up
American Cinematographer - December 2000

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 2000
