American Cinematographer - July 2008 - 50

A Not-So-Super Hero Putting Viewers in Harm’s Way L ike most summer spectaculars, Hancock opens with a high-octane action sequence: the Los Angeles Police Department is engaged in a high-speed chase on the 105 freeway, and Hancock arrives to save the day, causing a great deal of damage in the process. The show’s 2nd-unit director/stunt coordinator, Simon Crane, and 2nd-unit director of photography, Paul Hughen, wanted to put viewers in the middle of the action while preserving director Peter Berg’s mandate of entirely handheld camerawork. Of course, placing camera operators and assistants in cars that will be hit by other cars isn’t possible, so Hughen approached Gary Thieltges, president of Doggicam Systems, to see if the production could rig five of Doggicam’s wireless radiocontrolled Sparrow heads into five cars for a one-shot stunt spectacular. “For a stunt like this, safety is paramount,” says Hughen. “The only way to put operated cameras right in the action safely was with remotely operated units. I had worked with the Sparrow heads in a limited capacity before, but never with five heads working simultaneously.” Hughen, Crane and Thieltges began planning the sequence, which incorporated 12 cameras (including the five that would be at the heart of the action), two months before it was scheduled to be shot. “Our biggest challenge was figuring out the radio 50 July 2008 frequencies,” recalls Thieltges. “With five cameras in five different cars, we needed 10 radios that would have clear signals. With the walkie-talkies on the set, the helicopter communications, and the wireless controls of two cars in the pack — in addition to the location, which was about 100 yards from Los Angeles International Airport — finding clean frequencies took a lot of research and testing.” Doggicam Systems holds two FCC licenses on specific frequencies and has more than 100 channels to work with, from the lower ISM band of 900 MHz up to microwave channels in the 6.4 GHz range. These signals also incorporate an encryption coding (originally developed in World War II) to help protect against other frequencies stepping into a specific Sparrow Head’s range. The filmmakers used three Sparrow Head 200s and two of the new Sparrow Mini heads, all armed with Arri 235 cameras. To keep the human operators at a safe distance while maintaining a solid ¼-mile (or less) radio distance to ensure a clean signal, Thieltges outfitted a large bus with five remote stations to hold the operators, assistants and Sparrow Head technicians for each camera. The five radio towers were mounted to the top of the bus, which blended in with the dozens of vehicles featured in the scene. “It was a big challenge to work out all the frequency issues, but Gary and his team were amazing, and the sequence came off nearly flawlessly,” says Hughen. “The Doggicam System worked without a hitch.” “The cameras weren’t locked down, which helps give the sequence an immediacy and sense of danger,” notes Thieltges. “The cameras are right in the action, capturing a subjective point of view.” — Jay Holben behind the bank. The interior set and fixtures had to be up for four weeks for the pre-rig, and we were again limited to shooting at the location on weekends, so the entire rig had to stay in place while we were shooting elsewhere.” Although he’s clumsy, careless and often drunk, Hancock’s powers are on par with Superman’s: superhuman strength and speed, immunity from bullets, and the ability to fly. However, Hancock’s aerial acrobatics — performed with far less grace than the Man of Steel’s — put him closer to the ground, weaving around buildings and taking out chunks of architecture along the way. To create interactive lighting for the flying scenes, which were filmed on a greenscreen stage with Smith suspended by a wire rig, Anderson employed his RT5, a silent remote-control rig that travels on I-beam track and has controls to pan and tilt each individual light. The Hancock rig held two 20Ks on a 360-degree, 45'-long track. “The challenge was to get the fixtures to move and articulate quietly so we could actually roll sync sound on the greenscreen stage,” recalls Anderson. “We had to integrate all these sound baffles for the tractors and get the right texture of the wheels to roll on the I-beam tracks. It’s all controlled by a single joystick, so it’s a lot like playing a video game.” Because of the collateral damage caused by Hancock’s actions, Embrey convinces Hancock to turn himself in to the police, hoping that the show of remorse will improve the public’s opinion of the hero. To film Hancock’s incarceration, the production moved into an abandoned jail in Whittier, California, where they faced a daunting logistical challenge. “We weren’t able to turn on the power to the facility because it was tied into a specific state system and would set off all kinds of alarms,” explains Krattiger. “Basically, we had to power this two-story facility completely with our own fixtures. What makes that

American Cinematographer - July 2008

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