American Cinematographer - October 2008 - 12

Right: For the Poltergeist spot, cinematographer Dan Mindel (in foreground) had to mimic Matthew Leonetti, ASC’s work from the original film. Below: Cinematographer Mark Plummer (at camera) lines up the action for the Terminator 2: Judgment Day commercial. Plummer’s footage was then intercut with footage from the feature shot by Adam Greenberg, ASC. meticulously re-created for the spot by production designer Tom Wilkins. “There were very minimal options for lighting it,” says Mindel. He and gaffer Chris Prampin used various tungsten lamps gelled with 1⁄4 CTB and 129 Heavy Frost to match the pools of light in their reference photos, and outside the bedroom window, they placed a 5K behind 1⁄2 CTB and a 12'x12' silk to stand in for moonlight. For fill, they bounced a camera-side Nine-light MiniBrute (with four globes illuminated) into a 12'x12' Ultra Bounce. In reality, Mindel’s approach to the set was markedly different from Leonetti’s. Whereas Mindel employed heavy diffusion, Leonetti lit the original with hard light. “Except for the fill light, we didn’t use any soft lights,” recalls Leonetti. “It was pretty contrasty, which lent a certain harshness to the image. It’s easier to light with hard light — you can cut [the light] a lot more sharply. If you want a harsh line, you need hard light; soft light will bleed around the cutter.” For Mindel, the hardest thing to replicate was the eerie strobing effect that supposedly emanates from the TV ahead of a flurry of supernatural activity. Working with a strobe light, “it was a bit of a crapshoot to know if the flashes were reading on film,” he recalls. “When you can see a flash through a reflex viewfinder, you’re not recording it to film, and when you can’t see it, you are. So we shot a lot of film just to make sure we got it. “When we watched the original film, the strobes didn’t seem as dominant,” continues Mindel. “But when we got to the set, we saw how pervasive the flash from the TV was — it actually filled the set. We had to just match by eye the intensity of the flashes in the movie with the flashing on set.” It turns out Leonetti’s solution was exactly the same. “There was no way to crystal-sync it or not to crystal-sync it,” says Leonetti. “The effect was done with strobe lights that we rented. We turned them on at different speeds; the effect is similar to what you’d see if you went to a rock show or a club.” Lighting isn’t the only factor separating the old from the new. Whereas Leonetti shot Poltergeist with anamorphic lenses, Mindel shot the related spot spherically; and whereas Leonetti used a 100 ASA stock (the fastest available at the time), Mindel shot with Kodak Vision2 500T 5218. But no matter how disparate their methods, Mindel’s work dovetails neatly with Leonetti’s on the screen, something Mindel credits to both the target display medium and modern post capabilities. “The thing about shooting commercials as opposed to shooting movies is you’re shooting for a much smaller screen, so you can get away with more indiscretions,” he notes. “And [in post], we had a massive amount of control when it came time to match the footage.” The “Fourth Wall” campaign also pays homage to Terminator 2: Judgment Day, shot by Adam Greenberg, ASC (AC July ’91). For the T2 spot, Joiner and cinematographer Mark Plummer needed to insert their shots into the scene in which the murderous T-1000 (Robert Patrick) crashes a motorcycle into a helicopter circling the Cyberdyne office building. As the helicopter spins out of control, the liquid-metal monster “pours” itself through a crack in the windshield and forces the pilot out. Capturing his footage in Super 35mm, just as Greenberg did, Plummer notes, “Erich likes to shoot a little bit wider than you would necessarily want to for the shot you’re doing to make sure that people can see you’ve really recreated the scene.” Joiner adds, “Techni- 12 October 2008

American Cinematographer - October 2008

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