American Cinematographer - October 1968 - 26

itself was mounted on a high-hat. Another of the cameras

and reflections. It works fine when you have only windows

was concealed in the back of a truck, with just a small

to contend with, but when a character suddenly walks out

aperture for the lens to stick out. The third one, equipped

the door, you're dead. To get around this we made a sort

with a zoom lens, was located in a doorway across the

of plexiglass "tent" out of

street. With that camera we were able to get the move¬

allowed the actor to take two or three steps out into the

ment of cars and people walking close to the camera in

street, then turn right or left. This worked very well be¬

the

cause the big sheets of plexiglass were rigid enough not

foreground

and,

as the

robbers came

out

of the

bank, the operator was able to tighten the composition

Y4-inch filter material, which

to be affected by wind or buckling.

with his zoom-thus maintaining the feeling of the street,

QUESTION: What types of lighting arrangements did
you use inside the bank?

while concentrating interest on the action.

QUESTION: What were some of your problems in film¬
ing the interior sequences which you shot on location
in Boston?
* I'L* '

WEXLER: We had one very wide shot in the bank where
we burned about 20 1 OK's and two arcs. We had to try
to keep the arc lights down to a minimum because of the
smoke and possible fire hazard. For more intimate shots

we also used some Mighty-Moles and ColorTran QuartzQueens. Usually we balanced the color temperature with

iltj sliiitk

our gelatin and plexiglass filters. There were a few scenes,
however, in which we had to go to a daylight balance,
using dichroic and blue filters over the lamps. This, of
course, cut down the light somewhat, but we filled in with
some blue #2 photofioods, and it worked out pretty well.

QUESTION: Did you use your "umbrella" light very
much on location?
m

WEXLER: Yes, we used it a lot, especially for closeups of
women-Faye Dunaway, in particular. Although the um¬

in*

brella light is a soft-light, when you set it around to the
back or side quite a bit, it can pass for late afternoon or
even night lighting.

QUESTION: What do you feel are the special advan¬
tages of the umbrella light?
WEXLER: Well, there are a number of soft-lights on the
market and all of them fulfill a certain purpose. ColorTran
has a soft-light, which is a quartz lamp bounced off of a
white reflector, and Mole-Richardson has similar units. The
umbrella

light produces

essentially

the

same

effect.

Its

main advantage is that it is very light-weight, and it's pos¬
sible to sort of tack it up in the corner of a room or even
mount it straight over the top of a set rather quickly, and
get a believable source of light. I think it may be a bit
"rounder" in its light characteristics than most soft-lights,
just because of the way the light is bounced around on a
Wexler adjusts Eyemo camera mounted on chest harness of polo player
for filming one of the many exciting shots for the polo sequence.
Interesting use was made of extremely long telephoto and ultra wideangle "bug-eye" lenses to heighten the visual excitement of this
sequence.

curved surface.

QUESTION: How flexible is the umbrella light for use
under a variety of conditions?
WEXLER:

Well,

as you know, there

are

four

miniature

WEXLER: We had one sequence which required that we

quartz lamps reflecting off the inside of the umbrella. We

shoot for a couple of days in a huge office area inside

ordinarily use 1000-watt lamps, but these can be changed

one of the buildings. Half the wall was composed of win¬

dows and, of course, it's a terrible problem to match in¬

that

terior and exterior light for color temperature under such

bounced, are the correct color temperature for daylight

conditions.

use.

The

method

mounting

gelatins

over

the

accommodate other waftages.
can

snapped

into

the

Also,

umbrella

have lamps
which,

when

We sometimes use it as we would a soft reflector

windows is never quite satisfactory because they are in¬

outdoors. It's easier on the actors' eyes than a reflector or

clined to crinkle and catch the lights. Also, you sometimes

an arc. However, it's basically only good when used this

have to change them pretty often as the light changes.

way for closeups and tight medium shots. It doesn't punch

So I worked it out with the grip in advance to have

through enough to be used on longer shots.

Va -

inch thick plexiglass 85 and neutral density filters made
the same size as the glass, so that we could snap them
into the window frames. This facilitated changing as the
light changed and solved the problems caused by crinkles

742

QUESTION: I noticed that you used it, along with other
soft-lights, on the sound stage at the Goldwyn Studios
when you returned from location.

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, OCTOBER 1968

American Cinematographer - October 1968

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 1968