American Cinematographer - October 1968 - 55

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(LEFT) The director guides a helicopter camera plane into correct position for filming of an aerial sequence. (CENTER) A hole is dug in the beach
big enough to hold camera and operator for an extreme low-angle shot. (RIGHT) The director checks a set-up through the camera viewfinder, while
Wexler gives sign-language directions to members of his camera crew.

Steve McQueen does all of his own stunts

We got a great shot with that which lasted about 20 feet

and works very hard at it. He did aJI of his own polo play¬

-until the lens was obliterated by the sand and water

their faces.

ing, too, but because of the helmet, you couldn't see his

thrown

face. "It might as well be Smokey the Bear out there," he

full

said, afraid the audience would think he had used a dou¬

mean-he was going 75 and 80 miles an hour on the

ble-and he was right. So we made a number of hand¬

beach, doing spins and zooming in and out of the water.

out!

by his wheels.
He

loves

his dune-buggy

brutalize

equipment.

have

the

any

acting

held shots right in the midst of the action, with the horses

Faye

milling around the

Operators were sitting on the

frightened. I think his dune-buggy was in the shop for re¬

ground and standing with the cameras and one of them

pairs every night. Steve doesn't believe in faking any¬

got stepped on by a horse.

thing, and he enjoys it so much. It was part of the charac¬

ball.

Dunaway didn't

Steve drove

just

look

ter he was playing, so he and the dune-buggy went well

QUESTION: There were some rather striking "wormseye" views of the action in that sequence.

together. I soon learned that, in order for the cameras to
function properly in this sequence, it was necessary to
cover them completely with plastic-except for the lens,

WEXLER: Those scenes were made by burying an Eyemo

of course. The camera magazines were lashed down with

in the ground with a bug-eye lens on it-actually a Nikon

shock cord and cables were taped onto the batteries. It

lens about 7mm in focal length-which adopted the posi¬

was necessary to very carefully anchor the batteries and

tion of the polo ball, with players swinging mallets at it.

make sure the

We also used this camera and lens combination with a

tight. As for the cameras mounted on McQueen's dune-

brackets on

the magazines were down

chest mount made to fit onto a polo player. There was

buggy-we had to rely on him to throw the right switches

also a saddle mount, but it was used only for short violence

to turn them on, because there was no room for anyone

cuts, because it was pretty rough riding. You'd see the

else to ride with him.

side of the horse, his head and his body, with the rest of
the frame clear.

Then, as the rider closed in, another

horse would suddenly come banging right up against the

QUESTION: Can you tell me more about the camera
mounts used on the dune-buggies?

camera. It really put the audience in the saddle.
WEXLER: The grips built a metal platform extending out

QUESTION: In what unusual ways did you utilize the
telephoto lenses you mentioned earlier?

from the Ford frame up to a little table that was adjustable
for tilt, so that the lens could be zeroed in at the eye-level
of the driver. Because it was extended at the end of me¬

WEXLER: The 400mm lens was especiaJly useful in the polo

tal, any vibration made by the dune-buggy also vibrated

sequence because it focuses down to 15 feet. We were

the camera-so, it was necessary to cross-brace it just

able to focus on something very sharply at 15 feet and

Continued on Page 786

then, by throwing the focus back to something at infinity,
make the foreground ob/ect literally disappear. We used
that effect, forward

and

reverse, several times.

For

example, the opening scene of the polo sequence is a
shot of thundering horses' hooves, over-cranked for slow
motion, with heat waves shimmering through the frame.
Then, as they come toward you, the focus goes to a polo
ball which literally fills the frame, and there's a sharp
whack as the mallet drives it out of frame. It makes a
pretty good beginning for the sequence.

QUESTION: You used adaptations of that effect during
the dune-buggy sequence, too-didn't you?
WEXLER: Yes. That called for some wild shooting, with the
occupational hazards being sand and water. The grips
built special camera mounts for the front, side and back
of McQueen's dune-buggy. Then there was another dunebuggy with camera mount which we used to follow his.

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, OCTOBER 1968

Two cameras, mounted on back of dune buggy, had to be switched
on by McQueen, since there was no room for an operator in the
vehicle. Extreme vibration was minimized through the use of 9mm
wide-angle lenses.

American Cinematographer - October 1968

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