American Cinematographer - October 1968 - 95

robbers go into the bank and throw
smoke

bombs

along

the

floor.

We

wanted to give this some visual excite¬
ment, so we mounted the camera on

our roller skate platform. First you see
the bank robber's legs, and then you
see him swing back like a bowler with
a bowling ball-but, instead he has
this smoking

thing

in

his

hand

and

when he throws it down the tile floor,
the camera moves right along with the
smoking bomb. In the background you
can see the people crouching on the
floor in terror of the smoke bomb. The
mechanics were simple. When the rob¬
ber threw the bomb, the grip just ran
after it, pushing the camera along on
its roller skate dolly. It made quite an
interesting shot.

QUESTION: Did you have any trou¬
ble matching the studio footage with
that which you had shot on location?
WEXLER:
case,

Not

and

really-except

that

had

to

do

in

one

with

a

painted backing of a city skyline hung
outside

of a

police

department set.

Norman Jewison has an eagle eye for
backings which look artificial or simply
look like

backings.

This

one

was a

well-painted backing-but it was too
well-painted, too sharp. We compared
it with footage we had shot on loca¬

Fast!

tion and there was quite a difference.
When you shoot in an actual location

Super-8mm/16mm

at a stop of F/3.2 and the nearest

EKTACHROME

building you see through the window
is across

the

street several hundred

feet away, it's generally out of focus.
That might be called your photographic

ALSO B&W MODELS

frame of reference. By contrast, when
you have a window in a studio set and
what you see outside is a literal, sharp¬
ly painted, almost photographic ren¬
dering of a building, it doesn't look
as real as the fuzzy, somewhat over¬
exposed building that you get when
you shoot inferior-exterior in an actual
location. In this particular case it was
too late to get a less sharp backing,
and because of the way the set was
built it was not possible to move the
backing farther from the window. So
what I did was "burn up" the backing

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by lighting it four stops hotter than the
interior of the room.

Then

I topped

the effect off by using a fog filter over

A complete line of processors for:
* B&W NEC., POS. & REV. * EKTACHROME

the lens. You could still see the shapes

* KODACHROME* K0DAC0L0R * ANSCOCHROME

of the buildings on the backing, but

* Super-8mm * 16mm * 35mm * 70mm

they were indistinct and slightly fuzzy.

HOUSTON PHOTO PRODUCTS, INC.

The light supposedly coming from the

655 E. 20th St. Yuma, Ariz. 85364

outside sort of "bloomed" around the

Phone: (602) 782-3677

edge of the window with a flare which
Continued on Page 793

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, OCTOBER 1968

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American Cinematographer - October 1968

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