American Cinematographer - February 1984 - 54

Angeles in

1943 to work in the
field then called "nucleonics."

Having retired from
service, he had the

government

time to
help the production staff design
spare

the interiors of the Kerr-McGee
fuel factory.
"He made a tremendous

contribution," says von Brandenstein, "and although we didn't
have any pictures, he talked us
through it. He would describe it, I
would draw it and say, 'How
about this?' and he'd say,

'Well,
it does rather look like that.'
This took quite awhile; then I'd
take the drawings to Nichols and
yes,

then to Mirek. It took some time
but I think we made a very compli¬
cated process simple enough for

watching the film to
understand."
While scouting locations
in Texas the crew came across the
Dallas Communications Complex,

someone

a

sound-stage production facility

which was at that time under con¬
struction. By incorporating certain
features of the half-finished DCC

building into their designs, the
able to create an
industrial interior. The
for the set were based on

crew was

enor¬

mous

plans
a

re¬

jected proposal for a plutonium
plant found in an archive in Wash¬
ington. This was a very sketchy
document, but it gave the produc¬
tion staff a place to start.

A scenery company in
Dallas, specializing in custom cabi¬
netry, built equipment racks,

and shielded "hot boxes"
of aluminum and plexiglas. All
available steel was reserved for the
counters
out

girders, frame and stairways be¬
cause the live sounds were important.
The clanging as the
characters walk around and up
onto the second level of the set
adds authenticity. A removable
cinderblock-textured wall was

placed between the beams, allow¬
ing the camera crew complete
freedom in setting up. Since the
script called for fast pans and dol¬
lies through walkways as contami¬
nated workers are hustled to the
scrubdown room, yards of cor¬
ridor had to be built on the stage,
as well. Men in
bulky white de¬
contamination suits ran through
the corridors and their elaborate
costumes were made from scratch.
This actually saved money. Real
"moonsuits" are high-quality in¬
dustrial tools and must be put

through many tests. This makes
them extremely costly. For the
camera, they just had to look
good. The suits in Silkwood look
very much like the real thing, but
the masks were modified a bit so
the eyes of the men inside could
be seen more easily.

Miroslav Ondricek

"We used fluorescents

tested all of them. We didn't
any

Day interiors were
entirely through

lit

the windows.

to

light the interior of the factory,"
says Ondricek, "and this took sev¬
eral days. We did many tests be¬
cause it was
very important to
create the proper
atmosphere.
Dickie Quinlan, our gaffer, got
many different lights for us and we
filtration. After

we

use

made all

the tests we knew which lights
would look right.
"Inside the boxes where

people are working with the pluto¬
nium materials

we

used fluores¬

lights which were 4600
degrees Kelvin. On the set, on the
cent

stage, we
were

used fluorescents which
degrees Kelvin.

3200

"After all the

tests were

finished," Ondricek remembers,
"we made some changes in the
positions of the lighting from the
ceiling and in the corridors. I de¬
cided to use for detail, for the
close-ups, a front fluorescent light.
The key light was given by the at¬
mosphere of the factory and
where we didn't have enough light
for the main characters, we used
the front light for the faces. It was
put on the floor."

52

American

Cinematographer

February 1984
American Cinematographer - February 1984

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