American Cinematographer - February 1984 - 58

One of the many

conceptual sketches
prepared by Nikita
Knatz in advance of

filming the nuclear
explosions for The
Day After.

Creative Realism for The Da
George Turner

When The Day After aired over
ABC-TV last November it was

praised and damned in

no uncer¬
tain terms. It was, from one point
of view, a courageous and largely

successful attempt to

show the
public the real meaning of nuclear
war.

Others

saw

it

as a

morbid and

dangerous display which could
prove traumatic to sensitive view¬
ers. At any rate, the three hour film
was the most daring, most talked
about and most widely seen televi¬
sion production of the year.
Robert Blalack, head of
Praxis Film Works, a special ef¬
fects studio in North Hollywood,
welcomed the opportunity to con¬
tribute many of the visual effects
that would give the show much of
its impact. "It was our chance to
say something about nuclear war,
to help people conceptualize it,"
Blalack said later. "I think
some

we

did

good. I hope so."

Winner of an Academy
Award for his co-supervision of
the special effects of Star Wars,

56

American

Cinematographer

Blalack has taken on some for¬
midable jobs since the formation
of Praxis, including Wolfen, Cat

People, Altered States, and Jawsy
D. He realized that The Day After
would require a great deal of ex¬
perimentation on the part of the
effects crew because many of the
scenes

had

never

before been

at¬

tempted. Fortunately, there was
more preparation time and a larger
budget - $6,000,000 - than is
usual in television production.
In the film, two Mid¬
western cities, Kansas City and
neighboring Lawrence, Kansas, are
destroyed by nuclear missiles.
Much of the live action work

staged

was

location in that area. It
was Praxis' job to show the con¬
trails of American missiles, fired
from silos in Kansas, as seen by the
populace from such familiar sites
as a sports stadium, a hospital,
from city streets, etc.; an aerial nu¬
clear explosion above a city; a
on

number of ground
seen
from various

February 1984

explosions as
recognizable

sites; and several

scenes

showing

the after-effects of the at¬
tack
wholesale destruction of
life and property.
To create these scenes, a
-

production unit was set up at
Praxis. Organized along the lines
of a first unit production staff, its
key personnel included Chris
Deardorff as director of pho¬
tographic effects, Nancy Rushlow
as effects producer, Dan Pinkham,
cameraman, Larry Stevens, head of
design and fabrication, Chris Re¬
gan, supervisor of optical photog¬
raphy, and Mark Madel as
computer designer. Other artists
and technicians were brought in to
contribute their skills where
needed.

Although some directors
shy away from pre-production
conceptual art because they fear it
will "cramp their style," Blalack
feels it is essential to good special
effects work. Nikita Knatz, a spe¬
cialist in conceptual art, was en¬

gaged

to

make

numerous

8V2 by
American Cinematographer - February 1984

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