American Cinematographer - April 1985 - 132

of the way, so

^

only the matte box was
damaged. It was enough drama for one
day. With one good take in the can, we
wrapped, and summoned the Panavision repair man from California. The
dailies for our "shot'' drew a packed
house and applause from the crew.
It rained all that night, and
into the next day. The Skycam would
not work if any of the sensitive elec¬
tronics got wet. On subsequent shoots
we discovered light rain is not a
prob¬

/A

HilffMh wVWwi

lem;

wimm

on

rential

this shoot

downpours

we

discovered,

tor¬

different story.
After a while, it was apparent that the
rain was determined to stay. I decided
to risk the gear and try to fly
anyway.
Trenches were dug around the winches
and console to keep them from floating
away, and everything was covered in¬
layers of plastic and gaffer's tape. The
camera was kept under an umbrella
are a

between takes, and most of the

By Leading Masters of Film Wizardry

crew

stayed indoors. We started to shoot, but
the rain caused a frustrating series of
delays, as first one piece of equipment,

25 CHAPTERS

then another, would fall victim
weather.

to

the

RARE PHOTOS

Finally the rain stopped, and
magic, everything began to work
beautifully again. We were able to lay

300 PAGES

exciting than the last, but then got bad

like

down several
news
now

more

shots, each

more

from the lab. The camera had
also succumbed. It's electronic

speed control circuitry was intermittent.
None of this last footage was usable.
There was talk of a reshoot,
but for now the production had to move
on. I was terribly disappointed but at
least we had managed the first crucial

Special chapters written by
L.B. Abbott, ASC * Howard
Art Cruickshank, ASC * Lin wood

Edlund, ASC

*

A. Anderson, ASC
G. Dunn, ASC * Richard

George E. Turner * Frank Van der Veer, ASC
* Joseph Westheimer, ASC

Harold E. Wellman, ASC

r

1

Please send

copies of The ASC Treasury of Visual
Effects @ $29.95 each. (Payment with order)

$5 per copy foreign.
Calif, residents add $1.95
state tax.

finally get his chance with the machine.
Deschanel was shooting an¬
Hal

Address

Add $2.50 postage and
handling per copy USA;

camera needed emergency repair. If it
could be done in time, Caleb would

other baseball film. First The Natural,
and now, Slugger's Wife, directed by

Name

City

shot. As it turned out, the production
decided against another try.
Caleb Deschanel wanted us
in Atlanta as soon as possible. The gear
had to be dried out, and the Panavision

State

Zip

big sweeping shots during crowd

pinemarographer
P.0. Box 2230, Hollywood,

Ashby. The location this time

was a

stadium in Atlanta. Caleb and Hal
wanted to use the Skycam for several

CA 90078

scenes

with thousands of extras laid on for the
weekend. We had arrived two days be¬
fore, set up in one and spent the other

repairing damage left
Birdy shoot.

over

from the
American Cinematographer - April 1985

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