American Cinematographer - May 1986 - 84

the
like

stunt
a

robots and

costume,

wearing the robot

I sat on the escalator. I
Rob had to lead me on,

couldn't see, so
then come in and pull me off before the
escalator hit bottom,'' Turner added.

"They accomplished two shots this
the robot's shoulder, and
the other of the robot coming up over
way; one over

the horizon."

"Halfway through the film I
started to fall in love with the robots,"
recalls Richmond. "They really devel¬
own characters and per¬
formed better and better as the shoot
went on. I was impressed with the

oped their

instant. An attempt was made to re¬
write the

picture

they could use the
shot, but it wasn't possible. The robot
crew lost some sleep that day trying to
repair the 'bot for the next night's
so

shoot.

The most time-consuming
maintenance turned out to be changing
treads all the time. The original design
involved a hard plastic tread with a
thick rubber strip on each section. This
worked very well when the aluminum
chassis was tested in the shop. How¬
ever,

with the fiberglass body sections

and the upper

durability of the things. Working the
robot twelve hours a day for four
weeks, I was always afraid they would

body mechanics placed
on top, the treads got too much traction;
the maneuverability was reduced. On
carpet the robot would scarcely turn at

break down and have to be rebuilt."
The robots held up well dur¬

all. Two of the stunt robots had been
outfitted with the same tread but with

ing the weeks of shooting, and were
only taken apart once for maintenance.
There was virtually no down time.

tape strips instead of thick rubber. The
result was not as pretty, but more func¬
tional. After a few nights' shooting, a
decision was made to use the "hero"
treads whenever the robot was stopped
and the others when they were

There was, however one accident in
which a robot ran into the bottom of the
escalator. It broke its head off and
smashed one of its claws. It was quite

spectacular shot because a small ex¬
plosive pellet hit the head in the same

in the great
recalled. "It

fire at the end," Turner

was one of the robot
dummies of course, but we tied the
arms in the upright position with mono¬
filament so that they would drop when
the line melted. The head fell off slightly

too,

which gave it a very dead look."

"My favorite shot of the fire
with

a 135mm lens, close up on
the robot." Richmond said. "We shot at
60 fps, with the robot engulfed in
flames." "Flames in the daytime al¬
ways look great - they always look like
was

flames, but at night you're lighting nor¬

mally at a
The flames

2.8

something like that.
or 11; they're
really bright. So in order for them to
come out orange, you have to light at a
higher level. Otherwise the explosions
just come out white."
or

are at

5.6, 8,

Whether or not KiHbots is
remembered as a film, robot fans un¬

doubtedly will remember its robots with
fondness and picture them along with
Robbie and Gort in the annals of robot

history.

A

traveling.
"There

a

faction

to

was

watching

one

a

certain satis¬

of them caught

(Allen D. Lowell is a scup/tor and
Hollywood. )

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American Cinematographer - May 1986

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