American Cinematographer - August 1986 - 96

ment

in

one

big shot. The Louma

is great for that: it flies over things;
it can get around corners and

make very tight moves. Because of
the child labor laws, we could only
have Hunter on the set for four
hours a day. That's not much
when you have a lot of special ef¬
fects where anything can go wrong
and cost you 45 minutes or an

hour, and we had liquid nitrogen,
steam, smoke, flashbulbs, and all
sorts of equipment going. So we
really fell into a style of shooting
long, involved masters because it
gave us freedom to use a double
for Hunter to rehearse and block
with. We'd get the shots all set,
spending two or three hours, then
send to his house for Hunter and
shoot it. It took considerable time
to

set

up,

but

our

working

pro¬

cedure allowed for that. We'd
make several takes of the complex
shots and everything would fall
into sync - the crane would do the

right thing, the boy would hit it
okay, and we'd have it. It was a
style the Louma was perfect for."

Above: Vari-Lites

strange color
patterns in the
create

Supreme
Intelligence's throne
room. Right:

The Louma also
to

advantage in

scenes

was

used

involving

the vortex which sucks victims
down into a sand pit. "It was quite
an elaborate device, driven
by a

Technicians set up
the

Supreme
Intelligence
apparatus.

gasoline truck engine," Pearl

re¬

vealed. "It was rather like the back
end of a cement mixer, only turn¬

ing the opposite way so it would
suck things down rather than push
them out. They actually built it on
a real sand pit initially, but later
moved it to the stage where we did
most

two

of the work. It would allow

people

at a

down, with
fects

the Louma) and I

have worked

gether for about three
Tobe had

never

years,

to¬

but

used the Louma

before," Pearl said. "It has the

ability to put the camera about
anyplace and we used it for some
rather elaborate long takes.
There's

a

scene

where Hunter is

going through a fence and into a
gully which leads into the space
ship. We made what appears to be
a tracking shot shooting over his
shoulder and going right through
the fence with him. We did

46

American

Cinematographer

some

big master shots inside the space
ship, which is about 85% closed
off. So little was open that it was
difficult to light, but just to work
in such

fantastic.
"It seemed to me that the

a set was

only

way to show the place off
would be in a big, elaborate move

looking this

and that, panning
winding up and

way

around and
down
it had

to be seen all in one
shot. So we used the Louma when
the boy makes his entrance to pick
him up and show off the environ¬
-

August 1986

time

a team

be dragged
of special ef¬

to

down below

to dig them
before they suffo¬
cated. There was no way to take
air down there, they just had to
out

men

right

away,

hold their breath until the

rescue

them. Not a pleasant
experience according to the peo¬
ple who were sent down, but
pretty spectacular on film. The
Louma gave us the freedom to be
at ground level with it and then
go
up over the top as the people were
team

got to

sucked down
vantage

down.

to give us a good
point looking straight
American Cinematographer - August 1986

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