American Cinematographer - October 1986 - 45

the constraints of time and money,
Marshall and Leonetti were "eco¬

nomically locked into a concept,"
Boyle says, "either good or bad,
that was started by Howard
Zieff."
"Most of the

ready done

al¬

decided upon be¬
the production,"

or

fore I got on
Leonetti says.

So,

sets were

only did he have

not

little prep time for the production,
but his input into set construction
and design and locations was

greatly reduced.
Boyle fully appreciated
Leonetti's difficulties. "Now Matt

bound,

was

to some extent, to

consider what had gone before. It
was almost like going on a loca¬

tion. He had

Stage
most

to go down to Fox's
where there was a set al¬
built, and assess whether he

14,

could work with what was started,
or would he require changes that

might or might not be possi¬
ble economically. It was decided
to approach the standing sets as if
they were locations."

Opposite page:
Dockside in New

-

The

sets

York. Terry
(Goldberg) and man
with a gun (Jordan

and locations for

this
a

comedy-adventure, involving
computer terminal operator in a

New York bank who

rescues

Krabbe) rendezvous.
Above:
room

a

Kane at left,

British intelligence agent from be¬
hind the Eastern Bloc, is set in
New York.
DeBont had shot some
location exteriors and other

footage in the

Goldberg, center,
Stephen Collins,
right. Below:
Goldberg in a pickle.
and

It's all in

problem held

over

from the

pre¬

vious

production concept was
solved by toning down the colors
used to paint the set walls.
"Bobby (Robert Boyle)
and I seemed

to

have the

same

"The film stock is
sitive

so sen¬

light; it reflects too much
and makes scenes too bright. It ac¬
tually changes color. For example,
the computer room set, which
takes up 25 pages of the picture, is
a light tan. On film, it'll show al¬
most an off-white. The way the
to

way to cut off all the light
the walls, so there was some
unwanted reflectivity.
With the prep time that
on

was

available,

shown

tests were run

and

the Eastman people.
"1 had them look at the
set on the sound stage, then
showed them a reel of film of the
to

film reacts to that color doesn't
show its true color," Leonetti

"There were a few sets that
toned down. These sets

were

says.

man's

were

He then explains that he
lit the set with bleached muslin
over the top to give an ambient

difference between the set in 'real'
life and the set on the film 'reel'
was that the film was so fast, going

as

far

as

white; and, with the new 5294
film we used, it's very difficult to
use light colored walls.

sound

was no

color balance and
colors of the sets," Leonetti says.
ideas,

a

stage tank.

1:85 aspect
ratio, but Marshall and Leonetti
super

decided that since the picture was
going to be released in regular
1:85, they would abandon the
super 1:85. The earlier footage
shot in the super 1:85 format
would be optically reduced and in¬
tercut with the regular 1:85.
The only other major

Computer

with Carol

daylight feeling
October 1986

to

the

set.

set,

explaining how it was lit. East¬
explanation for the color

There

American

Cinematographer

43
American Cinematographer - October 1986

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 1986
