American Cinematographer - December 1986 - 62

making the

Above: Technicians

water,

lower whale into

effect and balance
achieve."

tank. Below: Half

a

perfectly seaworthy

lighting
quick to

proper

Two

days of pre-rigging
including the plac¬
ing of a 300-foot cyclorama back¬
ground inside the tank. The eye
had to be hung and stretched un¬
derwater along a long, curved wall
covering about three-fourths of

cetacean.

were

necessary,

the diameter of the tank. The eye
was set

Tom

up

with the aid of key grip

Jones and his best boy, Rick

White.
"The blacking out of the
placement of the ioKs,
placement and rigging of the un¬
derwater lighting units, and the in| troduction of the whale and its
room,

a

movement and functions
all this
was' done in two days' prep time,"
-

Cooperman observed. "Now we
were
ready for the day when
Leonard came in to be pho¬
tographed as he 'mind-melded'
with the whale. After Leonard's
scenes

were

maining time

completed, the re¬
was spent getting

various shots of the whale in mo¬
tion and scenes where we used
camera

^

manipulation

to create ap-

of the whale

parent movement

| when there wasn't any."

As always when underwaaction is being filmed, safety
was a matter of primary importance. "Careful, detailed records

■j- ter
o

^

were

kept of

| entered the
a

concrete

them."
The other sequence
which was shot in the huge, 30feet deep NASA tank was another
matter. There was certainly no
lack of elbow room. Although the
tank is indoors, it was necessary to
black out the room because of nu¬
merous

skylights. The forward

one-third of a whale was con¬
structed especially for underwater
use and operated mechanically by
several special effects men.
"Mike Lantieri took over
the Paramount prop shop and
built both the surface whales and
the whale I used under water,"

with

try so they could shine straight
down on the whale. We could use
all of them at once or turn certain

on

ioKs with double CTO gels on
them. We put them on a cross gan¬

ones

off,

so we

could also

create

the effect of the sun flaring as we
shot up at the whale. I was able to
control side and frontal lighting
via two multi-unit light rigs. Each
unit consisted of eight 1000W un¬
derwater quartz lights. This rig is

something 1 built for deep ocean
work to control position and
movement of lighting sources. In
front of the lights I placed plastic
diffusion material.

With

this

method, lights can be moved in
out

American

Cinematographer

number of dives,

ten

credit that all of them functioned
start.

time of exit,

individual who
time entered,

length of intervals - by the studio
first aid person, who was also a
registered paramedic. In addition,

area

Cooperman remarked. "It's to his

properly right from the
60

"We backlit the

walls that contained

every

water:

and up or down rapidly
with a minimum of people in

December 1986

or

and
the

Mike Nomad
many

who has worked

theatrical films and

mercials with
our

-

me

-

com¬

functioned

as

safety diver."
Cooperman added

an

terthought: "With all the

af¬
re¬

strictions we were faced with in
the surface tank at Paramount, we
learned that two weeks after we
finished the studio was given the
to make a larger and
deeper pit!" He shook his head,
grinning at the irony. "But, you
money

know, sometimes 1 think that
shooting under restrictive and ad¬
conditions often leads to
and exciting methods and re¬
sults."
A

verse

new
American Cinematographer - December 1986

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