American Cinematographer - March 1987 - 72

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more use of
While the

ally been used for blue-screen work.
Apogee's Erland explains,
"Color negative films consist of three
layers which are sensitive to red, green
and blue light. The medium-speed East¬
man 5247 film has very good separa¬
tion in spectral sensitivity between the
blue and green layers, which makes it a
very effective tool for blue-screen
photography.
"However, the

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emulsions tend to have more 'crosstalk'
between the blue and green emulsion
layers, or records," he continues. That's
a desirable asset in some situations.
For example, Kodak's new daylight-bal¬
anced high-speed negative film

(5297/7297) has such 'wide skirts'
(less separation in spectral sensitivity)
that it easily tolerates mixed lighting
sources. That's a great benefit when
you are using mixed available light on
location."

But, the crosstalk between
the blue and green

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records in the high
speed films can cause a "fringing"
problem when it is used for blue-screen
work. This means just what the word
implies - there's a perceptible blue
fringe around the edge of the foreground
subjects. It's not an easy problem to

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one to two stops slower than the
principal photography done on the same
stage or at the same location." That, of
course, is presuming that the principal
and effects photography are done with
the same type of emulsion. However, if
principal photography is exposed on the

5294 film, and blue-screen on the 5247
film, there typically would be a three to
four stop
to a

difference. And that adds up
totally different lighting situation.
Furthermore, if visual effects

photography is done at high
speed - some of the VistaVision cam¬
eras can operate at rates in excess of
150fps and Boss has modified a 65mm
camera to record up to 120fps - propor¬
tionally more light is needed in order to
expose latent images and stretch the
illusion.
Edlund

footage for

Edlund and others have found

the 5294 film for bluescreen photography by overexposing the
yellow layer of the emulsion. However,
for the most part, 5247 film has been
ways to use

a

recalls shooting
blue-screen composite for

Ghostbusters,

where the "marsh¬
mallow man" was filmed walking to¬
ward the camera against a blue screen.
"You can't follow focus in
this kind of a situation," he says. "You
have to cover the scene because you
want maximum depth."
It's not unusual to have to

2,000 footcandles onto

pour

a scene

like this. Edlund even cites scenes
where 12,000 and 25,000 footcandles
are needed.
This can cause problems
with miniatures. "We've actually
melted plastic models while shooting
miniatures because of the intensity of
the heat output from our lights," says
ILM's Dow.
Some serious artistic consid¬
erations also exist. "There's a dif¬
ference in the look if you are lighting

principal photography with small light¬
ing units, and are doing blue-screen
work with bigger units," says Edlund.
"It's

a

solve.

subtle difference, but it's there."
As a result of these con¬

Eastman Kodak developed a spe¬
cial-purpose film principally for bluescreen photography. This was no small
undertaking. For awhile, in late 1984
and during the first half of 1985, Wendy
cerns,

the standard emulsion for this work.

Discher, Dick Sehlin, Dick Bauer, Steve

Now, here's the rub. For most bluescreen work, sufficient depth-of-field is

Spakowsky and other film technologists
based at Kodak's Rochester headquar¬
ters worked with the engineering staff
of the Hollywood Motion Picture and
Audiovisual Products Division, going

critical in order

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shoot blue

that is

Cameramen have taken to

*

we

have to expose for the light
the screen," says Dow. "Typically,

screen, we

quite that simple.
Paralleling the recent evolution of bluescreen photography, high-speed color
negative films used for original produc¬
tion work also are gaining in popularity.
the

"Whenever

com¬

ending?
It's

with the

work for TV

March 1987

to preserve

the illusion.
American Cinematographer - March 1987

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