American Cinematographer - April 1987 - 72

Jeremy Irons in a
scene

from The

Mission.

balance. We worked at extremely
low T-stops, and used the

pyrotechnics, both on and off
camera, as source light."
This scene was actually
filmed at the two jungle locations
one week apart and later pieced
together.
Mud was an interesting
logistical problem faced by Rich¬

ardson and the crew. "We created
the mud with artificial rain, but
then we had to dolly through it,"
he said. "We had an incredible

grip, Tim Finnerty, who laid
blocks below the dolly tracks. He
even built a crane, similar to a
Tulip, which we used in the rice
paddy scene. It would have been
too expensive to bring a real crane
in. His
it

was

crane came

in

move."
the jungle

parts, so

Richardson

situation," Peterman admits.
"There were more exteriors, of
course, real exteriors on Earth,

characters, and

where

the au¬
know all of them
intimately, that's the only way to
force intimacy," he said.
A
dience

sequences,

almost

to

you want

get to

23 rd

Century Earth

Cinematographer Don Peterman,
ASC, has been bringing the
bizarre, fantastic and futuristic
to earth for many years
After making us believe in
mermaids and aliens walking

down
now.

among us

in such films

as

Splash

and Cocoon, it seems only natural
that he should have been chosen

photograph the Enterprise

crew's

return to

Earth in 1986, as

they travel backwards in time

for the few

for Outstanding Achievement in
Cinematography and an Oscar
from the Academy of Motion Pic¬

in

scenes

shot in the open

bright sunlight. There

times when his

light
reading.

register

a

American

Cinematographer

meter

were

didn't

was

a

they've never really been, as
opposed to the made-up exteriors

of Vulcan

or

place. I tried

some

to

other strange

make the film look

different as I could because of
the Story content."
Once the Enterprise crew

always
working with his lens wide open.
He was almost always at stop
T-1.4, and rarely over T-2, except
was

"It

as

Star Trek IV Views

to

easy to

In

70

two

little different

That's when he shot
of the extreme close-in shots
of faces which filled the screen.
"When you have 13 or 14 main
some

on a

heroic mission to save the whales.
For this effort Peterman was nomi¬
nated to receive the ASC Award

ture

Arts &c Sciences.

April 1987

literally hit San Francisco, Peter¬
man opted to film the city using
tight, long lenses as opposed to the
wide angle vistas of so many other
films shot in this picturesque loca¬
tion. Consequently, a more dra¬
matic use of the city and its
environs produces a more realistic
depiction of San Francisco as a
background against which the
strange tale of Star Trek IV is told.
"I tried to use long lenses in the
city because everyone's seen San
Francisco," Peterman
tried

notes.

"We

make it feel really like San
Francisco rather than a movie ver¬
sion of it. We only used pieces of
the Flatiron building and the
Transamerica Tower
I thought
that said San Francisco in a much
to

-
American Cinematographer - April 1987

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