American Cinematographer - November 1987 - 76

paratively small crew, about 25
people, but there was wonderful
teamwork. Everybody was dis¬
cussing and working together to
find the best things to do."
Ballhaus used

an

Ar¬

riflex, which is his customary
camera choice. The
compactness
of the Arri

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Mobile Optics High Speed (BNCR)

CAMERAS & ACCESSORIES
Arriflex 35 BL III
Arriflex 35 III
Arriflex 35 IIC
Arriflex 35 IIC Stunt Camera

Mitchell Geared Head
Video Assist &

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ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT

was

welcome fea¬

a

just used

there wasn't

-

one cam¬

room

for two,"

he said.
"We had several very
scenes - three-minute
takes - because the actors
needed the rhythm of long takes.
We'd just shoot these once and
then go in a little closer for cover
and move around the play¬
ers - and we moved
pretty fast.
We did some six or seven min¬

long

utes

a

Cooke Zooms
Canon

"We

ture.

day, which is quite

a
Ballhaus felt that it

lot."
was

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5 TON TRUCKS

TOWABLE GENERATORS

5609 Sunset Blvd.

candlelight
Super Speed
lenses. We actually used the can¬
dlelight in the shots, but we rein¬
forced it. We had little light bulbs
built in behind the flames so that
their light comes from the same
direction as the firelight. They
were a little
tricky to move
around. Also I filled in a little,
and sometimes when the candles
are not in the frame we had a

light bowl with one bulb in the
center
just a round, soft light
like frosted glass. This light was
-

dimmer and the color tem¬

on a

perature was only 2500K. When¬
ever we

had

warm

on

framing

Agfa 328," he revealed.

"Kodak has the

more modern,
cooler, bluish look and brilliance;

Agfa is
ish

-

more warm, yellow¬
the look for 'period.' It

worked

well that I'm

it up a little. We wanted a
yellowish, warmer feeling
from the candlelight. I used a lot
of gels for the incoming light
from the dance hall in the night

I had all kinds of colors

scenes.

coming in - red, blue, green because they were talking about
there being a mirror-ball in this
place. I had some spots built into
the mirror-ball so that the lights
that

reflections."

back into the past.
"Another

advantage to
working on a stage is that, to
some extent,
you can pre-light

erie"

for the different situations, such

collection

night or day. Therefore, the
changes were not too much. We

life,

great time."
Yet, Ballhaus admitted,

the last act of the

play is "a
nightmare from the cin¬
ematographer's point of view,
because the lights go off and the
rest takes place in candlelight.
There is but one light source, a
room! I tried to get a

little light

from the music hall which is op¬
posite the apartment, but in gen¬
eral it was not easy. I had

problems especially when the
November 1987

came

were

into the

apartment

partly the mirror-ball
Laura's

didn't work hard. In fact, we had
a

a
very soft fill I used
as light amber, to

more

doing it
again on Baja Oklahoma, where
we have a
couple of shots going
so

Hollywood, CA 90028
(213) 469-2987
74

"We shot the

ference between the

story and the flashbacks to an
earlier time. "To get the real dif¬
ference between the present and
the past, I shot the present on
Eastman Kodak 94 and the past

room,

with Zeiss

scenes

gels, such

candelabra in the middle of the

LEONETTI
CINE RENTALS

the candelabra into the
and that's all we had!

important to emphasize the dif¬

as

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gentleman caller goes to the liv¬
ing area where Laura waits. This
is a wide shot in which he brings

-

"glass menag¬
small collection of tiny

a

glass animals - required delicate,
glamorous lighting. "Her glass
so

was

the center of her

I tried to make it

as mys¬
terious and shining and wonder¬
ful as possible, especially when

she shows it to the gentleman
caller. When she shows him her
favorite piece, the unicorn, all
the colors coming from the
dance hall are shining through
the little piece of glass."
Ballhaus avoided

extremely long
lenses, working within
any

using
short
range of

or

a
32mm to 100mm. "I don't like to
use

this

short lenses in

a

story like

because

they give a
perspective of a room. We

one

wrong
tried to be faithful to the charac-
American Cinematographer - November 1987

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