American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 38

SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL.
If

you're in the business of creating
images, you know that filters can help solve the technical
problems that stand between you and perfection. You can control
glare, eliminate clipped skies and burned out foregrounds. Alter
the mood of the scene, subtly or radically.

^hhhhhhb

beautiful

BUT FILTERS CAN BE A NUISANCE.

Every camera/lens combina¬

different filter mounting arrangement and different
filter sizes. You'd need a trunk full of filters and rings to cover every
tion needs

a

situation, and there's too much fussing and fiddling.

"Then
ment of Keaton

THE GEOCAM 4x4
UNIVERSAL PRODUCTION
MATTE BOX MAKES IT
SIMPLE TO USE

ment. So we
out and

dissolve his real head

bring in the spinning head

which is

running as an ele¬
body, and at the end
of the shot we quickly dissolve it out
as he
grabs his head to stop it. The
now

ment on his old

a

shot with

head

spins and he grabs it to stop it

in

seamless fashion."

a

A somewhat similar tech¬

nique

was

used to show Keaton's

couch that had

You

one

set of

matte

box,

filters for all your

jobs.

can use one

BEAUTIFUL.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT ROGER SALLES AT GEOCAM CORP., RO. BOX 704,

ORANGE, NJ 07050. TELEPHONE: 201-672-2223. DEALER AND OEM INQUIRIES WELCOME.

contin¬

motion where he turns, his

It adjusts to fit most ENG, EFP or
16mm cameras. No special brack¬

use.

one

uous

head

required. It provides unsur¬
passed control of filter position
and the filter holders are a joy to

standing and mat¬

portion of the shot, using his head
whip to bring in the spinning ele¬

PROFESSIONAL FILTERS.

ets

took the ele¬

ted out his head in the middle

end result is

NOT ANY MORE.

we

film.

shrinking at the end of the
It was achieved by
building a
a

fixed, headless

upper body puppet of Betelguese.
As Munro recalls, "We had an actor

pushed through the couch to give
some
leg and arm movement and
positioned it in the set, so we had a
shot that was like any other produc¬
tion shot, with background and
other characters, the only differ¬
ence
being that there was a charac¬
ter in it

without

a

head. We then

took that

piece, went to the blue
at a match
point. We then zoomed back with
scene

the

and lined it up

camera

to achieve

the head

shrink.
"It was a little tricky to set
because zoom lenses don't
zoom in a
perfectly linear fashion
except in one sweet spot in the lens.
We had to find that one spot so his
head wouldn't be moving up and
down during the shot. We knew

up

that

we

wanted his head to shrink

the axis

on the base of his neck
that it wouldn't bob up and
down. We didn't want to reposition
on
so

the head in every frame, for obvious
The magical mathematical

reasons.

formula that

we

used

was

to screw

around with it for several hours the

night before to find the right spot."
All the magical mathema¬
tics in Beetlejuice work to perfec¬
tion, as the continuing popularity
of the film testifies.

(The

author

sculptor/puppeteer

was

a

the produc¬
tion, and therefore was privy to
61 years

of quality lighting-Designers and manufacturers of specialized lighting
equipment for the motion picture, television and professional photographic industries.
937 North Sycamore Avenue, Hollywood, California 90038-2384, U.S.A.
TWX 910 321-4615; cable MORINC, Hollywood; FAX (213) 851-5593
telephone (213) 851-0111

on

close observation of the special ef¬
fects and their creation for Beetle-

juice.)

A
American Cinematographer - December 1988

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