American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 42

Said Wilson, "It is

amazing to find

how easy it is to get some move¬
ment on elevated sets. A locked-off
with

camera

people moving around

the sets all the time becomes

an

watch for."

similar to

for

twinning shots called

close association with the

a

director of

photography. "Peter
Suchistsky was the cinematogra¬
pher and he made gorgeous pic¬
tures. There were times I was trying
to not say 'Hm, I think we might
have a problem with the split line
Balsmeyer
jog-

here/ I didn't want to talk to him

box to "home" the

beautiful stuff, but once in awhile
there would be an area of lighting

Tondreau

about his

motion control
camera.

Right:

cross

Motion control

rig
ready for dollying
shot. Note sync in¬
terface to

lighting because it is

that wouldn't work in terms

of the

optical. So, I would try to find
a
way to change the split. He was a
great help in hiding things for me

camera.

from time to time."
Not all the
in the film

twinning shots

done with

locked-

were

a

done with

camera.

another way

A

a

moving

to hide the

"By integrating the crew
setups,"
Balsmeyer continues, "they were
into the motion control

able to follow the action

just

as
manual

camera

(Balsmeyer and Everett's
contribution to the film did not end
here. Once principal photography
was

sioned to

credits. The titles

Mechanical

the

camera

same camera

movement. When

the two elements
the
the

were

perfect and
split virtually seamless.
"When it got to the mo¬

tion control shots, we called on

Randy Balsmeyer and Mimi Ev¬
erett, [Balsmeyer and Everett of
New York] whose real time portable
system was just what we needed,"
Wilson continued. "We didn't want
a

huge I-beam dinosaur that would

have to be forklifted into the build¬

ing. We needed something similar
to the regular filmmaking process,
such

as

Wilson

combined,

camera move was

This

Cinematographer

December 1988

one

seen

enthusiastic

twin to the other.

the motion control

equipment in New York. It helps to
erase the
split line by going from
one

frame to the other," Wilson

adds.

Wilson gave some exam¬

motion

American

was

test that I had done after

was a

I had

5247 filmstock. The

regularly tested for registration.

a

-

focus from

their machine, which uses

controlled dolly which
produce precisely repeatable

on

ing split were both possible. "The
split screen must move according to
the camera. We did a pull focus that
was kind of neat
a
pan and pull

some

would

shot

about the motion control work from
which a moving camera and a mov¬

ed

was

were

Concepts boom arm
rig, using camera bi-pack mattes,
so that the
images are combined on
original negative.)

locked off twin shots and Eastman
camera

human

motion control shots."

camera

company
for the

camera

a very

perfect, but lifeless, look which has
previously been associated with

the

and

were using
controls. The re¬

sulting shots have

commissioned Joe Lewis at General
Lift in Los Angeles to develop a

Wilson
Panavision

the set

look, instead of the mathematically

ples of the

a

on

though they

regular track."
Balsmeyer explained the
origins of his real time system: "We

used

40

shot.

role with the

The video assist was very important

playing both sides of the scene and
they would be sent off to get a color
slash done. They were just prints
from prints with him on both sides
of the rough split. Between the two,
the editors got an idea of how the
performance was working. One
concern was print weave and jitter,
although we did use a neg.-perf.
stock to try to stabilize it more.

T-bar. Gear ratios and

a

damping were adjusted electron¬
ically, so each member of the team
had a control that felt right for the

meant that Irons could act the A

moving. Once
the camera was programmed, he
would act the B role with precisely

separate elements of Jeremy

accelerator-like control

an

frames which exhibited the main

Some

special effect, since normally the
camera

the

with

does have to locked off. A

camera.

camera was

process but so were the dai¬
lies. "We would screen rushes of

to see his

precisely repeated movement

were

motion control

to this

camera

Campana was the key
grip who controlled dolly motion

completed they were commis¬
design the opening title
sequences for Dead Ringers. These
were
replications of a series of en¬
gravings from 14th Century medi¬
cal texts, superimposed over color

off

eliminated," Wilson admitted.
The tricky part, of course,
was
trying to decide if what had
been shot was really going to work.

mounted video
marks. Carlo

The

uses

standard
dolly track.
Marvin Midwicki pulled focus
with a remote dial, using a lenson

Matthews round rail

for wiggling, so we had
it shored-up and walls built around
it. There were so many things to
easy target

Above:

high speed,

moves, at

use of the motion con¬
trol. "We used it in a shot with the
two twins

walking side-by-side and

dollying back. We add¬
things going on to
help erase the line between them.
"When you use motion
little
American Cinematographer - December 1988

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