American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 44

involved

rotoscoping out the

matched holdouts for each side of
the shot where the acting double

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optical. I think the the opticals are
superb and cannot be detected the quality is excellent."
One of the best examples
of the quality is a twin shot where
one character
(Bev) is standing fac¬
ing the other one (Elliot). Bev sits
down and Elliot walks

across

frame

behind the

object the other one is
sitting on and walks off the same
side of frame he is sitting in. "We
started the shot with

a

vertical

split,"

says Wilson, "and when the
character on the left sits down, his
head is lower than the

object be¬
split
from vertical to a wedge-shaped
split that fits the back of the object
he is sitting in front of. Then, once
the split had been moved from the
vertical to the wedge-shape the oth¬
hind him

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so

we

moved the

character could walk behind it."

If it sounds

complex, it was.
Modestly enough, Wilson's

greatest concern was that his work
would be undetectable. Fhs obvi¬
ous admiration for the
perfor¬
and direction in the film
mandated that his wizardry would
never be a distraction. For the ordi¬
mances

nary

observer, it certainly is not.

More technical observers would

as

surely label the work "flawless."
His hope was that some¬
body in the audience might say:
"They really are two people. They
look the same, but I can tell the
difference!" He can be assured that

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For location information call Chris Cooke in Suffolk County at
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Stephanie Carlino in Nassau County at 516-535-4160.

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Thomas S. Gulotta, Nassau County Executive
Patrick R. Halpin, Suffolk County Executive
Martin R. Cantor, Director, Office of Economic Development

many in the audience are saying
just that.
The biggest challenge was
going to the set on any given day,
knowing the scene, but not know¬
ing specifically how Cronenberg
wanted it shot, and having to be
flexible enough to accommodate
him. "To have him say 'So, is this
going to work?' You know in your

heart there

are a

lot of variables and

things

can go wrong. It takes an
incredible amount of trust for a di¬

be assured that the tricks
will, indeed, work. That was a daily
challenge. One cannot say, 'I think
rector to

it will work.' You have to
say,

'Of

it will work.'"

A

course,
American Cinematographer - December 1988

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