American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 48

have to be conscious of what we're

trying to do for them, and help the
cause, not fight it."
When discussing the in¬
tricacies of a special effects-laden
show such as My Stepmother is an
Alien, Kline continually empha¬
sizes the importance of commu¬
nication, coordination and preplan¬
ning. "For Stepmother, we worked in
very close contact with the main
people at Apogee - John Dykstra,
John Swallow, and Grant McCune.
While we're filming, various mem¬
bers of their staff

come on

the set

and work with us, using their mo¬
tion control systems, shooting the
Vista Vision

eight perf system, in¬
corporating their various models.
So in order to get a continuity of
look,

have to heed to whatever

we

they request. All effects houses
work a little differently, so their re¬
quirements are very important, and
precise coordination is essential.
Going in, the planning is done by
sketch artists, myself, the director,
the production designer, and
Dykstra and his group. So we had
an
extremely close relationship
with Apogee from the beginning."
Kline's adaptability to
Apogee's special effects require¬
ments extended to the actual

effects

stage. "When we went to Apogee, I
did the

subject lighting

on

all of

John's shots. If there was a blue
screen involved, it was their re¬
sponsibility to balance the blue
Of course, any

of the pro¬
footage is my respon¬
sibility. If there are effects involved,
screen.

duction

I have to take that into considera¬

tion, in coordination with John."
On the set, Kline's adapta¬
tions for effects

Of¬

ten, he would introduce reactive

also discovered that attention to
those characteristics is also

impor¬
tant in lighting, particularly in a
precision lighting style. This also
helps prevent the actors from being
out under the lights too long - they

scrims, held her face up

and found
the light herself. A good, experi¬
enced and thoughtful actor will
know which way to turn and find
the light anyway. Henry Fonda,

which weren't

need the rest and

whom I worked with

and 'sees fireworks.'

compensate for the parallax. I've

they appreciate it.

"I think most actors

on

The Boston

tell when

Strangler and several Westerns,
would do the scene exactly as you lit

best

him, because he knew that

can

a DP is
trying to find the
light for them. I remember the
first woman I ever photographed Lillian Gish. She was an elderly
lady then, probably in her late 60s. I

46

were numerous.

lit the stand-in, and she came in,
sort of wriggled through the

to

American

Cinematographer

was

good for him. I hope actors today
take that into consideration, that's
it's not all just

speaking words. They

December 1988

lighting for objects and sources
actually present on
the set. These

were

to be added

later

by Dykstra and his effects

crew.

"In

are

in

one scene, Dan and Kim
bed, and Aykroyd looks up

duced and

Apogee

pro¬

superimposed the min¬
iaturized pyrotechnics for the
scene, but we put the reactive light¬
ing on the two of them in bed, as if
it came from the fireworks going off
above them. Again, our preplan-
American Cinematographer - December 1988

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