American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 54

Photos

Full

courtesy Apogee

Array of Tricks for Stepmother

by David Heuring
The creative and technical

experts

of the

special effects business face a
daily paradox: the more effective
and believable their work becomes,
the more is required of them. To
audiences that become

more

so¬

phisticated and demanding daily,
last year's "slick shot" can seem
phony and obvious today A com¬
bination of creativity, technical
expertise and large R&D budgets
keep the effects houses just out of
reach of their

own

Frankenstein's

monster.

As is

52

American

common

Cinematographer

to

scientific

endeavor, advances are made a bit
a time, with
slight and subtle

at

alterations to proven techniques.
The well-publicized quantum leap
is

usually the result of

many

small

honcho

played an integral role in
development of motion control
photography. His well known work
on Star Wars
permitted the camera
to move in a precise and repeatable
the

and allowed the shutter to

steps. John Dykstra's Apogee Pro¬
ductions, in their recent work on

manner,

My Stepmother is an Alien, applied a

the

number of

This blur

new

and true effects

wrinkles

on

tried

techniques to a
funny, off-beat script and came up
with a raft of entertaining and con¬
vincing special effects.
Dykstra is no stranger to
the quantum leap. Apogee's head

December 1988

remain open

during movement of
subject, blurring the image.
or

"smear," which

occurs

normally in cinematography, elimi¬
nated the stroboscopic jerkiness of
previous single frame techniques.
As in most of

today's sophisticated
pho¬
tography played a big part in
effects shows, motion control



American Cinematographer - December 1988

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