American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 57

sity there, et cetera. We pulled a
partial density matte, which wasn't
too

difficult with the black back¬

ground, and created the desired
image.
"The stars

the

were

added at

time, which

complicated
did some minor re¬
positioning. This time around, the
edge of the elders' chair was no¬
ticed. So we softened that up a bit to
same

things, and

we

eliminate the hard lines. Then it
was

decided

needed to be

that the

more

council

'ethereal.' So

we

made two passes of the council, one
softened with Vaseline, the second
with diffusion. This way

they su¬
perimpose over each other without
losing the detail. The effect is
slightly out of focus, but sharp
enough to see. If we had just added
a
single diffusion on the optical
printer, everything would be soft.
"At this point, it was get¬
ting a little away from a straight
double exposure," chuckles Dorney. "Several alterations later, in¬
cluding a rippling matte along the
bottom to give them a more float¬
like appearance, we had our shot. It
turned out very nicely, but we had
to fight for it. None of these steps
difficult in themselves, but
when you start compounding and
are

redoing things, the opportunities
for error increase geometrically.
Our approach to this shot wasn't
very high tech - it doesn't have a
lot of computers or bells and whis¬
tles. Computers are great, but they
are
only one solution. Sometimes
the old school is more appropriate -

we

this shot

approved,
just kept growing. It was

difficult, but

we

was

made it work."

Apogee's animation work
is sprinkled generously through
Stepmother, representing lightning
arcs, electrical discharge effects in
the Klystron room, clouds and en¬
hancement of natural clouds, the

eyeball's attack ray, and more. One
particularly notable application of
animation techniques was a contin¬
uation shot of the departing space¬
ship. "When we build a model
spaceship, to some extent the size is
determined by the amount of detail
needed," explains Dykstra. "Once

Above: Effects
technician and

ship in the film is deter¬
mined by camera distance. The
scene
required the spaceship to
take off and leave earth, moving off
into the night sky and reducing to a
point of light. The size of the model
and the length of the stage gave us
our
parameters, and the stage
wasn't long enough to get the ship
down that small. The solution
to do
we

an

take

animatronic eye

supervisor Rick
Lazzerini glues
scales onto the
"worm's" eye.
Left: The

worm

early stages of
construction.

was

animation
a

still

hookup, where
photograph of the

miniature from the end of the
move,

stage
and animate the final sec¬

tion, continuing the
off to

displacement

infinity."
To

Vaseline, rubber bands, black tape.
Once the initial look

get to the stage, of course, the

size of the

up with an un¬
spaceship, Dykstra designed
"power disk," which flies in tan¬
come

usual
a

dem with, but unconnected to, the

fects shots of the film. "The

main

body of the craft. "They're
joined by a magnetic force field, or
whatever you want to imagine,"
laughs Dykstra, happy with the de¬
sign freedom that the genre allows.
"The main body rides just over the

ship
arriving and leaving required quite
a bit of work,"
says Dykstra. "We
shot at some big exterior locations,
getting live action and reactive
lighting effects, which were synced

disk. When it lands, the disk settles
first and then the ship lowers onto

with the action of the miniature

it,

collapsing into one piece. Mean¬
while, the energy and light coming
from the power disk dissipate and
'cool down.'"

The unusual craft stars in
several of the most

December 1988

complicated ef¬

ship. This way, the bright light from
the ship appears to play onto the
sand and surrounding actors. Ani¬
mation provided the stars and the
last portion of the flight. We com¬
bined four motion control passes
from Hermosa Beach with six or

American

Cinematographer

55

in
American Cinematographer - December 1988

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 1988
