American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 58

will have in the normal white

light
painted
over with
phosphor material,
which is invisible in white light.
When the ship is lit with black
light, it glows - it becomes a light
environment. Then it is

source

itself. No detail is visible

without white
black

light. The glowing,
light piece is used to make the

matte, and a conventional white

light shot is then matted into the
window matte generated from the
glow. Another benefit of the process
is that for continuous

move

stop

motion

photography, the back¬
ground color can be altered to con¬
trol the color of the matte

smears.

The

landing and launch¬
ing of the spaceship weren't the
only sequences that involved the
combination of motion controlled
live action, animation, and minia¬
ture elements.

One

establishing
a
cloudy,
lightning-streaked sky (animation)
shot tilts down from

Above:

Doug Smith

massive radio dish (minia¬
ture) to the exterior of Aykroyd's
over a

programs a motion
controlled shot of
the eye on

laboratory, where "employees"
scurry around the wet-down park¬
ing lot, accented with lightning ef¬

the

stage at Apogee.
The process being
employed is "tempo

fects and wind machines (live
action). The distinctive GTE build¬

blue" with blue

light panels
developed for
Spaceballs. Right:
Lazzerini puts the
finishing touches
on

ing in Westlake provided the set¬
ting for this effective and
foreboding shot.
"We used the Vista Vision
format for these shots, which en¬
abled us to use Eastman 5295 nega¬

the eye.

tive," says Dykstra. "The 95 has a
much
is also

greater emulsion speed, but
a little bit less
sharp in terms

of

seven

pieces of film from the minia¬

ture shots and various animation

elements."

Apogee shot the ship ele¬
using their licensed reverse
blue phosphor process, which en¬
ables the crew to get a good, solid
ment

matte from

a

normal blue

screen

shiny object. In the
process, a shiny
object will reflect blue light. When
the matte is pulled, this reflected
blue light results in a hole in the
object. One solution to this prob¬
lem is to

56

American

rotoscope garbage mattes,

Cinematographer

problems,
Apogee team came up with the
reverse blue
process, akin to a front
light/backlight matte. The process,

grain quality. By using the larger
negative area, we were able to
match up with the live action foot¬
age quite well. The use of 95 with
the larger format allowed us a
smaller taking stop. The 95 was also
used extensively in the live action
portions of this film. Of course, its
characteristics with regard to blue
screen are
quite good; that's the
purpose of its design. One thing 1
will say, however, is that the 95 can¬
not be pushed to quite the extent

which eliminates the need for

that 5294

but this process

brings its own
elements,
which hardens the image, and dif¬
ficulties in controlling contrast
complications

-

more

and color.
To solve these

the

matte

finish,

Eastwood's

was

first used

on

a

Clint

Firefox. The subject is
painted with its conventional beau¬
ty paint, with the color and detail it

December 1988

can.

films at the
be

Kodak rates the two

speed, and 94 can
successfully pushed to 600 ASA.
same

If we rate 95 at much
or

more

than 300

320, the grain structure gets dif-
American Cinematographer - December 1988

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