American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 67

Composite of the
complicated "aftermath shot," which
follows the cli¬
mactic

was

falling

from the

away

camera,

ular trouble with it. We

thought it
going to be the aftermath shot,

and, of course, it all happens in a
few seconds, but shooting at 300 fps

was

lengthens that by

of the

a

factor of 12. He

did it five times, too. We were able
to use the shot only until he fell into
the

path of the lights illuminating

the blue

McTiernan loved

screen.

the shot and

pleading, 'Can't
few more frames?'

was

in which

we

tilt down from the top

building, which is on fire and
spewing an enormous cloud of fire
and smoke into the air, down to the
incredible chaotic mess at the bot¬
tom

of the

building, with fire-

trucks, the cops, the FBI, and

although it can look
very good - because we find that
we like 95 better.
Unfortunately,
this leaves us with quite a bit of

smouldering helicopter remains.
plus thousands of reams of
paper that were floating down out
of the sky like snow. Certain parts
of that
some of the
falling paper
and the action on the ground, for
example - were done live. DiSarro
had guys at about the 10th floor of
the building throwing off paper,
but they proved to be a problem
visually because it was so sourcy;
you could see that the paper was
coming from one area on both sides
of the building. On the other hand,

65mm 94 in the freezer."

when

we

get just a

The action

was

shot in 35mm

anamorphic and then composited
optically against a 65mm
background."
Boss Film

uses

5247 and 5295 for blue
love both

-

and 95 is

47 is

screen.

"We

magnificent film
tops for our work,"
a

Edlund said. "We've

from 5294

Eastman

gotten away

-

Stetson's model

crew

at

Boss made three models of the Fox

All this

-

we were down low, at the end
of the shot, we needed the paper
those guys were throwing, so we

into the boom shot. It's the kind of

shot that makes you say,

'Oh, God,

our necks out too
far?' One of the difficult things to

are we

sticking

line up

is patterns; if you have ob¬
jects that are broken up or organic
shapes, it becomes fairly simple.
But if there are patterns, it has to be
absolutely right or you start seeing
a
disparity, and if the pattern shifts
during a dissolve, then you've given
yourself away. In this case there was
a
point where we could dissolve off
the building and get away with it
because it was darker, but there was

problem in that there were vari¬
lights on in the building, so the
lights had to be dissolved on. We
came
up with a whole series of
'sleight of eye' techniques involving
the falling paper. Initially, we were
going to use paper falling to cover
up the transition, but it turned out
that the lineup was so good on
a

ous

the shot that

we

didn't need to do

that."

Plaza, ranging up to one about 25

shot that from

feet

high. These substituted for the
building for several key se¬
quences and, in one instance, the
larger model was combined with
the real structure by a complex

not done with electronic motion

tion of the sequence

actual

control

of the facts of life for effects

process.

around, then
"There's

always one shot
movie that is hard to get just
right," Edlund said. "It turns out

in any

to be the most difficult one,
never

know which

Sometimes it's

a

one

but you

it will be.

shot that

simple, and there'll be

some

a

Titan

crane.

It

tiltdown with

an

O'Connor head,

travelling from the top to the
grounds with all the people milling
around

we

boomed out

trees and

really gave
good look at the mess.
"The beginning of the
scene
the burning top of the
building - was a miniature, and
some

the audience

a

-

seems

then

partic¬

which

we

had to match that tiltdown,
shot wild, and then go

was

December 1988

Edlund used the evolu¬

was

equipment but was a simple

explosion.

to illustrate one
men.

"Oftentimes you

start off with a
concept and when you get into any
on a life of
and dictates what you must

given shot it takes

its
do
to fix it. It's one of the challenges I
find most interesting in effects
work. You start off with a good idea
and try to control everthing, but
somewhere along the line you have
to shift gears because of circum¬
own

stances unforseen. You have to be

American

Cinematographer

65
American Cinematographer - December 1988

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