American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 76

1. Live action back¬

ground for scene of
Phil in observation
tank. 2.

Flying rig

and blue

screen

set-up for photo¬

graphing live ac¬
tion alien. 3. The
"Tron

glow" was
opticals.

added in

4. The final

composite.

4.

3.

actors and actresses are

suspended

from wires in front of

a

blue

screen."
The

non-flying scenes
were not necessarily blue screen. In
shots where the alien must interact
with other characters
his cot, ILM
factor.

or just lay on
merely added the glow

Once the
the alien look

technique for

well established,
the ILM team turned attention to
was

other

problems, and in the process
a
startling new precedent was set.
Farrar explains: "Originally, be¬
cause

of time restrictions

on

Brian

Dennehy, his character could not be
written into the script. The pro¬
ducers

were

continually being

asked if

Dennehy would be in the
film and they had to say no. But the

Zanucks continued to think about it
and

they knew that it would be
appealing to have him in the film.
So finally they said to me, 'How can
we fit him in?' Or more specifically,
'Can

we

shoot him blue

screen

and

put him in this film even though he
can't be there for the original photo¬
graphy in Florida?' We talked about
it

-

and believe it

what

74

we

American

or

did.

Cinematographer

not

-

that's

"Through a complicated
series of photographic set-ups
when he appears on the Manta at
the end of the film and speaks to
everyone, he is blue-screened into
everyone of those shots. He was
photographed after the fact in Los
Angeles as the other players we
photographed on the boat in Flori¬
da were reacting to someone who
wasn't there. It's a nasty precedent
to have set

-

now

the actors don't

necessarily have to show up to be in
the movie," sighed Farrar.
The blue screen technique
is normally used to insert a group
of people into a miniature set or
maybe a painting. Of course, it is
also used to fly spaceships through
the black depths of the universe or
the blue skies of Los Angeles. Rare¬
ly, if ever, has it been used to insert
an actor in among other actors. To
accomplish this bit of sleight-ofhand
required precise pre¬
planning.
"Dan Petrie,

the director,

and I had to sit and down and go
over and over the sequence," Farrar
recalled. "We had a storyboard ar¬
tist draw the sequence exactly as
would be done - shot for shot

December 1988

it
-

including over whose shoulder
we'd be shooting, what wide angle
we'd
turn

here, who should make

use

or move

here

so we

the next shot.

to

a

could cut

Once it

was

mapped we couldn't forget any¬
thing when we shot Brian. We had
no

choices

once we

left Florida."

Farrar also
use

of

a

second

shot the blue

sound. We
camera
era

-

screen

blimped

we

call it

because it is

normal

reported the

new camera.

our

our

"We

with sync

VistaFlex

stage cam¬

capable of shooting

stage sync sound photogra¬

phy just like a Panavision camera,
only it is shooting on VistaVision
film. This camera was developed
for Roger Rabbit."
the

"In

end

when

Dennehy arrives, he comes in a
light form - a comet with a tail be¬
hind that

comes

down to the

boat,"

said Farrar. "Then he transforms
into the Brian that
to. A little later

we are

lot of the

all used

people on
the boat reverse that process and
change into comets that ascend to
the mothership. There's one shot
where the people start to glow and
change and all the cocoons glow
and pop to comets and everyone
a
American Cinematographer - December 1988

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