American Cinematographer - December 1988 - 93

We find out what shots in the film our shots
have to match and how they have to cut in.

"Anger in flying
rig suspended in

And, of

course, to match shots our lighting
has to match the lighting of the director of

front of
screen

With

photography. We take counsel with him, get
clips of his material and brush up on the
lighting technique that he is using in the
movie

so we can

"There

match it.
are times when the

an

a

blue-

for Date

Angel.

aes¬

thetics of the film conflict with certain

parameters we must stay within when we
shoot blue screen. The basic parameters in
blue screen include the fact that you cannot
have an actor or actress wearing any blue
clothes that are the same color as the blue
screen. If they do, you wind up with trans¬
parent clothes. Other problem colors in blue

yellow (the complement of blue),
purple and of course, the deep royal blue

screen are

that we

use

difficult to

for the screen. These colors are
back into a scene. Quite

coax

often, it is not important to have them, so
the costumer can come up with a sympa¬
thetic color scheme."
In preplanning, all the nuances
of light must be considered. For instance, as
Edlund explains, it is difficult to match the

foreground and background elements if the
plate was shot in daylight and the blue
screen work is being done on stage. "Usu¬
ally stage photography is shot with tungsten
light, which has a different quality to it than
daylight. You are not using the 85 filter so
the color temperature is different. There are
ways to correct the light and balance the
color, but the negative will still have a
slightly different quality."
Another not

so

obvious consid¬

eration is the light from the blue screen
itself. "You need to be able to control the
size of the blue screen. It is difficult to deal

photographically with a wall of blue light
giving off the wavelength that your
film is most sensitive to in its blue layer. That
huge screen not only functions as a backing
for your subject, it functions as a fill light for
your set. You have to wash out that blue fill.
"You must keep in mind that the
reason you are doing a scene in blue screen
is to get a perfect exposure between the
foreground subject and the blue screen that
immediately surrounds it. You are mainly
interested in the quality of matte edge you
are going to get because the matted edge
defines how successful the final composite
will be. If you underexpose the background
then you won't get a good edge; if you
overexpose it you won't get a good edge; if
it has too much green contamination it
won't be a good matte edge. There are all
sorts of problems, but the idea is to maxi¬
that is

the blue

immediately around the
spill."
One way of controlling the blue
spill is to block off the areas of the screen
that are not necessary. Said Edlund, "We
hang black over the unused screen and
mize

area

actor and minimize the blue

minimize the amount of blue

screen

that we

Then we rely upon a garbage matte
later to give us back that matting area we
have blocked out."
Edlund's comments revealed
that the relationship between the final com¬
use.

posite and the various elements depends

a

great deal upon the film stock. Edlund
minced no words when he said, "Without
the Eastman Kodak
do

a

have

blue

screen

provided

us

Company we wouldn't
shot. Over the years they

with all kinds of technical

"You see, any simple blue screen
just a foreground and a back¬
ground involves about 15 pieces of film,
shot with

most of them black and white. Kodak's

support in the area of black and white film
has been equally impressive. With Kodak
have the ability to tweak, flash, time,

we

control gammas in separation development,
etc., which are all inter steps between the

original and the final dupe. So far we have
been able to match the quality of production
footage shot on any film...at least I should
say we haven't had any complaints."
Interestingly, the choice of cam¬
era for a blue screen shot is not nearly so
important. Edlund acknowledged that he
has done blue screen with just about every
kind of

camera

available. There are times
needs to be particularly

support including special Estar bases and

when the

special emulsions. Kodak has also developed
5295 specifically for blue screen and it is just
magnificent film. From a photographic
standpoint 5247 is still our favorite film, but
5295 is a high speed version of 47 with T
grain technology in the blue layer. So it has
superior grain and nice contrast. The quality
of the image is much like 47; 5295 is ASA

steady, though. For those shots and when
he has a choice, he generally chooses to
work with Panavision cameras. More impor¬
tant than the camera is the optical printer on
which the separations and compositing will

400 and that allows

unusual, however. Most effects houses

us

to work in lower

lighting situations. In fact, using Kodak film,
we have had no problems matching our
work to Agfa and Fuji, if someone makes
that choice for principal photography.

December 1988

camera

be done. To maximize results, Boss Film

Corp., Edlund's
built its

own

has designed and
optical printer. This is not
company,

have customized their

printers to incorpo¬
specific attributes that aid in the com¬
positing process. Many now include a
rate

motion control mechanism that allows the

American

Cinematographer

91
American Cinematographer - December 1988

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