American Cinematographer - February 1989 - 56

since most of the 12-week schedule

involved

degree of water
few dry weeks,"
Ahlberg laughs, "and from then on
it was different degrees of wetness,
but we were actually in the water
for only three weeks. However, as
cinematographer and operator, I
some

work. "We had

a

had to be down in the water for

almost 12 hours

a

day while the rest

of my crew was usually able to take
turns, so I felt very heroic down
there. It wasn't that bad
in fact,
-

now

that I look back

on

it, it

was

quite fun."
After the foolhardy crew
Deepstar Six lab has dyna¬
mited the mysterious undersea
cave, the prehistoric monster
they've unwittingly unleashed at¬
tacks the lab. The script called for
of the

the monster's unwelcome presence
to be heralded by a huge deluge
that floods the station. To create the
enormous

water

pressure neces¬

actually flood the full scale
diving well set, Reinhart and me¬
chanical effects supervisor Richard
Stutsman designed a 6-foot diame¬
ter tank which was suspended ten
feet above the tank holding the set.
The tank was capable of dumping
2500 gallons of water on the actors
sary to

Above and left: Uni¬
versal's Falls Lake,

originally construct¬
ed for Jaws IV,

is the site of the
monster's demise.
Two

wave ma¬

chines and

a

75

x

and the crew!

200 foot

backdrop
complete the

"It

interesting to be
standing in water up to your neck
as that was
happening!" Ahlberg
laughs. "We shot this sequence

illusion.

was

with two cameras, so we could cap¬

drop of those 3,000 gal¬
the
cameras in plastic and build water¬
sheds around the equipment, using
pieces of wood and plexiglass to
divert the water. Fortunately
enough, none of the equipment
sustained any damage. It's always
bad to lose equipment!
"The dump only lasted 30
or 40 seconds,"
Ahlberg adds, "but
the sequence was designed to go on
ture every

lons

sets

Deepstar Six's modular
designed by John Rein¬

were

hart and constructed

on

two make¬

shift stages.
abandoned

The main stage was an
printing warehouse in
Marina del Rey, Calif., while the
secondary stage was located in a
deserted market in Santa Monica.
In addition to the

dry sets

structed at both stages,

con¬

the main

stage featured a 48-foot diameter
tank specially designed to house
the production's wet sets. B & H
Tank Company built the tank and
Reinhart

cleverly incorporated the

inside of the tank into the walls of

54

American Cinematographer

his sets, using
lines overhead to

horizontal linear
give an illusion of
depth. "Although I wanted to
make the sets look smaller
than

on

film

they
work
on," Ahlberg relates. "We needed
space in order to light the sets, so it
were

was
were

they were in person,
somewhat cramped to

very demanding. The sets
quite difficult to work on com¬

pared to normal sets, but they were
beautifully designed and looked
believable. The production de¬
signer, Reinhart, was very good.
Working on the wet sets
proved to be no picnic, especially

very

February 1989

on

film. We had to wrap

for several minutes, and all that
time the water was supposed to be

shooting in constantly, filling the
place up. Unfortunately, the best we
could accomplish was to have the
water

come

after it

was

in for half
over, we

a minute, so
had to shoot it

again from different angles. Then
we had to cut
every take up into
small

pieces."
American Cinematographer - February 1989

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 1989
