American Cinematographer - June 1991 - 74

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then marrying that up through
video assist.
"The pass-through has al¬

ways

been done blue

screen, so

far/' relates Dorney. "There are
other ways of doing it, and actually
there'a another show on television

^

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that does something similar
using rotoscope. The problem with
rotoscope is that to be effective, the
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shot has to be short. Otherwise you
starts to see the drawing, no matter
how good the work is. Hence we
use blue screen, which also gives

you a little more flexibility further
down the line. The audience seems
to like the effects, so we try to
stretch them to about four or five
seconds.
"We have a setup that we
over at Universal," Dorney
continues. "Quantum Leap has a

keep

stage and half allocated, and we just
have a screen that we keep hung up

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there, draped. Then we have some
screen lights -
fluorescents that Apogee came up
with - that we have stored, and

special blue

floor lighting that is shuttled
around. We can just go over there
and be up in an hour or so.
"Sometimes the director is
some

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there and sometimes he's not, but
Dean Stockwell is usually the per¬
son on the blue screen, and of
course he kind of directs himself.
I'm out there as a technical director
as much as
anything else - I keep
us all out of trouble. Michael is
sometimes there, and if not he's

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usually on the stage next door. We
bounce things off him to ensure
continuity. In my mind, the director
of photography is the one bit of
continuity all the way through the
show," Dorney opines.
Watkins takes great care in
the pass-through and other effects
scenes, knowing their importance
to the show. "I use the same camera

Call

us

for

a

demonstration

and lenses to shoot the blue screen
and the plates," reveals Watkins.
"The pass-through stuff is a real

mathematical thing, and lighting
those can be a little bit tricky. We try
to include elements which con¬

tribute to the believablility -
sound and angles, anything that

helps. We put the blue screen lights

72

STUDIO EQUIPMENT

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between 8000 and 9000 degrees
Kelvin. Then we take the 96 and we
American Cinematographer - June 1991

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