American Cinematographer - September 1992 - 72

screen

work even before the start of

production."
Horn's

This approach continued
departure from his earliest

work, which he

now

dismisses

as

the efforts of an overcautious new¬
comer. His reflections on his
progress represent solid advice for
any beginning cameraman. "Up till
the time I did The Howling, I tried to
be really conservative, because I'd
done a lot of flashy commercials
with snappy camera moves and
trick stuff and I didn't want to look

like

a

'commercial cameraman.' I

always tried to restrain myself and
not do something obvious, and as
a result the films were
really dull"
he laughed. "Starting with The
Howling, I decided to put every¬
thing I could into every shot. Before
we'd roll I'd ask myself, 'Is there
anything I can add? Can I add a
piece of camera movement, or a
Above: The
camera crew

follows

one

of

the Shalikar
twins (Adam) as
he romps toward
the miniature
wall setup

in
Valley.
Right: Footage of
Simi

this real wall
was combined
with the
miniature setup
to produce

the

illusion of the

giant child
interrupting a
birthday party.

a half-scale set; an aperture of f/4
would be reduced by two stops.
The math would be considerably

complex on a 43-percent-scale
set, however, which is where the
more

computer program would come in
handy. "We tried to use different
scales and different frame rates,"
Hora explained. "We did a lot of

testing to see if the kid looked like
he was giant at 60 frames per sec¬
ond or 48 frames. For different
kinds of action, we would vary the
camera

speed according to his scale

and the scene at hand. When we
used the giant baby feet and pant

legs in Las Vegas,

we

figured out

that the motion looked like the kid
did at 100 fps."
The film's array of trick

visuals, he reported, required

nearly every scene to be
storyboarded in minute detail.
"The stack was yea high," Hora
said, holding a hand up at chest
level. "Without preplanning ses¬
sions,

a

film like this would be ut¬

terly impossible. When you're do¬
ing an effects movie, it's good to
constantly change your methodol¬
ogy so you don't just do a bunch of
blue

screen

shots. Otherwise,

people start to catch

on

that it has

odd look or fringe. So some of
this film is done with trick perspec¬

an

70

American

Cinematographer

tive, some of it with straight minia¬
tures, some of it with rear projec¬

lighting gimmick? Can I do any¬
thing with my lens?' And by doing

of it with blue

that, the films turned out to be vi¬

change from shot to
shot so you don't have three blue
screens in a row, which might allow

sually interesting. So I discovered
that the one thing to remember is to
never sit down. You just have to
make yourself get up and bring
something to every shot you can -
until, of course, you fall over."

tions and
screens.

some

You

the audience to think 'That looks

funny.' And the only way you can
keep track of what you're doing
and when is by thoroughly work¬
ing out the sequences and
storyboards. Because you might
wind up in the situation we're in-
doing all of the rear projection at the
end of the film, when the plates are

done, after doing some of the blue

September 1992

On that note, Hora exhib¬
ited a sly comic timing by excusing
himself to check out

a

lighting

setup. After a moment or two, he
returned and

explained how his
philosophy applied to his latest as¬
signment. "This film is what I call
American Cinematographer - September 1992

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