American Cinematographer - November 1992 - 46

Universal's New

you have to work fast and be effi¬
cient. We finished this picture on
time."

York Street
doubled for
soggy old
London.

Daley came up with a
simple but ingenious solution for
one
important piece of action. The
scene took
place at the crossroads
in the fictional Borgo Pass, a deso¬
late setting of snow-covered rocks
and dead trees. A Slovak coach ar¬
rives and drops off Harker, leaving
him alone. Harker hears wolves

howling; looking up, he spies a
huge cross upon which hangs not
Christ but

monstrous wolf man.

a

Suddenly, the black coach from
Castle Dracula arrives. The myste¬
rious driver reaches down with
what seems to be an arm ten feet

Transylvanian mountains. The
whole thing was quite tricky."
A second

camera was

uti¬

lized in some of the chase scenes,
but only sparingly elsewhere. "It's

to light a scene for two
and sometimes you spend
more time trying to figure out how
not easy
cameras,

to do it with two cameras

than it's

worth," Ballhaus said. "But there
are

times when you need them."
Another challenging se¬

quence in Dracula depicts Mina, still
under the Count's love spell,
aboard a ship to Transylvania,
where she is to marry Harker. As
the ship sails on, she destroys her

diary, casting the pages into the sea.
"We didn't have a real set for it,"
Ballhaus revealed. "There were a

couple of ropes, a railing, and some
elements of a ship. We just moved
the whole thing, had smoke and
blowing winds, lit it as though ev¬
erything was in motion, and it was
a

wonderful illusion. It looked as if

"We had

scenes

there that

began in bright daylight, then sud¬
denly changed to rain and clouds,"
Ballhaus said. "We had a big rig so
we could have plastic clouds on
ropes moving in front of the
chicken coops on top to create the
shadows of clouds

on

the set. It's

great to be able to create whatever
kind of light you want. On one set
used 60 chicken coops. Under¬
neath the coops we had a big silk to
make them seem to be only one
we

source, and also to create a
kind of hazy London atmosphere.
When you're on a real location

light

you're always restricted in a way;
either you're at the mercy of the
weather or else you have no time to
do it. You can't do

shot every
come back. It's
one

evening and then
more
interesting to create

much

your own world."
Several years ago Ballhaus
told AC about his urge to operate

you

the camera himself, as he had done

ocean

in

could feel the breeze off the
and see the ship's lights dan¬
gling. I like this kind of thing, cre¬
ating an illusion with almost noth¬
ing. Sometimes it is better than re¬
ality."
All "daylight" scenes were
played on the stages. The Esther
Williams

swimming pool on Stage

30

(Sony Studio was in MGM's
domain in the 1940s when the "Mil¬
lion Dollar Mermaid" created her
aquatic ballet sequences) was trans¬
formed into a sunken garden at

44

long and lifts Harker by the shoul¬

Mina's home.

American

Cinematographer

Europe. "My operator, David
Dunlap, does such a great job that
I don't feel the desire any more to
do it," he confessed. "We've
worked

der into the coach!
"Francis wanted
him

idea where we had Harker
board and pushed him in,"

an

on a

Ballhaus remembered. '"That's not
weird enough,' he told us. 'I want
this arm to really stretch out and get
this guy/ So Pat came up with an
idea and two hours later they were

ready with a rig, which we showed
to Francis. We had

a wide shot and
tracked in and lost the body of
the coachman. We had the seat of
the driver on a slide, and we slid it
over to meet Harker. Harker was

we

Somebody stood on
the other end and elevated him,
and Gary pulled him into the coach.
on a see-saw.

Francis smiled and said, 'That's
weird!' You have to know how to
do it, but it's simple compared to
the tricks in a movie like Termina¬
tor 2.
a

[Those effects] don't give me

kick because I know it's all

how

we can

it's closer to

shot

Pat

Daley is the key grip. They're

fast, efficient and prepared, and
they think ahead. These elements
become more and more important
because money is

November 1992

getting tight and

a

shot like that

-

reality and that makes
more
personal.

That's the difference that makes

ative artist with

ideas.

do

it more human and

you care

lot of good

com¬

puterized.' This film gives you a
kick because you really don't know

together for ten years. My
son, Florian, is my first assistant
and the gaffer is Jim Tines, a cre¬
a

some¬

thing special there and we showed

about it."
Ballhaus made extensive

use

of filters
was

on

the film.

"Every

filtered," he revealed.

"With the 96 film I used

a

1.8

ProMist; otherwise it would have
been a little contrasty. That contrast
some of the time, but most
of the time when you photograph

is nice
American Cinematographer - November 1992

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