American Cinematographer - November 1992 - 62

IRISH

nervous

to be that close to a

helicop¬

ter, but nothing's going to happen.
Either you do it with the right

OPTICS

equipment and the right pilot or
you don't do it at all. Bobby's a
very, very skilled ex-military pilot,
and I wouldn't fly with anybody
else."
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completely in black, is attempting
to scramble like a crab along these
black rocks at night, with the ocean
smashing alongside. It was very
tough to get a backlight to get kicks
it. We had a little boat with an
onboard generator and a 4K HMI
out in the bay. We also managed to
sneak a big Condor in with the 18K
HMI. On certain shots we couldn't
use the Musco because it was too
on

nic, which Goldblatt shot as a series
of

revolving close-ups. "It was a
very difficult to do,

and we needed a certain amount of

depth. In the end, I ran out. I had to
the zoom and there just wasn't
enough light for it."
The basic camera equip¬
ment on Consenting Adults was a
Panavision system with spherical

use

lenses. "We used the 5:1 Primo

lot, because you can hide
the zoom in the camera move. You

zoom a

can
get close or extremely wide,
and so forth. It really was a wonder¬
ful tool. I chose Panavision because
I like the viewing system of the

Platinum

camera.

light without
the meter

as

In

I

basically
and just use

can

a meter
a check."

assessing the film's

big, so we used the 18K for a big
night lamp. We also used a Titan
crane for a
big drop down, so the
camera was just skimming along
the surface of the water using the

chances to stand out among the in¬
creasing number of thrillers on the

arm."

most

Goldblatt further reported
that he was the first cameraman to
use Kodak's new and
improved
5296 stock. "It's not 96 at all; they

Pakula, for his part, hoped that his

might as well call it 2006," he said
with a chuckle. "Up until now, I've
always found that you didn't get
good blacks with the 96 unless you
printed in the low 40s. With the
improved stock, you can be at 35
and it's just fine. So in effect, it's
faster. It also seems to be slightly

market, Goldblatt contended that
the film's cleverly deceptive camera
moves should throw off even the

jaded viewer's expectations.

own enthusiasm for the material
will set it apart. "There are a lot of

thrillers, but there are also a lot of
comedies and dramas," he pointed
out. "If you believe in a story as its
beast rather than as a collage
of what worked in other films, if it
own

seems

to have

a

life of its own, then
a lot of

I don't think it matters that

others are being made. In dealing
with a picture like this, I never try
to refer back to solutions I've used
in my own thrillers,

let alone some¬
else's. Each film is a new world

better with the other Kodak

one

stocks."

to explore, and the minute you

He also found that the

5297 stock, which he used for emer¬

gencies when he ran out of expo¬
sure, "cut perfectly against the 45
[which he used for day interiors
and exteriors], at least in dailies. We

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45, and I couldn't shoot with

that. So we took the 45 off, put the
97 on, and only the most trained

film's climactic confrontation,
which takes place at a house
perched on a promontory in
Charleston, Goldblatt hauled out a
Musco light to provide moonlight.
"I kept it way back, because I don't

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quence in question was a 360 shot
of the two couples enjoying a pic¬

lower in contrast, which I like. It's
a more balanced film, and it cuts

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one
sequence on 45, but bad
weather came in. We were shooting
under tree cover and I no longer
had [T-stop] 2.8.1 had more like 1.4

nology like the Dynalens, Goldblatt
took advantage of several newer
innovations, including a new 18K
HMI light. While shooting the

like to make moonlight too blue. In
that scene, Kevin Kline, dressed

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November 1992

lose

the sense of that in yourself, if s time
to

hang up the viewfinder and do
something else."
A
American Cinematographer - November 1992

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 1992
