American Cinematographer - January 1994 - 87

Century
scope
The ideal periscopic

relay
product,

system for miniature,

special effects, and motion
control photography.
New York City is known as the best
backlot in the world. TriStar Pictures' Cop
Gives Waitress $2 Million Tip found this
to be the truth when they shot critical
scenes

in TriBeCa

(TRIangle BElow CAnal

Street).
TriBeCa is

a

microcosm of

New York; in few other parts

of the coun¬

traffic scenes; the Empire State Building
is visible from the north; and the World
Trade Center stands high to the south.

"It's

1:1
view

for the

little corner, an out-of-the-way
in the middle of a busy city," says
Groom. But "it" didn't exist until he built
it. When it was chosen, the set's site

of film lenses on video
cameras with no loss of

on a

coverage.
Fast. f2.8,

l

T3.8.

Versatile. Adapters
available to accommodate

parking lot where New York City

try can you find a boarded-up spice ware¬

Film Commissioner Richard Brick had

most

house next door to

parked his

16- and 35mm cine

a

chic cafe next door

zipper factory next door to a Euro¬
pean coffee bar. "New York is all mixed
up. It's a juxtaposition of unlike things,"
says Bill Groom, New Yorker and produc¬
tion designer for Cop Gives Waitress $2
Million Tip. Groom supervised the build¬
ing and decoration of a coffee shop that
provides an integral setting in the film. In
fact, the cozy charm of the decor may be
a bit too realistic; the faux eatery draws
to a

for years. The lot's owner
rented the space to the film company "for
a

car

in for lunch.

stalled.

constant flow of wanna-be customers

who

Groom, whose design credits
include A

Walls

Yvonne,

techniques with breaks,

waitress. One of Yvonne's

cus¬

Manhattan. "We wanted

a sense

of the

city, but we didn't want to be on the busi¬
est, noisiest corner," he explains. The
chosen spot was perfect: western and
eastern exposures revealed the desired

N.

Hollywood, CA 91601
Fax: 818-505-9865

shop. "By building the place our¬
we could do things we couldn't
do on a practical location," says Groom.
selves,

were

framed in traditional scenic
so

that they

duction ran into scheduling problems and
needed an extra week or two, Groom

rameters of a film shoot and match the
aesthetics determined by the script.
Groom and his team scoured downtown

10713 Burbank Blvd.
Phone: 818-766-3715

precision optics

fee

to instill it with

quaint memorabilia.
The big question was where to
find a coffee shop that could fit the pa¬

Giordano:

light, to store equipment and keep it off

could be moved out to accommodate

"heart," in the form of

Ask for

Jeff

the sidewalk, and to have the physical
freedom to move around inside the cof¬

tips her with a promise: if he wins
the lottery, he'll give her half his win¬
nings. Naturally, he does win. Yvonne
uses her share to buy the coffee shop and
tomers

Adjustable back focus.
Highest professional optical
and mechanical quality.
Custom systems available.

There were several key consid¬
erations: the crew needed the ability to

League of Their Own and The
Good Son, always works from "a guiding
idea, and then things fall into place." He
likes to explore the feel of each film.
"Once I get beyond the first read, I read
again to look for specific problems." In
this film, the coffee shop represents the
local community. Bridget Fonda plays
a

cameras.

cine, video and 35mm SLR
lenses.

reasonable fee," and construction on

are always disappointed when the
security guards tell them they can't come

a

professional video and

Interchangeable adapters for

the coffee

shop began.
"It was expensive to build the
coffee shop from scratch," Groom ad¬
mits, "but it would also have been costly
to shut down an existing coffee shop for
a couple of months. We decided building
was the smart thing to do." By law, an
architect had to approve the plans in or¬
der to receive a building permit, even
though the structure was temporary, and
city law required that sprinklers be in¬

camera

taking lens alone! Permits use

corner

was a

Relay System. Field of

same as

camera

angles. Exterior walls had the

desired windows, and ceilings could be
removed for overhead lighting. If the pro¬

notes, "We weren't tied down to a spe¬
cific time when we had to be finished

shooting. We had
There

more flexibility."
another option.

The
logical "Hollywood" solution would be to
build the set on a stage, "but then we'd
sacrifice the reality of the street," says
was

Groom. "We wanted to be able to shoot

through the windows and see traffic
moving. You compromise all of that when

January 1994

Translation of Film & Video
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French * German * Italian

'Spanish * Japanese
These books enable location crews
to communicate with non-English-

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solve many problems encountered
in camera, sound, video, electronics,
editing, lighting, grip, production
and office personnel departments.
Text also covers scouting locations,
customs, weather, work terms, time,
math, numbers, and tools. All words
& phrases have pronunciation keys.
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American Cinematographer - January 1994

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 1994
