American Cinematographer - June 1995 - 42

the command module through a
small tunnel. "No matter what

tried,

we

we

couldn't make them

look like they were swimming in
air through this connecting tun¬

nel," he says. "It was an essential
part of the action. Then someone
remembered that NASA has

an

airplane they use for testing
weightlessness and for training
people in weightless situations."
The plane, which had no
seats, just an open bay, would
climb 30,000 feet to the top of a
parabola and then dive, creating a
23-second interval of weightless¬
Howard, Hanks, Paxton,
Sinise, Bacon and executive pro¬
ness.

ducer Todd Hallowell attended a
NASA space camp in Houston,

the KC 135 airline,
through 40 parabolas in
one
morning. They learned what
it felt like to be weightless, how
went up on

and flew

to move,

handle

and how to catch and

floating objects.
The team asked NASA if

there

any way they could
build part of the set - the tunnel,
and maybe also a small part of
the

was

the airplane,
so as to film
parts of the scene in
real weightlessness. NASA,
which normally only makes the
plane available to contractors
testing equipment and to re¬
search projects, agreed.
"As we were breaking
down the sequences, Ron was
selecting scenes to shoot on the
plane. He kept adding bits and
pieces," Cundey says. "We built
a

capsule

-

on

scaled-down set, and everyone

surprised that a pretty good
piece of it fit on the plane. I
was

don't think actors have

been filmed in

a

ever

weightless

vironment before. There

en¬

was

nothing to refer to. We impro¬
vised."

Cundey pre-lit the set
during a weekend. The plan was
to shoot film of actors
a

ing on dramatic scenes at the stu¬
dio. Cundey delegated the sec¬
ond-unit work to David Knoll,
who had shot the aerial footage

in

44

Jurassic Park and had also

American

Cinematographer

Cundey on a num¬
ber of other films.
In the end, Howard de¬
cided to spend several days in

them. It didn't take long to learn
that you didn't want to land on
some

part of the set that was go¬

ing to

cause you pain."
This unusual soundstage

Houston with the second-unit
crew.

"He felt he could

get some

good performance moments by
working with the actors in a
weightless environment," Cundey
says. "Todd (Hallowell) and I
were
shooting other scenes in Los
Angeles, and I would go to dai¬
lies in the morning and look at
Ron's film, and then I'd phone
him and make suggestions. They
spent about ten days in Houston
and

came

back with incredible

footage. Ron appealed to man¬
agement at Universal Studios to
give us time to shoot more foot¬
age in that weightless environ¬
ment. He wanted to build part of
the lunar module and other sets
for shooting on the plane." When

principal photography wrapped,
Howard and the weightless-unit
crew

and the actors in the astro¬

required innovative adaptations
of other filmmaking technologies
the video tap, for example. The
more traditional
capsule sets

-

benefitted
new

run

for

over

more scenes.

"The footage is amaz¬
ing," says Cundey. "The way ob¬
jects move in a weightless envi¬
ronment with multi-axis rota¬

tions is

incomparable. You can't
duplicate that feeling of reality in
any other way. I think it's a ma¬
jor factor in creating an illusion
which makes the audience tem¬

porarily forget they aren't watch¬
ing real people floating around in
a
tiny capsule in deep space."
The weightlessness makes

as

well. "We used the

Panavision color video assist

throughout the picture," Cundey
says. "It was a great help because
so much occurs in the
capsule,
and we were lucky to get a cam¬
era and
operator in there, let
alone anybody else. We had to
evaluate everything off of the
video tap. It became a crucial
tool. There were two complete
capsule sets, and we had a second
unit setting up smaller shots
which made important story
points - a hand on a switch, a
light going off, things like that.
Ron wanted to spend his time
with the actors, so they would

naut roles went back to Houston

the second-unit video tap
to him on the other stage,
and he basically directed the
second unit off of the color

tapes."

Cundey shot most of
Apollo 13 with 20mm and 35mm
Primo lenses, which enabled him
to show the astronauts in their

environment, and also replicated
the dimensions of the look people
remembered on TV. For close-

ups, he
Primo.

usually chose

a

75mm

the handheld camera work feel
like the ultimate Steadicam shot,

"So much of what we
remember seeing transmitted
back from space were degraded

Cundey explains. The camera
crew would find
things to hold

images compared to the rest of
the news," Cundey says. "There

to, and the operator would
wedge himself into a solid spot,
holding the camera with his fin¬
gertips. A video tap on the cam¬
era allowed Howard to see if he

was an

on

was

getting what he wanted.
"If there

floating

second-unit crew, while
Howard and Cundey kept work¬

with

worked with

tivation for

take, this
"When

was ever a mo¬

images and every¬
thing else. The images from the
capsule were more contrasty,
darker and noisier than news
film or the live shots of the an¬

chors.

it," says Cundey.

"We discussed degrad¬
ing the image inside the capsule.

getting shots in

was

obvious difference be¬

tween those

one

they pulled out of the

We shot tests with 5296,5298 and

dive, they were at 2 Gs, so they
had to quickly find a safe spot to

5293, pushing them by one or two
stops. Unfortunately, we couldn't

sit and make

make it look bad

arms

sure

that their

weren't twisted underneath

June 1995

enough. No of¬
really

fense to Kodak, but it never
American Cinematographer - June 1995

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