American Cinematographer - July 1995 - 48

This dramatic
look in the

Riddler's Lair
was created
with

a

combination of
96 program¬
mable Vari-

Lites, green
neon

fixtures

built into the

floor, crackling
neon

"energy

tubes"and

a

10K Xenon
beam bounced
off an

angled

mirror aimed
down

through

the set's
overhead

opening.

The filmmakers

departed

from the "baronial style" for sev¬
eral sequences at the Manor. For a
surrealistic flashback sequence in
which the young Bruce sees his

parents' coffins at their wake,
sought to lend every¬
thing, including the firelight, an

Goldblatt

eerie blue tint. He combined Xenon

light through the room's windows
with rain and smoke, adding a very
unusual tactic to get the "bluerthan-blue" look he wanted. "I actu¬

a half CTB on the lamp
lens itself," he reveals. "I put that

ally used

filter holder and just
lamp. The assistants
thought I'd gone mad, but it cre¬
ated a strong, dramatic look. Using
the gel that way broke the lens
down a bit, which made the light in
the scene go a bit smeary. We did
other strange things in that se¬
quence as well, such as shooting at
36 fps with synch sound."
gel into
stuck it

a

on

the

A fantastic stunt sequence
in the Manor follows Robin as he

very

carefully storyboarded,

2.8, the incident

on

Nicole couldn't

be

hide the safety airbag for overhead
shots looking down, I used a trick
I'd done on Lethal Weapon 1. We did

to make him look

painting on canvas of the floor -
flagstones, the furniture, every¬
thing - and laid that above the
airbag."
With all of the spectacular
setups in Batman Forever, it's easy
to overlook the more prosaic pho¬
tographic challenges, such as mak¬
ing the actors look their best.
Goldblatt's considerable experi¬
ence
again came to the fore in this
regard, especially when he was
shooting the film's female charac¬
ters. "I did run into photographic
problems with Nicole Kidman and,
to a lesser extent, Drew Barrymore,
because their skin and makeups
were so
pale," Goldblatt reveals.
a

the

"The 5298 didn't take the

overex¬

more

than 2

or

1.4.

"In Val's case, we wanted

heroic,

so

I

dropped the

camera a bit," he
adds. "We had two variations of
the Batsuit made from sculpted

rubber, and the second
metallic texture. I

had

one

never

a

lit it

dead-on, because it reflected light
really beautifully. When shooting
the villains, I sometimes went
bit

a

distorted, but some of
the makeups were pretty extrava¬
gant, so I tried not to go too far with
more

the camerawork."

Having conquered the lo¬
gistical summit of Batman Forever,
Goldblatt looks back on the experi¬
ence

with the calm air of

battle-

a

hardened veteran. "Overall, every¬

thing went quite smoothly," he
says. "It was hard, hard work, but
I really enjoyed this project. My
relationship with Joel was very

well at all. Nicole's
skin in particular burned out very
easily. I tried to keep a lot of light
off her. Normal white skin might
read a stop above your incident on

close and collaborative, and it
shows in the finished film. I think

doorway. Olympic gold medalist
Mitch Gaylord doubled for actor

the meter, but she would read two

half

stops over. I used backlight, soft

Chris O'Donnell in the scene, and
Goldblatt again made use of a

size and
track record!"

Wiggins sky rig. "That sequence

light, and all the old tricks to com¬
pensate and keep them looking
glamorous. If my overall stop was

American

July 1995

leaps from a chandelier to a balus¬

44

was

because you couldn't possibly do it
all at once," notes Goldblatt. "To

trade, back to the chandelier, to

a

balcony and then down through

a

Cinematographer

posure very

he and I had

a

total of two

rows.

Both occurred within the first three

weeks, and both
an

were over

hour. On

within

project of this
scope, that's a pretty good
a
American Cinematographer - July 1995

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