American Cinematographer - January 1996 - 36

TRIPLE POWER
TRIPLE EFFECTS
TRIPLE OUTPUT

mixed

feelings with VHS transfers
work. I ended up not even
looking at half of what I did.
of my

AC: You researched the
in Montreal before the

cameras

shoot

began. Tell

us about that.
FP: I found a large cold-

storage room and used it for re¬
a

Panaflex GII, and

a

temperature

dropped. The only camera that ran
has

was

the Platinum because it

one more

the

heating element by

gate. It's the only one with that

device and it

never

froze

on me

during the entire shoot.
AC: What else

tell

us

But

even so

can

you

about the

equipment?
FP: Luckily I had a lot of
experience in the early days of my
career shooting low-budget films.

variety of flickers,
chases, strobes and pulses!
60 amp input is divided into 3
2000W outputs-total 6000W!

*

*

Each of 3 channels has on/off,

dimmer & variable
*

Test mode-full

dimmer
*

a
*

or

speed control.
on

to use as a

variety of chase sequences.
Random Mode-flickers all

three

outputs in unison.
Independent Mode-sets each
random flicker rate independently.
Strobe Mode-provides a
constant pulse w/ speed control.
Memory Mode-stores up to 6
effects for easy recall.

*

*

*

Incandescent

vital items. I found

some

new

Honda generator

lamps only * Max 2000W each output

X3 FLICKERMASTER.
TRIPLE FLICKER GENERATOR

-

a

very

powerful, 12 kilowatts - which fit
perfectly in a large Inuit sled. We
didn't have time to add
to it to make

ernor

on a

sure

gov¬
the fre¬

quency would be perfect, so I went
with flicker-free ballast HMIs, 4Ks
and 2.5K Pars.

wrapped

or

Everything
put into boxes to

was
pro¬

tect it from the cold.

AC: What kind of

did

camera

camera, a

an

American

it

by hand, and of course there
were no
heating elements. But it
was the
only camera that didn't
need lubrication, so it didn't freeze

up

-

THE

GREAT

professional dealer or

OMamerican
^^^Jmarket

826 N. COLE AVENUE

*

VOICE 213/461-0200

lubrication freezes first.

AC: Flaherty was really a
pioneer. It makes you wonder

FAX 213/461-4308

AC: What film stock did

for Kabloonak?

you use

scenes shot
during
magic moment, I used 5296 and
for day I used 5248. Everything
was so
bright and white I didn't
need any speed. I was looking for
fine grain only. [We used a regular

FP: For

the

85

filter]. There

were no

tricks;

I

stayed very simple. I'm glad
people appreciate that because it's
so
trendy to be glamorous.
AC: Tell us about working
Massot.
FP: Claude is

an

extraordi¬

good-hearted man. He's been
working on this project for five
years non-stop. He has a special
quality which can make him a
great director: he is stubborn, but
stubborn for good things. Some of
nary,

his choices caused

us

incredible

how he could do this.

problems, but he knew what he

FP: I

wanted. I have admiration for that.
First-time directors often have no
clue how difficult some things can

was so
lucky to be
film about Mr. Flaherty
and the making of his film. He
shot and processed the negative,
printed the negative on positive,
processed the positive and pro¬
jected the positive - all on loca¬

be. So I

tion. He showed dailies to the Inuit

create the

people by piercing a hole in a wall
and using the sun as a lamphouse

tors are

making

a

projector. He did the same
thing to print the negative, using
sunlight. He did the same thing
that

Nicephore Niepce, the inven-

HOLLYWOOD CA 90038
*

no

solid.

Carl Akeley. He cranked

for his
Call your

cook food.

with first-time director Claude

Flaherty use?
FP: He used

design

or

longer made - it's banned. But we
finally found some 1930 raw posi¬
tive film stock which burnt slowly
at first and then exploded. But for
us to film the
part in the water was
dangerous. We did it on location of
course, by making a hole in the ice.
The water was absolutely freezing
and had to be kept moving with
pumps to keep it from becoming

I knew I would have to

have

to focus.

Chase Mode-lets you

out of kerosene to

celluloid stock because it's

at -60°

An endless

run

themselves

the film each time the

Moviecam,

Arriflex BL4,

Platinum Panaflex. We loaded
each camera with the same film,

*

and had
warm

brought down the temperature by
five-degree increments and rolled

a

TRIPLE FLICKER GENERATOR

photography, did in 1816.
AC: During the polar bear
hunt sequence in Kabloonak,
Flaherty and Nanook were close
to dying. They fell into the water
Flaherty decided to build a fire by
burning a can of his film stock.
How did you shoot this scene?
FP: In those days, film
stock contained highly-flammable nitro-cellulose. It actually
explodes. It was difficult to find

search. I lined up an

X3 FLICKERMASTER,

tor of

January 1996

really enjoyed helping
a
project that could
have been destroyed by little mis¬
takes. I'm proud of what we did to

Claude make

images. Not

that

and how it

many

direc¬

passionate about light
makes you feel.
American Cinematographer - January 1996

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