American Cinematographer - February 1996 - 42

A three-axis stabilized

Production

designer Peter

mount, the Libra II was used to

Hampton's targe

great effect on GoldenEye's car and

courtroom set
was one

tank chases (see AC December
1995). The mount attaches to a fe¬
male Moy fitting. Using rate and

of the

few built for the

primarily
location-shot

pendulous horizon sensors, the Li¬
can allow for a
variety of pan,
tilt and roll effects
making it
possible for Scott and Johnson to
have either a slightly undulating
background, with the boat itself
heaving in the foreground, or a
fully stabilized background.
Says Johnson, "The Li¬

film. He

bra

coordinated

-

with Johnson

for his window

placement,
resulting in

a
side-lit space

which could
make

good use
of a Venetian

bra is controlled like a hot head.
I think [the manufacturing com¬

blind effect.

pany, Megamount] is building one
for the Panaflex, but the one we
should place the stop where you
think it's best for you. I always find
that I still work that way. It would

generators aboard. We had a

40K and

30K;

a

one

powered the

entire craft and the other

was

for

had

was

itself

camera

lights." (It was decided that run¬
ning power from a support boat

all

would slow down the schedule.)
"There were times when I

ways to

did

put up a canopy, but only for a

that. I rated the 48 at 64 ASA [with

few

scenes.

85], but I varied with the 98,

was

partly because I

was

-

an

anywhere from 320 to 500."

anamorphic

states. "We

were

or

almost too

spherical," he

out there between

16 and 22 Vi sometimes, and most
of the time I'd bring that down to
about an 8. That's a nice average

stop where the depth of field is
pretty good and things are reason¬

ably sharp. It also gives the camera
assistant a good chance as well. I'd
bring a lot of NDs in, and also used

We'd have lost that feel¬
ing of ruggedness. So it was nice to
get the natural shapes through the
boat, get the whole structure of the
boat going from light to dark and
shade to light."
However, not beaten by
their cramped situation, "we
anymore.

tracked

an

awful lot

on

the boat,"

stops, but I'd do 1 %.

for the crew, but it worked ex¬

any

grads,

when the sky was quite
Ridley and Tony are definitely
known for using grads, but you get
to a point where you've got to
change a little bit. Also while we
sequence
hot.

weren't worried about the hori¬

moving up and down, if
people saw a grad in there as well
on the
big screen, they'd say, 'Oh
my God!"'

zon

The confines of the Alba¬
tross

hampered lighting even more
profoundly. Says Johnson, "The
only lights I had
two

on

the boat

were
4K HMI Pars. That's all I could

have because there

American

were

Cinematographer

only two

use

new

shoot the action aboard the

Albatross, the filmmakers resorted
to other measures as well.

extra time in their

some

Finding

schedule,

looking, but photographing it was
extremely difficult," Johnson re¬
calls. "Ridley would come down
and say, 'Hang on, let's look at a
40mm here.' And I'd say, 'Yeah,
put a 40 on, where do I put my
lights?' You know, a 40mm in
anamorphic is about a 20mm in
spherical. But Ridley would say,
'Let's go for it, Hughie.' So we'd do

lot of Pola screens. A lot of cam¬
eramen like to
give them two full
use

modified to

wouldn't have been the Caribbean

a

"I didn't

was

Primo and E lenses."
In their search for

Scott decided to

Johnson. "I suggested to Rid¬
ley that we make the camera move
as much as
possible. It was difficult

except maybe once in the storm

our

contrasty for what
doing. Besides, if we were
out there putting diffusion all over
everything to get soft light, it

we were

Johnson added an array of
filtration to offset the strong Carib¬
bean sun. "I don't like to shoot past
f8 in

I didn't like the look; it

designed for the Arri III,
extremely well. The

and it worked

using
some filters
a very light coral,
like an eighth. Sometimes I would
go to a quarter, but no more. So I
would just change my meter for

vary

40

small

says

tremely well. We had a Pee Wee
dolly and got it into very narrow
places on normal track. The trouble
was leveling it off all the time, be¬
cause

goes

one

"On

wait to

some

of the boat

we

and it takes a little
time to be set up - I said to myself,
'This is going to take up all my
lighting time and we're not going
rigged

up

-

get the material we want.' But it

worked

use

try to shoot inte¬

the

ship, rather than

the set built

"The boat downstairs

great¬

the shots and we'd look at dailies.
was the other
thing: we'd

get dailies until five or six
days later, but Ridley would al¬
ways check out the footage and
say, 'See, it looks great!"'
never

Landing in
South Carolina

After five weeks in the is¬

lands, the company traveled to
Charleston, South Carolina and
shot there for about 2 Vi weeks. Of

primary importance was a "court
of inquiry" sequence in which the
captain of the Albatross would be
questioned about the fate of his
crew
and faced by his surviving
-

students. The beautiful old

buildings they

hance the movement of the boat."

had the usual restrictions

ums

muse¬

and other historic landmark

really well and gave us the
shifting horizon we wanted to en¬

February 1996

Malta.

on

was a

That

end to the other.

also used a Libra II
mount, which was very impres¬
sive. Now, when I saw that being

to

scenes on

the curvature of the boat

from

stuff,

rior

were

hoping to

use

against
American Cinematographer - February 1996

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