American Cinematographer - December 1996 - 50

Art Land (also

Jack Nicholson, in

Peter Sellers-like

a

multiple perfor¬

mance), who seeks to cash in on the
Martians' arrival. "In the

script, the
description just said 'his office/"
says Thomas. "But his hotel was
called the Galaxy, so I did the office
set with this kind of space theme -
dressed in blues, with a suspended
globe in the back."
The exterior of the Galaxy
was

hairdo infiltrates the White House

sets

by making amorous advances on a
philandering press secretary. He
quickly ushers her into a secret
room
a dark
space with a central
salt-water aquarium that seems to
provide the key lighting. "I tried
to get a watery feeling, but not
quite an underwater look," says
Suschitzky. "That was per¬
haps the toughest set I had to

created as "large miniature
involving the CGI Martians.
They were shot at Industrial Light
& Magic (see separate story), and
I wasn't involved in the actual

shooting of those because they
were
filming in parallel to the main
shoot. However, I did stay in con¬
tact with the director of photogra¬

"I feel that the effects

the real-life Landmark Hotel,

itself

a

some

a

circular main

20 floors up

-

sec¬

not unlike

window.
"We used two

lights com¬

motivated by
glass and
the early morning sun and the
lights of Las Vegas would be com¬
ing in as the Martians attack. The
ing in

on

this

room,

the fact that the wall

was

called [the fixtures we used]
'bam-bams' - they consisted of 12
banks of nine FCX globes coming
crew

through heavy muslin diffusion on
a

12'

x

12' frame,

which created this

The frame was
the lamp, so it
would tilt and pan with it. It's re¬
ally called an Illuminator.
huge soft

source.

then mounted

"There

on

were

also

a

lot of

great practicals, but the production
design and art departments did a
great job by building models of the
sets before

they were constructed.
That way, we could work on them
together and keep the lighting hon¬
est with the design of the spaces."
Spaceship interiors are
seen in several sequences. Notes
Thomas, "Tim decided that the de¬

sign of the saucer interiors should
be influenced by the playfulness of
the sci-fi films, cartoons

and draw¬

ings of the '30s, '40s and '50s,
shapes and
exaggerate them into fantasy
shapes. There's a big contrast be¬
tween the American laboratory,
where they dissect a Martian, and
the Martian lab, where they experi¬

which would take real

ment

on an

American scientist. The

Martian world is much

more com¬

plicated and dependent

on

hard¬

while the lab on Earth is
sterile, circular space."

ware,

a

Suschitzky adds that the
saucer

48

American

interiors for Mars Attacks!

Cinematographer

deal with because it was very
difficult to bring the walls to
life. The art department had
added speckled gold dust to
the walls to relieve the black¬

narrative..."

Seattle's

Space Needle. Recalls
Kincaid, "This office was a piewedge shape with a domed ceiling
and one wall that was just a giant

-

mustn't drive the movie,
but be at service to the

spindly, space-themed

structure with

tion

were

-

Peter

Suschitsky, BSC

The tank was mainly lit
from overhead with Kino
ness.

phy [Pat Sweeney] who was in
charge of shooting the miniatures."
Detailing the lighting
setup on the sparse American lab,
Kincaid says, "The room was circu¬
lar and we could shoot 180 degrees

Flo-type lamps and then
lights on the sides."

of it. We lit it with fluorescent fix¬
tures installed in the ceiling disc
that floats and tilts above the oper¬

lamps

ating table. We had 3200°K tubes in
there, but

we

wanted

a

Coke-bottle

color, so we tested several
gels and came up with the Rosco
#190 Cosmetic Emerald gel, which
green

bit of diffusion in it as
well. We then bounced in a couple
also has

a

of 5Ks into 4' x 4' muslins with half
CTB on them to reflect off the me¬
tallic finish of the dissection table's

platform. Outside of the
had

20K with

room, we

106

gel -
for the back¬
grounds seen through the observa¬
tion viewing windows. Then we
put a couple of Kinos around the
tops of the windows to illuminate
the people peering in.
"It was a very small stage
with a simple top light, yet it was

a

a

primary red

some

-

Kincaid elaborates, "We
couldn't heat up
with our lights
would have

the tank too much
because the fish

died,

so we

had the

dimmers. The tank itself
was built over an
empty cabinet,
which allowed us to put Pars un¬
on

derneath. There

was

also

some

backlighting in that scene for wide
shots, and
cases

we

lit all of the book¬

with fixtures that

were re¬

cycled from the War Room, along
with more ellipsoidals - Leikos
and Source Fours."
While obviously enthused
by the result of his work with Bur¬

ton, Thomas, Kincaid, de la Motte
and the rest of the Mars Attacks!
team, Suschitzky found that his
role on the production continued
even after
principal photography
had been

completed. As this story
being prepared in late Octo¬
ber, Suschitzky was still on hand to
lend his eye to postproduction
was

matters. "If I do

cial

a

movie with spe¬

effects," the cinematographer

like

says,"I feel that the effects mustn't

lighting cars - you have to be a
good pool player and know your
angles. It's not about putting light
on something, but reflecting light

drive the movie, but be at service to
the narrative, as they are in Mars

also

a

difficult set in that it

some

was

off of it. Because the scientists and
his assistant

wearing these
glass dome helmets, we had to
were

eliminate all reflections of the cam¬
era and crew -
by dressing every¬
one

entirely in black

-

and then

add reflections back where

we

wanted them."
In another sequence, a

Attacks! or in The Empire
Back and Dead Ringers."

Strikes

Have past experiences
helped him relate to a film that was
realized with the help of so many
other people? "This is my first big
special effects film for some time
now and I'm
expecting to be excit¬
edly surprised by the final movie,"

Suschitzky concedes. "Past experi¬

Martian spy

help support you, but the
present is always full of surprises

with

in

an

disguised as a woman
outrageous bouffant

December 1996

ences can

moviemaking,

as

in life."

♦
American Cinematographer - December 1996

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