American Cinematographer - February 1998 - 79

and the

angle and direction of
photography: this became somewhat
of a roadmap for producing virtual
ment

environments underwater and

board the UFO, and also for

on¬

com¬

positing shot elements into unified
images.
In one particular scene, the
crew are probing the darkened cargo
bay with flashlights. The actors were
filmed holding activated flashlights,
but the beams themselves

were

lost

them

the

on

Otherwise,

controller

board.

would have burned
down the set, because there was no
we

distance between the

lights and the

walls."

set

"I had a 'fixture' man, Brian
Tilden, and his team of 12 other guys

working just

on those units," McGee
adds. "We had more than 500 MR-16

lamps built into the sets, and about
half

a

million feet of hard wire

run¬

against the greenscreen background.
During filming, the glass faceplates of
their helmets caught some green spill
light reflected from the background.
The digital artists first erased and
replaced the green spill with reflec¬
tions of images inside the cargo bay;
then, computer-generated flashlight

ning to them through the walls. I
always had at least one of the fixture
guys who had rigged the sets with me
at all times, because they knew where
to go if there was a problem. They
had computerized wiring diagrams
of every floor. There were 25 differ¬

beams

sections of the

tracked

were

the

to

move¬

of the actors,

revealing the
submerged ship. Arguello adds, "The
intensity of the flashlight beams
ments

increase and decrease based

on

their

distance from the camera."
There

some

are

more

tradi¬

tional shots, however, including the
interior of a helicopter filmed on a

FLASH

light a set and then immediately dim

ent

stations which controlled various

lighting to the set.
toplight fixtures consist¬
ed of a 650-watt quartz globe and an
MR-16 shining through a section of
steel grating. They created a very
hard light, so every time the actors
ran through these downward shafts
you could see the grating shadows,
"Our

which created

a

sense

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two.

"We created

a

wake and added

flags and people
the decks - little details

walking
as

on
visual clues for the audience. The

filmed

running and hallway
created pools of light

in the ceiling.
"Along the wall of the hall¬
ways," he continues, "we had little
bayonet fixtures, similar to the turnsignal bulbs on an automobile, that
we ran down the upper walls all the
way around the hallways. They
helped create depth whenever the
camera looked down a
hallway. We
had

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600

12-volt linestras

of our work has changed dra¬
matically during the past several
years. Just a few years ago, our role
was doing repair work,
removing
wires and compositing images.
Today, we are adding characters,
geography and objects to scenes. The

that there would be

flicts

begin to plague Spheres hapless

director

team

of scientists, the habitat loses

nature

look

can

at

choices and

make decisions about details. I feel
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contribution."

a

real creative

-

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[incandescent, tube-shaped bulbs]
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77
American Cinematographer - February 1998

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 1998
