American Cinematographer - October 1998 - 40

Samurai Tactics
against spill, which is always a prob¬
work with diffused
lighting in a small set. Normally,
lem when you

with the combination of

a

short

focal-length lens and the Steadicam
so close to the actors,
you can forget
about putting something behind the
camera for fill, because
you'll get
camera

shadows all the time. But

David Crone

was very experienced,
and understood the lighting prob¬

lems

perfectly; he knew exactly what
possible and what was not."
Fraisse faced more challenges
while shooting the exterior of the
was

bar and its environs, which involved

Also, there

Above: Crew
members

McElhone, with
Steadicam

operator David
Crone
ATV

riding an
rig. Below: A
of
the film's

look at

one

convincing car
rigs. This
particular
"trailer rig" was
used to capture

close-ups of Sam
(De Niro) in hot
pursuit of his

we

appeared to be outside in the street,
but were actually shooting inside the
soundstage."
Frankenheimer's

mobilize to track
actress Natascha

shots where

were

on

insistence

shooting the interior of the small

bar with

a

Steadicam and short

started

the whole

panning with the 21mm,
set was

tough to hide the lights.
"There was only one way to
light actors, which was to cross-light
and top-light them. I used IK lights

with small Chimeras
the set, and

in the

folds around the

challenges
cramped space, where the
director's approach gave new defini¬
tion to "in-your-face" cinematogra¬
phy. "When you shoot for John
Frankenheimer, you get very close to
the actors," says Fraisse. "He'll use a
Steadicam and
almost

a

a

21mm lens to shoot

close-up,

ine how close the

so you can imag¬
camera is to the

actors! We often shot with the

Flo banks offer
fill while a 435
is used to get
the shot.

17.5mm, 21mm, 24mm and 32mm
lenses, which made lighting the
actors

and

sets very

tricky. As soon as

in the frame, so it

was

lenses created countless

enemies. Kino

38 October 1998

we

with

a

a

on

them above

few side lights on scaf¬
set. I

knew that

Steadicam I would have

no

opportunity to put lights on stands,
so most of the
light was actually
coming through holes in the ceiling,
which was very low and had a few
wooden beams that I also hid lights
behind. We also had practical on
the walls, which dictated the

lighting

inside

the

warm

bar. The
Chimeras were very convenient
because their light was very soft; you
need fewer flags to protect the walls

the real location in
the massive

some

shots and

stagebound re-creation

in others. "We built the bar set up to

the first floor,

as

well

as

the last few

steps of the

high stairwell that ran
along the side of the bar," Fraisse
explains. "At the beginning of the
sequence, we wanted to see Robert
De Niro coming down the real steps.
We had to match the lighting of the
night scenes shot in the real street
with those that
When

were

done

on

stage.

shooting outside, I
put lights on a Condor or asked the
people living in the nearby buildings
to let me put lights in their windows.
Then, in the soundstage, I tried to
put almost the same lights in the
same places, so the audience would
not

we were

be able

to see

the difference.

Fortunately, it was an amazing set -
American Cinematographer - October 1998

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