American Cinematographer - October 1998 - 96

look made famous

by MGM directors
Stanley Donen, who directed the
grand musical Singin' in the Rain."
A vacated restaurant lounge at
Union Station in downtown Los Angeles
proved to be the perfect backdrop and
location for the "swing club." Built in
1939, the structure provided a rich,
exotic blend of Spanish architecture and
Art Deco design. The cinematographer
liked the look of this luxuriously textured
environment, which offered a variety of
backdrops and required minimal set
dressing. According to Molina, it was the
perfect room in which to create a retrosuch

as

modern dance club.

However, getting the splashy
space on film was no easy task.

A

Jumpin' Joint
by Kathleen Fairweather

When director Eric Heimbold and

cinematographer Tony Molina first heard
big-band blast delivered as the Brian
Setzer Orchestra performed the Louis
Prima swing standard "Jump, Jive and
Wail," they knew they were in for a wild
filmmaking ride. The path they chose for

the

the ensembles music video combined

grand scale and nostalgia of an old
technology of
today. Recalling the duo's enthusiasm for
the project, Molina offers, "Eric and I
knew we'd been given the rare chance to
blend contemporary filmmaking with the
look and sound of classic big-band rock."
The partners envisioned a combi¬
nation of the energy and excitement of
the

MGM musical with the

Guitarist Brian
Setzer rocks

though

a set
with his

orchestra while

filming at the
former
restaurant

lounge at Union
Station in
downtown Los

Angeles.
94 October 1998

wanted viewers to feel that

they were
watching a real swing-dance club scene.
Our objective was to capture this modern
swing-dance look and structure it within
narrative vignettes, accompanied by
Brian Setzer's soaring guitar playing and
the blasting horn section."
The video serves up a visual
smorgasbord that features a 17-piece
orchestra, an Art Deco backdrop, classic
cars, martini-slinging babes and some
energetic swing dancing. The rich, jeweltoned look of the clip adds to the ambi¬
ence. Describing how this look was
achieved, Heimbold explains, "Brian is
connected with a very classy swing
scene and he hand-picked the best
dancers. With the help of art director
Macpherson Downs, we came up with a
theme I like to refer to

as

'Gonzo Deco.'

color palette

to create an

spirit of American Graffiti. "We decided
environment that displayed
a nostalgic reflection of Fifties rock
culture with contemporary attitude and

that would
respond vibrantly in telecine, so we
chose a gold lame look accented by leop¬
ard prints and gold velvets. We then
found a sapphire-blue jacket for Brian

flair. The theme of the video therefore

that made him

musical films mixed with the gleeful

became

a

Nineties

sock-hop. We

We wanted

a

really

pop out

from the

background. We were going for the big

"With so
Molina, "the
challenge became how to shoot our
vignettes, playback coverage of the 17piece orchestra and detailed setups with
much offered visually," says

Brian Setzer

-

in 35mm format, over

just two days without a prelight! In addi¬
tion, we also had to shoot intricately
choreographed swing-dance sequences
that would serve as the counterplay to
our coverage of Brian."
Molina and Heimbold managed
to beat their two-day deadline through a
heady combination of technology and a
highly efficient, creative crew. "The
biggest problem on the video was figur¬
ing out how to stage a fictitious club
inside

a

vacant

restaurant," comments

Molina. "Our solution

was

to utilize the

existing architecture and rethink its
purpose to fit our concept."
"We needed angles that would
convey the grandeur of a thunderous bigband stage setup," he adds. "The proper
setup was important in order to make
sense

of the club's environment. After

much location

the

scouting, I began to see
a concert

building in the context of

BBearnbvil.

byPhot s
American Cinematographer - October 1998

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