American Cinematographer - July 1999 - 46

Sci-Fi

Cowboys
Eric knew that

Barry's goal was to
perfection. This
meant that we wanted to give ILM
material that would not require a lot
of manipulation in order for it to
achieve technical

work. If, for instance,

element is shot

bluescreen

a

incorrectly, it takes

lot of extra work later

a

to correct it in

post. As a result, the visual effects

department had much
ence

over

than I had
or even

more influ¬
of shooting
experienced on Outbreak

the process

Air Force One."

ILM's technical
had

a

direct

impact

choice of film stocks.

requirements
Ballhaus's
He explains, "I
on

like Kodak's Vision 320T, which I

used

quite a bit in the film and
exposed at 200 ASA, but for the blue¬

spent six weeks

Despite the size of the set,
"using our wide-angle lenses made it
quite difficult to bring in the Dinos,"
Ballhaus says. "With a 14mm lens,
you can see everything! Our toplight
rigging was not a problem, but the
sidelight was sometimes difficult."
The curved greenhouse-style
walls were made of Plexiglas painted
by the set dressers with a wash to
resemble frosted glass. Beyond that
was a 360-degree desert-landscape
cyclorama. "We used 10 Moleenos

working

and lots and lots of 20Ks in there,"

Above: West and

his

ingenious

sidekick, Artemus
Gordon, board the
Tarantula via
Gordon's rocket-

powered glider,
the Wasp. The
elaborate

stuntwork

required to
achieve this
was done

action

at Warner

Bros.,

where Ballhaus

and his

crew

on the
film's visual-

effects sequences.
The bridge
section of the
Tarantula (below,

right) was
alternately
photographed
with bluescreen

sky backings,
depending on
whether the body
or

Tynes says. "The frosted glass helped,
because doing our sun effect with
Dinos could have resulted in

multiple shadows; the diffusion
blended the light together to make it
seem as if it was coming from one
large source."
Effects

Roundup
Making a final bid to rule the

of the vehicle
would be

seen

in

the shot - and
therefore require
CGI work by ILM's

digital artists.

a

Old West, Loveless utilizes his walk¬

ing Tarantula assault vehicle to
destroy the frontier town of
Silverado. West and Gordon attempt

thwart Loveless's

plans by board¬
ing the Tarantula via Gordon's
rocket-powered glider, the Wasp.
While both contraptions were
primarily rendered as CG models by
Industrial Light & Magic (see story
on
page 48), these mechanical
to

44

July 1999

marvels
whole

were

or

Warner Bros,

visible

also built full-scale in

stages.

onscreen

Tarantula's

at

the

complete version of the Wasp.
Extensive bluescreen and poor man's
process work was used to achieve the
required shots, all of which were
carefully storyboarded or rendered as
video animatics when precise timing
necessary.

supervisor was
Brevig, who is excellent,"
Ballhaus attests. "He and Barry had
worked together on Men in Black, so
Eric

me to use

The wonders

open-air bridge, from

"Our effects

work, ILM asked

include

which Loveless and his cohorts oper¬
ate the multi-limbed device, and a

was

screen

5248, which has less grain and a
better blue layer. I rated it normally

part and filmed on the

100

ASA, and because it's

more

contrasty, I had to use a bit more fill.
I also used some 5293, because its
blue

layer is also better than in the

320T, and I sometimes needed

a

stock faster than 48. I rated the 93

normally at 200 ASA. However, since
all of the effects shots

were

to

be

digitized and manipulated, ILM said
they would work it out so the
contrast

in those shots would match

the

footage shot on the 320T, and
they have done a pretty good job
with that.
"I like the 320T because it has
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