American Cinematographer - November 1999 - 66

/

Mad-Dog Englishman
lems

corrected

during principal
photography. It's a ludicrous attempt
to save money, and I've talked to a
are

number of
had
on

cameramen

who have

major photographic problems
their films but only found out

about them after the fact. All cine¬

matographers - and producers and

staged there, Wilson and
on a narrow
plat¬
form jutting over the edge of the hill¬
side, waiting for a chance to confront
Valentine. In one panoramic shot,
the pair look out over smog-choked
Los Angeles, incredulous that anyone
would pay for such a view. "That's
sequence

Ed loiter outside

issue.

Steven's favorite shot," Lachman says.
"Here's someone who has built a

the need for film

multimillion-dollar house to

directors

-

should address this

Everyone's concerned about
preservation, but
let's get things on film correctly first,
and then preserve it."
Lachman
modernist

lit

mansion

Valentine's
in

the

Hollywood Hills primarily with
augmented sunlight, using 18K
HMIs coming through the windows:
"I mixed the temperatures in there,
using straight tungstens on practical
inside so they'd be warmer than the
exterior windows. However,

the windows

were so

because

burned out,

almost

we

completely lost their color."
During a daytime party

see

just... whiteness. You know L.A. is
out

there somewhere, but there's

nothing to see.
"One problem with filming up
in the hills is logistical: how do you
get the crew and equipment up there
and parked? While shooting in the
house, there was no place to put the
equipment, because we were filming
so

much of the

also have

area.

Of course, you

deal with the

neighbor¬
Hollywood
is one of the worst places in the world
to

hood. I find it ironic that

to

shoot

a

movie

on

location

-

nobody wants to be next door to a
production, because I guess that's
what they do at work all day.
"That said,

our

location house

had all of these great windows that
were terrific sources for
light, allow¬

ing us to basically work off what was
there. The interior was also primarily
white, so that helped us as well."
At Valentine's mansion in Big
Sur, Soderbergh wanted to stage a
climactic

chase

below

between

scene

Wilson and Valentine

on

the shore

steep cliffs, an area that
basically inaccessible for stan¬
dard filmmaking gear. "The solution
some

was

was

to

to

fly

build
some

cable system

in order
HMI lighting balloons
a

the

area, so we could view the
the cliffs and this house,"
Lachman details, noting that he'd

over

sea,

never

used such

before. "It

was

major problem
cement

floating fixtures
real process.

a

was

stanchions

The
getting these

out

into the sea,

Soft

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American Cinematographer - November 1999

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 1999
