American Cinematographer - December 1999 - 16

LET T RAN

costumes."

The ancient Chinese architecture

Most of the film takes

place

favored centralized

hatch their

intimate

500T in the

more enormous rooms

and

EXR 5245 for exterior work.

Many of the
interior scenes are characterized by a
rich amber palette, which is softened by
a haze of smoke from burning incense
and ubiquitous candles. This golden
glow was accomplished more through
the careful selection of fabrics and set

dressing than through filters or gels,
largely shunned. "I spent
hours with the costume designer trying

r

which Zhao

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different color schemes and fabrics," he

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says. "I cannot achieve that kind of color
with filters, so I rarely used them. I only

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used diffusion [filters]."
Sometimes Zhao's

approach to
lighting was simplicity itself, as when he
purchased a few rolls of thin white
paper to cover the Emperor's bedroom
windows. "We needed a soft feeling,"
he explains, nothing that the crew
placed tungsten lights outside the
windows before covering the glass
panes with paper. "It was the same kind
of paper I used to do Chinese paintings
on

when I

was a

kid."

Other situations required more
drastic

measures.

Despite all of the

preplanning,

some of the sets just didn't
work. The throne room needed so much

additional

nation

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that the best solution

was

replace it with
glass. "My gaffer calculated how much
light he would need and the producer
was shocked," says Zhao. "If we had
done it according to his calculations, we
would have had to move all the lights
from

Shanghai and Zhenjiang to that
location. It

also created the film's aesthetic, which

compositions in both
grandiose scenes.
"Chinese architecture in the olden days

was

and

constructed with such aesthetics in

mind, with an emphasis on symmetrical
balance," explains Zhao. "When you're

shooting a film and looking for the best
angle, it's probably the symmetrical one.
That

was

also the best way to convey

the

elegance and general milieu of the
palace."
In contrast, the battle scenes are

flurry of motion, with the camera
placed in the center of action - on the
heels of galloping horses, underneath
thundering chariots, or soaring above
the clashing throngs. To find a suitable
location, the production had to schlep all
the way to the Bashan plateau near
Inner Mongolia. "Although China is big,
it's full of people," explains Zhao. "You
need to go to Mongolia to get that kind
of sparsely populated land."
Unfortunately, this also meant
that no special filming gear was within
easy reach. For the opening battle
a

Zhao had neither

scene,

cranes

tracking equipment. Instead, his
built

a

nor

crew

homemade iron crane, which

attached to the front of

a

they
jeep. "We let

the air out of the tires for a smooth ride,"
the cameraman says with a smile of
satisfaction. For

tracking shots across
they simply opened
the rear door of the jeep, positioned the
camera, and drove through the action.
"Our equipment was limited and very
simple," Zhao admits. Nonetheless, the
filmmakers managed to pull off a story
of epic proportions.
After this experience, says Zhao,
"I figured I could handle any problem."
Fie subsequently embarked on the multi¬
faceted challenge of shooting Woody
vast battle scenes,

was impossible, both
technically and financially."

Allen's latest two films: Sweet and

Zhao controlled the amount of

Spring 2000 project. With these projects

one

2JK?s*

-r

light for the climactic assassi¬

scene

to tear down the roof and

l&ffeJ»

"

simply cause problems, though; it

within the throne rooms, war chambers,
and boudoirs where the characters

plots and shift their alle¬
giances. Working with an Arriflex 535,
Zhao shot the interiors using Kodak's
Vision 200T stock, switching to Vision

r

didn't

daylight by laying an enormous cloth
mask over the glass, then supplemented
that approach by placing a host of 12K
HMIs behind pillars. "My next big chal¬
lenge became hiding them all," he says.

Lowdown and the director's still-untitled

expanding his

resume, plus an agent at
ICM, the versatile Zhao appears ready to

take

on

the world

-

spoken way, of course.

in his

own

soft-

■
American Cinematographer - December 1999

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