American Cinematographer - December 1999 - 60

Head Trip
Despite the
array of
logistical
difficulties they
confronted

on

the set, Burton
and Lubezki

managed to
keep their
heads together.

the

tors;

film

to

constantly evolving aspects of a
project.
How did the two of you break
down the responsibilities on the set?
Did you get very involved with the
camera and lighting issues?
Burton: I
on

the

was more

involved

conceptual level, but Chivo
certainly talk about

and I would

those issues. Part of the charm of

filmmaking is that it's not
science

-

an exact
I find it to be a very

organic process.
technical issues

There
on

were a
this film,

lot of
so

it

wasn't like we just went out there and
shot things casually. Every shot
involved

a

certain amount of'manu¬

someone like Chivo
makes that process fun, which is the

facturing,' but

it should be. When we were
addressing a specific shot, we'd talk

way

about

the

various

elements

we

needed, and then change things as
necessary. That's why it's nice to feel
comfortable with your key collabora¬

if you're on the same wavelength

begin with, you know that every¬
thing will turn out fine, even if you're
whipping something together on the
spot. We sort of felt as if we were
making the world's biggest Mexican
horror film. [Laughs.]
How much of the film

We

did

do

shooting the film on location in

upstate New York, but later decided

for

to go

some

storyboarding, but I've found that
over the years I'm using them less
and less. Storyboards can sometimes
confuse people instead of helping
them. Generally, the people who
want to see the storyboards tend to
get too rigid in their adherence to
them; they focus entirely on the
boards and they lose sight of the big
picture. On Sleepy Hollow, we had to
do storyboards for certain sequences,
but we tried to simply use them as
guidelines without relying upon
them too heavily.
Chivo said that you consid¬

a more

combined

stylized look that
constructed

sets

in

soundstages and at locations outside
London. What was the impetus for
that decision?
Burton:

was

planned out in storyboard form?
Burton:

ered

bet

a

Listen, I'd

never

million dollars that I'd

have

ever

be

doing a movie where the people were
dressed like George Washington! I
Dutch Colonialism is not

mean,

what

you'd call the most dynamic
lifestyle in the world - it's not
coming back into fashion any time
soon, you know? [Laughs.] In order
to bring the story back to its folktale
roots, we wanted to have a strong,
controlled visual environment. We

didn't want the movie
naturalistic

to

fall into this

where

you'd have a
dipping candles and
watching them dry. That's not the
most exciting thing to see at the
rut

bunch of people

movies.

was a

Working at Leavesden Studios
mainly on cost.

decision based

The facilities had the

amount

of

space we needed, but the stage
heights were very low. I've worked in
England before [on Batman], and
the film industry there offers every¬
thing you need, including great crew
people and artisans. To me, if you're
doing a heavily designed movie, the
only two places where you can really
do it right are Los Angeles and

London. Even New York doesn't have
the
two

same

level of resources that those

cities offer.
How fine

a

line

were

you

trying to tread in terms of creating a
pictorial but slightly artificial look?
Lubezki said the

factored

use

of smoke

heavily in the equation.
were trying to

Burton: We
create
a

our own

reality for the film -

fantasy feel that would still

seem

real. I think that's

important in a
movie like this, because you don't
want it to feel completely phony. I
feel very good about what we
achieved. I hate using smoke, but on
this film

56

we

used it in almost every
American Cinematographer - December 1999

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