American Cinematographer - May 2000 - 131

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the Cablecam system

in 1987 in order to
get footage of skiers and snowboarders

for

ski simulator.

"Suspending a cable
over extreme terrain was the only way to
get quality shots of skiers," he says. By
a

of the system had spread,
began getting calls from people
in the motion-picture and television
industry. The system was soon used on
1991,

news

and he

such films

as

Hook,

well

as

as

for

commercials and sports coverage.

1999,

Rodnunsky

won a
achievement award from the

In
technical
Academy

of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for
his invention.

"Basically, the Cablecam is a
suspended between two
towers or any two fixed points," says
Rodnunsky. "We hang our camera dolly
on that ropeway and wirelessly transmit
pan, tilt and roll direction to the camera
head." The camera can be gyrostabilized
or not, though he believes that extra
stabilization is necessary only for
extremely long-lens shots (which are
generally used for sports coverage).
Cinematically, he says, Cablecam shots
ropeway

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On the Mountain Dew shoot, the

suspended from two towers

of built-in camera, so it can accommo¬

date whichever unit the

cinematogra¬
pher chooses. In this case, Malkin used
Arriflexes provided by the Camera House
in Van Nuys, California. "We used a
handful of 435s," says Malkin. "I believe
shot most of the spot at a 45-degree

we

shutter, and

we also used a couple of
Eyemos for some stunt work."
The cinematographer says that

he and Usher worked at both ends of the

lens spectrum: "We were

either wide
really long." The wider
lenses, he says, were Cooke S4 lenses;
on the longer side, he used a Nikkor
and close, or

300mm,

well

as

as

the Hawk-Roden-

stock 150-450mm, T2.8 zoom

lens.
Sometimes, he adds, he even put a
doubler on the Hawk-Rodenstock, effec¬
tively turning it into a 900mm lens. "That
proved to be interesting for the focus
puller, with the cheetah running right at
us

at 65 miles per

adding that his first

hour," Malkin says,
camera assistants,

Gilbert Salas and Bob Smathers, were
up to

the challenge.

Malkin shot primarily on Kodak's
EXR 10OT 5248 stock, pushed a stop to
enhance the contrast. "I think we used
some

[Vision 250D] 5246 toward the very
day as well," he says. The

end of the

(45' and 42' high, respectively) that stood
roughly 1,800 feet apart. Once the rig
was set up, the first priority was to intro¬

filtration. "I used what I call

duce it to the animals. "We flew the

something I like to

camera

back and forth, and the trainers

cameraman

also used

a

bit of green
a CC.20,
exteriors. It

use on

takes that true blue out of the

sky and
it." However,
keep the shots clean enough

walked the cheetahs to let them get
used to it," Rodnunsky says, noting that

adds

the animals seemed

more

intrigued than
frightened by the device. "At first, their
little ears went up and they tracked it
like it was something to eat!"

for effects work, he had to

When the cheetahs seemed calm

number of effects that were

a

little

in order to

more

green to

remove the
filter and add the coloration to many
shots during post.

The spot

features

a

color monitor

enough, the shoot began:

visual-effects

12V DC Power

chased

Alex Frisch and visual-effects

a

a cheetah
tennis ball, and the Cablecam

chased the cheetah. "We could follow

Audio/Video
RCA input

the cheetah, profile the cheetah, or
shoot past the cheetah," says Rodnun¬

Units in NTSC,
PAL or multi-

sky. "We shot a whole bunch of varia¬
Everyone agrees that the best
shots came early in the day, while the
cheetahs were still interested. "They got

tions."
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little bored with

us

after

a

while,"

Rodnunsky admits.
cam

is that it doesn't

supervisor and lead artist
producer
Sue Troyan of the company Method.
Frisch and Troyan were on-set through¬
out the four-day California shoot to help
Usher through some of the spot's techni¬
cal challenges. Frisch explains, "One of
the biggest problems to solve was that it
was impossible to shoot the cheetah and
the rider at the

come

with any sort

same

time." No human

mountain bike could

keep up with a
running cheetah, and even if he could,
cheetahs don't like being chased. As a
on a

One of the benefits of the Cable-

surprising
by

overseen
American Cinematographer - May 2000

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