American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 45

become

something of a legend in the

Opposite: Stargher
in his den. After
this scene was
shot on film in

commercial world; in fact, New

of Modern Art

York's Museum
houses

eight of their spots in its
permanent collection. A South
African native, Laufer worked briefly
as
a
still
photographer in
Johannesburg before emigrating to

Super 35,Toybox

performed digital
HD color-

correction with
the Philips Spirit

DataCine, using

the United States, where he

Power Windows
around actor

The

Vincent

Art

in

Center

attended
Pasadena,

D'Onofrio's face,

California. He

graduated just as
MTV was getting off the ground and
providing an entree into the business
for a generation of aspiring filmmak¬
ers. Laufer
gradually worked his way
up through the ranks in music

adding an overall
golden tone to his
costume, crushing
the blacks and

flaring the
highlights. The
Toybox team then

videos. Around 1990, commercials

used its

ready for a fresh look, and
advertising producers began hiring
people from music videos; many

software to "uprez" the imagery
to 4K film
resolution before

proprietary TIPS

were

directors crossed
cameramen

over

and took their

applying an
anamorphic
squeeze to the
image and
employing an

with them.

The Cell marks Laufer's second
feature (after Frankie Starlight), and
he envisaged two distinct looks for

Arrilaser to filmrecord it out to a

the film: the real world and the inner

second-generation
"original
negative." This
page, top: This
setting, which

worlds of the characters, referred to
as

"the worlds"

or

"the entries." These

inner worlds included not

only the
heightened, surreal environment of
Stargher's twisted psyche but also the
feminine, nurturing landscape of

combines Namibia
and Catherine's

World, went

through the same
process. After the

Catherine's mind and the troubled
unconscious of

a

comatose

child

color-correction
was"baked into"
the plate footage,

named Edward.
Laufer wanted the real world

look

naturalistic

possible,
explaining, "The real world creates

to

as

as

the context that makes 'the worlds'

TdCoignycmbeptumasfritxel;

LNiocenuwfrtesy
Phot s

themselves appear exceptional. In
order to provide that contrast, I
wanted the

reality sections to look
like any other detective or FBI movie
you've ever seen." All of the film's
environments tested the

man's

camera¬

well as the
resourcefulness of an exceptional
rigging crew assembled under the
direction of rigging gaffer Tom Nead
and rigging grip Bob Leitelt. Laufer
was effusive in his praise of the pair,
describing them as "undaunted" in
their willingness and ability to meet
any challenge.
ingenuity,

as

Toybox added

Perhaps the toughest obstacle
they faced was lighting sets that, with
few exceptions, had hard ceilings and
were so big that they occupied nearly
the entire stages on which they were
built. (Every stage at the old WarnerHollywood lot was used for the
production.) The hard ceilings were
suspended from the perms by
aircraft cables, which were hung
every six feet. Positioning lights in
and around the cables

was a

difficult

and cutting holes in the
hard ceilings was generally not an
option because they were too weak to
support movie lights. "The cables
really killed us," confirms gaffer
George Ball, shaking his head. "Plus,
prospect,

we

couldn't get
A

scene

in

any

cranes."

both real and CG

inside the medical

institute's conference

room,

where

Catherine and her

colleagues discuss
whether to attempt the risky drug
therapy, demonstrates both prob¬
lems. The

set

consisted of

a

room

12'

high by 20' wide with a
hard ceiling. The back wall of the
conference room was glass and
some

looked

outdoor

patio,
which contained a rectangular
reflecting pool. A TransLite was hung
beyond the patio. The camera
out onto an

remained

inside

the

conference

during the scene, with the glass
wall and the patio clearly visible.
The scene was supposed to
room

American

cherry blossoms to
the trees; used

Maya to give the
falling snow a
sparkly, "magical"
feel; and softened
actress Jennifer

Lopez's face to
lend her features a
dreamlike quality.
This page, bottom:
The young

Stargher stands
within Catherine's
World. This shot, a

four-layer
composite,
involved heavy
color-correction in

Spirit, along with
the addition of CG
snow,

sparkles and

glints.

Cinematographer 43
American Cinematographer - September 2000

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