American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 50

M nd Games
Cinematographer
Paul Laufer

The

(top

a

photo, in white,

location in

Namibia, Africa.
Opposite page: A
Libra head was
mounted on both
the

nose

of

a

Jet

Ranger helicopter
and the hood of
offroad truck

an

to

capture

dynamic footage
in Namibia.

packages included

based sequences, and an Arriflex
535B and an Arri 435 for scenes

and below)

supervises
photography on

camera

Platinum, a PanArri for the Primo-

photographed with the Cookes.
Camera moves were fairly routine,
with a few notable exceptions. The
most arresting sequence is a home
movie of Stargher as a young child
being baptized in a pond. The scene
was shot in two
styles that were
married in editing. Fine-arts photog¬
rapher Cecil Cole used an underwa¬
ter

camera

Rawlins, gaffer Ball and riggers Nead

transform into the

and Leitelt. While there

dunes of Namibia. "It was a great
technical challenge," Laufer remarks.

second unit

baptism from an underwater
perspective, lending the sequence the
feel of a distant memory. The show's

the film, there

no

was a

headed up

by
photography Dave
Drzewiecki. Laufer also singled out
Sara Romilly and Lauren Ritchie
(New Line's postproduction supervi¬
sor and
vice-president of visual
effects, respectively) for their "incred¬
ible support," and timer Jim Passon
director

team

of

and Ron Koch

at

dedication to the

make shots of the

to

on

visual-effects

was

One

of

Deluxe for their

project.
the

film's

most

demanding shots involved helicopter
footage taken in Namibia, where
Laufer worked with his regular over-

"First

undulating sand

shot Jennifer

sitting on her
practical location in Los
Angeles at T2 or T2.8. Then we shot
an aerial plate in Namibia. Back in
L.A., we re-created the shot of
Jennifer's hands on a stage. We not
only had to match the stage lighting
we

bed in

a

with the earlier bedroom

but

scene,

also the perspective of the blanket
with the aerial view of the sand
dunes.
"In order

to

get the same

perspective, we had to be down
among the blanket's folds, so we
used a Kenworthy snorkel lens,
which needs a stop of at least T8. I
think I was working at a T16 in order
to achieve the depth of field and get
the performance out of the snorkel
system. That meant we had to bring
up the lighting values."
To get the aerial perspective of
the sand dunes, Laufer strapped a
Libra head

the

onto

nose

of

Jet

a

Ranger helicopter. The rugged digital
head, which

won

a

Scientific and

Engineering Award at this year's
Academy Awards, is good for any
kind of off-road work, but The Cell

marked

main unit used

"up-and-over rig"
to boom in a perfect arc over a group
standing in the pond, and the camera
keeps shooting as it plunges into the
water. "The part where we see a man's
feet under the water is on a stage with
somebody's feet in a tank and the
camera

"Then

on

we

camera

On shots such
received

help from

included

camera

Gaudioz,

first

a

as

crew

that

operator Tony
assistant
Don

Burghardt, second assistant Brett
Gates, loader Kate Santore, key grip
48

September 2000

able

to mount

the Libra head

on

was

the

helicopter because it had been
approved by the British Civil
Aviation Authority. (FAA approval is
still pending.)
The

upright

these, Laufer

crack

do motion-control and motion-

capture aerial

button," enthuses Laufer, who

tide

-

rig
footage. "It

can

to

and if you want roll, pitch or
pan-stabilization you just press a

its side," Laufer reveals.

pool, where Catherine is
lying. It's actually a simple transition
no computer
manipulation or
any other tricks were involved."
onto a

of the first times the

used

capture,

an

bring the

one

was

Cell

moves

from

the

of the African desert
to the dingy, underground torture
chamber where Stargher imprisons
sunny expanses

seas camera crew

focus

Pocock,

(camera grip Gary

puller

Colin

Watkinson and second assistant Dan

and kills his victims. The six

Holland). The scene starts on
Catherine, sitting in bed in Los

bleached

Angeles and watching television. The

are

camera

looks down at her hands

holding

a

over

small pillow, then drifts

the folds of the blanket, which

as

white

as snow

women,

and made

look like kinky porcelain dolls,
posed in bizarre, sometimes
contorted positions and displayed
behind glass as though in a shop
window. They are glimpsed only
up to
American Cinematographer - September 2000

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2000
