American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 68

A Pocket Full of Shells
Top: Hanging
high above the

hole up in a rundown Mexican motel
to make the ransom call. This

Mexican motel

sequence presented Pope with the
challenge of lighting a large structure
and area that lacked any type of
lighting source. The cinematogra¬
pher decided to fill the air, so to
speak, with an atypical moonlight. "I
kept the lighting quite moody and

set is the
"Lunar Pontiff,"

large lightbox
designed by
Pope, whom the
crew jokingly
a

dubbed "The
Pontiff." Formed
of 12'x 12'

silks, the cube

low-level

housed 16 nine-

light MiniBrutes with Par
36

globes and
quality of
light that
"hung"in the
air. "To provide

there

that the

so

area

ing there. You don't know where it's
coming from, but you don't question

cast a

some

out

didn't feel lit," he says. "The quality of
illumination felt like it was just hang¬

it because it

seems so

natural."

At the desert motel location

of the

outside of Salt Lake

ambience in

City, Pope used

key

tungsten sources to create an oasis of

locations," Pope

light surrounded by pitch blackness.
"I'm generally against the bluemoonlight look unless it's called for,
and this film didn't require it," he

several
says,

"Maia

[Javan] erected
five wooden

telephone poles
which I

on

says.

placed warmgelled 2K Zips

The location's main

dressed to look
like practicals.
Those units cast
a

pool of light

at the bottom

of the

dubbed the "Lunar Pontiff,"

poles."

of

a

term

inspired by Pope's on-set moniker:

Bottom:

The Pontiff. "I was addressed like that

Longbaugh and
Sarno

the whole time," he chuckles,

"espe¬
cially by Chris and [first AD] Bill

respectfully and
congenially

Clark, who both had

discuss their

options outside

a

wicked

of humor. I'd be listed

the Mexican
motel's bar.

sheet

directly by practical

sources.

Chidducks' house]

is the truest

"[The

example of that in the film, because
we really didn't use
any practical
lights there," Pope explains. "We
didn't want it to be pretty and
homey, because the characters were
cold, ruthless people. The practicals
that

were

in the house

were

covered

as

'The Pontiff,' and

sense

the call
even

the

light on the fronts of their faces.
There was light coming in from the
hallway, slashing across the doors
and cabinets

interested in that! It

ing has distinctly noir edge. The
cameraman

notes,

"For that

scene,

I

lit the internal architecture, but I left
the

actors in

silhouette, with very

little

I had two

at

the end of the

room.

heavily flagged Kino Flo

Wall-O-Lites and various smaller

units, like 650s, 300s and Peppers,

soft tungsten source

playing in there." The ceiling had
small practical halogen lights that
Pope refocused to cast additional
pools of light onto cabinets, doors

light

and countertops.
After kidnapping

the

surro¬

gate mother, Longbaugh and Parker

the 'Lunar

was

Pontiff,' and that was that.

very

September 2000

on

people at Artisan Entertainment
ended up calling me that! It went
right down the line. [The phrase
'Lunar Pontiff'] really bemused me; I
tried to explain to everyone in my
English way that the look of that light
wasn't actually lunar at all, but I was
speaking to people who weren't

with dark blue shades

[and gave off]
little light. I also did my utmost
to keep the light off the white walls,
which we weren't allowed to repaint;
I didn't want to let them pop."
In a scene in which the icy
Francesca eavesdrops from a stair¬
case as the two bodyguards discuss
their agenda in the kitchen, the light¬
66

source

light originated from a customcrafted lightbox hoisted over the
motel by a crane. This rig was

"I knew I wanted
-

a

strong but

not moon¬

that I could hang over the
provide an extensive pool
of light. I also wanted it to be easily
movable and totally controllable,
intensity-wise, from the ground. I
remembered reading an article years
ago about how Haskell Wexler [ASC]
-

location

to
American Cinematographer - September 2000

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