American Cinematographer - December 2000 - 37

decide whether to leave for California

or

stay in his stifling hometown to be with
his unreliable new love, Sarah (Gina

Merchan). The strain of the conflict
night,
and he dolefully places a call to Sarah,
only to hear the ominous sound of her
answering machine. Jim's room is lit
solely by blue-green light from the
awakens him in the middle of the

boI£X SUPER 16

theonlyone

bedroom window behind and to the side

/

of the actor; his face is

mostly in shadow.
simple, Donnelly
explains. "It was two lights acting as one
The setup was

source.

We had both of

our

HMIs close

together outside the window with some
250 diffusion and Ms blue gels. There was
no

fill in the

room

at

all; the white walls

bounce." The tremendous
latitude of the fast Fuji stock added the
unexpected detail on the actors face.
"Initially, I did not want to see his face at
all, and I was surprised by how much we
[could] see," Donnelly says, adding that
the scene's greenish tint, which will be
corrected toward blue in the final timing,
gave us some

resulted from the fact that the two HMIs
were

not

properly balanced.

Other emotionally charged scenes
take

place in the front yard of the home

that Ford shares with his dissolute father.

Ford is

slowly restoring

1956 Chevrolet
as he and Jim discuss their complex
friendship and ponder their futures.
a

Several of these tense moments

are

heightened by skillful Steadicam moves.
"My friend George Bianchini has his own
Steadicam unit. I'd given him jobs doing
music videos over the years, so he came
down and shot four

or

five

scenes

for

us," Donnelly explains, adding that the
high-end camera movement adds some
luster to the film. "For a low-budget film,
having this wonderful camera movement
was a great advantage. Static shots are
the norm for this type of production
because of money considerations.
[Without the Steadicam,] our prolonged
takes would have been broken up [and
shot in a static way,] on sticks." A small
track dolly was also used to add camera
movement throughout the production.
Sipe and Donnelly developed
extensive storyboards using Donnelly's
Storyboard Quick software, but the cine¬
matographer says that in general, the

The unique

profession?

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With the famous 14.5-115 mm VARIO SWITAR
power zoom with auto/manual exposure
and aspheron 7.5 mm wide angle lens.

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For the BOLEX SUPER 16, professional requirements are easily met and, in addi¬
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Thanks to its carefully selected accessories, the BOLEX SUPER 16 adapts itself to
any type of production, including crystal-controlled applications.
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and other spring- or electric driven Bolex cameras, as well as information on the
possibility of adapting existing Bolex cameras and lenses for Super 16.
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L
of Switzerland

35
American Cinematographer - December 2000

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