American Cinematographer - January 2001 - 92

The Way of the West
background, and he wanted to see
the horses appear out of almost pitch

Top: Many of the
film's locations
were

in the

high

darkness. The sound of the hooves

country of New
Mexico, where

gets louder and louder, and then they

light "has an

burst into view."

incredible and

unexplainable
quality,"

West

according to
cinematographer
Barry Markowitz.
Bottom: Grady

This

mystical image of the Old

was

shot

Ghost Ranch in

at

New Mexico, a

place often painted by
Georgia O'Keefe. A path was cleared
through brush, and the horses were
rehearsed for two weeks. High
frame rates (40-80 fps) combined
with the anamorphic format made
Markowitz "desperate" for light. "We

and

Alejandra's
relationship
heats up during a
nighttime swim.

had 18K HMIs, 6K Pars and three

Muscos!" he says. "I put pools

along the horses' path
into
a

In

shots, the actors

some

lit almost

if it made no logi¬
cinematographer

"For instance, [in one shot]

Matt Damon is in the

foreground,
looking at a cliff overhang 20 feet
away. We blocked all of the sunlight
from his face and left what he

was

suddenly

bursting into a T11."
Five

cameras

take: the A-camera

traveling

on a

overhead;

rolled

on

1,500' Cablecam

cameras

each

Spacecam

was a

B and C

run

were on

insert vehicles driving
along a gravel road built especially
for the shot; camera D was stationary
and positioned at the far end of the
two

separate

Pan-Arri

run;

and

with

a

T32, with the lens three feet from

in the middle

him."

Spacecam, a gyro-stabilized remote
camera housing, moved at speeds of
15-20 mph on the steel cable, which

were often shot
180mm lens situated 10 feet

Close-ups
away

a

and with

a

40mm lens about

three feet away to
The cowboy hats

provide coverage.
that proliferated
the cast presented no prob¬

among

camera

E

was a

wide-angle lens planted right
of the

run.

is

supported by cranes at both ends.
Although the cable was level, its run
was full of rises and dips, so the
height of the Spacecam varied
10'

and 40'

above the

between

ing from the shadowed face beneath
(usually a T8) and occa¬
sionally filled in with a 4' x 8' piece of
headboard placed on the ground, or
with an angled 4' x 4' bounce board

ground.
"Filming from the insert vehi¬

attached

to

the bottom

of the

All the
a

vision of

was a

Pretty Horses opens

dreamlike,

slow-motion

herd of mustangs

thun¬
dering across the night landscape
(see diagram on page 93). "We actu¬
ally filmed that scene last,"
Markowitz notes. "Billy wanted a
a

[location] with mountains in the

real headache," Markowitz

says. "We were using long lenses, and
that made every bump visible, even

though

we

Louma

camera.

with

cles

had the cameras on
with gyro-controlled
operated one of those

cranes

mounts.

I

cameras

and zoomed in to about

250mm

widen

on

the first pass, but I

out to

150mm

had to

[because] it

just too unsteady. The dips made
and down, so even at 80 fps
I knew I'd only get pieces that looked
really good from the insert road. Still,

was
me

tilt up

a

we

we'd

cameras

and the 79 stock, and under

the

awning I could work at T5.6 and
close-ups. I was stacking
on the lens to bring the
exposure down from T45! As the
light started to fail later in the day,
I'd just unstack. We had a lot of
go in for
ND filters

wind, sand and dust, but
lot of

we

got a

mileage out of those harsh

conditions."
The three boys get

The

lem; Markowitz took the meter read¬
the brim

January 2001

T5.6, almost black, before

looking at burned out, so his face was
T2.8 and what he was looking at was

with

90

[area], then into a T8, then

T16

silhouettes. "[That]

as

looked great, even
cal sense," the
asserts.

were

a

of light
they'd run

so

lot better than

thought
planned for four nights of
shooting but we got it in one."
The film's narrative begins
with a funeral: the grandfather of
teenager John Grady has died at the
family ranch in Texas. Shortly there¬
after, Grady (Matt Damon) sets off
for Mexico with two friends, Lacey
Rawlins (Henry Thomas) and a
younger boy named Blevins (Lucas
Black). "There was no lighting for the
funeral, [not even any] bounce - it
was a perfect, gray day!" Markowitz
exults. "The clouds were rolling in
and the wind was blowing, so we
didn't need any fans. When we shot
the reverse angles, a lightning storm
was brewing, and we just lapped it
up! You'll think it's CGI. We used two
it went

-

early

on

violent
horse

into trouble
when they're caught in a

storm
-

a

and Blevins loses his

catastrophe for

any
American Cinematographer - January 2001

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2001
