American Cinematographer - February 2001 - 58

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Top: The production works on more level ground while creating a snowstorm at base
camp. Below: Director of photography David Tattersall, BSC.
says. "In those sequences where we
had mountain views that had been
chosen very carefully to be shot at a
certain time, we used a combination

of

techniques:

retrace

we

the actor's

them in with loose
tracked toward

LOW CO ST AND
FREEVIEW

chopper
blowing

had one person
footprints, filling
snow as

camera,

he back¬

and we had a

the top of the shot
new, loose covering of

over
a

snow over

the whole

area.

It worked

When weather

permitted the
company to return to the same highover a

number of

days, the production often ran into
fresh surprises. "If, say, it had snowed

The OpTex

VA1394 colour video assist

evening and there were heavy
morning, the wind¬

blown cornices would look like these

ridiculously unbelievable, badly
sculpted polystyrene snowblocks,"
Tattersall recalls. "They didn't look
real, so we lost them using our trusty
chopper method: we'd just hover a
chopper over the location for a
couple of minutes and let it blow the
snowdrifts around in

a

different

way."

pretty well."

altitude location

in the

winds in the

Perhaps Tattersall's greatest
challenge was to create a sense of
depth while shooting across a pris¬
tine vista at the highest elevations.
"We could shoot in slightly less-thanperfect weather lower down, but our
only chance of shooting on the very
high locations was if the weather
conditions were perfect, which
clouds,

wind,

aerial

transmitter/receiver kit provides cost

meant no

effective, high quality license free
transmission. Key features include:

perspective," Tattersall says. "With the

Normal

*

operating

range approx.

1,000ft/300metres

Optional high gain antenna

*

available to enhance the range
Self contained units provide a

*

simple plug-in link that requires no
operator intervention
Link operates on the MPT1349 UK
license exempt frequency band

*

■O^K
International Distribution
+44

by OpTex

(0)20 8441 2199, fax +44 (0)20 8449 3646,

email
or

First For

transmission

info@optexint.com
more on www.optexint.com

read

no

clear air, the views looked like artifi¬
cial

cycloramas, so we'd often try to
the shots in a backlit or
crosslit situation, shooting into the
shadows of the opposite side of the
valley. Those are the two best ways of
showing the location, since ffontlit
snow is just very
boring. The biggest
problems were 'controlling' the
weather, and making scenes that
arrange

Continued

US Sales contact 2GC:
(973) 335 4460, (ax (973) 335 4560

read more on www.zgc.com

no

on

page 60.
American Cinematographer - February 2001

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