American Cinematographer - August 2001 - 68

couldn't do

reverses

because

"Every

we

didn't have the bluescreen in that

cameraman

I

direction. We could go up about 18
feet from the ground, and we could
do handheld shots. It was pretty

know, every

visionary guy who's
played with this,
immediately picks

great."
Spielberg still had to direct
against a giant bluescreen, but for the
first time he didn't have to imagine
what each shot would ultimately
look like. The bleeding-edge technol¬
ogy enabled the filmmakers to see a

the camera up
and tries it

handheld, and he
can't believe it."

crude version of the final shot,

-Dennis Muren, ASC

onto

monitor. "Steven likes to walk
the bluescreen set and get

[ideas

for] shooting the sequence," Muren

"This way he could see a
composite of the characters, the
street set, and all of the 12-story [CG
and miniature] buildings in real
time. The quality wasn't perfect, but
he could see all of the compositions."
says.

Muren, who

6.5"

came to

visual

exactly how it will look."
potential dividend is
ability to apply all camera-

can see

Another

the

motion data from the set to the
miniature

photography and CG

elements.
made
are

to

"[The tool] was never
do that, and the tolerances

such that it shouldn't be able to

do it, but it could have worked
A.I. because

our

effects with an extensive cinematog¬
raphy background, is excited that
On-Set Visualization can give the
director and cinematographer more
control

over

visual-effects sequences

track the

camera

movements

camera

it back

data in post, and then played
the motion-control stage

on

shoot the miniatures."

while

they're on set. "It's a director's
tool, and the cinematographer can

to

help with the framing," Muren
affirms. "My hope - though we

whistles that will

Even without all the bells and

certainly be in place

for On-Set Visualization 1.1, the

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within

about 95 percent, but we didn't have
time to even test that. We tracked the

monitor
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tolerances weren't

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American Cinematographer - August 2001

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