American Cinematographer - September 2001 - 96

from

one-gallon Ziploc bag, which
completely enclosed the tiny camera.)
a

One

of the

most

innovative

images in the promo is a traveling shot
heading toward the sunset as the sun
plunges behind the horizon in very fast
motion. Devised by Bowlin, the shot was
accomplished with a Mule off-road utility
vehicle rigged by key grip David "Gonzo"
Gonzalez. Hudson sat
one

A-Minima

other

was

on

the Mule with

on

his Steadicam; the
on the vehicle's

mounted

bumper using a Chapman Vibration
Isolator rig. As dolly grip Scott
Froschauer drove the vehicle toward the
Hudson
demonstrates

just how small
and light the
Steadicam rig

setting

He also

ters

the Mule off¬
road utility
vehicle for a
40-minute time-

suggested a camera he had seen
at Showbiz Expo, the Aaton A-Minima.
After doing some research of his own,
aided by first camera assistant Alec
Boehm, Belkin agreed.
"It's an amazing piece of engi¬
neering," says Belkin. "You have a
camera that can shoot time lapse and
high speed, but that weighs about the
same as a 400-foot magazine of 35mm
film." Not only is it steady, he adds, but
it's also quite reliable. Even under

lapse shot.

adverse conditions, the two A-Minimas

The setup
allowed him to
was.

sprint through
the woods

point-of-viewstyle for
multiple takes
without tiring.
Bottom right:
Hudson rides

on

held up perfectly on
The camera
either PL

or

the shoot.
be fitted with

can

Nikkor mounts. For this

clicked off 1/4-second exposures

every three seconds. The fore¬
ground is blurred but the background
remains sharp, creating a fast, edgy
motion. "It looks as if you've covered four
miles within four seconds," says Belkin.
"It's quite dynamic."
Still, the primary attraction of the
A-Minima was its size
fully loaded, it
weighs less than 5 pounds, which gave
Hudson's Steadicam operating an
unusual vitality. "It was like having a
Steadicam operator on the moon," says
Belkin. "He was flying through the fields
once

-

and hills."
Hudson says it took some effort to
make his Steadicam work with such a

project, Belkin occasionally shot with a
Zeiss 9.5mm, and in one case a 25mm,

small camera,

but he

mainly used a Century 6mm with
a 4.5mm wide-angle adapter. Using the
adapter rendered the focus marks on the

camera

lens barrel useless and resulted in

he

one

basic

setting, near close focus, where
everything was sharp. To find that sweet
spot, first camera assistant Greg Ulrich
took time during prep to mount the lens
and adapter on an optical projector and
precisely determine the setting.
Because the spot was ostensibly
a person's POV, Belkin tried to keep the
look as clean as possible; he used no
filtration aside from

a

little neutral

density from time to time. He did use an
optical flat to protect the lens from
thorns, branches and - in the promo's
one quiet moment - water, which was
poured over the lens to simulate a drink
from a canteen. (Further protection came
94

sun at a constant slow pace for
40 minutes, the cameras' intervalome-

35mm, knowing he would have to run at
top speed for virtually the entire shoot.

September 2001

though. "The lighter the

is, the harder it is to keep
steady," he says. To get the rig light
enough to balance with the A-Minima,

replaced his normal monitor with a
small video recorder, and he used one
battery instead of his normal three. "It
became like

but with

a

stick with

a camera on

it,

really good gimbal," he notes.
He had recently changed to a Pro arm,
and he says that the versatility of the
arm, which can handle 13-72 pounds,
made the job possible.
The A-Minima's magazine uses
a

200' film loads, and Kodak now sells
seven

packaged for use with the
EXR 50D 7245 and 100T 7248,

stocks

camera:

and Kodak Vision 250D 7246,200T 7274,

320T 7277, 500T 7279 and 500T 7284.
On this shoot, Belkin used 7245 so that
he could shoot 1/4-second exposures

in

the

sun without piling on
density; he used 7246
for shots done closer to magic hour, and
he used 7279 for a night sequence. He
pushed the 7279 one stop and says that
it held up, though not quite as well as in

bright desert

too much neutral

35mm. He adds that the director liked the

look of the

pushed stock.

Bowlin wanted the

time-lapse
by a night
sequence, and Belkin used 4K tungsten
lighting balloons to create a moonlit look.
sunset shot to be followed

To introduce additional illumination,
Hudson carried

flashlight, which he
whipped around at trees as he ran past.
Although gaffer David Besdesky had
made a special light, an Arri Pocket Par
dressed up as a flashlight, it turned out
that the largest Sure-Fire flashlight was
more than powerful enough, especially in
contrast to the relatively dim glow of the
helium lights. Otherwise, the promos
were lit entirely using gold and silver
a

reflector boards.
Belkin says

that his only real
complaint about the A-Minima is the
quality of the video tap. Not only is it
black-and-white, he explains, but it also
has a tendency to vignette. "We're all
spoiled by the image we get from the
435's video tap," he says.
Fortunately, framing was less crit¬
ical than energy on this project, and the
A-Minima proved to be exactly the right
camera,
especially from Hudson's
perspective. "It was like the camera
wasn't even there," he says. "For two
days of crazy work, I was able to main¬
tain my stamina. I couldn't have done it
with any other camera."
American Cinematographer - September 2001

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