American Cinematographer - August 2002 - 59

After he bests
several other

when he decided to follow up
The Fast and the Furious with

Director Rob Cohen recal s that
XXX,

a

James

criminals in a
series of hair-

Bond-style,

raising tests

(opposite page),

extreme-sports action flick, he
wanted his new film "to go beyond

street-smart

daredevil and
convicted felon
Xander Cage

The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome and Waterworld in
terms

(Vin Diesel, this

of action, and to have the

page,

artful, big-screen photography of
Dances With

WolvesFortunately,
one of XXX's executive
producers,
Arne Schmidt, had just completed

of

matographer who had shot all of

of Soldiers (see AC Feb. '02).
The premise of XXX is

photography
Dean

week

bSRHJPWK5ethuvocpoodireala9iyugnyslfent..hs,
courftesy

Phot s

two

or

isn't bad.' The

that the
Security Administration
has decided to recruit an unusually
gifted criminal for espionage work.

thing I knew, I

Several candidates

week in Tahiti. But I

ues

winner is the street-smart Xander

Diesel

Cage (Vin Diesel), who had initially
caught the NS As eye after he stole
and flamboyantly destroyed a U.S.
senators classic car. Cage is offered a
choice: go to prison or become a spy.
Once he opts for the latter, he finds
himself in Prague, where he must
infiltrate a group of Russian anar¬
chists suspected of terrorist acts.
Schmidt sent the XXX script
to Semler on a Friday, and the

Bond."

cameraman

called Cohen

days later. "I thought it was a
different story and a good piece of
action," Semler recalls, "and when I
with Rob he drew

picture that
really made the action explode off
the page. But I wasn't too sure about
going to Europe for a long time, and
I didn't want to leave my crew. Then
met

a

Joe Roth, with whom I'd worked
the

on

Young Guns movies and The
Three Musketeers, rang up and said,
two

'Come back

to

the fold.' And when

Arne first rang me,

he'd said the

show would be shot in Tahiti and

by.

board!

Prague in the miserable cold and a
thought the

smart

two

was on

Cohen stands

next

"As it turned out," he contin¬
with a laugh, "it was 12 weeks in

they are put through a series of
death-defying tests. The consistent

Australian

up a shot as
director Rob

so I began thinking, 'Hmm,
Tahiti for nine weeks and Prague for

Prague,
a

selected, and

Semler,

ASC, ACS, lines

National

are

prison. This

page, below:
Director of

those films: Dean Sender, ASC, ACS.
Now all Cohen had to do was

incredibly rigorous film on the heels

for

government in
order to stay out

We Were Soldiers with the cine¬

convince Semler to tackle another

top)

agrees to spy
the U.S.

story

of

an

unlikely

spy was a very

idea, and you can't beat Vin
as

a

down-and-dirty James

has the

So Semler and Cohen set off
to

revolutionize action

filmmaking,
began
only done two

which is how Semler's
-

if you analyze Road Warrior you'll see
that some of it is overcast, some of it

sort

of. "I'd

career

features

prior to The Road Warrior,
and neither had any action," Semler

sun on one

side and

the other. But that doesn't
that

sort

of action

-

some on

matter in

just take a look

Jawsl On Road Warrior, the
camera was either handheld or, if it
was mounted,
George and I were
at

general, you can't get too
hung up about things that in the end
don't matter. [Director] George

constantly shaking it. I'd feel a gigan¬
halfway through a shot I
was
operating, and it would be
George kicking the legs of the tripod
from underneath! That gave the
shots a raw, wild, fantastic energy."
Creating a similar level of
energy for XXX required the same
kind of imagination, but different
tools. "Rob had just used a lot of digi¬
tal tricks for speed and vibration on
The Fast and the Furious, things we'd

Miller's words

never

notes.

"But I'd done

a

lot of docu¬

mentaries, and I think that experi¬

really helped me with Road
Normally, feature films and
especially commercials have a pris¬
tine quality; there can't be an inch of
the frame with any flaws. But in the
ence

Warrior.

Mad Max movies and in action
movies in

didn't

were

'Just be bold.' He

much
about matching light or getting rid
of a paper cup a mile away that
might be in the shot. George liked to
take risks. Mind you, we weren't
being careless or near-enough-isgood-enough. It had to be right, but
want me to

worry too

tic shake

had

says. "So
we

on

Road Warrior," Semler

I listened to Rob's ideas, and

combined them with

some

of my

give XXX super-high energy."
Cohen says he wants "to
expand and reinterpret the [action]
genre in my own way. The Fast and
the Furious was a first step, and XXX
own to

American

Cinematographer 55
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