American Cinematographer - August 2002 - 66

Hardcore Action
The

crew

captures a
greenscreen
shot of Diesel
behind the
wheel. "You
can't beat Vin
a

as

down-and-

dirty James
Bond," Semler
says.

though it was about 10-below and
snowy outside, it was close to 130
degrees up on the balcony!"
Another challenging sequence
finds Cage and the mysterious Yelena
(Asia Argento) racing in a Pontiac
GTO to keep tabs on an unmanned

feeling it. They're low to the ground,
they're driving a car and it's fast."

boat loaded with chemical weapons
that's speeding down a river. Cohen

a

look¬

ing at the back of the truck rather
there are a

than the open road, "and
bunch of people sitting

there with
lights," Semler notes with
laugh. "We were loaded up with

cables and

three

cameras, one

mounted

on

the

Rig, the
Academy Award-winning rig origi¬
nally designed by Mic Rodgers for
The Fast and The Furious, which

special-effects guys, the sound guy
and Rob all traveling at 40 to 60 miles
per hour down that little road. There
was only about four feet of working
space at the back of the cabin, where
the cameras and the lights were. I
used two 2500-watt Pars powered by
two 5K generators mounted behind
the cabin with a 216 or a light grid-

to

combines
car.

the Mic

use

a

tow

vehicle and

an

insert

(Cohen bought the rig and now
see Production Slate,

leases it out;

May '01). "By the time you put

people and lights
car

and add the

becomes

on a regular insert
with the actors, it

car

huge rig, and speed and
cornering must be handled with
caution," Semler explains. "The Mic
Rig was a truck that was cut and
stripped down so all that was left was
a

the cabin. The back
and lowered
sit

on

so

flattened

was

the insert

car

it with its wheels

on the
drove the Mic

rolling

the GTO

could

actually

ground. A stuntman
Rig at real speed, and

was

able

to

drive like

a

regular car up to at least 60 miles per
corners at speed, back up,
stop and turn without hassles. Vin

hour, take
and Asia

were

in the car, and

it's

totally real - the background is
screeching by behind them, which
really gives that footage high energy.

August 2002

are

side and

wanted

62

Of course, the actors

much better for the

It must be

so

actors, too,

because they're actually

front, with an oper¬
ator and a focus puller on each of the
front

two

up

cameras.

cloth frame

Plus,

to create

we

had two

soft fill in the

interior. I also had

couple of
light
the backseat up a bit when it opens
up and reveals a huge assortment of
weaponry. Knowing that the natural
light would be changing as the rig
traveled the route, I'd take a rough
guess at the average stop, send the
boys on their way and keep my
fingers crossed.
"We used long lenses rather
than going too wide, and we found
once again that the rougher it was, the
better, so we kept the shake, rattle and
roll going," he continues. "Sometimes
the image almost strobed vertically
from the vibration. That rig is a great
car

a

Kino Flos hidden in the back to

invention, because it really gives a
whole

new dimension to speed. We
strapped Marko and Tony into
Danny Wayans' great motorcycle rig,
which he'd brought over from the
States. We used that primarily for fast
profile, 'unattached' traveling shots at
high speeds."
The film's seemingly endless
barrage of action setpieces - which
include a parasail landing on a
runaway boat, a snowboard racing
just inches ahead of a landslide, and a
car's death-defying dive off a bridge
and into a gorge - demanded the
talents of not only Hollywood's finest
special-effects artists and stuntmen,
but also genuine extreme-sports

also

athletes. "I went to the X-Games and
met Sean

Palmer and Mat Hoffman

even started writing the
script, just to get the vibe of what

before

we

their lives

were

about," Cohen says.

"Once

they saw how real I wanted to
make this movie, they had unbridled
zeal."

fact, many X-Game contes¬
including Tony Hawk, Carey

In
tants,

Hart, Rick Thorne, Jason Ellis, Mike
Jones, Larry Linkogle and Jeremy
"Twitch" Stenberg, appear in XXX as

characters, or as Diesel's doubles. But
when

things got too dangerous, the

filmmakers turned to visual-effects
artists at
tance.

had

a

Digital Domain for assis¬
challenge was that we

"The

monolithic character who's

supposed to have

an extreme variety
of skills," Cohen says. "We had to
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