American Cinematographer - March 2003 - 68

Forging a Nation

Clockwise from
above: Gen.

"Stonewall"
Jackson

(Stephen Lang),
Gen. Lee and
Gen. James

Longstreet
(Bruce
Boxleitner) go
over

their

plans;

Van Oostrum

lines up a shot;
second-unit
director of

photography
Wages

William
goes to

work

on

location; and the
troops take
stock of their
losses.

Van Oostrum says

he likes the
versatility of the XL Panaflex, espe¬
cially its bright viewfinder and
compactness, which makes it easy to
handhold. He also carried

a

PanArri

for sequences in which he
wanted to vary frame rates, and a
435

Mitchell 3 for

shooting plates needed
digital composites. Primo
anamorphic lenses were used only
for

for the show's visual-effects shots "to
obtain

optimum resolution."
Many of Gods and Generals

key cast members played the same
roles in Gettysburg. They include Jeff
Daniels (who plays Lt. Col. Joshua
Lawrence Chamberlain), Stephen
Lang (who portrays Gen. Jackson)
and Robert Duvall

(Gen. Robert E.
Lee). More than 7,500 extras were

required for reenactments of histori¬
key collaborators
for Van Oostrum included produc¬
tion designer Michael Z. Hanan and
costume designers Richard La Motte
cal battles. Other

and Maurice Whitlock. "We had

71-day schedule with
ambitious

scenes, so we

a

some very

had to make

every shot count," Maxwell says. "It's
tempting to get caught up in the
spectacle and grandeur of epic films,
but the bone marrow is the close-ups
and performances. We've been
conditioned by an MTV mentality
that if you don't cut, cut, cut, the

audience will be bored. I believe that

totally fallacious; we're a
loquacious species, and we love to
talk and listen to other people talk¬
ing. If you construct scenes in an
intricate way that's true to the char¬
acters and story, the audience will be
riveted by the dialogue and images."
concept is

About

half

of

Gods

and

Generals unfolds in interiors, and
many such scenes

take place at night.

Van Oostrum notes that at that time,

only certain
were

parts of domestic rooms
lit because candles and oil were

expensive. People of the era had to go
right up to a candle to read a letter.
When choosing exteriors, Van
Oostrum didn't have the luxury of
waiting for the sun to be in the right
place. He used as much backlight as
possible, though sometimes that
strategy went awry when clouds
drifted in and

out

of

scenes

and

covering different angles
suddenly be sidelit or frontlit.

cameras

would

He used

a

lot of

smoke, which

was

motivated

by all the cannon- and
gunfire. Cars with smoke generators
circled the peripheries of the sets, and
smoke frequently blotted out parts of
the sky.
Gods and Generals was mainly
filmed on location in Virginia,
Maryland and around Washington,
D.C. Whenever possible, the film¬
makers worked in the actual locations

used in the story. "It was important to
shoot at those locations because we
needed historical

64 March 2003

veracity," Maxwell
American Cinematographer - March 2003

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