American Cinematographer - July 2003 - 36

led into his seat," he recalls. "He would

body mike on him early in the day, and
he'd just forget about it. We caught all
kinds of good material that way."
Of course, not all of Archer's

get stopped every five seconds by

people like Paul Newman

George

or

Lucas. If I wanted to get an interview
with someone like Mario Andretti, Willy
would

just walk in there and introduce
me, and everything would be cool."
Archer says that Ribbs, with his
affable smile and 10-gallon hat, had
screen presence to spare, but he also
wanted to catch the driver
obtained

unawares.

He

such shot

by mounting a
Canon XL1 equipped with a wide-angle
prime onto the roof of Ribbs' car; the
camera

one

faced backwards

as

Ribbs and

his chief mechanic

pushed the car
paddock to the track.
Though each man wore a mike, neither
noticed the camera as they chatted
about the race ahead, and the rolling
vehicle acted as a perfect dolly. Archer's
other trick could well be inspired by
wildlife photography: "One of my
favorite things to do was to position the
the tech

across

Archer chose

Sony DXC-30
and Hitachi Z2010A video
cameras

due to

budgetary
constraints.

characters he
on

might never have secured
his own, as was the case at Long

Beach. "We walked with him all the

from the team's truck through the
paddock, across the track, through the
pits and all the way to the starting line,
rolling continuously until he was buck¬

way

:CARTONi:

■

camera

down low behind

a

stack of tires

in the
like

paddock area, and just stay there
surveillance man, following him
my long zoom lens. We'd pin the

a

with

creative decisions

were

left to chance.

Knowing he'd be following Ribbs
through a series of very similar locations
and events, Archer decided to give each
racing venue a distinctive color signa¬
ture. "I knew that most of the activity
was going to be outside, so the sky was
always going to be a character," he says.
"I wanted it to always have a personal¬
ity." With a combination of high-contrast
camera settings and Tiffen grad filters,
he created a glossy "Hollywood" look for
Long Beach, a cool blue for Charlotte,
and a gritty, industrial monochrome for
Detroit. "I don't like diffusion because I
like

severe

says.
most

contrast and vivid

colors," he

This preference led him to shoot
of the project on Sony DXC-30 and

Hitachi Z-2010A

cameras

mounted with

Fujinon zooms. "The Hitachi lets you
adjust black levels and gamma curves
for every color gun, so you can get what¬
ever you want. In essence, it's the same
thing as choosing stocks; you pick the

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American Cinematographer - July 2003

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