American Cinematographer - March 2004 - 32

and

highly stylized illustrative materials
specifically for the film. Throughout
the
interviews,
the
85-year-old
McNamara
the first secretary of
shot

-

defense to assert civilian control

over

the

military (under Kennedy and Johnson) -
challenges, cackles and weeps, and both
incriminates and absolves himself for his
actions.

Working on a 30'-square stage,
Chappell shot the interview on 24p highdefinition video, using a Panavised Sony
HDW-F900 CineAlta. He didn't

use

filtra¬

tion and maintained the

equivalent of a
shooting stop. "We were shoved in
one corner, looking back across the stage
into the cyclorama 20 feet behind

T2.5

McNamara," he details. Between the

and McNamara stood four translu¬
"slightly more transparent
than a light tracing paper, something like
Lee Opal diffusion." The set was
designed to separate subject from back¬
ground and combat HD's extensive depth
of field. "We were trying to build some¬
thing neutral behind him and keep it out
of focus," says Chappell.
eye

cent screens,

A Troubled

by Bob Davis

recently undergone surgery in
Singapore for a broken foot, an injury he
had sustained while working in India. "I

Four years ago,

when former U.S.
Secretary of Defense Robert S.
McNamara unexpectedly agreed to an
hour-long interview for the PBS series
First Person, documentary filmmaker
Errol Morris placed an urgent call to cine¬
matographer Bob Chappell, a longtime
friend. "I called Bob at 10 p.m., and
McNamara was coming the next day,"
recalls Morris. Chappell had just

told Errol I

returned to the United States after

cameraman.

Defense Robert

McNamara, the
first secretary of
defense to assert
civilian control
over

and had

Former U.S.

Secretary of

the

military,

sat down for a

series of
interviews with
filmmaker Errol

Morris (pictured
with McNamara

below), and the
result is The Fog
of War: Eleven
Lessons From the
Life of Robert S.
McNamara.

Legacy

was on

crutches and couldn't

drive to Boston," says
said he'd send a car to

Chappell. "So he
pick me up!"
By hobbling around the set,
Chappell managed to light and shoot the
interview, and throughout the job,
McNamara never spoke to him. "I got the
impression he thought I might've lost a
limb in Vietnam and was there to give
him a piece of my mind," muses the

"faced"

McNamara

through one of two cross-connect
teleprompters set at a 45-degree angle
in front of the camera. This rig, which
Morris calls the "Interrotron," preserves

tape any eye contact the subject
makes with the projected interviewer. In

on

reality, says Chappell, "Errol was
about 10 feet away, behind a
curtain

lengthy stint in Asia; he had lived in

Morris

Southeast Asia for

steered the discussion in that direction,

consisted of several Harvard

McNamara's whole

students.

more

than

a

decade

manner

Nevertheless,

the

interview

lasted

nearly eight hours. What's more,
stayed a second day for
another eight-hour session, and months
later, he returned for two more days.
McNamara

a

was

his research staff, which

graduate

Chappell placed the camera on a
O'Connor Ultimate 50-200 digital

fluid head that

designed for excep¬
tionally heavy cameras. The Dutch
head's 180-degree tilt range allows for
dramatic angles, a characteristic of
was

Morris' recent work. "Errol works with
broad brush," notes

a

Chappell. "He's kind

than

of like the Jackson Pollock of documen¬

feature-length

tary cinema." But for Chappell, the grav¬

Morris found himself with

enough material for
documentary.

new

-

sitting
black

like the Wizard of Oz." With

"He didn't want to talk

about Vietnam, and whenever Errol

a

changed. He
became quite defensive [and] stam¬
mered a bit. Sometimes he stood up and
took off the microphone."

more

The resultant film, The

Fog of

ity of McNamara's "lessons" - drawn
participation in World War II,

from his

War: Eleven Lessons From the Life of

the Cuban missile crisis, and the Vietnam

Robert S. McNamara, combines unusual

War, among other events

studio interviews, odd archival footage
28 March 2004

Morris

- militated
against borrowing First Persons rather

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Claire

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American Cinematographer - March 2004

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