American Cinematographer - May 2004 - 65

does

a

lot of takes, and that

was

or

sometimes likes

carry."

even

to

do three, four

five takes in

a

or

row," says

FauntLeRoy. "We'd cover him with
cameras
shooting in the same
direction at different focal lengths. It

both

would become very
shoot cross-angle."

Helter Skelter
16x9

was

difficult to
shot in the

(1.78:1) widescreen aspect ratio,

and the

camera crew

worked hand¬

the 200mm Nikon lens,
be a pretty heavy load to

even

especially true with Jeremy, who

which

At press

time, Helter Skelters
picture wasn't locked and the final
timing hadn't been completed, so the
filmmakers could

true to
execu¬

were

some

and there

"TV look." Says

Dusty Blauvelt and Joe Valentine,
weren't all that happy about it! A
couple of times I had them handhold¬
ing the cameras with 150mm lenses,

element that

was

nal telefilm. "The violence is intense,
to give the victims their
day in court," he explains. "Between
the time of the murders and today, a
culture of cool has grown up around
Manson, and I think it's important to
really show people what he did." ■

were rumors

image might be brightened

ally like to do handheld work with a
wider lens and get the camera really
close to the action," says FauntLeRoy,
"but John said, 'Let's play way back on
a
long lens,' which is the opposite of
everything I ever learned. It worked
out well, though, and I like the look of
Of course, my operators,

an

but I wanted

balking at the violence of

scenes,

that the

-

generally made abstract in the origi¬

be certain that

their aesthetic choices. CBS

to

scenes.

not

the broadcast version will be
tives

disturbing violence of the

raw,

murders

held, often with long lenses. "I gener¬

those

vital that the broadcast retain the

can

conform with

a

more

standard

TECHNICAL SPECS

FauntLeroy, "The bad

about 5263 is that it captures so
much information that someone
news

16x9

really can alter the look if he wants to.
One day someone requested that our
dailies be timed much brighter, and
after they did it, someone said, 'Now
it looks like an episode of Friends.' I
didn't know what

to

Kodak Vision 500T 5263,

Ektachrome 125T 7240,

make of that. I

just hope they air the show the
we

Panaflex Gold II
Panavision SP and Nikon lenses

Eastman Tri-X Reversal 7278

way

envisioned it."
For his part,

Postproduction at FotoKem
Gray feels it is

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or
American Cinematographer - May 2004

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