American Cinematographer - September 2004 - 79

At Sea in Japan
relayed by Japanese assistant direc¬
Japanese actors and techni¬
cians. Conversely, the Japanese cast
and crew's messages had to be trans¬
lated into English before they could
be relayed to the English-speaking
cast and crew. As we say in the busi¬
ness, "The plot thickens."
Our main cameras were posi¬
tioned on a specially constructed,
large camera barge, which, just like
tors to

the other waterborne vessels, rolled,
heaved and

pitched on the swells and
position constantly. This
being a night shoot, my powerful arc
lights pumped their illumination
shifted

from the distant shore, but

as

the

boats

The Black

Ship
played a
prominent role
in the battle

sequence,
which took
weeks to
prepare.

Such

as night work are
and are approved only
in the most essential instances; night
wages are at a premium, and over¬
time pay, the limited time suitable for
photography and the difficulties of
working in darkness can cause the
cost of the production to skyrocket.
A few words about boats: plain
and simple, working with boats in a
movie is a pain. In fact, there is a
saying heard often in movie circles:
"Stay away from pictures with kids,

things

frowned upon

cats,

wild animals and boats." Even

the best-trained animals

unpredictable and

can

be

dangerous.
Kids and boats never stay still, and
because
they move around
constantly it is almost impossible to
maintain pictorial composition or
continuity. And the difficulties multi¬
ply as detail after detail is added.
We had two large boats and a
string of smaller ones. Dealing with
two cumbersome period boats with¬
out engines (the Japanese boat had
50

even

oarsmen) in one scene can be, and

usually is, just about impossible. Add
about 30 smaller boats, and you can

imagine what

happen when
positioned in
specific spots within the frame and

these boats have

maneuvered
66

September 2004

on

can
to

be

cue

from here to

there. In order,

our

that

had

we

now

difficulties

were

hard-to-

two

control

large boats and 30 smaller
we had to photograph
them at night.
ones,

and

Communication is another

important element in the
photography of such a scene. On a
soundstage, after a scene is

very

constantly changed position,
the lights had to be constantly read¬
justed. As we worked in the dark,
trying to deal with a constantly
changing situation and messages
that at times lost their original
meaning in the translation, the situ¬
ation rapidly deteriorated into a
nightmare. What else could possibly
go wrong?
Plenty!
Earlier I described what this

through the rehearsed motions and
usually, after a few "takes," the scene

was supposed to be about.
Toronaga's galley was about to break
through the blockade of the fishing
boats as Blackthorne gave the
command to his musket-bearing

is "in the can." Most of the time, no

samurai: "Fire, now!" But before I go

communication is needed

on, one more

rehearsed, when the director calls
"Action!" the

and

actors

crew

go

beyond

scene

"Action" and "Cut." At other times,

stood. All

when

used in

working with

involved action,
on

or

a large cast or
when shooting

location with action that is

distant from the
used

to cue

the

camera,

actors

radios

are

and other

elements like
and

so on.

radios and

explosions, vehicles
one needs good
simple, standard proce¬

For

this,

dures of communication.
For
some

our scene

very

because

in

Japan, we had

second-rate

that time,

radios

primitive
CB radios were not permitted in that
country. But our biggest communi¬
cation problem was that all of our
at

even

instructions had to be translated
into

Japanese before they

were

item has to be under¬
the world, firearms

over

motion-picture work

are

real guns

altered to fire blanks.
Naturally, this is true all over the
world except in Japan. The Treaty of
Unconditional Surrender signed at
the end of World War II stipulated
that

no

one

in

Japan

may own

firearms, though there are some

exceptions, such as the police and the
Self-Defense Forces of Japan. The
period muskets we were going to use
in

our

scene

were

specially

constructed to circumvent this rule
a lawful manner: they were non¬
firing guns that looked real but
produced a flash electronically. It

in

took about 30 minutes to prepare
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