American Cinematographer - September 2004 - 81

At Sea in Japan
in place, put there by an army of
workmen who had worked all day
were

ready. My camera
setting up the
shots so that by the time we had
dinner and darkness fell, everything
was in place and ready to roll. The
cameras, all loaded with the right
type of film, tested and tested again,
were on the
barge, standing by for
the big moment when Toronaga's
boat smashed through the blockade.
The special-effects people were
standing by, ready to fire the boatsplintering squibs as soon as the
getting the

crew

Laszlo (left)

recently joined

each gun

ASC, ACS and
other

colleagues

at the

CineGear

Expo in Los
Angeles, where
he autographed
copies of his
new

book It's

a

Wrap!

for multiple firings.

Darkness, water, constantly

Dean Sender,

muskets fired, and the stuntmen in

moving boats, badly translated and

the

misunderstood

fishermen,

communications,

and lights, Mickey
- indeed, the plot did
thicken. By the time we arrived at the
shifting

cameras

Mouse guns

location, around 5 in the afternoon,
of the

big elements - the
Spanish galleon, the Japanese boat
and the chain of fishing boats -

most

scene

and I started

fishing boats, dressed as Japanese
were poised to fall, leap

and somersault into the water,
to

some

die heroic deaths. Blackthorne,

poised dramatically behind his
musket-bearing samurai, was ready
to give the command: "Fire, now!"
These were the only two English
words that the Japanese film extras

playing the samurai had been
instructed to understand. They were
told over and over again to listen for
these

two

words, their

cue to

fire the

muskets.

before midnight, the

Just
moment

was

finally right. The

boats, actors, extras, stunt players,

lights and so on were all in
place, and Jerry London, our direc¬
tor, was about give the "Roll
cameras,

cameras!" command, when Richard
Chamberlain called

over,

reminding

cue him at the right
moment. Here is how this short,

Jerry to

one-sided conversation
Richard:
know when

went:

"Jerry, you'll let me
'Fire, now!' won't

to say

you?"
But before

Jerry could reply,
and conscientious
samurai, who had been lying on his
belly for a good hour by then, listen¬
ing carefully for his cue, picked out
one

of the eager

Richard's words "Fire, now" and,

as

was asked to film the television project, "REVENGE OF THE MIDDLE AGED
WOMAN," I started looking around for the right set of prime lenses for the Super 16
format. The Elite lenses provided a wonderful range of standard and focal lengths with
great in-between sizes like the 14mm and the 20mm.
Optically, the Elite lenses performed excellently - like I had never seen before, and
they provided me, at times, with opportunity to shoot wide open at T1.3; providing a
very shallow depth of field. The flare susceptibility was unbelievably great, there was
no breathing at all. I never had to compromise, and I feel that these lenses are no par
with any of the primes I used to shoot my 35mm productions with. These lenses have
definitely provided their name and are, without question, one of the best lenses on the
market today.

When I

The full

Super 16 set consists of 12 lens¬

from 4.5mm up to 85mm. The full 35mm
set consists of 19 lenses: from 9.6mm up to 300mm, with
es:

two additional

the 25-80mm

lightweight zoom,
long-range zoom. Both the Super
16mm and 35mm format have a super speed of T1.3. The
full Anamorphic set consists of 9 lenses: from 24.5mm up
zoomes:

and the 120-520mm

to 250mm.

For

more

information, please contact SLOW MOTION at:

Tel: +1-818-982-4400

*

Fax: +1-818-982-8500

E-mail: slowmotioninc@sbcglobal.net
Web: www.slowmotioninc.com
American Cinematographer - September 2004

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