American Cinematographer - June 2006 - 36

The

Break-Up includes many
recognizable Chicago loca¬
tions, including Wrigley Field and the
Magnificent Mile shopping district, but
most of the action takes place in the
couple's condo. Production designer
in

scenes

Andrew Laws and his

crew

created

a

detailed condo set at the

Chicago
Armory, where the production filmed for
five weeks. The armory has a trussed,
barrel-vaulted ceiling that rises to 65';
the condo set took up roughly one-third
of the space, and the rest was filled
with smaller sets. With a few adapta¬
tions, the floor plan of the condo set
closely matched a real apartment the
filmmakers found
on

Irreconcilable Differences

Above: The

dissolution of

by David Heuring

Gary (Vince
Vaughn)and
Brookes

(Jennifer
Aniston)
romance

reaches

an

awkward stage
when both
refuse to

move

out of their

Chicago
condominium.
Below: Brooke
heads out into
the

night.

The

Break-Up is a romantic
comedy that begins with the end of a
sharp-tongued couple's romance.
Brooke (Jennifer Aniston) and Gary
(Vince Vaughn) call it quits, but neither
wants to move out of

their desirable

Chicago condo. A war of wits ensues,
trying to drive the other out.
Cinematographer Eric Edwards,
whose feature credits include My Own

with each

Private Idaho, To Die For and Kids, says
was drawn to The Break-Up by its

he

tone. "The

script had

a

no-holds-barred,

dark, tough edge," he says. "Gary is a
very

large, intense guy who would be a

challenge to live with, someone who is
always testing the audience's empathy. I
knew this wasn't going to be a standard,
friendly romantic comedy."
The film was directed by Peyton
Reed, who most recently helmed the
period comedy Down With Love, shot by
Jeff Cronenweth, ASC (see AC May '03).
"Down With Love was very theatrical
and broadly lit, embracing a 1950s kind
of artificiality," says Edwards. "For The
Break-Up, we decided to stay close to
reality and let the humor play out within
that structure. This movie is very much
about words as opposed to physical
comedy. I approached it the way I'd
approach a psychological drama: it's all
in the face and eyes."

on

Belmont Avenue

Chicago's North Side. They used the
for some transition

real apartment
shots.

The

sense

of realism in the

condo set

depended in part on two 180degree panoramic TransLites made from
photos of the Chicago skyline. The
photos were taken from the roof of the
real apartment's building, three floors
above the 14th-floor apartment. Tod
Coakley of J.C. Backings Corporation in
Culver City created the TransLites, one
for day and one for night. Coakley took
the plate photos with six 8"x10" still
cameras, setting focus to a specific
distance so the objects beyond would
soften and help sell the illusion. Each
image overlapped slightly, and the
edges were stitched together digitally.
The resultant TransLites measured 175'
wide

by 24' high.
When
shooting

with

the

TransLites, "we could slide them back
and forth on an overhead aluminum rail¬

ing and position them for each shot to
get the best composition and separa¬
tion," says Edwards. "We overexposed

daytime shots; if we were reading a
T2.8/T4 inside the set, the TransLite
would be a T8.5/T11. The bright part of
the

sky

was

usually about 11

on

the

spot meter."
Edwards lit the TransLites from
behind with 80

Skypans in three rows,
lamps per dimmer circuit. The
lamps were fitted with 2K bulbs instead

with two

of the normal 5Ks, and set on 8' centers.
"We found

32 June 2006

we

had to make minute

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Break-Up

The
American Cinematographer - June 2006

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