American Cinematographer - June 2006 - 40

notes Edwards. "It's as though you put a
single outside the window. The

TransLites tend to be contrastier than

reality. If

actually looking at
the scene, there would be atmosphere,
too. The bobbinet is a different way of
putting a layer of haze between you and
you were

Summertime in

what's out there.

Chicago can be hot and a little hazy, and
I wanted to keep that feeling."
Edwards threw light on the
bobbinet to control its effect. "For the

day TransLite, we had the bobbinet lit
with Skypans that were 6 to 8 feet apart
on the floor, pointing straight up," he
says. For the night TransLite, the bobbi¬
net was illuminated with 1K Nooklights
spaced about 4' apart. "You're adding a
little grayness or atmosphere to the inky
darkness," says Edwards. "It sort of
smushes the image out a little bit. By
accomplishing this effect onstage, you
save a lot of time in the long mn; other¬
wise, there would be considerable

fiddling in post to get it right."
A tight preproduction schedule

very accurate evaluations of the images.
It meant a lot to Vince and the other

precluded extensive testing of the
so Edwards paid close atten¬
tion to how they played in dailies, espe¬
cially in the initial week. The filmmakers
chose their dailies system carefully,
testing a variety of digital projectors and
settling on a Christie DLP projector
based on sharpness, color integrity and
screen brightness. This projector and a
D-5 playback deck sending an RGB
signal were housed at the armory during
that segment of the shoot, so watching
TransLites,

dailies
crew.

was

The

actors to see their

performances on a
bigger screen, with the cinematic feel¬
ing of brightness in a darkened room. It
makes the whole experience of creating
the movie different."

Inside the condo set, Edwards
tried to

light from the floor whenever
possible. Light often came from an adja¬
cent room, a practical, or through a
window. For ambience, each room in the

convenient for the entire

screen was

equipped with two to four 4x6'
Coops skirted with Duvatyn and rigged
set was

about 12' wide.

"Projectionist James Bond was instru¬
mental in tuning up the system," says

with

Edwards. "Colorist Michael Dunn at

Filmworkers Club was also

six

500-watt

1,000-watt

Photofloods. Gaffer Dick Oakes

oversaw

numbering system that controlled the
light via the dimmer board. For finer
lighting, Edwards used a range of instru¬
ments
including Kino Flos, Nine-light

an enormous

help, profiling the film-to-tape transfer
on a Spirit DataCine to match the film
print dailies on a side-by-side projection
system at Astro Lab. There was a lot of
expensive hardware, but our dailies
were very close to a film look, with the
complete dynamic range, contrast and
sharpness. That enabled us to make

Mini-Brutes

of diffusion

and at least four types

ranging from 216 to the

thinnest, 252.
The truss system

inside the
by

armory included I-beams suspended
motorized chain hoists that served

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American Cinematographer - June 2006

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - June 2006