American Cinematographer - December 2006 - 59

High Stakes for 007
Bond exercises

his "license to
kill" in the film's

stylized opening
sequence,
rendered in
black-and-white
as an

homage to

spy thrillers of
the Cold War
era.

"Some

people shoot
color and get rid
of it in the digital
intermediate, but
I didn't like the

look of that,"
Meheux
comments. "I
also tried force¬

processing some
color stocks, but
I think if you

really want the
look of black-

and-white, you
have to shoot
black-and-white
film."

elaborate action sequence

that
practical effects with

pillar. Then more of these
explode, and the house

sinks further and further with

interest, Vesper (Eva Green), is

Bond, Vesper and the baddies

skylights in the roof.

imprisoned in

inside."

bring
light from above, pointing
straight down. The set went to
within 8 inches of the girders that
hold the roof of the stage up, and as
HMIs don't work well pointed
down, my trusted gaffer, Eddie
Knight, and his team worked out a
rig of Dinos with 24 Par 64s in each
fixture above those girders. Under
those, we hung a large silk, and

miniatures and CGI. Bond's love

a

balloons

17th-century
Venetian villa that is being held
slightly aloft from its foundation by

built

massive helium balloons, so that

Studios. "The entire interior

a

damage far beneath the structure
can be
repaired. "For a long time,
people were afraid Venice was sink¬
ing, and it turned out what was
making Venice sink was the fact
that houses were drawing water

"That

The interior of the house
on

the 007

was

Stage at Pinewood
was a

giant hydraulic rig conceived and
by [special-effects coordina¬

built

tor] Chris Corbould and his
and

team,

controlled

from wells under their foundations,

by computers,"
explains Meheux. "It could twist
and turn and physically drop many
feet down. There were pipes under¬

and when the

neath that could shoot

foundation

water went out,

the

water up

into the set to suggest

all

meant we

had

to

our

then, about a foot under that, a
second silk, so if you looked up, you

sinking into the
empty gap," says Meheux. "They've
stopped people from doing that,
and Venice isn't sinking anymore.

the house was
sinking into the canal. It was very
tricky to light, because the set was
built inside a large metal casing that

But with that in

allowed it to be tilted in different

skylights to spread the light

directions. You

further. Each Dino

was

mind,

we

fabri¬

cated the idea that this old-fash¬
ioned villa
water

might be kept

vated. To distract
shoots
starts

on

the

line with fixed industrial

balloons while it

a

to

was being reno¬
everybody, Bond

balloon, and

the house
sink into the canal, he

manages to
52 December 2006

behind

light source is underwater too. So
with Peter Lamont, we worked out
the idea of lighting through

an

combined

as

sneak in and hide

imagine the
whole exterior of it is a complicated
piece of metal trusswork that also
went

in

can

front of

most

of the

wouldn't
of

any individual sources
light. They all merged together.

We added 216 diffusion to the

and fed back

to a

was

Meheux had

panel so
light level for
to

consideration that the

drop
the

some

scene,

even
numbered

dimmer

could vary the
different angles."

we

window

openings. We couldn't
light from a lot of the windows
anyway, because once that part of
the house goes under water, your

see

take into
set

would

20' over the course of
effectively lowering the
American Cinematographer - December 2006

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