Episode III “Carnival” was on Day two of our four day shooting schedule. This day was a very ambitious one because we had four company moves.  We started at the ranch house location, moved to meadow location, then on to the main street location for the street fight.  The last and final location that night was in the park in downtown Piru, CA. I sent the lighting crew down to the park early to get a pre-light going while we did our day exterior work because I would not need any lights.  They had their hands full.  We had a park with a beautiful tree that Po, the director, www.imdb.com/name/nm1256747/ and I found very visually appealing but that was it. The location had no carousals, rides, or vendors; just a big area of grass with a California pepper tree.

As a cinematographer, one of the jobs that I think it is most exciting is to create visual illusions. I come up with many crazy lighting ideas in my sleep.  I call them lightmares.  I have to say that my pre-rigging crew hates it when I have a lightmare.  I will set a plan in action on many of the movies that I have photographed and at the eleventh hour change almost everything after a lightmare.  I remember on Terminator:Salvation my Rigging Gaffer Scotty Graves www.imdb.com/name/nm0336351/ had almost completed the Skynet set at the old Albuquerque Train repair yard and I said “What if we go to Grainger and buy all these sports fixtures?” Scotty said, “What are you talking about?”  I said,  ‘You know those fixtures that light the football fields.”  Scotty replied, “Ok and we do what with them?” I said “We need 400 of them.”  I had an idea that we can create a massive tractor beam that blasts up into space to guide the Skynet Transporter in through all the pollution and smoke that they are generating to create a new industrial revolution of machines.

Skynet transporter

Scotty immediately said, “You had a lightmare last night didn’t you?”  I said, “Yes and this is going to be so cool.  We need eight 55’ articulating forklifts so that we can mount 50 lights per lift. We will send them up into the air aim them into space and then when our CGI spaceship is landing we will tilt these babies down and nuke the camera.”  Scotty said “Alright then, I will get on it. Let me call Kent Baker.”

Terminator 3

Kent Baker was my rigging Key Grip, www.imdb.com/name/nm0048656/. Both of these guys are so impressive and they make it happen.  Against all odds they make me shine everyday. When I showed up on the set the lights and rig were getting finished just as the summer sun was on the horizon.  When they fired up, it was awesome.

So, back to Carnival. For this sequence I had a lightmare that was this crazy spinning Carousel lighting rig.

Carousel Rig

Po described this sequence to me as beautiful moving balloons of light that make an ordinary night picnic extraordinary.  So the dream rig was 4 speedrail spokes that came out about 8’ from a hub that was mounted on a light stand that could support it, just like a bicycle tire.  At the end was 5’ speed rail posts that hung down from each spoke.  Then we took colored 4’ Fluorescents and mounted them to those posts and the spokes.  It was all cabled to the center where we mounted a 1000 watt igloo cooler Honda generator.  You cannot spin something around that has cable to it.  The cables will wind up and bind and you can’t continue to spin.  So, by putting the generator on the top and cabling it to the center we could spin that rig all night in whatever direction inspired us.  We had a storage shed in the deep background so we rigged some Fluorescents to that so it felt like a snack shack vendor.

Carnival Lights

Next, it was on to creating the balloons of light.  Gore, our very talented Production Designer and the Art Director hung 4 long strands of carnival lights from the tree and the light poles.  We had two fantastic interns helping us on this job.  One flew all the way from Kansas City to work on this, he put himself up at a hotel and rented a car just to participate; meet Brandon.  The other one was a film student from Occidental College studying Cinematography and Direction; meet Julien.  These guys were the backbone of the crew.

Julien, HV Intern

Anything that Antonio, my gaffer, needed they were on it.One critical request was to black wrap every street light that was going to turn on at sunset and destroy the mood lighting on the carnival set.  I think they did at least 25 lights, where they had to use an extension ladder to scale the 20’ pole and then wrap the black foil around the fixture.  When I finally got to the set the carousel light rig looked amazing but it was too hot for the 5D.  The colored Fluorescents were just white because they were so overexposed.  So the grips grabbed some Neutral Density gel and wrapped it around to bring them down so that the sensor saw them as a color, not a white nuclear stick.

Game Vendor Rig

Once that fell in, I moved on to creating a motivation for a beautiful warm back light on our stunning actress Eli’s blonde hair www.imdb.com/name/nm2897828/.  So I positioned  baton lights off to the left side of the frame and put them on a chase pattern so that it felt like one of those crazy game vendors; you know those people who take all your money in a game that looks easy to kids but is impossible to win.  It looked really good out of focus and gave me the necessary motivation for the back light. To the naked eye it just looked like a lot of lights hung in disarray, but when we put the Canon 85mm L series lens up on the 5D and focused on Eli’s beautiful face, the background came alive with a magical feel.

Carnival Lights At Night

Po looked at the monitor when we racked focus to Eli’s face and she said, “Yes, that is it. This is what I was looking for, this is going to be great.”

However, it was not quite that smooth. I needed to put the camera to create that intimacy that Po wanted and the minimum focus was right at her face, so when Eli leaned in to kiss the camera, she immediately went out of focus.

Eli In Carnival

So we tried the 50mm Canon L series that had 9 inches for a minimum focus, but our background lost all of its beauty, even when we took the exposure down to a 1.4.  It did not make the lights look the way the 85mm did.  You have to think on your feet when problems arise, use a disadvantage and turn it into creative genius.

Eli Going Out of Focus

Po said “Let’s go with the 85mm. It looks amazing, it is creamier on Eli’s skin and when she goes out of focus, this will just help my transition to the baseball diamond.”  So here is our creative interpretation of a night Carnival where William proposes to his girlfriend.  Enjoy!!

We are going to give you a special treat on this blog.  When I travel around the world, many people come up and ask me about the one shot helicopter crash in Terminator:Salvation.  So I thought this was a fitting place to talk about all in one shot sequences and draw parallels with the Behind the Scenes Vietnam Sequence because it is a small version of that concept.

Episode II “Vietnam” was the most difficult of William’s memories to deliver.  When you design shots that play all out as one shot everything has to work.  The camera has to be in sync with the explosions, the performance has to work, the smoke level has to be just right, the focus must be sharp, and I could go on and on.

When McG and I designed the helicopter crash in the beginning of Terminator:Salvation it played as one shot but it was a series of hook-ups as we call them that seamlessly go together to give the viewer the appearance of one complete uninterrupted shot.

Click here to view Helicopter Sequence from Terminator Salvation

Breaking down the Terminator Sequence.  Here is how we did it:

Shot ONE;  Handheld: Millennium XL: John Connor climbs up out of the hole and we see him look camera left.  The camera pans over to see his commander shot in the head.  We pan back to reveal John Connor readying his gun, he looks up and we whip pan.

Shot TWO; 50’ Technocrane, we whip pan to see a helicopter and a Skynet transporter taking off in the B.G.  John Connor runs into frame and we push in with him.  Now, this Helicopter is on a large gimbal which lifts the chopper up into the air and spins it around to make it seem like John Connor is piloting it.  Behind the chopper is a huge Blue Screen 100’ x 60’ that we painted on the North facing wall at Albuquerque Studios.  We continue to move in with John Connor, he jumps into the cargo bay and tells the pilot to take off and follow that transport, he touches him and the pilot falls out of the seat, DEAD.  John then hops into the seat and starts to take off, we boom up with the crane so that it feels like he is taking off.  The gimbal also booms up and banks to the side and the crane continues to rotate around to be in more of a profile so we now see the huge Satellite dishes in the F.G. Moving past the choppers doors. THEN IT HAPPENS, an explosion from underground blows the camera back, the technocrane swings back rapidly to reveal all of the chopper as it spins out of control from the blast. Dust and debris is added in post.  The tail spins around and the camera then pushes in to the cargo bay and lands in an over the shoulder of both seats in the cockpit.

Shot THREE; Handheld w/ Arri 235 in chopper. The gimbal has now moved to another location where were able to build a 360 degree blue screen to spin the chopper on the gimbal. I used the shadow of Stage One to give soft ambient daylight to illuminate the blue screen so we did not have hard, harsh sunlight on the screen. Kent Baker my brilliant rigging Key Grip had to add small 12’ x 12’ blue screen frames for the small windows that were on the floor of the chopper, which were attached to the gimbal.  You should have seen this rig.  It looked ridiculous but it did the trick.  The screens had to be lit with 1200 HMI par lights that we had to wind up so that the gimbal could spin approximately 12 times before it sheared our cable in half.  The camera moves into the cargo bay just like the Technocrane did in the previous shot. We move in and wrap around to see John Connor in profile, then down to the stick and then back up to his face. While all this is happening I am in the chopper spinning around. We mounted a 3-18k’s on a condor that poked over the top of the blue screen to give the rotation more speed so he is constantly moving in and out of the sunlight. Then our camera moves back to the over the shoulder as John braces for impact.

Shot FOUR; Arri III mounted in a tube crash housing, hard mounted in the exact place that our last frame of the Arri 235 handheld shot left off.  We mount the chaisse of the helicopter to a huge construction crane that will now sling this into the air like a pendulum.  At its highest swing Mike Meinardus, www.mikemeinardus.com, our Special EFX’s genius releases the chopper it flies through air with a articulated dummy in John’s seat.  Camera impacts the earth and dust debris fills the cabin.

Shot FIVE; Arri 235 Handheld in the same place that the hard mounted crash camera was and now we add a stuntman to unclip himself in the upside down cockpit. My camera is also upside down when this is happening, so the viewers world is upside down.  Dust and debris is blown into the chopper’s cockpit to help mend the shots.  The stuntman impacts his head and body onto the roof of the chopper.

Shot SIX; Arri 235 Handheld still in the same place but now Christian Bale gets in to the pilot’s seat and acts like he just unclipped out of the seat, falls and hits the ceiling of the chopper. John Connor is dazed and starts to crawl towards the camera, we pan with him as he exits the cargo bay. In this pan Chris Mosley, my A camera operator, www.hurlbutvisuals.com/team.php starts to spin so the viewer sees their world rotate as the upside down camera now rights itself. It moves with John Connor out of the helicopter and lands in an over the shoulder shot. We take in the Nuclear cloud in the deep background and then we wrap around him to reveal the emotion on his face when John Connor discovers that all his unit is gone; the resistance has been wiped out.  Then, all of a sudden a T-600 grabs his shoulder and throws him out of shot.  End of the sequence.

This was a hugh collaboration with Charlie Gibson, www.imdb.com/name/nm0002716/ and Ben Snow, www.imdb.com/name/nm0811240/ our Visual EFX’s Guru’s, Adolfo Martinez Perez, www.imdb.com/name/nm0553439/ our storyboard artist, PLF’s pre-vis team, and my amazing camera, lighting and grip teams to pull off the impossible, seamless sequence.

Now, our little short did not have the luxury of this time and money. Yet, we had the expertise of a visionary crew that was determined to make it happen. The Terminator sequence could be repeated several times to get it exactly right.  On “The Last 3 Minutes” we could rehearse but we still had only 6 takes with explosions.  Dan Cangemi, www.imdb.com/name/nm0133958/ and Al Di Sarro, www.imdb.com/name/nm0224298/ the SPEFX”S team from “Act of Valor” were nice enough to come and play with us to make an ordinary scene extraordinary. We ran it many times to get all the departments in sync: actors, camera, effects, smoke, explosions, etc.   Much of this was a dance in showing the director, Po Chan what it would be like and then adjusting so that her vision came to life.

Shane Hurlbut and Director Po Chan viewing the shot

The explosion in the beginning was not big enough so we first had to make sure that worked because that was our transition element from William’s wife in the ocean splashing around to the mortar going off.  We finally got the blast to wipe the frame, so now we needed to make it feel like there was a battle going on.  I asked Al if we could add another mortar to assist in my lighting.  This is something I did on Terminator a lot.  I would use trapezoid mortars to blow debris, dirt and dust into the air to diffuse the sunlight.  Al loaded in the second one that we blew right as Bodie Orman, my Helmet Cam operator, crawls to his friend.

HV Elite Team Member Bodie Orman with the Helmet Cam

It worked very well because you feel the weight of the explosion. It takes out the sun and lowers the light so that it becomes very dark. I wanted that mood to assist the emotion, as a foreshadowing of his  upcoming death when the world goes dark.  Then, when the soldier actually dies, the dust clears and bright sunlight basks his face, like a sun ray from heaven. But, there was still something missing.  We all decided that a 3rd mortar was needed and that one needed fire to cut through all the smoke and dust that was in the air.

Al Di Sarro and HV Elite Team Member Darin Necessary

The fire marshall’s ears perked up and he came over and said “Now, what do you want to do?”  Al explained that we were lacking something in our scene to really make the audience feel like they were there experiencing it. So, we scoped out a safe position behind William’s friend that was not going to light the forest on fire.  It was awesome because with each take, Al would increase the gasoline amount to the level that you see on the screen, 2.5 gallons that gets ignited inside a trapezoid mortar.  Enjoy!!

When Canon and Hurlbut Visuals teamed up on this joint venture, we wanted to put together a trilogy of Behind the Scenes videos where I narrated about what goes on inside my head as a cinematographer. We also wanted to show that even though there is a planning process before the shooting begins, there is a certain spontaneity that just happens in the moment. We hope you find this Janitor Sequence to be both informative and inspiring.

“The Janitor” episode ONE is the first of three which takes you on a journey of  how we captured, lit and shot William’s custodial duties leading up to his heart attack. Then, you are thrown on his emotional roller coaster ride of memories from his young wife leaving him backward in time until his birth.

You see problem solving, thinking on your feet, and lighting with instruments that you can build or things that you can buy at Home Depot.  This was lit very simply.  I wanted to inspire you with tools that anyone would have access to and not big Hollywood lights and generators.  I was using lots of practical lights to my advantage in the office space and there were some that I could not turn off that I had to deal with and you see that thought process.  I  break down the whole scene as it played in the short film, by labeling each shot with a lens and an f-stop so that you can see the depth of field. The fact is that I light most of my films from purchases at Home Depot and Grainger.  So, using a good amount of practical light and shaping it so that it has mood and can assist in telling the story is paramount.

I want to thank you all for your amazing comments and support on this little short film.  We are sending it to all the film festivals and will be giving you details on where it will be shown so that you can see this baby on a big screen. It will blow you out.  Enjoy!!