Director of photography Ueli Steiger and a team of experts overcome daunting conditions and logistics to capture the Americanized Godzilla.
Arriving on the set of Godzilla at Sony Studios Stage 27 in Culver City, I was immediately struck by how much nothing there was. "Nothing" in this case refers to a deft use of negative space depicting a huge subterranean tunnel that the towering titular reptile has burrowed under Manhattan by following an established subway route. Walking to the far end of the gaping cavern (about 200' long and 50' tall) created by production designer Oliver Scholl, I dodged jagged broken blocks of concrete (made of textured Styrofoam), crackling electrical cables (piles of hollow tubing with Lightning Strikes units positioned behind them), and burning heaps of wreckage (flickering orange-gelled lamps amid clouds of artificial smoke).
Arriving at a flight of wooden stairs, I was told to climb. Five stories later, I found director/co-writer Roland Emmerich (Independence Day, Stargate), cinematographer Ueli Steiger, and their crew poised on the "remains" of the Penn Station subway platform, looking out at the cave and working on a scene with the actors. The cast includes Matthew Broderick as Nick Tatopoulous, a scientist who helps the overmatched military track "G" (which of course means "Godzilla") as he rampages through New York. Steiger was apologetic for not having time to discuss the project in depth at the time, but welcomed this reporter to stay and observe.
Despite the surrounding chaos, it was immediately clear that the filmmakers were having a high time working with one of the biggest stars of international cinema.
Avid G-fans have traced the famed radiation-breathing, 400'-tall creature's path of ruin and panic over the course of 22 films made by Toho Studios in Japan. The first entry was Gojira (a name which combines "gorilla" and the Japanese word for whale) in 1954, which was released in the U.S. as Godzilla, King of the Monsters in 1956 with new footage featuring Raymond Burr as a stoic Walter Winchell-style reporter who witnesses the stomping of Tokyo.
The new Godzilla opens as French nuclear weapons testing causes the great beast to rise from the depths of the Pacific Ocean. It rapidly treads through Central America and heads toward the Eastern shore of the United States, leaving behind a trail of destruction. Reaching The Big Apple, G crushes numerous landmarks, grapples with the U.S. military, and then nests within Madison Square Garden laying a clutch of eggs in the hope of perpetuating its mutant species with a radioactive brood of baby reptiles. (Note: this film is the first segment of a proposed trilogy.)
Updating and Americanizing Godzilla included retiring the traditional rubber G suit and Japanese effects aesthetic. Redesigned by Patrick Tatopoulous (with Toho's blessings), the character is primarily depicted via CGI work done at Emmerich and co-writer/producer Dean Devlin's company, Centropolis Effects. Further work was contributed by Sony Pictures ImageWorks, VisionArts, and other houses. In addition, a few shots were done with a scaled-down animatronic G and a full-scale claw, while a section of the creature's giant mouth complete with teeth and gums was built for a scene in which it chomps down on an ill-fated taxi cab. The baby 'Zillas were primarily rendered with full body suits and other traditional mechanical methods. (Look for further coverage in AC's upcoming December effects issue.)
Steiger's assignment to render the practical portions of this larger-than-life tale was prompted by a previous working experience with Emmerich on Independence Day, which was principally photographed by Karl Walter Lindenlaub, BVK (see AC July 1996). Late in the production, Steiger was called in to replace Lindenlaub while he took a short paternity leave. "While Walter was away, I shot a scene in which the scientists are dissecting one of the aliens, which comes to life and attacks," says Steiger. "I got along well with Roland, and was later asked to work on a unit shooting aircraft interiors for dogfight sequences using poor man's process."
Godzilla was Steiger's first experience heading up a monster-sized film his other credits as a director of photography include two films directed by Dennis Hopper, The Hot Spot (see AC Nov. '90) and Chasers, as well as Singles, Promised Land, Some Girls, Now and Then, and Soapdish. He subsequently did some photography on The Long Kiss Goodnight, as well as second-unit work on the plane-crash and motorcycle-chase finalé of Con Air. "Those jobs gave me the chance to light and shoot big sets and action sequences," Steiger reasons. "In hindsight, that was prepping me for Godzilla, and I was ready when the time came. I was thrilled to work with Roland, whom I feel is a dream director for a cinematographer. He's knowledgeable and has a sense of humor, and I just happen to share a common background with him. We're about the same age and grew up about 100 miles apart from each other, he in southern Germany and me in Zurich, Switzerland. We also share many things aesthetically, so not a lot has to be said most of the time, which is helpful."
Also assisting Steiger was a team of effects technicians that was already in place when he joined the production, primarily composed of Independence Day veterans. This included visual effects supervisor Volker Engle, who accompanied the first unit throughout the shoot since so much of their footage would be later digitally manipulated. As he had little effects-work experience going into Godzilla, Steiger candidly reports, "I quickly decided that I would not pretend to know anything that I didn't really know. I didn't need to be 'all-knowing' just because I was the director of photography. Reading the script for the first time made me quickly come to this position. Every page had something that made me ask, 'How are we going to do this?' But the key to approaching this kind of story is to break it down into pieces that can be understood, planned and finished. You can't look at it any other way, or it would just be too daunting.
"I could also rely a lot on Roland, who has immense knowledge of visual and special effects. He became interested in filmmaking because of his interest in effects work. That was key; otherwise, I would have been nervous to take on a film like Godzilla."
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