Another photographic problem was presented by the space helmets worn by the actors. The headgear was originally very faithful to the genuine NASA article, and reflected the entire environment, including Earth's blue skies. "We did a test out at Vasquez Rocks and determined that no matter what we did, we were going to get these unwanted reflections from any standard NASA helmet," Burum says. "We therefore decided to redesign the helmet. We enclosed the top so it didn't reflect the sky, angled the faceplate down so it reflected the ground, and cut the sides of the helmet back because Brian likes to shoot profiles. After taking those steps, the only thing that you saw reflected in the faceplates was whatever was on the sides so we made these great big panels of rip-stop nylon that we dyed the official Mars color, and if somebody turned their helmet, the panels would reflect off the sides as if you were seeing the Martian sky low on the horizon. That saved us an enormous amount of trouble."
All in all, Burum's Earth-for-Mars techniques proved to be an elegant solution to a complex series of challenges. "It really worked out a lot better than we thought it would," he admits. "At first, all we could see were the problems, but once we had the basic concept down, the only thing we had to do was replace the sky."
Although Burum achieved as much of the film's look as possible in-camera, computers were used to track the motion of shots to help automate the sky replacement. This necessitated the use of Kodak's 200T SFX visual effects stock for the Martian exteriors, and in most other instances where effects were to be added. "We wanted all of the lines along the top of the berms to be as sharp as possible so the effects houses wouldn't have to do any hand-work on them," Burum says. "We also used SFX whenever we had wire removal or matting, because it's just a lot better for those things. With most film stocks, when you approach the high and the low end of the scale, the exposure curves aren't exactly parallel; they go off one way and another, so there's a color shift. It's very important that the color tracks when you do effects work, because the whole name of the game is 'the edge.' The SFX gave us great edges."
Burum notes that he also used Kodak's EXR 5293 stock for one early scene (a party staged on Earth), and Vision 500T 5279 for any stage work that didn't involve visual effects.
As he usually does on a project, Burum filmed all of the background plates for the effects shots, which meant that he was alternating between VistaVision and 35mm anamorphic formats. "Because there were so many effects, at least half the picture was shot in VistaVision, so I had two VistaVision cameras and two Panavision Millennium cameras," Burum reveals. "I was able to swap them into the same setup with the same lighting, because I'd always light for the highest level I needed; I never had to change anything. I chose to shoot a lot of VistaVision to get the maximum picture information, so that when the effects artists went in, it was a lot easier for them to maneuver and retain all of that fine detail. I think it's crazy to shoot in Super 35, which is only two perforations high, and [also] shoot four-perf. If you have something that's gross and the grain is huge, it just makes it much more difficult for the effects artists, and it doesn't look as good. That's one of the reasons we shot in VistaVision they got even more to work with."
Burum adds that he shot the picture with Panavision's C-Series lenses "because they focus closer than the Primos."
One of the film's key settings is a space station a huge spinning ring that created its own gravity. Burum attempted to capture the claustrophobia of such an environment without sacrificing any of the visceral action. "Space stations are very small, but we had a corridor set that was about 80' long, and I made sure that you could see all of the walls," Burum says. "Brian wanted to follow the actors as they were walking through the corridors, but the set had all of these bulkhead dividers. That created some problems, because you can't have the Steadicam operator stepping over the thresholds. In order to do the Steadicam shots, we made the bulkheads very small, dovetailed them into the set so there weren't any visible seams, and constructed them so the bottoms could be pulled out. That way, once Steadicam operator Larry McConkey walked past the bulkhead, we would have a grip simply slide the bottom of the bulkhead back in, and the actors would step over it."
The massive Mars II recovery spaceship, which ferries the rescue mission headed by Tim Robbins and Gary Sinise, is reminiscent in size, shape and certain architectural details to the Discovery spacecraft from 2001: A Space Odyssey. The ship's cockpit and control rooms are at the front, while the propulsion systems are in the back. The living quarters, called the "Lower Hab," are connected via tubelike passages to a massive spinning centrifuge, the only area of the ship that has gravity. The production built almost the entire spaceship interior in several sections at Canada's Bridge Studio, which was once a steel factory. Although De Palma never asked Burum to move his camera through the spaceship from stem to stern (the sets were not interconnected), the cinematographer nevertheless had to confront a number of issues created by De Palma's obsession with making lengthy, fluid camera moves in these confined areas.
To achieve the director's vision, Burum relied almost entirely on a Super Technocrane equipped with a new four-axis head developed by Panavision Remote Systems. The unit, dubbed the Sideways, enabled the camera to pan up to 45 degrees left and right even when the camera was pointed straight up or straight down. "That rig was our major piece of equipment on the spaceship sets, and we built everything so we could get the Technocrane, which measured 3' x 4' with the four-axis head on it, through our shooting spaces," Burum confirms. "Normally, I'd bring the Technocrane in for special shots, but I would say that 85 percent of this show, maybe even more, was shot with it."
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