Occasionally, this multicolored approach was dropped for a monochromatic palette. One recurring location, a Chinatown gambling hall, is always awash in a strong yellow-orange light. Says Anchía, "I liked the idea of the whole room being bathed in the same color. We have bar scenes where we used a lot of green, red and yellow together in the backgrounds. In contrast, I wanted a chance to use yellow-orange all by itself. It wasn't motivated by anything particular in the script; it was more an exploration of the concept of colorization, and a case of finding a location where this unusual wash of color might be believable." The approach worked for the gambling hall because the scene's general focus was the gaming action taking place on the tables. Anchía lit the room with Maxi-Brutes aimed through the windows, which were gelled primarily with Lee #105 orange. The location's built-in fluorescent light tubes were also wrapped with gel of a similar hue.
Anchía usually lights interiors through the windows and tries to use little or no additional lighting inside. "We direct the fill with bounce cards or silver or gold reflectors, depending on the hard or soft light quality we're after," he explains. "Occasionally, I've had to use an additional instrument or two, but I always try to avoid it. I feel that window light should stay as pure as possible."
As the film reaches its denouement, Anchía and Foley shifted from their expressive color palette to a more monochromatic scheme. Anchía notes that "the change is triggered by the death of one of the leads," whose energetic, colorful presence buoys most of the film. Climactic scenes set in a hospital have an overexposed effect, but little color except for red venetian blinds on the window. Anchía explains, "We let strong light bounce off the hard, shiny floor and create lens flare" to emphasize the emotional intensity of the scene. "From there, we lose even more color, until we get to the funeral sequence, which is essentially all in blue," befitting a policeman's burial.
Yet another offbeat technique utilized for The Corruptor was the use of Dataflash strobe lights, which were employed throughout the film, especially for night exteriors. "We used flashing lights simply to create more tension, to distort the moment for most night exteriors to one degree or another, in combination with regular lighting and HMIs, which we panned around," Anchía explains.
Most of the film was shot on Kodak's 500 ASA EXR 5298, since Kodak had not yet made the 500T Vision stock widely available when The Corruptor began shooting. However, the 5298 not only helped speed up production and keep lighting rental costs affordable, but also allowed the Anchía to avoid a "muddy, soft, wide-open look." Most of the film was shot at around a T4 with Platinum Panaflex, Panaflex Lightweight and Aaton 35-III cameras fitted with Primo prime and zoom lenses. Two Primo zooms, the 4:1 17.5-75mm T2.3 and the 11:1 24-275mm T2.8, were used extensively with the Panavision cameras, while Panavision's lightweight 27-68mm T2.8 zoom was used with the Aaton for some of the film's energetic handheld work.
The filmmakers chose the 2.35:1 Super 35 format over anamorphic primarily to gain greater depth of field, which was crucial due to the large number of long-lens shots in the film. "I've shot a lot of films in anamorphic, but I'm pleased with the image quality that can now be obtained with Super 35," Anchía says.
The Corruptor received some unusual treatment during the printing stage. "We did extensive tests with bleach-bypass processes with Chris Severin at DeLuxe in Toronto," says Anchía, who felt the deepened blacks and desaturated colors created by the process were too extreme. "When we tested straight printing on the new Vision Premier 2393 print stock, however, I saw exactly what I wanted — superb blacks and whiter whites. The 2393 stock (see New Products Nov. '98) costs about 10 percent more than standard release stocks, though, so it was only financially feasible to use it for our 200 or so initial 'show' prints."
In an effort to keep costs down, New Line Cinema primarily makes its release prints on Fuji stocks. Anchía was therefore compelled to experiment a bit in the lab in order to successfully blend his Eastman Kodak camera original with the Fuji print stock for the general release prints. The cameraman says that he and Beverly Wood of DeLuxe Laboratories in Hollywood eventually devised a complex yet cost-effective printing strategy that effectively emulates the crisp look of the Vision-printed show reels. Anchía notes, "We made our interpositive on regular Kodak stock, which we slightly underexposed, and our internegative on slightly overdeveloped Fuji stock. We then printed to Fuji release stock, which was exposed and processed normally. These manipulations, coupled with the inherently higher contrast of the Fuji release stock, gave me the rich, contrasty look I was after for the general-release prints."
Despite the unusual nature of the stylized images in The Corruptor, timing proceeded in a straightforward manner. "We were simply trying to control what we had," Anchía explains.
The cinematographer further credits his Toronto operator and gaffer, Gilles Corbeil and Bryan Forde, as well as New York gaffer Jerry Blau, with helping to bring the film's turbulent visions to the screen.
Despite the unusual risks taken during the production, Foley knew he was on firm footing with Anchía as his cinematographer. "I've always felt that Juan is the most talented guy I've ever worked with," the director attests. "Neither of us had ever done an action film or anything this visually unorthodox before, but his talents are well-suited to any type of project. I think Juan is a genius."
