HEAVEN SENT
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by Jean Oppenheimer

Unit photography by Stephen Goldblatt and Ken Regan

Thirty feet above the floor, bathed in a shimmering amber light, the angel appears, the snow-white feathers of her 12' wingspan fluttering rhythmically in the celestial winds. In a film filled with extraordinary imagery, this is perhaps the most indelible image of all, a sight at once real and fantastic. A decade after winning the Pulitzer Prize for Drama and two consecutive Tony Awards for Best Play on Broadway, Tony Kushner's Angels in America has found its way to the screen.

Produced by HBO, the six-hour miniseries will air next month in two parts, Millennium Approaches and Perestroika, following a theatrical premiere. It took executive producer Cary Brokaw 12 frustrating years to get the project set up, but the timing could not have been better for cinematographer Stephen Goldblatt, ASC, who at the time had just finished HBO's Path to War (see AC May '02). After years of working on major Hollywood productions that were often star-driven and effects-laden - including the first two Lethal Weapon films, Batman Forever, Batman & Robin (AC July '97), The Prince of Tides and The Deep End of the Ocean (AC March '99) - Goldblatt had decided to concentrate on projects that had strong personal resonance for him. Among the first were the HBO telefilms Conspiracy (2001) and Path to War.

Angels in America is a portrait of America circa 1985, when AIDS was beginning to ravage the gay community. Rotating among three separate stories, the film, like the play, concerns Prior (Justin Kirk), who is stricken by the virus and abandoned by his lover, Lewis (Ben Shenkman); Joe (Patrick Wilson), a Mormon lawyer in denial about his homosexuality who is married to Harper (Mary-Louise Parker); and Roy Cohn (Al Pacino), the real-life political figure who died of the disease while pretending to have cancer. The ghost of Ethel Rosenberg (Meryl Streep), whom Cohn prosecuted and convicted during the Communist witch-hunts of the 1950s, visits Cohn frequently. Other central characters include Belize (Jeffrey Wright, the only member of the original Broadway cast to reprise his role), a gay African-American nurse who is a friend of Prior's and also nurses Cohn; Joe's mother, Hannah (also played by Streep); and the angel (Emma Thompson), who informs Prior that he has been chosen as "the prophet."

The angel's entrance is likely to be one of the most talked-about sequences in the film. A feverish Prior is lying in bed when the room begins to shake violently. As his bed roils and lamps and books fly across the room, the ceiling explodes inward, showering the room with dust and debris. A strong wind, a strange whoosh and a blast of golden light announce the arrival of God's messenger, who appears where the ceiling had been. "I envisaged her to be something of a Renaissance angel mixed with an opium-smoking Victorian poet," says Goldblatt.

The cinematographer, who sat in on every cast read-through and almost every rehearsal, had definite ideas about how to shoot the scene - and those ideas didn't involve greenscreen. "It was suggested at one time that we shoot greenscreen and add CGI wings in post," he recalls. "[Director] Mike Nichols, who hates special effects, gave me a look, and I, knowing special effects, couldn't have agreed more. The scene is Shakespearean, and I knew how I wanted to light it. I didn't see how I could possibly integrate everything if it was [shot] in separate bits and pieces."

Confident that he could achieve what he wanted using physical effects, Goldblatt lobbied to put Thompson in a flying harness, complete with wings, and actually fly her around the room. "I love in-camera effects," he declares. "I'd had experience integrating them on the Batman movies, and I felt that flying Emma around could be achieved. It was extremely difficult, however, and required the contributions of many people from every department on the production."

To achieve this, the filmmakers turned to New York costume and prop house Izquierdo Studio. Owner Martin Izquierdo had designed the wings for the Broadway productions of Angels in America. The computer-controlled flying rig came from Branam Enterprises in Santa Clarita, California, which also supplied the team responsible for "flying" the angel.

Thompson was suspended from a giant overhead grid that was painted black. "She could be placed almost anywhere, and very quickly," says Goldblatt. New York-based model engineer Paul Mantel designed the mechanism that controlled the wings' movement, and during filming, he operated them via a cable system that ran through the rigging. The wings alone weighed 80 pounds. Because it would have been impossible for Thompson to shoulder such weight, the wings were supported by wires. Consequently, the major digital post work done on the sequence was wire removal.

Goldblatt's work on Angels in America began in December 2001, when he traveled to New York for preproduction. One of the first things he, Nichols and production designer Stuart Wurtzel did was to watch a videotape of the original Broadway production. Goldblatt was particularly intrigued with the scale accorded the fantasy sequences; whether the angel's visitations actually occur or are merely part of Prior's fever dreams is left ambiguous. On a theater stage, the angel easily could be suspended 30' above Prior's bed, but a real apartment with a real ceiling would be another story.

Clearly, the bedroom set would have to be expanded. "There was a gulp from the production department," recalls Goldblatt with a chuckle, "but they saw why it had to be done. In the end, the audience doesn't really even notice the change. You have the earthquake, or 'heavenquake,' and the angel is just there."

The camera would have to be extended over the angel, who frequently hovered at 30', so that it could float around her as she was flying. The A-camera, a Panaflex Platinum, was mounted on a 35' Technocrane that had been mounted on a forklift platform. (Key grip George Patsos had suggested building the platform on the end of the forklift in lieu of using a costlier Chapman crane). The base of the crane was 15'-20' off the ground. The camera department briefly considered a 50' arm, but realized it would be too unwieldy.

Goldblatt wanted a major blast of backlight for the angel. "After all," he quips, "heaven is behind her." Two 20Ks (fitted with K.A.S. lamps to make them brighter) gelled with double Lee Electric Bastard Amber gels were mounted on Condors and positioned behind Thompson. The light bounced into a 40'x40' rippled muslin frame. A couple of smaller lamps, also directed at the muslin, were placed in front of the actress. Gaffer Gene Engels used shutters on the two smaller units so that when the angel flew toward the camera, the lights could be dimmed down without changing the color temperature or stop. All of the lights were wired to dimmers throughout the production.

The angel doesn't make her first appearance until the end of Millennium Approaches, but the audience is prepared for her arrival by two earlier scenes; one is set in the hospital, and the other is a Jean Cocteau-inspired dream sequence that establishes the shaft of amber "God Light" (also referred to as "Angel Light") and certain audio cues. "It's a kind of preview of coming attractions," jokes Goldblatt. Thereafter, the amber light and the whooshing sound always presage the angel's entrance. To enhance the heavenly creature's believability, Goldblatt wanted her wings and clothes to always be fluttering, even if only slightly. "I felt there should always be the feeling of air in motion. We always had fans on her, and of course, that meant all of those scenes had to be looped."

For the "Black Angel" sequence, which takes place in Prior's hospital room late in the film, Thompson was attired in a black gown and silver and black wings, and the amber gels on the lights were replaced with 1/2 blue. In addition, two or three Lightning Strikes units were positioned high above the action to create extreme highlights. Goldblatt shot the scene very high contrast and very blown-out at a shooting stop of about T4; when the lightning hit, the stop was about T22. It took six weeks to film the angel sequences, but the filmmakers only saw dailies on the first days; HBO supplies dailies on DigiBeta and/or DVD only.