What do Arnold Schwarzenegger, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Robert Downey Jr, Keanu Reeves, Sandra Bullock, Jet Li, Jack Nicholson, Barbra Stresiand, Sean Connery, Al Pacino, Nicolas Cage, Nicole Kidman, Pierce Brosnan, Michael Douglas, Steven Seagal and DMX have in common?
They've all had a camera pointed at them by Andrzej Bartkowiak, the award-winning director and cinematographer renowned for his visual flair.
The Polish filmmaker – whose credits span everything from Schwarzenegger vehicles like Twins to flims about exploding vehicles like Speed to videogame adaptations like Doom and Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li – recently sat down with Panavision to share some stories from his sets.
"Action – it has to be executed that it looks real. [That] objects, people are in real jeopardy. They’re as truthful and as dangerous as possible."
He relates the case to 1994's Speed, which catapulted Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock to superstardom, noting that "there are big challenges, of course."
ABOVE: Watch the Andrzej Bartkowiak sitdown
He points out that the interior shots on the bus all look like natural lighting, but in fact the vehicle is rigged with about 10 HMI lights on the roof with giant 8x10ft cells to bounce the in illumination – because otherwise the exposure on set would blow out the buildings outside.
"If you look at [the] bus, it looks real to the eye, but for the film, we had to build it up, right? If you see the rigging… on the front of the bus for the frontal shot, we have five cameras on the bungee cords with what we call the Popemobile. We have to put a plexi around for the window to hit Keanu and Sandy."
Movie magic for the lighting aside, though, the verisimilitude is achieved by shooting practically; when the bus is whipping around, with the actors slamming into the sides, it's because the bus is whipping around and the actors are slamming into the sides.
"But that's what makes it good… To me, [there’s] no substitute for the real thing. You know it."
The coverage, though, very much depends on the production. On Speed, Bartkowiak only had thirteen cameras – a maximum of seven for first unit shooting. But on Dante's Peak, starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo, it was a different story.
"We had full 27 camera crews, including focus pullers, second assistants. I mean, we could outvote any union meeting we wanted to on the set. [Because there] was more people on the set than in the union meetings!"
And of course, some directors are more efficient than others, such as frequent collaborator Sidney Lumet, who essentially only shot two takes: "The first take was the first take for Sidney. Second was just a backup for focus."
Efficiency was likewise a hallmark of John Huston. On Prizzi's Honor, starring Jack Nicholson, Bartkowiak only shot 180,000 feet of film for the entire movie. On Doom, starring The Rock, he shot 150,000 feet in a single day!
His affinity for Panavision goes back to the start of his career, when he was filming commercials for the likes of Coca-Cola, Pepsi, American Express, Chrysler and Toyota. He graduated from the old Mitchell cameras to the Panaflex Lightweight system.
"I started shooting with that camera. That's the camera that, in Hawaii, I dipped under the wave, brand new! Oh, we sent it back [and] it came back. That’s why Panavision [is] always incredible."
The whole video is only short and is a treat for fans of cinematography, so is well worth a watch.
