THE STEADICAM RIG that I wear is connected by a mechanical arm to a har-
ness on your body. It weighs about 60 pounds. The arm has a whole bunch
of springs in it that act like shock absorbers, so you get smooth shots even if
you’re running or going up and down stairs. Steadicam shots are often what we
call a “oner,” where the entire shot is Steadicam—there’s no cutting to other
cameras. For this scene I was four or ive feet away from Dwayne the entire
time. The shot lasts 90 seconds, and it took half the day to get it.
Everything in the ilm
takes place in a build-
ing that exists only
on a computer. For a
ight scene near the
end of the movie, the
lames would be added
in post-production,
but we had to light the
scene so that it looks
like it takes place with
a huge ire burning
around it.
Fire has a very spe-
ciic color temperature.
If it’s a big, big ire, it’s
lower than your light-
bulbs. It’s much redder.
So we measured the
color temperature
of ire with a meter.
Then with gel packs
in front of a tungsten
light, you can very
accurately re-create
the color of ire. We
hooked our lights up
to boxes that vary the
voltage at high inter-
vals, so they appear
to licker. As many as
15 to 20 of these units
created the efect that
the building above the
actors—which doesn’t
exist—was on ire.
HOW TO
LIGHT A FIRE
By Robert Elswit,
director of
photographyAn FBI agent turned security consultant
(Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) has to
protect the world’s tallest building—and
save his family and clear his name when
a terrorist group frames him for setting
the building on ire.
Johnson lees down a stair-
well before retreating back
up the stairs and out the
window. All while a camera
trails him and tries not to
get in the way.follow Johnson out
the door and into the
hallway, ilming over
Johnson’s shoulder.- When the bad guys
shoot at Johnson, he
turns and runs back
to his apartment—
toward the camera. - In order to clear
the hall without
stopping the shot,
Anderson needs to
get out of the way.
When he gets near
the apartment door,
two men pull back a
section of wall that’s
been built on casters
and ive-foot rails.
Anderson steps into
the cavity just as
Johnson runs by.
To m a s k t h e c u t-
out, the set painter
painted strips of
tape the same color
as the walls and put
them over the seams
where the wall pulls
back. When the wall is
pulled away, the tape
stays attached to the
nonmoving part of the
wall, and then when
it’s slid back into place,
the tape remains to
cover the seam. - Anderson pans
around with Johnson
as he runs by, then
follows him into the
apartment. The wall
rolls back into place
just in time for Ander-
son to ilm Johnson
closing the door from
inside his apartment.
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THE MOVIESKYSCRAPER
Neve
Campbell
and Dwayne
Johnson.@PopularMechanics JULY/AUGUST _ 201 65