Tricks of the Trade

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Don Burgess, ASC

We did a shot in Contact where we needed to tie in the actual location, the VLA in New Mexico, with our set at Culver Studios in Los Angeles. The shot starts just after Ellie (Jodie Foster) first hears the signal from outer space and races back to the main building in her car, slides to a stop, hops out and runs into the building.

To achieve this shot, Mark Ocaine, the Steadicam operator, stepped off a Titan crane and chased her into the building, down a hallway, around two turns and through a set of doors where this shot ends. Ultimately, a morph blend starts the second half of the shot, which we shot in Los Angeles at a later date.

Because the shot is a blend into another shot, we needed a larger negative to work with — Vistavision being the choice. We used the small lightweight Beaumont Vistavision camera that fits on the Steadicam.

The sequence takes place just before the sun comes up so we decided to shoot the whole scene before sunrise and after sunset for the soft, cool light, which only gives you about twenty minutes at each end of the day. We rehearsed and rehearsed until the light was right and then shot until dark, having to change the lighting density on the inside of the VLA control room on every take to match the dropping exposure outside — all at a panic pace. Fortunately, Jodi and the Steadicam operator, Mark, were great on all five takes so we were able to choose the best shot of the five we exposed.

Shooting like this is challenging and risky, but extremely rewarding when you get it. I like doing shots like this where it takes a massive team effort. Everyone involved has to be perfect for the shot to work, especially when you know you only have five takes and no more. It becomes very competitive, as nobody wants to be the one to ask for another take because they missed the focus, or the crane move was late, or the light cue was early, or I forgot the second line, etc., etc. I'm always amazed at what you can pull off when everyone puts their minds together, and I'm grateful that we have directors like Bob Zemeckis who conceive these shots and challenge us to pull them off.