Tricks of the Trade

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Russell Carpenter, ASC

On the production of Titanic, there were several sequences which took place in narrow corridors representing the bowels of the ship. The action was frenetic and the camera was often on the move, a steadicam which followed or preceded the actors at quite close quarters. These corridors were lit with practicals, but often the action would stop quite quickly and it was important that the actors, especially Kate Winslet, be modeled well.

Our solution was to mount a 4' single kinoflo (without it's harness) onto a lightweight pole (like a soundman's boom pole or a plastic mop handle) with the ballast taped to the opposite end to counterbalance the weight. An agile electrician would then follow or precede the camera and when the actors stopped he would finesse the light into position. The broad source at fairly close proximity created a very beautiful modeling and more than adequate eyelight . We would tape off one side of the 4' kino completely so that the light didn't play on the wall where it shouldn't. We even taped out portions of the light which faced the actor to get the appropriate wrap to the face or balance to the rest of the scene.

If we needed an additional 'mobile' eyelight or edge light we could sometimes maneuver a handheld Xenon flashlight with a miniature cardboard snoot on it which we diffused with 216 or some other material.