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Every lens focal length has a unique psychological perspective and if you pick one and move your camera to get coverage instead of changing lenses then you not only maintain continuity of perspective but also stimulate the audience with new visual information on every setup. The bottom line is that I was flat broke and the 25mm was free.
The lighting in REQUIEM was very simple, usually just a single source on the actors with accents to define the background textures and give separation. For the execution chair room I shot a Xenon light through a fan gag and into a mirror angled down onto the prisoner from above. Where ever the light hit was incredibly bright leaving the shadows a dark rich black. Anytime I felt like I was letting things go too far I knew I was headed the right direction. If you don't push the envelope you'll never find the edge.
“Anytime
I felt like I was letting things go too far I knew I was headed the
right direction”
I was limited
to using the execution chair location between midnight and sunrise because
it was actually an exterior courtyard. To maximize my Xenon lighting
set up I pulled the execution chair when I had enough coverage and positioned
the virtual reality chamber in its place. For a re-light we dropped
a silk over the top of the Chamber and VIOLA I had the reverse angle
of the room without moving the camera.
“We're
losing the dark.”
We shot at an insane clip to get all the shots I needed and as morning approached I saw the sky brightening and pushed the crew even harder. "We're losing the dark, we're losing the dark."
My sister, Leigh "Sissy" Unger, who took on the daunting job of Co-Producer also came up with the idea of adding a rat to the opening cell scene. I thought it was a great touch so we went out rat shopping and found EVA, the central casting icon of prison rat.
I wet down corner of my basement and soon found out not only do rats not take direction, they don't like water. Every time I rolled camera Eva would scurry away. We finally realized that if we put down a dry piece of the tortilla we had been feeding her, she would sit on it to keep dry.
Weeks later when I was shooting rat pick up shots in the basement of Lightstorm, Jim Cameron dropped by on a break from editing to observe the goings on. By now Eva was so comfortable to the camera that she would run to it every time I rolled. "So -- you're shooting inserts?" Jim remarked. "Yep." I replied, one director to another. With a skeptical nod he turned and headed back to his Avid. One can only imagine what he was thinking.
