Post by Edith S. Baker on Oct 30, 2006 11:38:53 GMT -4
Fans spend hours obsessing over “Lost’s” complicated plot points, but have they ever wondered what it’s like shooting in a dank lava cave? Or how hard it must be to re-create London, Korea or Nigeria — on the island of Oahu?
Cort Fey and John Bartley, the two directors of photography for the ABC show, have dealt with just those kinds of challenges. Fey is new to the show; his trial by fire was shooting Mr. Eko and Locke in a “lava tube” on Hawaii’s Big Island, which involved transporting actors, crew and tons of equipment from the show’s usual locations and soundstages on Oahu.
“The cave was pretty gonzo” recalls Fey. On a trip to the cave’s location, “we were climbing down this nearly vertical stairwell; there was literally not an inch of level ground. The whole cave was really jagged lava rocks. Everyone was moving very slowly, and the actors’ faces were very pale.” Still, Fey, along with the episode’s director and crew, got the shot, and it made for a gripping sequence in a recent — and very trippy — Locke-centered episode.
Bartley, who used to be one of the directors of photography on “The X-Files” and helped give that show its distinctive, mysterious look, had sworn off TV when he got the call from the “Lost” folks. “I didn’t want to do episodic [TV]. I felt it was taking away my life,” he recalls. Still, when he arrived in Hawaii a couple of months after the first season began, he went to a meeting straight from the plane and was “out in the jungle shooting second unit with a rain machine” the next day.
For both Fey and Bartley, shooting on location is one of the most exciting things about the show, though it’s no picnic. Sunscreen is a must, as is heavy-duty mosquito repellent. “We’re a 10-day show, eight days for main unit, two days for second unit,” Bartley says. “Five out of those days roughly are on location. Right now we’re shooting a flashback set in Florida.” Another upcoming episode is largely set in London; for those scenes, it’s likely that a few palm trees and other Hawaiian giveaways will have to be digitally removed.
The most difficult shoots Bartley recalls were the scenes of Walt, Jin, Michael and Sawyer on the castaway’s raft; their terrifying ordeal at sea closed out the show’s first season. “Going out in the water at night was the hardest thing I think I’ve ever done,” Bartley says. “I always think I should have been able to do better, but there’s not much you can do for night lighting. I look back and think I could do better now. But I don’t know how we got through those nights.” Some visuals are easier: For an upcoming flashback set in Australia, the footage was reversed so the steering wheel appears on the other side of the car. And that tidy “Others” village viewers glimpsed in the first episode of Season 3 was inserted with special effects (the show’s FX supervisor is now based in Hawaii, which makes those kinds of things easier to coordinate, Bartley says.)
Fey says shooting in the verdant greenery of Hawaii, a constant backdrop on “Lost,” is actually deceptively difficult. “One of the frustrating things is that you can go out and scout a location with a monkey pod tree in this grove with a great shaft of light coming through, and then you go back on the day [of shooting] and it’s a gray day.” Shooting in the jungle, he adds, can be difficult because, on film, the jungle can end up appearing as “a green mash.” “We try to move the camera a lot and use light to define what makes [the forest setting] special. We try to create some dimensions and differences between the trees and shapes, and focus on distinctive features.”
For both men, one of the biggest rewards of working on this challenging show is getting involved in the story lines and the performances of the actors — just as fans do. “The cast is spectacular, they bring it every day,” Fey says. “They’re troupers — they don’t require a lot of the usual niceties” that television actors get. Shooting the “small” scenes — not the trademark epic “Lost” moments — can be the most interesting of all, Bartley says. “Last season, I think Michael Emerson [who plays Benjamin Linus, a temporary prisoner of the castaways] did an amazing job,” Bartley says. “I’ve never seen an actor do so much while chained to a wall.”
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Cort Fey and John Bartley, the two directors of photography for the ABC show, have dealt with just those kinds of challenges. Fey is new to the show; his trial by fire was shooting Mr. Eko and Locke in a “lava tube” on Hawaii’s Big Island, which involved transporting actors, crew and tons of equipment from the show’s usual locations and soundstages on Oahu.
“The cave was pretty gonzo” recalls Fey. On a trip to the cave’s location, “we were climbing down this nearly vertical stairwell; there was literally not an inch of level ground. The whole cave was really jagged lava rocks. Everyone was moving very slowly, and the actors’ faces were very pale.” Still, Fey, along with the episode’s director and crew, got the shot, and it made for a gripping sequence in a recent — and very trippy — Locke-centered episode.
Bartley, who used to be one of the directors of photography on “The X-Files” and helped give that show its distinctive, mysterious look, had sworn off TV when he got the call from the “Lost” folks. “I didn’t want to do episodic [TV]. I felt it was taking away my life,” he recalls. Still, when he arrived in Hawaii a couple of months after the first season began, he went to a meeting straight from the plane and was “out in the jungle shooting second unit with a rain machine” the next day.
For both Fey and Bartley, shooting on location is one of the most exciting things about the show, though it’s no picnic. Sunscreen is a must, as is heavy-duty mosquito repellent. “We’re a 10-day show, eight days for main unit, two days for second unit,” Bartley says. “Five out of those days roughly are on location. Right now we’re shooting a flashback set in Florida.” Another upcoming episode is largely set in London; for those scenes, it’s likely that a few palm trees and other Hawaiian giveaways will have to be digitally removed.
The most difficult shoots Bartley recalls were the scenes of Walt, Jin, Michael and Sawyer on the castaway’s raft; their terrifying ordeal at sea closed out the show’s first season. “Going out in the water at night was the hardest thing I think I’ve ever done,” Bartley says. “I always think I should have been able to do better, but there’s not much you can do for night lighting. I look back and think I could do better now. But I don’t know how we got through those nights.” Some visuals are easier: For an upcoming flashback set in Australia, the footage was reversed so the steering wheel appears on the other side of the car. And that tidy “Others” village viewers glimpsed in the first episode of Season 3 was inserted with special effects (the show’s FX supervisor is now based in Hawaii, which makes those kinds of things easier to coordinate, Bartley says.)
Fey says shooting in the verdant greenery of Hawaii, a constant backdrop on “Lost,” is actually deceptively difficult. “One of the frustrating things is that you can go out and scout a location with a monkey pod tree in this grove with a great shaft of light coming through, and then you go back on the day [of shooting] and it’s a gray day.” Shooting in the jungle, he adds, can be difficult because, on film, the jungle can end up appearing as “a green mash.” “We try to move the camera a lot and use light to define what makes [the forest setting] special. We try to create some dimensions and differences between the trees and shapes, and focus on distinctive features.”
For both men, one of the biggest rewards of working on this challenging show is getting involved in the story lines and the performances of the actors — just as fans do. “The cast is spectacular, they bring it every day,” Fey says. “They’re troupers — they don’t require a lot of the usual niceties” that television actors get. Shooting the “small” scenes — not the trademark epic “Lost” moments — can be the most interesting of all, Bartley says. “Last season, I think Michael Emerson [who plays Benjamin Linus, a temporary prisoner of the castaways] did an amazing job,” Bartley says. “I’ve never seen an actor do so much while chained to a wall.”
lost-media.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=2170
