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After landing safely, Max and 99 enjoy a more relaxed moment as they stroll through rural countryside at dusk, with the outskirts of Montreal standing in for Russia. “The Genesis gave me a huge advantage at magic hour,” notes Semler. “I managed to have the Steadicam pulling back with the actors and the B and C cameras off to the sides, walking with them. They also paused in two positions, and the side cameras stopped and did the over-the-shoulder coverage. That enabled us to get everything done at the same time, with the actors feeling totally free. We took it right up to 2,000 ASA on the Genesis with +1 gain and a 360-degree shutter. At the end of the scene, I stepped out of my tent and it was dark outside, but the scene looked beautiful on the monitor.” Montreal’s Olympic stadium stood in as the futuristic headquarters of Siegfried and Kaos. “For the stadium, we bounced a dozen or so 18K HMIs into UltraBounce frames to create an overall ambience,” says Semler. “We shot two interior scenes with Terence Stamp using the outside light spilling in. In one, he sits at a desk playing a violin, with only a warm practical-light effect added; in the second, we had a war table that was actually an elevator stairwell closed off and covered with a map of the world that was lit from underneath by Kino Flos. We finished both scenes by lunch, and Terence said he would fly home the next day after the dailies report. But then we took the tapes off the cameras, cloned them in the projection trailer, and had the dailies report right away, so he was able to fly home that afternoon!” Smart and 99 finally arrive at their objective: a bakery on a Moscow riverbank that is suspected of being a front for nuclear-weapons manufacturing. The setting combines shots taken on location in Russia with additional exteriors shot in Montreal and interiors captured at the Budweiser brewery in Los Angeles and a vacant mail-sorting facility in Montreal. To shoot 99 infiltrating the bakery through an air-conditioning vent, Semler tracked Hathaway with a 50' Super Technocrane fitted with a Libra head. “The Techno was expertly operated by my longtime dolly grips, Jeff ‘Moose’ Howery and John Murphy,” notes the cinematographer. On the bakery exteriors, the production was able to use larger equipment. Gilson recalls that for a segment captured on location in Russia, “we had two lighting towers loaded with 12K Pars. They were 80-foot Condors in a condition that probably wouldn’t be considered 100-percent usable here in the States, but it’s fascinating to see how people do things in other countries. When we matched the exterior in Montreal, we brought in a lot of big gear, like Maxi-Brutes, and then did more rigging and testing.” When the bakery explodes, Smart and 99 leap from the roof to the safety of a neighboring building. To accommodate the extensive stunt work and pyrotechnics, the rooftop was re-created as a set at Warner Bros. “We originally planned to use either Translites or greenscreen,” says Semler. “As it turned out, all of the firelight from the propane explosions really lit up the background, so we decided to just surround the set with black, and Joe did a great job of adding the Moscow skyline in post.” In addition to the bakery exterior, the Russia sequences include a nighttime trip through Moscow’s picturesque Red Square, where Semler was able to shoot primarily with the location’s existing lighting. Gilson details, “I was sent ahead to Red Square early with a light meter and a digital camera to determine the level of lighting. There was a mixture of sodium-vapor and incandescent industrial-lighting units on top of a large department store. Dean was pretty confident there was enough base-level illumination to work with the Genesis, so we just augmented that with small cosmetic lights on the actors.” Later, with the war against Kaos still raging, Smart and 99 must try to prevent an assassination during a concert. The sequence was filmed in downtown Los Angeles at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, an iconic building designed by Frank Gehry. Semler found the interior’s existing orchestra lighting to be suitable for base-level ambience, which he boosted with Airstar 8K tungsten balloons. “We didn’t really have to bring in any major lighting,” he says. “I also loved shooting the exterior of the hall; the reflective metal gave us an incredible number of highlights. Those are sometimes a concern with digital, but we never had any problems.” Get Smart’s finale finds Max and 99 in a speeding SUV, barreling down railroad tracks toward an oncoming train. The Chief attempts to rescue his endangered employees with a low-flying propeller plane, which was realized entirely via CGI. The sequence was filmed in the Vernon train yards outside Los Angeles, along with additional inserts shot onstage using both greenscreen and digital rear-projection; McCuaig’s unit covered the major stunts. “We did a good amount of driving at speed with the main actors on top of the SUV,” recalls Semler. “That was exciting, and I think being outside and in the action really helped them out performance-wise.”
The scene’s denouement shows Smart and 99 separately searching the wreckage of the SUV and train, with each convinced that the other has met an untimely demise. Because the sequence was shot late in the day, Semler worried about lighting continuity. “Almost everything else that had been shot had been in full sun, so I was concerned this wasn’t going to match. I recalled my early days working with director George Miller and his producer, Byron Kennedy, on The Road Warrior. Their theory was that when you’re shooting action, if the action is fast enough, the audience is very forgiving. It can almost be raining in one shot and you’ll get away with it. “Ultimately, we had no choice but to shoot,” he continues. “Peter and I devised two three-camera setups that would give us all the coverage we needed in the short time we had. The sun went behind a low cloud, and then it was going to be gone. Once again, I used +1 gain and a 360-degree shutter for 2,000 ASA. I stepped out of the tent and was once again surprised by how dark it was — I guess I will eventually get used to the Genesis’ ability to see in the dark! When I watched the dailies in the trailer, I saw we’d gotten away with it.” Semler carried out the digital intermediate (DI) at EFilm with colorist Steve Bowen. “Steve is sort of like a postproduction policeman for me, offering advice like, ‘I think you went too far for this,’ or, ‘Next time, you should try this,’” Semler says with a grin. “I learn a lot just watching things get pieced together, and it was a great experience. However, by the time I got into actually finishing the movie, it had already gone through three or four temporary DIs for studio previews. That’s a very different approach, and I think cinematographers should try to get in there on the initial preview timings just to make sure everyone is on the same page.” Having done his part to maintain Control and stave off Kaos, Semler ponders the digital path he traveled on Get Smart, noting wistfully that he still shoots film when a project calls for it, as on the recently completed feature Appaloosa. “My crew is now very familiar with the Genesis, and they’ve learned to discover the camera. It is different, in that it’s a computer instead of a film camera; the assistants really need to learn the software and the menus. But it’s 2008, and the digital era is no longer the future — we’re in it.”
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