BEHIND THE SCENES: THE SIBERIAN FACILITY

This entry was posted on 9/14/2006 9:29 PM and is filed under production.

When you think of recreating Siberia on screen, creating the illusion of intense cold in the southern desert of Arizona during the heat of summer presented a huge challenge for us.

We filmed inside the engineering section of Kino Hospital during one of the most humid heatwaves in Tucson history. Inside the tunnels it was dark and sweltering hot. Inside the boiler rooms it was even hotter, passing 125 degrees in temperature. We worked up as much sweat filming as a Springsteen concert that night.

For our Actors Steven Adelson and Gary McGaha wearing the "hot suits" of parkas, scarves, wollen pants, mittens,.and Arctic snow boots, it was beyond brutal so we had to closely monitor their exposure to the high temperatures. That meant they could only spend one minute suited-up per five minutes out of the hot suits in the air conditioned engineering command center while my men and I stayed out in the heat and lit the next setup.

To make this work, we had to light a scene, block it out and prepare to record before the Actors were put back in their hot suits. That required a lot of coordination and excellent timing to synchronize the Actors coming out, stepping in front of the camera and recording for a very few minutes before they got the word to "Get 'em out of those hot suits" and send them back into the command center to rehydrate and cool down five minutes for every minute of exposure. Typically, we had it down to three minutes of recording and fifteen minutes of cooling off, which bought the time for setting up the next shot. In the eight hours we filmed without a break, my men and I lit and recorded about 30 shot angles before wrap time. Having designed the lighting a few weeks earlier, I was able to light shots at an average of about five minutes so we could move fast despite having the added complication of spending more time cooling down our Actors than filming.

This is why rehearsing until the Actors know exactly what they are doing is so vitally important to pulling off a successful shoot. If my Actors or I were not thoroughly prepared to go in, do it and get out under such extreme conditions, we never would have gotten the footage we walked away with.

Assistant Director Justin Mashouf in the "tunnel" with Actors Gary McGaha and Steven Adelson.	James Arnett adjusts the menu settings on the Canon XL-2 inside Kino's engineering command center.
In the midst of the gigantic boilers of Kino Hospital, James Arnett prepares a steadicam shot with the Canon XL-2.	Assistant Directors Justin Mashouf and Paul Adkins prepare Actor Steven Adelson's costume.
Actor Steven Adelson taking last minute direction moments before filming.	Assistant Director Paul Adkins stands-in for Justin Mashouf half-way through filming.
Down in the live electrical raceway, James Arnett sets up the lighting and the butterfly diffuser amidst the high voltage power conduit for the Hospital.	Assistant Directors Justin Mashouf and Paul Adkins down in the end of the "tunnel" wait on a replacement bulb for the Chinese Lantern's fixture.
Assistant Director Paul Adkins and James Arnett rebulb the blown out Chinese Lantern.	Sooner or later, someone was going to run into an exposed bolthead in the darkness of the tunnel.
Assistant Director Paul Adkins lays electrical line for the Chinese Lantern set high in the grid work.	In the transformer room, James Arnett directs Actors Steve Adelson and Gary McGaha before they suit up in their hot suits.
Actor Steven Adelson in position to climb up from the electrical raceway ladder.	Actor Gary McGaha up on the boiler deck.
Director James Arnett and A.D. Paul Adkins rig the corded flashlight to Actor Steven Adelson.	Set security while we were filming.
Actor Gary McGaha in the Artfare Mezzanine, gets into costume, putting on his Arctic boots.	Assistant Director Justin Mashouf checks the coverage of the volumetric fog effect lighting.
James Arnett blocks light spill from the Chinese Lantern using an aluminum foil flag.	Actor Gary McGaha is shown how to operate the P38 automatic pistol.

Arriving at the Firestone building to film the doors.	Director James Arnett unloading the Explorer.
Thanking Gabriele Andres for finding steel doors in Tucson on short notice without graffitti on them..	Actor Gary McGaha in full costume.
Actor Steve Adelson in full costume.	Doubling for the abandoned Siberian facility doors.
Actors Gary McGaha and Steve Adelson torching open the steel doors.	The firey tip of the torch and the background snowfall will be composited in later in post production.
It was 105 degrees in the shade but the Actors were starting to get used to being broiled like this by now.	Right back at'cha!
Assistant Director Justin Mashouf and James Arnett prepping the case of bio-weapon vials.	Assistant Director Justin Mashouf and Actor Steve Adelson reset between takes.
Actors Gary McGaha and Steve Adelson out of their hot suits in the Artfare Mezzanine.	Director James Arnett using a sandbag for a floor angle high-hat shot.
Assistant Director Justin Mashouf and James Arnett after setting up all of the lighting that included an 80 blue chinese lantern fill, a 50 blue rim light with the white flashlight (which was used to white balance) acting as the key light. Despite the unorthodox lighting instruments I built, all of the lighting in this film is straight out of the American Cinematographers Manual.	Whenever possible, Producer Gabriele Andres and James Arnett do the catering. Today it was cheese tortolini in a chianti and parmesian marinara. Other days it was portabello mushroom ravioli in alfredo sauce with roasted red peppers. Other days it was hummus and kabobs, always with a fresh baby spinich and fresh bread. We take a lot of pride feeding our people well.
Assistant Director Justin Mashouf and Actor Steve Adelson pull off a simple but effective lighting technique amidst the fog effects to approximate the ambient reflections cast by the flashlight.	Justin Mashouf uses his hand as a flesh colored reflector as well as red gelling the flashlight to create the close ups of the Russians in the facility in the stairwell of the Artfare building.


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