JK: It started with photography during high school. Next, I went to Columbia College in Chicago. We were given a Bolex in Columbia and told to make our first movie in pairs. I had a little Toyota pickup truck and I built a scaffolding in the back to get a high angle shot in downtown Chicago. This was for a 2 minute black and white movie.

At this time, a television class instructor suggested that I call to volunteer for a shoot happening during the weekend. “You’ll get paid for gas,” explained the instructor. A real film project. Well, it ended up being shot in video. I worked with Gregory Lundsgaard, who is a great Steadicam operator. He was running a Steadicam with a video camera. I spotted for him and pulled cable, and that was it! Later we ended up working on Jerry Maguire together.

This was a frustrating time for me. Once I had a taste of production, I wanted to get out and work hands-on. So, I quit school and started working as a production assistant until I met a gaffer named Todd Thomasson. Todd had his own equipment. After working with him on a few commercials in 1984, he asked me to help him on a movie.

C/L: What led to your involvement with Saving Private Ryan?

JK: I met Janusz Kaminski in Chicago. He would day play as a grip/electric for Todd Thomasson so we would often find ourselves on the same crews. We both ended up working in L.A. a few years later. He had just finished shooting a movie called Grim Prairie Tales and I was establishing myself in Hollywood as a key grip/dolly grip when we reunited. Janusz was offered Schindler’s List and was looking for a dolly grip. He asked me to do the film. I couldn’t believe it. I would be working with Steven Spielberg as director. This film opened so many doors. We all felt like we had the talent, but it was Spielberg who gave us the opportunity to get in there and prove ourselves. This was the best thing that ever happened to me. From that film I went on to work as Janusz’s Key Grip on Spielberg’s next three films; Lost World, Amistad and Saving Private Ryan.

CL: After the start date on Saving Private Ryan, did you feel that, because of the subject matter, this was a special film?

Above: Director Steven Spielberg sets up a dolly shot off of the Super PeeWee during filming of the feature film The Lost World. This was the film where a ‘Switcher’ joint for track was first conceived. © 1998, Universal Studios Inc. Photo: David James

JK: Yes, I felt we were dealing with a very intense subject matter. The experience gave us the same kind of feeling as we had with Schindler’s List. Following an extremely hard day, we would drive home knowing what we did. Then we would go to the dailies and see what was the product of our efforts. The magnitude of the story was all there to see.

CL: Did the shooting schedule on Saving Private Ryan follow the story, chronologically?

JK: Yes. We hit the beach right away.

CL: So you had a sense of the story line as you were going through the production schedule?

JK: Definitely. We went from the beach to the sea wall and then went up the hill. Next, began filming the dialogue sequences. And it goes on from there.

CL: How much of the movie was planned using story- board?

JK: None of it. The producers tried to get a story- board and even hired an artist to do them. Spielberg didn’t want that. Schindler’s List didn’t have a story- board either, though Spielberg always used a story- board before. I guess he just wanted to deal with the scenes as they happened. He’d block the shot out and then let everything happen in that scene.

CL: The strength of the visuals intensifies the story. Was that all planned?

JK: The methods were inspired by Janusz. Spielberg noticed, in documentaries, when a bomb goes off the picture vibrates. We used an image shaker device to shake the camera. Other scenes used step printing. The scene, when Tom Hanks is hit with a shell and loses his hearing, uses this technique. To accomplish the nervous, jittery feeling in the battle scenes, cameras with a 45 or 90 degree shutter were used. There is also a camera called a Streaker which creates these eerie streaks. Another preference of Janusz was the use of uncoated lenses. This gives a halo effect to the images. Once Spielberg saw the effects from our test, he used them throughout the film.

CL: In Saving Private Ryan, many of the visuals were unusual. You don’t see much of that kind of cinematography in other movies.

JK: Steven told us what he wanted to get and what was going to be the basic look for the movie. He encouraged us to shoot it with a lot of cameras; shoot it from the combat photographer’s point of view. Deal with the scene as it happened.

We ended up shooting with 4 cameras, then 5 cameras and sometimes 6 cameras at a time. Dolly track was mounted on a 40 foot flatbed trailer which was backed into the water. That was the scene where Tom Hanks jumps off the landing craft into the water, then comes out to the shore, while helping another soldier onto the beach.

We hand held everything. We had skateboard dollies ten feet long with 5 cameras on them. Five operators, five assistants and five cameras. It was simply this big train with dolly track descending down into the water. From there, we strapped cameras on camera assistant Steven Meizler while a couple camera operators ran up the beach with the actors.

CL: How did the actors work with the swarm of hand held cameras?

JK: You would have to ask them, but I think it was tricky for them.

CL: Did you use Chapman / Leonard equipment on Saving Private Ryan?

JK: Of course. I have been totally sold on Chapman / Leonard equipment ever since I used a Hybrid and PeeWee® on Schindler’s List.

CL: Tell us about Switcher Track. What is it and how did it come about?

Above: Hand held cameras were used alot to film Saving Private Ryan. Janusz Kaminski and Steven Spielberg work on a scene with Tom Hanks. © 1998, Dreamworks LLC ™ Photo: David James

JK: During The Lost World, Spielberg was blocking out a scene. We were shooting an exterior shot. He started moving in with the lens, stopped and moved to his left and replied why we couldn’t do that. I said we could lay dance floor. Spielberg didn’t want to take the time. Spielberg approached me later and asked me to design a switcher to work in line with dolly track. I went to Peter McKie, the fellow who designed the Precision I- Beam Track. I specified that we wanted to design this switcher joint around the PeeWee dolly. I had a good idea on how I wanted it to work and I wasn’t too far off. He was the genius who came up with the technical design for the hubs that go in line with the track...thus Switcher was born. It puts the dolly in a different direction. The mechanism is based on 90 degrees. We used it on Saving Private Ryan about five times. Only three of the scenes made it to the screen. In one, the soldiers come upon a glider in a field and go along the edge of the woods. Then, they move towards the camera and they come up to the plane and the camera starts dollying to the right with them as they go through the glider and over to the wounded soldiers sitting in the grass.

CL: So the track is the same Precision Dolly Track that’s been around.

JK: Yes.

CL: Can you tell us something about the explosion shots?

Above: The scenes for Saving Private Ryan were planned without using a storyboard. Spielberg decided to deal with the scenes as they happened. © 1998, Dreamworks LLC ™ Photo: David James

JK: The bombs were of two sorts; actual dynamite charges, as well as air bombs, which consist of a dish under the sand. The bursts in the ocean were dynamite charges. The explosions on the beach were both dynamite and air bombs. The air bomb dishes were filled with water; these were set off to create an explosive effect. Tighter photography of the actors called for safety; this is when air bombs were used. The air bombs would go off and look like huge explosions. Simulation of bullets going through the water were done with air tubes submerged underwater. The tubes would shoot air at 70 psi.

C/L: The camera was extremely close to the German tank in the final scenes. What was that explosion? It jolted the audience.

JK: The sequence had two parts. The tank was propped up from its underside. The tank was over a large hole. The first explosion broke the supports, making the tank fall. Then, there were blasts behind and on top to make it appear as if the whole tank exploded. The tank used was a real war tank from the WW II era, either a Tiger or Panzer.

All in all, the film’s footage was very realistic and added to the intensity of the movie. The film was a combined effort from all the talents of our crew to give the realistic image we portray on screen.