Volume 5, Issue 2, page 4

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Chapman / Leonard Exclusive: An interview with Visual Effects Key Grip, Colin Edwards, and Best Boy, Brian Liberman. The two are currently working on the HBO Mini Series Event, called "From the Earth to the Moon". Credits from this visual effects team include Down Periscope, Money Train, Jingle All the Way, Escape from LA, The Shining, and, Dantes Peak.

CL: You are currently working on the HBO Mini Series Event From the Earth to the Moon. What is the story and how are you utilizing Chapman / Leonard Equipment?

Colin: The show is about the Apollo Space Program. It is a series of one hour films. One episode is directed by Frank Marshall and the first episode to air is directed by Tom Hanks. This Mini Series Event is being made for HBO and it will be released early next year. So far, I've used Chapman Equipment to mount models and to track cameras for the NASA sequences. We also have a splash-down sequence coming up where I probably will be placing a Lenny Arm on a barge. I used a lot of Chapman Equipment during the filming of Dantes Peak..we even built our own crash boxes for the dam scene. The boxes were rated at 40,000 lbs. per square foot and filled with nitrogen gas to prevent fogging of the housings.

CL: What are some of the other advantages of using Chapman Equipment?

Colin: In one episode of From the Earth to the Moon, I'm using the camera support equipment the same way I used it for filming Escape From LA. I use the cranes to mount models on, as well as, to support cameras. I like the Lenny Arms because I'm so familiar with them. As far as the Super Nova and Titan, they are the cranes that will accomplish the type of crane shot I need. The Super Nova is one of the best cranes that will get the shots with a man riding behind the camera.

CL: You are using motion control for this particular scene, in which you are digitally programming the camera moves. What are the advantages and differences between this type of movement and manual arm movement?

Colin: We would only use the motion control unit on a shot that had to be a repeatable camera move. Visual effects can also require live action cranes and dollies for miniatures and pyrotechnics. For example, when I was doing The Shining, we had a scene where we had to film the Outlook Hotel, in miniature, as it was burning. When I'm in a situation like this, I use camera cranes...these are shots I do not have to worry about repeatable moves.

CL: When do you decide to use miniatures versus true scale?

Colin: These decisions are usually made by the VFX Supervisor and the Director. Most of the time, if we are going to burn it or destroy it, then it will be made into miniatures. Nowadays, we have a lot of disaster movies, like Escape From LA, Dantes Peak, The Flood, where everything is getting destroyed. These films require a lot of miniature work.

CL: When you are shooting miniatures, what are some key factors that make it look real?

Above: On location at Edwards Air Force Base
shooting with the model mounted on the Lenny
Arm and the Titan Mobile Crane filming the scene.
This is one of the techniques Colin and Brian like
to utilize in their Visual Effects.

Brian: The trick to shooting with models is the lighting. We have to make the model look real. This is one of the tricks to visual effects. We have even developed our own textiles to achieve the lighting effects that we need. Visual effects are often taken for granted. People can always tell bad visual effects, but if it's good, it becomes a part of the movie and you don't even know that there are miniatures in the film.

CL: How do you incorporate live action into the miniatures?

Colin and Brian: For example, in a scene where Neal Armstrong is training to fly the Lunar Landing Module (LM), we filmed the original Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) to add realism. It was one of the original three that NASA made and it is now a historic monument of the space program. Also, we rigged a miniature version of the LLTV from a Lenny Arm that was mounted on an ATB and we lifted it up in the air and moved it about to mimic the movement of training in flight, cutting to live action of Neal Armstrong in the real LLTV. We filmed the action itself from the Titan. Also, we used the Hustler Dollies to do many of the walking and talking scenes with the actors.

CL: Did you use the equipment for a point of view shot...to get the movement of what the actor is seeing and feeling?

Colin: A lot of times, if we can't move the object, we create movement with the camera. Also, since the cockpit of the LLTV is small, we used the Lenny Arm with a three-axis remote head to get into this small space and look out at the earth from the astronaut's point of view...as it would be in flight.

CL: What are some of the issues you consider in deciding to use a remote camera application versus the manned camera application?

Colin: We have to consider where the camera is going to fly...would it be on a boat dock over the water, would there be pyrotechnics involved...etc. Things can go wrong when you are having exploding scenes, so we have to consider, will it be safe to hang a man out there?...Most of the time, we will opt to use a remote head.

CL: How did you start in this business and what do you find rewarding about your type of job?

Colin: I started at Raleigh Studios. From there, I went to a special effects company called Quick Silver after deciding to become a VFX Key Grip. Once I did this, I didn't want to go back to doing anything else. We work, mostly, under VFX Units, which allows us some time to be creative.

Brian: I like rigging the special equipment we need for the shot, to get the look that production and the DP want to achieve.

Thank you Brian Liberman and Colin Edwards for your input and we look forward to watching this HBO Mini Series Event.

Above: Working under the direction of Visual Effects DP Tony Cutrono, Colin Edwards and Brian Liberman are seen enxt to some of the miniatures they help make come to life on screen.