Exaggerating the truth is a way of life in the South. And no one does it more engagingly as director Tim Burton and his Planet of the Apes cinematic partner Philippe Rousselot, ASC in the father/son relationship story, Big Fish. Through the voice of Edward Bloom (Albert Finney/Ewan McGregor), the audience is treated to the world of a traveling salesman who has tried to take on life to the fullest, but has somehow left his pragmatic son (Billy Crudup) far behind.

Once the young Bloom had become the biggest thing in his little town, he left home on a journey through life. He made friends in a “perfect” town that no one wanted to leave, except him. He joined a circus, fought in a war, rescued conjoined twins, tangled with mythical characters and told whopping stories of his adventures.

“I never really think about format or the visual interpretation of a script before I talk to the director,” says cinematographer Philippe Rousselot. “All I knew was that it was a good script and that Tim Burton would have a unique vision for interpreting this story, which, to me, was a Proust-like vision of the world where there are always several ways of telling the truth.

“Although I have a tendency to think in anamorphic, I soon realized that Tim wanted wider lenses than could be used in that format so we opted for 1.85:1, allowing us to really frame many shots (like the first introduction to the perfect town of Spectre) for the ‘picture’ he wanted to present.”

Burton, who is known for his Gothic style images, wanted to forgo his usual dark side in the images and wanted this picture to have a look something like old colored postcards. “Really saturated, especially where the images transcend reality,” explains Rousselot. “Even in the real sequences, he wanted to introduce a lot of atmosphere so that we don’t see them realistically.”

To interpret this world, Rousselot chose Kodak’s 5218 stock and Panavision cameras, realizing that he would be using a variety of zoom and wide-angle lenses. He also employed the Frazier lens system as well as Steadicam, Hot Gear and many of the “big guns” like the Phoenix crane and the new SuperTechnocrane to capture this bigger than life world.

In pre-production, Rousselot worked closely with production designer Dennis Gassner, and costume designer Denise Atwood to create Burton’s vision through larger-than-life locations and brighter than normal colors in the costuming. They shot in and around the small town of Wetumpka in Central Alabama, and the Tallapoosa, Coosa and Alabama Rivers. Rousselot, A-camera/Steadicam Neal Norton and the rest of the crew spent an extensive amount of time carefully plotting out every sequence to a minute detail, allowing Burton to stretch his imagination, and the crew to find the right tools and techniques to support those images.

“We wanted to do as much as possible in camera,” Rousselot explains. “As we got into production, we decided to use a digital intermediate, which helped me continue that fantasy/mythology image whenever necessary.

“Working with EFILM allowed us to enhance our day for night sequence with the lady in the lake, as well as treat each individual fantasy with a different method each time to give Tim a variety of looks that we could meld together for an overall consistency.”

Ironically, the manipulation of images, often walking the line between just bigger than life and way out mythology didn’t concern Rousselot as much as the seemingly simple moments in the bedroom with father and son. “They had to be just a little off normal,” he explains. “How far can we carry them so that the audience feels a difference, but is not really aware of it?

“Since we were in the South, it was natural to have hot light outside,” he explains. “However, I also wanted to bring that full sun inside, to have the audience see, but not really see it. We did this with the size of the windows and the use of the blinds.”

Not exactly an easy task for Rousselot, who had to deal with the nature of the Southern home. Each window had a massive awning, designed to protect the residence from letting that very sun in. “We used Nine-Lights from above the house to really blast the blinds and play with the light on both sides of the room,” Rousselot explains.

“We wanted an other-worldly weird, so we played with light through the blinds and reflections of light on the blades to create something that a cinematographer usually goes to great lengths to avoid––multiple shadows.”

“Other-worldly” is an apt description of Edward Bloom’s world, whether it is the reality of his last few days or the fantastic reality of his life. Once young Bloom went as far as he could in his perfect town, he sought to conquer other worlds––helping his hometown by taking the town menace, a giant mystery man with him. “These were fun shots for us,” says Rousselot about working with Karl (seven foot plus tall, size 29 shoe actor Matthew McGrory).

“Whether we were in Edward’s hometown, on the road to the future, or at the circus, we needed to make Karl appear to be 12 feet tall,” he explains.

“Some of the shots were done with a green screen, others with visual effects enhancement. However, we tried for as many real shots as possible.

“Most of the time we had our actor on a platform,” he adds. “In the sequence where the townspeople turn out in a parade to send Karl and Edward off on their adventure, key grip Alan Rawlins built a four-foot high platform and a parallel dolly track to make this perspective.

“However, what really sold the shot was camera position and lens.

“It was simple things like doing overs with Karl, but never with the young Bloom (McGregor). We found that we could cheat the perspective on one side, but not the other.

“When we did have to do overs with the young Bloom, we would substitute a young boy that was much smaller than McGregor.

“In the circus sequence, where Edward convinces Danny DeVito’s character to sign Karl as a featured act, we used different prop sizes. When he hands the contract to the giant, it is full sized legal paper. When Karl signs it, it is smaller.

“We also played with perspective,” Rousselot adds. “When we did some profile shots, we kept the two on different planes. By putting McGregor much farther away, it appeared as if they were looking at each other.”

“The use of very wide lenses on the Fraizer really helped us on these Karl sequences,” adds operator Neal Norton. “It allowed us to force the perspective in such a way as to make the audience believe that Karl was much larger than he is.

“One of the best examples is when Ewan McGregor’s character lures him out of the cave where he has been living,” Norton continues. “We took a wide lens on the Frazier, set it at a deep stop, and placed it extremely close to Karl. This allowed us to carry the depth-of-field in such a way that it was believable.

“Also, the 1.85:1 format allowed us to contain the actors more easily than a wider screen format. This, too, helped sell Karl as a 12 foot giant.”

As soon as Edward and Karl leave home, they come upon a fork in the road. Karl takes the high road and Edward the low, which leads him through a forest of giant hopping spiders and grabbing trees. And to the town of Spectre––a perfect town where everyone goes bare-foot and no one wants to leave, “The wide-angle lens was perfect for the reveal of the town,” says Rousselot.

“To light this perfect town, with it’s plush green grass, pastel painted homes, and beautiful men and women, we used an array of lights like China Balls in the shot, put small lights in the alleyways and corners, and used the Balloon lights on the ground to light the trees.”

Toward the end of the story, Rousselot and team return to Spectre. Only, this time, the town is in desecration. “We were lucky that the sun was where we wanted it. Actually, where it should never be for a beautiful shot, but for the town that had been redressed and repainted dirty ochre, it was perfect. The sun was in the back, which allowed us to burn the color and make it so bizarre that it worked,” says Rousselot.

“Later, we did a little manipulation digitally, adding silver and playing with the saturation or rather desaturation here. We blew out the highlights and went for grain and enhancement. It was the perfect antithesis of the first time we saw this town.”

When Edward tears himself away from Spectre the first time, he meets up with Karl and the two happen upon a circus, with Danny DeVito as the ringleader. “This was one of the biggest and most difficult set ups we had,” recalls Rousselot. “We were in a location that got rained out. It was a field that was bordered by a lake that would overflow and turn our location to mud.

“To make things as flexible as possible in the circus sequences, we used as much circus lighting as possible, added smoke to diffuse the atmosphere, and a few tricks in post. On set lights were rock and roll trusses,” Rousselot explains. “By controlling them with a computer, we didn’t have to put up ladders or roll around Condors.”

“One of the most interesting and challenging sequences for me was done during the circus shots,” recalls Norton. “At one point, Danny DeVito’s character turns into a werewolf.”

“It was a little exterior sequence where the camp trailers are parked at night,” recalls Rousselot. “But we had a lot of fire power in the lighting. We had to see the camp and the woods behind, so we used a few balloon lights and lights on Condors for the forest. Plus several smaller lights hidden in different places so we could feel the atmosphere and the energy.”

“Fortunately, we had Hot Gears out of Van Nuys,” says Norton. “We used the equipment as much as possible, when we were working with animals and when we wanted to see the sets without a camera’s intrusion.

“In this case, we had a wolf. By putting the Hot Gears remote control system on the Panahead, we could position the camera near the animal, but I could be 30 to 100 feet away. That meant that the smell or sight of a human being wouldn’t be near the camera, so it wouldn’t distract the animal and we could get a shot that looked dangerous in safety.”

At another point in the story, Edward is fighting in the war. He takes any dangerous assignment possible to get home to his love (Alison Lohman/Jessica Lange). He parachutes into hostile territory, landing in the middle of a Chinese concert for their troops, meeting Siamese twins in the process.

“We were in a field, supposedly in a limbo area, at night,” recalls Rousselot. “We let the back of the stage go dark, and used Chinese lanterns to light the stage itself, as well as some of the audience.”

“This was one of the most difficult shots,” adds Norton. “We started the shot on a close up of one woman and pulled back to eventually reveal Siamese Twins. In this shot, we had a 180-degree dolly, working on a practical set in the middle of a field.

“The tracking shot also had to incorporate green screen, so that visual effects could create the Siamese Twins’ body.

“The stage shot was the simpler of the sequence. We simply measured a circle track and used the Hot Gears again, programming the pass with the girls and the pass with the background. We then took the material back to the stage and reproduced it with a green screen.

“What was interesting and complicated was the green screen with the women and a large field of view,” Norton adds. “Here, we used a dolly and Hot Gears on a circle track.

“We also had another challenge for a fight sequence 50 feet above the stage where we had our Siamese Twins performing. For this shot, we used the new 50-foot Super Technocrane. In the past, we’ve used the 30-foot Super Techno on a Titan crane. Having a single operator gave us more flexibility and better control.”

Some of the most fun sequences for Rousselot and team were the fantasy moments, from Edward wooing his wife-to-be in a field of yellow flowers to his spying of a mermaid in the water, and the final sequence where young Will gets to step into his father’s shoes and spin a fantasy himself.

“When young Edward is living in Spectre, he takes a walk in the woods and sees a ‘woman naked in the water,’” explains Rousselot. “We had no choice but to shoot this as a day for night sequence. We under-exposed the film and added a filter.

“I’m really proud of this sequence,” admits Rousselot. “We had dark sky and dark water and different values in that darkness. We could even see the snake as young Edward makes a dive for it and it disappears!”

Another fun sequence for Rousselot is a point where young Edward drives a car into the water and sits there with fish swimming around him. “We had to put a lot of elements into the stage shot so that ImageWorks could finish the process and make it look like it was underwater,” he says.

“We had an airtight set that we filled with smoke so that we could capture the headlight beams projecting through the ‘water.’ Then we had to use soft lights to light the smoke, but still see the car.

“A car, basically, is a mirror,” he adds. “It’s painted metal. So, we put small amounts of light along the set and evenly projected them so that they reflected off the metal of the car and made it look like the car was illuminated.

“Then, visual effects added the fish and substance like bubbles.”

There is a sweet sequence, where young Edward woes young Sandy (Alison Lohman). Sandy wakes up in her dorm to open the window and discover Edward standing in a field of flowers. Looks simple and beautiful. Major challenge. “This was an open set built on the terrace of a building,” recalls Rousselot. “There was nothing around it, but we had to balance the light from the inside to the exterior.

“And deal with the flowers.

“The building cast shadows. We had a bit of difficulty keeping the field full of fresh flowers. And, keeping the colors matching,” he says. “Most of the flowers were real, but about 1/3 of them were plastic. And, of course, they didn’t have the same yellow.

“We had HMI lights to erase the shadows, and, thank heaven, EFILM to even out the yellow.”

“The sequence was tougher than imagined,” admits Norton. “Working among the flowers was a challenge. We had a large crew, and they were constantly fighting a battle of not destroying the flowers as they moved around.

“For my part, it was getting in with the camera, on a tripod, or the Steadicam when needed.

“A lot different than the huge crane and wire rig sequence that ended the movie,” adds Norton.

Big Fish ends with a 360 turn––of character. Will, having heard more of his father’s stories, is determined to find a way to connect before it is too late. He tries to create his father’s “death” scene; the way Edward Bloom sees it in his head.

“Will is supposed to scoop his father out of the bed, race him down the hospital corridor in a wheelchair, put him in a car and chase through the town, finally arriving at the river, where he carries him past all the people who were part of his life and walks into the river,” Rousselot explains.

“The car chase sequence was done in the camera, not as a visual effect,” he adds, proudly. “As Will and Edward race through town, there is a pile up of cars. Karl, who miraculously shows up in the scene, reaches over and turns over one of the cars blocking their way, so the chase can continue.

“To do this, we used a smaller car, carefully positioned among real cars.

“Tim is fascinated with playing with perspective,” says Norton. “He would rather take more time on a shot and do the effect in camera, than rely on CGI. So, we spent a lot of time finding the exact place where we could put the small car, and fool the eye.

“One of the more interesting elements was that Tim wanted the car to be speeding at the camera into a close up on Albert Finney as it screeched to a halt,” he adds. “And he never wanted the car to slow down!

“So, we used an old cinema trick––a mirror gag. We had a stuntman drive the car into the mirror at high speed.

“And, when the car screeches to a stop, we did the shot in reverse, with Albert screaming into the lens and the camera backing away from him.

“We used the reversing camera as well on the shot of Helena Bonham Carter, as the witch, where the shot ends on an extreme close up of her eye. For that, we used a 90mm macro lens.”

The story ends with Will carrying Edward, who is supposed to be as light as a feather, into the water and releasing him to become the fish. “We had stunt riggers put cranes and cables in supporting Albert as Billy carries him,” Rousselot explains. “We also had a dolly track to support him underneath, so that Billy could bring him from the car and into the water.

“Fortunately, we had a sunny day, so we lit the sequence with as much natural light as possible,” he adds. “Still, we had to make compromises, which were evened out at EFILM. Thank heaven for the digital intermediate!”

“Camera was the challenge on this sequence,” adds Norton. “We walked along with Billy and Albert into the water, on the Steadicam. Then, working off boats and with the Technocrane with large platforms to support us, we shot straight down into the water to see Ed turn into the ‘big fish’ he always wanted to be.”

Philippe Rousselot has enough memorable moments from Big Fish to write a book. For him, and for the rest of the crew on this film, the joy of interpreting this story is that they never had to repeat themselves. Every sequence, every moment, was approached with a unique eye, stretching their imagination––and, hopefully, that of the audience. •