After infiltrating the enemy camp, Mathayus discovers that the sorcerer is a beautiful woman (Kelly Hu). Rather than eliminate her, he takes her deep into the desert, knowing that the ruler will stop at nothing to bring his sorcerer/guide back. Seriously wounded in the battle, Mathayus must find the strength to lead his band of “allies” back to Gomorrah for a final confrontation.

John Leonetti arrived on the picture late in prep. His first task was to familiarize himself with the look that had already been established. “The exteriors in the Middle East are very distinct,” says Leonetti. “The sand is a certain color. There are no clouds. The sky is very blue. We went for that. We wanted all these exteriors to be vivid.

“The interiors were generally regal and the most opulent, of course, was Memnon’s Palace. Production designer Ed Verreaux created incredible sets that were historically accurate. The walls were textured in sandstone and every room or hallway had carvings and gauzes in the different shades of lavender, green, and peach. The idea was to bathe everything in different shades of a ‘golden’ light.

“Torchlight was the only real source except for some sunlight during the day,” Leonetti explains. “But there weren’t a lot of windows because of the heat in that area of the world. We kept that in mind in the designing of the lighting. Golden light is very regal and fit the look for the palace, but when Mathayus (The Rock) arrived inside Memnon’s Palace, this light complimented his dark brown skin and clothes really well. Even though his appearance was so ‘earthy,’ subliminally he seemed destined to be King in that light.”

Leonetti’s original approach to the film’s format was to shoot anamorphic so he could achieve the Lawrence of Arabia scope. However, production began when the city was extremely busy. There just wouldn’t be enough quality lenses available to support the format. “Super 35mm gave us the wide screen aspect,” he explains. “It also gave us a depth of field advantage, lighter lenses, and an easier approach to doing difficult shots.”

Leonetti tested a variety of stocks, including Kodak’s 5279, 5277, and the new 500 ASA lower contrast 5284. His tests were in actual situations – day exteriors in raw sunlight and interiors with fire lights and gel packages. “Mark Vanhorn and I found that the Vision print stock and 5279 were the right combination, if we used the correct amount of fill,” he comments. 

“We decided that this would all come together if we used the Zeiss Ultra and Super speed lenses – they aren’t as contrasty as the Primos and are extremely sharp. The Primo 4 to 1, the 11 to 1, and the ‘Hubble’ 3 to 1 were a good match to the primes. 

“We shot Super 35mm with a common center. We consciously decided not to zoom just to zoom, but only to surreptitiously change the focal length for crane and dolly moves. The common center helped for tracking. His cameras of choice were the Panavision XL, two Platinums, and a Panastar.

“We had a few little ‘toys’ along as well,” Leonetti adds. “The Frasier lens helped on several interesting shots (see “On the Set” December 2001). The Enluva 3 and the Power Pod worked every day and so did the Steadicam.”

As Leonetti got into the planning stages of the production, he found “the things that look the easiest are sometimes the hardest to achieve.

“Creating natural light is not a simple task,” he continues, vehemently. “My theory on lighting in photography is that you have to learn to create what is natural in light first, then you have the license and experience to reshape it. Here, the real challenge was to continually illuminate the characters and sets in a natural firelight – and that took a lot of thought and a lot of equipment.”

When John Leonetti and gaffer Derrick Kolus worked together on Providence, Kolus was reading a technical book on Lee gels. He showed Leonetti an interesting combination: Chocolate and Straw. “Derrick told me Lee recommended this combination for fire light,” says Leonetti. “Who knew it would be the basis of our light on The Scorpion King? This gel pack creates hues of gold, orange, red, and chocolate and gives color ‘dimension’ to anything it bathes or reflects on, especially The Rock’s beautiful oiled skin.”

“Real fire, while very convincing, is difficult to control,” says Kolus. “Since it would be our most dominant source of light, particularly at night, it made sense to design and build our own fire lights.

“John and I both felt a source with multiple bulbs would create more of a ‘dance’ of light and shadow,” Kolus continues. “Mounting bulbs in a circle produced the best effect.” Dubbed the “fire wheel,” each unit features a central hub and six spokes. The end of each spoke held a PAR36 (FCX) globe. “We built the wheels in two different sizes so we could nest several of them together to create a 6, 12, or 18 light PAR36 source,” says Lolus. “Dan Reilly, our key grip, designed custom gel frames.

“PAR36s were ideal for two reasons,” Kolus explains. “They are enormously bright for their size (important because we were using very dense gels to create our fire color) and their filaments have a very quick response. The flicker effect was essentially a chase effect running on an ETC Expression 3 dimmer board. The Expression allowed us to precisely control the timing of how each bulb turned on and off. Varying these parameters allowed us to create the look of a smoldering torchlight or a roaring bonfire. We were also able to change the quality of the fire during the shot, which became necessary when the sets began to catch fire and burn.”

The fire wheel often influenced the use of additional lights and filters. Leonetti explains, “Depending on where we were in the sets, we went for our version of natural interiors by increasing or decreasing the amount of white light in the fill for our true color saturation.

“Often times, we could use the fire light as a stronger key at night and a not so strong key in the day.

“For Daytime, we also incorporated blue sky reflections through the windows and mixed them with our fire light.

“At night, we picked a non standard blue moonlight from HMIs with a pastel, Pale Blue Lee gel. We would correct the HMIs back to 3200 and put blue on. Yes, there were a lot of layers on the HMIs, but the light loss was worth the color.”

One of Leonetti’s favorite sets is Memnon’s throne room. It is a strong example of how the fire wheels played an important part of the shoot. The set is filled with pillars, a throne at one end, and double doors to the courtyard. “We lit this basically with fire wheels suspended over and under fire sources,” he explains.

“We had eight ‘8-bys’ and three ‘12-bys’ side by side together, suspended from the ceiling with Skypans pushing down through full grid with six inch baffles to direct the light and keep it in the room, but not on the walls. Because they were on chain motors, we could angle all 12 rigs at any position we chose: horizontal, vertical, or twisted, to create white fill.

“In addition to this rig, we had four 12k beam projectors to create sunlight above the windows,” he adds. “It was like a puzzle, but it worked.”

Another classic example of Leonetti’s use of the fire wheel as flickering fire light combined with Moleenos (24-light PAR 64s) is an outside sequence shot at Mystery Mesa in the Valencia hills – a final fight between Memnon and Mathayus. “The area is some 2000 feet into the hills, surrounded by black sky at night,” says Leonetti. “It is a huge mesa where we could build sets and burn fires.

“This particular set was a square with palm trees and orange trees on the perimeter. The fight begins in a courtyard with one whole side on fire and finishes up on top of a parapet overlooking the whole palace and city of Gomorrah.

“It was one thing to light fire from the perms and greenbeds when we were on a stage,” Leonetti interjects. “That was much easier. We could lower and raise the equipment at will.

“But, outside without perms, that was a challenge! On shots like this, we had as many as ten Moleenos hung from articulating Condors. Once they were rigged, they looked like praying mantises, reaching over walls and surrounding the sets. The light could reach down and create a source for the fire where we wanted, but could be pulled out of the way when we didn’t want it.

“Once the fire started on the set, we had to depend on these lights and create interactive light for the torches on the walls. We were constantly augmenting the fire with the wheels.

“In reference to natural lighting, our day exterior was exactly that,” Leonetti continues. “I rarely use lights outside. Normally I use bleached muslin as a bounce, but Dan Reilly introduced me to Ultrabounce and we used that more often because  it is ‘punchy’ yet still soft. Silver lamé was another bounce of choice for The Scorpion King because of the necessity to balance many dark skinned and clothed actors and extras.” If production has to time the schedule for the sun’s placement, it becomes a big challenge. “On the set earlier in the story during principal photography, Lord Memnon puts on a martial arts demonstration to show how great a fighter he is. He kicks four Asian masters’ butts on the mat. He then shows how he can catch an arrow if someone shoots it at him.

“We shot the sequence in late spring or early summer,” Leonetti recalls. “The sun was much higher than in the winter when we did re-shoots.  

“Normal exteriors have no constricting walls,” he adds. “Our set, however, had 20-foot high courtyard walls. When we shot the original footage, we used the sun as we normally would and shot in cross and back light, filtering the light into our set naturally with bounce fill.

“When the story was re-written, he not only has to catch the arrow, he also has to deflect it with a sword.

“When we got to the location, the sun wouldn’t go into the set!” he explains. “It’s much lower in the sky during the winter!

“To make our ‘sun’ we had to bring in two BeeBee lights side by side and gel them with quarter CTO to match the color termperature of the sun for that time of year. We comfortably matched the sun in this 20 by 60-foot area, but to cover any bigger area we would have needed more BeeBee lights. You can easily appreciate the power of the sun when you have to duplicate it!”

Ask John Leonetti what his favorite set on this shoot was and he will say Cassandra’s (Kelly Hu) bathroom and quarters. “The whole thing begins in Philos’ lab,” he explains. “He is a scientist/wizard. The set is filled with all sorts of inventions, including a catapult.

“We took a lot of license with the lighting,” Leonetti admits. “We had 35 ACLs (24 volt spot PARs) focused over the set with double straw on them to highlight every little invention. Then we took two 24-light Dinos and covered them with double straw for the sun through the huge window to focus on the catapult. 

“When The Rock sees the Red Guard is after him, he uses the catapult to throw himself across Gommorah – and into a harem.”

The harem set was relatively small, decorated in peach tones, and filled with about 15 women in scanty costumes. “We lit this by punching Moleenos through unbleached muslin suspended over the set. Underneath, Ed draped peach gauze as a ceiling and we lit right through it. We brought sunlight in with beam projectors and PARs gelled with CTO and straw.

“What was interesting in this sequence was the camera work,” he adds.

“Once he lands, we used the Steadicam with a 24mm lens moving from different angles to push in on The Rock and in the reverses we pulled different harem girls into him in multiple overs. This gave us a ‘euphoric’ feeling of him being surrounded and pulled in by the women. Mathayas escapes in the nick of time – only to fall through a skylight into Cassandra’s bath.

“The bath sequence is stunning. It is a great example of tone, action, adventure, and fun. The set is decorated with gauze in shades of purple and lavender, with complimentary texture on the walls. We added steam from the bath.  

“To light it, we used a straw and CTO gel on the sunlight which came from Dinos and Moleenos. We filtered the light through bleached muslin before it got to the gauze. Even though it sounds like a lot of light, it was very moody and sexy.

“The camera was still to let the audience catch their breath and enjoy a very fun moment between Mathayus and Cassandra,” Leonetti adds. “This ties to a sequence where the two drop through a drain and ride a slide through the ‘plumbing’ system of the time, finally popping up in a fountain.”

Shot in pre-production because the studio was about to dismantle the rock formations and tank on Stage 27 at Universal (from Jurassic Park 3), Leonetti and crew had to make the audience believe the two characters were in the sewer system. “So, we created the overall light with space lights with fern green gel – and a few un-gelled to mix a little white light. This created the algae feeling under the streets. We wanted it to be dark and dingy.

“To shoot this sequence we placed five cameras to intercut and stretch the fall into this huge pool. We placed one camera in the perms aiming straight down and turned sideways to maximize the aspect ratio. We put two more with wide lenses at water level, one under water, and one wide master back at a high angle. Stunt doubles made the high slide fall and Kelly and The Rock slid down a ‘close-up’ slide as we dollied with them.”

The Scorpion King is filled with these kinds of “fun” shots. Some of the shots are complicated while some of them are simple. All of them required a lot of research and planning – plus a few of the high tech cinematic tools to make the story move at the pace that was necessary.

“Rollvision was a very handy tool we used on an early sequence in the film.

“We shot at Pico Canyon in the Magic Mountain area,” he adds. “The Rock, standing on a hill above Memnon’s encampment, ties a small cable line to his camel sidekick and tethers it to an arrow which he shoots into a pole. He uses his bolo to slide down into the encampment.

“Billy Burton, our second unit director, had used Rollvision on Collateral Damage and suggested it to me. It is a very light-weight gyro remote head that houses a converted Arri IIC, takes a lightweight wide-angle zoom and is radio controlled. It weighs a total of 30 pounds. Bobby LaBonge, our second unit DP, worked with the special effects crew and The Two Seans (a great rigging team), to suspend the Rollvision system on a 250 foot cable that worked in tandem to The Rock’s cable. We shot over the shoulders, POVs, side and close-up angles of The Rock. It worked great. We also used it later as an arrow POV very successfully.

“To light this huge night exterior, which was going to be matted into an even bigger shot, we had 2 Night BeeBee lights corrected back to 3200 with our pale blue gels – and several fire wheels hidden behind tents and torches.”

When Leonetti and crew were in smaller locations, the fire wheels were still a basic ingredient to make their shots. For long hallways lined with torches, Kolus designed smaller boxes. “Each was the size of a tissue box and contained six 250 or 500 watt bulbs (FEV type),” he explains. “These little boxes could be hidden behind a torch, as they were only about two inches deep. They were also great for hand holding.”

For Leonetti and Kolus, one of the most “fun” fire sequences happens towards the end of the story when a fireball erupts from underneath the palace and comes barreling down a hallway toward actor Michael Clark Duncan (Balthazar). For the effect passes, without the fireball element, the tops of the hallway walls were lined with 150 1k nook-lights set edge to edge. These, together with 72 PARcans and 50 650 watt nook lights, turned on one after the other in sequence simulating the movement of the fireball coming down the hall.

“We put full CTO gel on these shots,” says Leonetti. “Although this isn’t the normal fire color, we needed the hot fire ball feel and this made it work.

“It was nothing, compared to the ending where the castle is basically blown up,” he adds. “Here, we had Lightning Strikes, fire wheels, and everything else in our arsenal. Just a little ‘fire power,’” he laughs.

It is obvious that John Leonetti could go on and on about the complications of “natural light” circa 3000 B.C. He could go on about the opening, which featured motion control using Kodak’s 5248 stock when he pulled the 85 filter, printed it blue and digitally colored the sunlight to go crimson and maintain the blue in the shadows.

“It was a tremendous undertaking,” Leonetti says, his energy still high from the experience. “Something that we couldn’t have accomplished without the help of Michael St. Hilaire on A-camera with his talent and wit, Steve Ullman on Steadicam who makes it look so effortless to move the camera beautifully, Mark Santoni who pulled focus remotely 80 percent of the time and never missed, and Trey Clinesmith who is wicked on a long lens and is so humble about it. And, of course, our second unit DPs, Bobby LaBonge and Hiro Narita (who did second unit and helped a great deal on the re-shoots).

“I think it is very important to note that this was a period film shot within the four corners of California and mostly right here in L.A.. The locations included Universal Studios stages and backlot, Spartacus Square, Palmdale, Lancaster, Anza Borrego, Buttercup Dunes, Valencia, Simi Valley, Bronson Caves and June Mountain. It makes Hollywood a GREAT place to make movies!

“Even more importantly no one can forget the experience and talent available here in Hollywood. This crew in every department was as good as it gets and I have worked around the world. We had to literally create 3000 BC and I am proud we did it here.

“I hope the audience will be as enthusiastic about The Rock as the legendary Scorpion King - as we were shooting him in this mythical adventure. It is the kind of film that everyone can enjoy – an adventure and an escape – something we need more of these days.” •