Los Angeles is an expensive town. Practically everyone has to work two jobs just to survive. Even the cops. That’s why veteran detective Joe Gavilan (Harrison Ford) sells real estate and rookie KC Calden (Josh Hartnett) runs a yoga studio.

“Director Ron Shelton and his writing partner, former LA Homicide detective Bob Souza wanted to create a story that showed the ‘lighter side’ of police work––Hollywood style,” says cinematographer Barry Peterson. Peterson had last worked with Shelton on Dark Blue and was eager to pair with the director again; especially on a film Shelton explained would be written and shot in the M.A.S.H. and Lethal Weapon style. “Funny people in serious situations,” he explains.

“Ron works a film like no one else I know,” says Peterson. “He rehearses with the first team and has the second team watch them. He wants them to watch and to remember the stars’ lines, and the nuances of when and how they move in any given scene. It’s not just about dropping marks; it’s much more.

“By doing things this way, it allows the camera operator Kirk Gardner and the gaffer Brent Poe and myself to finesse the lighting and camera moves with more precision,” Peterson explains. “When the movie’s stars walk away and come back, there is no more ‘tweaking,’ because the shot is lit and we know where and when our actors will be during any part of the sequence. It also allows us the time to make more interesting and exciting blocking.

“One of Ron’s first notes to me,” Peterson explains, “was that we were going to make Hollywood glamorous again even though bad things were happening. He wanted to show the world what this town used to be like. Production designer Jim Bissell, Ron and myself would pick locations or if we couldn’t find them, Jim would build them, all to emphasize that feeling. And I would make sure that the movie’s stars were lit like movie stars while keeping true to the story.”

Peterson’s first major decision was to shoot anamorphic. “Hollywood was to be a major background,” he explains. “It is a two story city. It lends itself to the wide format. And, since we were going to do a lot of car work, it worked well in the wide format, too.

“Plus, there is nothing better to emphasize glamour than the traditional ‘old style’ wide screen.”

Peterson did very little testing, except to find the “hero” lenses and angles that worked best for his stars. “Some actors look better when you use a lens’s compression abilities while others look better with the spherical lenses,” he explains.

He chose Panavision cameras, primarily using Primos and E series lenses with the C series available for handheld and Steadicam if needed. His stock of choice was Kodak’s 5245 for day exteriors, 5246 for interior practical locations and super long lens shots, and 5279 for the basic day interior sets and night exteriors.

Shelton and Peterson realized, for the audience to get into the mood of this story, the opening sequence was crucial. “We ended up with a cold opening, where Josh Hartnett and Harrison Ford meet for the first time,” Peterson explains.

“It starts with the robbery of a bridal store in downtown Los Angeles. Harrison Ford is sitting at a donut shop across the street. Good cops do donuts, bad cops don’t in this story,” he interjects. “Ford’s character calmly gets up and runs toward the robbery. At the same time, Josh Hartnett’s character pulls up in a police car and thinks that Ford is the criminal. A rather comedic chase turns into a little gun battle where Josh’s character is hit in the vest and falls down. Harrison sees that a cop is down and he turns to the rescue, only to get smacked flat on his back by Josh.”

The whole location was a massive lighting job for Peterson. The Market covers three acres in downtown Los Angeles, and is basically a wide-open interior. “The building, fortunately, had five 16 x 60 foot skylights,” he says. “A lot of help, considering the only time we could shoot there was at night and the sequence was supposed to take place during the day!”

The sequence required two intensive days of pre-rig, using all Tungsten lighting. Peterson’s crew rigging gaffer Jimmy Cox and rigging grip Steve Frohart silked the ten garage bay doors that lined both sides of the space that vendors use to move merchandise into the area, to white them out. He also had the skylights papered and lit to white. “We had more MaxiBrutes than you can shake a stick at,” he laughs. “At least 85 of them, 12 on each skylight and two on each of the doors.

“Inside, we changed out hundreds of Edison base fluorescent bulbs for standard 100 watt Tungsten bulbs. We also had a standard floor set of soft lights––12 by 12 grid cloth with secondary 216 diffusion,” he adds.

“This allowed us to work with a 4/5.6 split on the lens, which would be very important considering focus on the anamorphics would be critical. People walked in from pitch dark and it really felt more like daylight then it did during the day. And, because we used such large Tungsten sources, our actors looked great and the market, which really was kind of dark and dirty also looked impeccable.”

To capture this cat and mouse chase, Shelton and Peterson chose to use a combination of both long lenses and Steadicam. “We had three cameras at all times. By using both long and wide lenses we were able to create tension by being both objective through voyeuristic shots and subjective by getting right in their faces. On my key grip Kurt Grossi’s advice, we used Herb Altz’s electric cart so that Kirk Gardiner on Steadicam could travel quickly for profiles as well as staying right in a moving single. This cart was also great because I could power an Eye Lite on board,” he adds.

The story then cuts to several months later and a homicide at a nightclub called the Freeway Club. It is the first time that Joe Gavilan (Ford) and KC Calden (Hartnett) work together. “It’s one of my favorite sequences in the whole movie,” says Peterson. “It begins on an exterior night and was our chance to really make Hollywood big and glamorous.

“The location was the Broadway Building down on Hollywood and Vine. We took a lot of care setting up the 4/5.6 split. Because there were so many three-head mercury vapor lights on both Hollywood Blvd and a portion of Vine, we felt it wouldn’t be practical or feasible to shut them off or replace them with sodium or tungsten bulbs. Instead, we used the lights as a take-off point and as a means of creating depth down the boulevard.

“The basic color temperature in the intersection was 5700 degrees Kelvin,” he explains. “We then lit the scene all HMI and 5600 degree Kino Flos. We even replaced Tungsten fixtures on nearby building exteriors with mercury vapor fixtures all with the intent to time this scene back to 4000 degrees later.”

Peterson’s crew created an extensive truss system on the roof of the Broadway building that was designed to accommodate six 12K PARs that could be rolled out, pointed down and focused anywhere he wanted; up or down Hollywood Boulevard. He then placed a Musco light near the Capitol Records building for backlight and illumination of another area down Vine Street. “We then had two 86 foot Condors rigged with 12 by 12 grid cloth bounce sources for our foreground light,” he adds.

“The shot begins with a Technocrane move where the audience will see a fire truck blaring down the street. It drops down and swoops in to land on Harrison Ford driving in and exiting his car from one direction and Josh Hartnett from the other direction.

“This turns into a walk and talk,” he explains. “Whenever we did walk and talks on this film, on the night exteriors, I would travel a four-foot single Kino as an eye light to give that little sparkle in the eye to help with that classic Hollywood look.”

When the two detectives walk into the Freeway Club, it becomes a set created by Jim Bissell. The location is a large warehouse in Culver City that was designed from the ground up. The club is dedicated to rap music. “The lighting was big,” Peterson admits. “It is rare that you get to shoot in a night club interior where some lighting is not already in place and you simply add to it and work with the house dimmer operator. In this case, we had to create four different lighting styles. There was the club lighting itself, the lighting for the concert, and the lighting for the backstage area where the shoot out happens as well as the crime scene aftermath.

“The club lighting came from a combination of rock n’ roll intelligent lights, PAR cans, pin spots and data flashers all tied into a dimmer pack system,” he explains.

“The backstage area appears to be lit by wall sconce lighting to make it appear a little dingier. The trick was to place the lights in the right position for the anamorphic frame and in positions where we could cheat the source from above with 2K Fresnels.

“In addition, we had another look for the aftermath, utilizing banks of Image 80s that were built into the set and programmed through the dimmer board. We also used an array of police beacons and data flashers outside the front doors to simulate the police chaos.

“On paper it seemed like a lot of lighting, but it was an incredible time saver to be able to control every light and bulb at the touch of a button. It was also necessary to keep a 4/5.6 split.

“We had a small Kino Flo ring light on the Steadicam as it tracked backwards in the hallways to keep a little light in Harrison and Josh’s eyes,” he adds.

Peterson used special touches to keep the glamorous images for the characters, whether he was in Harrison Ford’s Los Feliz house or Josh Hartnett’s yoga studio.

“Harrison’s house is on stage, but looks so real it could be one of those old Spanish homes in the Los Feliz area of Los Angeles,” Peterson explains. “One of my favorite shots here is a night interior, simply because we were able to make the set so warm and beautiful. We had soft sources with true back light and he looks great, as he talks on the phone to Lena Olin’s character.

“The shot begins as he walks into the house through the front door, turns on the stereo, and does a dance, then sits in a chair.

“We lit the scene with a combination of 6 by 6” un-bleached muslin and 2K Fresnel back lights with a 3/4 CTO––1/4 straw gel pack.”

For Peterson, one of the toughest situations on the picture also happens in this set. “It is the next morning, when he wakes and starts to leave quickly. Lena is still in bed, as he walks across to his mirror. His back is against the windows and we had to track in front of them.

“We removed the wall and stretched a 12 by 24 muslin in its place, adding 2K Fernels behind the muslin at critical positions above and below camera. This gave us soft light in the right direction, and we could travel without shadows.

“When we shot this as a morning set, we used the two doors that opened to the veranda, creating daylight with a series of MaxiBrutes bounced into a 40 by 40 muslin from the green beds that wrapped the set. We also had 20K Fresnels hung for each of the windows.”

Hartnett’s yoga studio is also a set on stage. It features five arched windows that look into a maple-floored studio with white walls. There are six mirrors at the end of the studio, all attached to gimbals. “It was interesting to sit in the back of the class and find compositions of the bodies stretching and not see the camera moving right in front of them,” says Peterson.

“We lit the studio set with a soft bounce source above the windows from a catwalk above,” he continues. “We had MaxiBrutes into muslin, which was stretched outside the building. We also had five 20K Fresnels with the lenses pulled out pointing at the windows. The lights were on a track and motorized truss system so we could move the lights up, down, in, out and side-to-side. We put 1/2 CTO on the lights to keep them in the magic hour.”

“With this system, we were able to come back to the yoga studio with different lighting each time.”

Of course, given the tone of this story, there are many more chase sequences than the madcap one down Sunset Boulevard and into Mann’s Chinese Theater, which was featured in a recent On The Set (See January 03 issue). “We did chases down Rodeo Drive, through the Sunset Plaza and down Hollywood Blvd.

“But one of my favorite sequences happens just before the end the film,” says Peterson. “Because of Harrison Ford’s physical abilities, we were really able to capture some extreme, exciting and convincing shots. The chase begins, as a car chase becomes a roof chase. The culmination of the shot takes place on the top of the Broadway Building, around a water-cooling station that we built, where Harrison fights Isaiah Washington’s character.

“Because we were shooting everything practical on the real roof, we tried to do as much as possible with natural light with simple bounce rags,” he adds. “However, as the day progressed, we had to supplement back light with 12K PARs and our warming gel packs.”

To keep the madcap tone of the picture through the end, Shelton created what Peterson calls a “misleader” sequence for the end of the picture. “It was scary for me, because we had to do a classic Hollywood shot, during a very short window of time,” he explains.

“The shot starts as the car pulls up to an area that should feel like Topanga Canyon. We see a few more police vehicles settling as the camera tracks left, and then the camera starts to slowly boom up.

“The two start to walk revealing a barn and stables, as the camera booms up higher to about 75 or 80 feet where we reveal more hill side until Hollywood magically appears behind the barn.

“We had enough time to do three takes on this shot,” he adds. “We had the Akela crane mounted on the side of the mountain, and prayed we had the right position. It is one of those shots that really works in concept and planning, and you just hope it works in execution.

“It’s a tribute to Ron that he could come up with this powerful of an image. I’m encouraged that he has faith in me that I could execute it.”

For Barry Peterson, the making of Hollywood Homicide was an ideal situation. Shelton’s method of working with the actors and allowing the crew to find the energy of the shot and finesse it with the second team was a big plus. So was working with actors who would give everything to every shot both mentally and physically.

“Of course, I couldn’t have pulled it off without my long term team 1st AC Sam DiMaggio, gaffer Brent Poe and key grip Kurt Grossi,” says Peterson.

“My hope for this film was to bring people on a fun ride through a glamorized Hollywood and see the movie’s stars look like movie stars.” •

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