“For one who has not lived even a single lifetime, you’re a wise man … Listen to them. Children of the night. What beautiful music they make.”
— Dracula
(talking to Prof. Abraham Van Helsing
in the 1931 version of Dracula).

Just about two years ago, give or take a few months, Allen Daviau, ASC received a telephone call from Sam Mercer. He asked if he was interested in meeting Stephen Sommers, who scripted and planned to direct a film featuring Dracula, other monsters and characters from the scary 1930s movies produced by Universal Studios. The executive producer explained that the story takes place during the late 19th century in Transylvania, where Gabriel Van Helsing is on a mission to find and destroy Count Dracula. Along the way he encounters Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, Mr. Hyde and other movie monsters. Daviau was intrigued. He was a fan of the 1930s Dracula, Frankenstein and other horror movies when they aired on late night television during the 1950s and 60s.

“I’ve carried memories of those beautiful images, the mythology and the tremendous performances around in my head for decades,” Daviau says. “When Sam sent me the script, my first impression was that it was a brilliant homage to those 1930s films.”

It was a different type of project for Daviau who has earned Oscar nominations for Bugsy, Avalon, The Color Purple, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Empire of the Sun. His other memorable credits include The Falcon and the Snowman and Fearless.

Sommers has previously written and directed such thrillers as The Scorpion King, The Mummy and The Mummy Returns. The last two of those films were edited by Bob Ducsay, one of the producers of Van Helsing. During his first meeting with Sommers and Ducsay, Daviau felt the bond of their shared passion for the story and genre.

The roots of Van Helsing trace back to a novel written by Irish author Abraham Stoker in 1897. His book was based on stories about a real Romanian prince named Vlad, who had a penchant for impaling his enemies and drinking their blood. Stoker’s book has inspired more than 200 films in a dozen languages with Dracula in the title.

“I still look at those 1930s films, including Dracula, shot by Karl Freund (ASC) and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Karl Struss (ASC), with a sense of awe,” Daviau says.

In the original story, Van Helsing was an older, academic type of scientist. In Sommers’ screenplay, he is a young mercenary employed by the Vatican. Van Helsing is accompanied on his mission by a monk named Carl, who is a scientific whiz.

“There’s a joy in Steve’s script,” he says. “I could tell how much he enjoyed the classic horror films. He doesn’t mind kidding with the genre, but there is also a tremendous depth to the characters. They are people whom you can understand, and that helps to sweep the audience into the story. He always had some little things going on that inject some humor into the movie. He’s not after big laughs. It’s quite subtle.”

Hugh Jackman plays Van Helsing, David Wenham portrays the monk and Dracula is played by Richard Roxburgh, a noted Australian actor.

“One of the things I loved about his (Roxburgh’s) performance was that he wasn’t afraid to quote Bella Lugosi,” Daviau recounts. “I think that’s one of Van Helsing’s strengths. It’s a modern film that is true to the spirit of the classics.”

Kate Beckinsale portrays Anna Valerious, whose family spawned Dracula some 400 years earlier. No one in her family can pass through the gates of heaven until Dracula is eliminated. “She is very beautiful, and also a very strong character who is used to having her own way,” Daviau observes. “We want the audience to see her beautiful eyes. She doesn’t use her smile a lot. It has a devastating effect when she does.”

Other main roles include Will Kemp as the Wolf Man, Shuler Hensley as Frankenstein, Samuel West as Victor Frankenstein who created the monster bearing his name, and Kevin J. O’Connor as Igor, his hapless servant. Elena Anaya, Silvia Colloca and Josie Maran play Dracula’s brides.

During their first meetings, Sommers, Ducsay and Daviau looked at many of the horror films from the 1930s while planning a visual grammar. They also conferred with production designer Allan Cameron, and created a palette consisting mainly of darkness and muted colors. “The only set that had color emphasis was the grand costume ball for the vampires,” Daviau says. “It’s golden in tone. Most other scenes are monochromatic.”

Hundreds of visual effects shots, with both CG and bluescreen elements, are woven into the fabric of the story. Daviau began collaborating with Scott Squires and Ben Snow, the visual effects supervisors from Industrial Light & Magic during preproduction. One of them was always present during live-action filming.

“They could look through the camera anytime,” Daviau says. “Sometimes they’d ask, is it possible to have more depth of field because they were going to composite a matte created by Richard Bluff in the background. If you’re going to shoot an effects picture, you’d better enjoy working with the effects people.”

While most of the visual effects came from ILM, Pacific Title and Art Studio, Illusion Arts and several other facilities also provided shots. It was obvious to Ducsay and Daviau that the visual effects shots and numerous scenes filmed in low key light made Van Helsing a candidate for finishing in a digital intermediate process. Sommers and the studio agreed to a test.

Daviau designed and shot the test footage, which was scanned and converted to digital files at EFILM in Los Angeles. Daviau timed and manipulated the images in conjunction with colorist Steve Scott. The outcome convinced everyone that there were sufficient advantages to justify the time and cost of finishing Van Helsing in a digital suite. Daviau committed to spending several months in postproduction.

“You have control over brightness, darkness, colors, contrast and the gamma anyplace in every frame,” Daviau says. “You can isolate a face, a bright spot on a wall or anything you choose, and manipulate that part of the image without changing anything else. Sometimes we darkened a wall in the background to draw attention to something brighter in the frame. It was a great tool for tying effects shots together with the live-action images, so every shot looks natural in the context of the story.”

Another early decision was made to frame Van Helsing in Academy aperture format (1.85:1 aspect ratio), in part to keep faith with the vertical framing of the 1930s films. It was an aesthetic decision also favored by Cameron. Daviau explains that the vertical frame is an integral part of the visual grammar. The architecture in the settings is dominated by vertical castles with high walls and towers. There are also important scenes where flying vampires and other creatures are seen from the perspective of villagers.

About half of the film was shot in and around Prague, which offered authentic locations for the Transylvanian settings, including castles, period streets and a cathedral that provided the setting for the costume ball. They also built sets on stages at Barrandov Studios, including a cave with shafts leading to the outside, and some castle interiors, and at Prague Studios where Cameron built a set utilizing a water tank.

Camera operators Paul Babin, SOC, and Tom Connole have worked regularly with Daviau since Fearless in 1993. The rest of the crew included operator Greg Schmidt, assistants Reggie Newkirk, Jimmy Jensen, Nick Shuster, Mark Santoni and Roger Wall, and film loader Tony Muller. Daviau was able to bring many of them to Prague. He also lauded Steadicam work by Craig Fikse when they were shooting in Los Angeles.

“It was very important for me to work with many people from my regular crew,” Daviau says. “There were many complex shots, often on a tight schedule, and Stephen (Sommers) likes to get his coverage on film with as few takes as possible.”

During scouting, it became obvious to Daviau that one of the challenges was creating the proper fire light effects in very large interior scenes. His gaffer, Larry Wallace, assembled a team that designed and built a torchlight using standard light bulbs, dipped in orange dye, which mimicked a CTO filter. It had a built-in flicker circuit that could be manipulated and a dimmer control compatible with both the 220-volt, 50-cycles electrical system used in Europe and the 120-volt, 60-cyceles electrical system used in the United States. Daviau combined the lamps with real torchlights in many scenes, including the costume ball, which was filmed in the cathedral.

Daviau notes that costumes designed by Gabriella Pescucci are true to the black, brown and grey tones and textures that were typical during the late 19th century.

“She designed a warm, black leather coat for Van Helsing, which had a luminous glow that is visible in scenes with a lot of contrast,” he says. “We used it throughout the picture with the exception of the costume ball. It’s a warm black with a gloss that glows. You can see it in very low key and dark scenes.”

Kodak introduced the first member of its new family of color negative films while Van Helsing was in preproduction. Kodak Vision 2 (5218) film is rated for a recommended exposure index of 500 in 3200 degree tungsten light. Daviau used the new film to shoot costume and makeup tests in combination with a black-and-white night backing.

He explains that Sommers envisioned shooting the opening scene in black and white. Daviau also used the black and white night backing while shooting tests for other scenes, because color is used in a restrained manner in Van Helsing with few exceptions.

“I remember getting the first print of a test I shot with Jennifer Wymore, who has perfect skin tones,” Daviau says. “The new film has a much finer grain structure (than other 500-speed emulsions) and an extended contrast range, which was good for both visual effects shots and scenes filmed in very low-key light.”

He decided to shoot the entire film with the new 5218 stock. Daviau chose to rate the negative for an exposure index of 400 most of the time because it gave him the printing light he wanted. Sometimes, mainly for effects shots, he rated it at E.I. 320.

“My green printing light at Technicolor Labs was 39 or 40 most of the time,” he says. “I based timing this film on printing on standard Kodak Vision stock, so we get the same contrast and desaturated look wherever it is projected.”

The package provided by Panavision, included Panaflex Platinum and XL cameras, and full sets of Primo prime and zoom lenses, along with an ARRI 435, which was mainly used for ramping slow-motion shots. The second unit led by Josh Bleibtreu was responsible for filming extensive footage, including establishing scenes and background elements for effects shots. Their tools included a Flying-Cam, a remote controlled helicopter that carries a 35mm motion picture camera, and a cable-cam, which was rigged to acquire point-of-view shots from the perspective of Dracula’s brides flying into a village, and for other dramatic sequences.

“Josh (Bleibtreu) is responsible for many of the finest images in this movie,” Daviau says. “The opening scene with those people who were storming the castle were all second unit filmed in the middle of the night. I’d tell him I wanted a shot to be gutsy with a lot of contrast and he would deliver. I can’t say enough good things about Josh. He brought an artful sensibility to some very challenging second unit work.”

Film dailies in Prague were provided by a lab operated by the studio. Daviau watched silent dailies in the mornings, both in Prague and Los Angeles. He viewed dailies again synched with sound in the afternoons along with Ducsay, and representatives of all departments, including costume and production design, in addition to members of his camera crew. Ducsay had transfers made for off-line digital editing.

“Film dailies were essential because they provided an accurate reference at a fixed gamma for exposure levels on our negative,” Daviau says. “We could see subtle details, including how makeup was working on Frankenstein and other characters. The dailies also provided an accurate reference for the visual effects team and for timing at EFILM.”

From the beginning, Sommers planned for the opening scene, which is about eight minutes in length, to be in black and white because he wanted it to feel like the 1930s films. In this scene, peasants are storming the castle with Dr. Frankenstein watching.

“We decided to shoot this scene with the 5218 color negative, which is faster and has finer grain than the best black-and-white film,” Daviau says. “The lab printed dailies on a black-and-white film (5269) that Kodak makes for producing titles, using a technique that Beverly Wood (at Deluxe Labs) and Roger Deakins (ASC, BSC) developed for The Man Who Wasn’t There. It gave us snappy, contrasty black-and-white images. The dailies also provided a visual reference when we digitized and converted the color images to black and white at EFILM.”

Daviau says that Sommers wanted the energy of moving cameras almost all the time, including Steadicam shots and tracking with dollies, small cranes, 30 and 50 foot Technocranes usually with remote heads, and occasional Flying-Cam and cable-cam shots. In one scene, the cable-cam captures Dracula’s brides making a surprise daylight assault on a village. It shows the audience the scene from the brides’ perspective as they fly towards the village. At one point, Van Helsing fires a missile at a flying vampire bride with a crossbow invented by the monk. The shot begins in front of the crossbow and it soars through the air, tracking the missile flying towards the vampire, getting closer and closer until it hits her.

“Each morning, we’d have a rehearsal and decisions were made very quickly about how each scene was going to be covered,” Daviau says. “We usually had A, B and sometimes C cameras rolling with different sized lenses from the same angle or plane. Steve knew what he wanted to accomplish, and it didn’t take a lot of setups. He’s very happy to do elaborate shots in one take.”

Lighting for interior and night scenes was motivated by torchlight, oil lamps and cold, blue moonlight with only occasional splashes of color, including the elaborate vampires costume ball, which was filmed in an ancient cathedral. Most of the costumes worn at the ball are black, but Valerious wore a red formal gown and Van Helsing and Carl also had bits of color in their outfits.

“The art department provided candle-shaped tubes that were filled with oil and provided a very bright flame which motivated the overall golden hue,” Daviau says. “We didn’t have to worry about candles burning down. We also used a tremendous amount of rock ‘n roll lighting trusses that you can raise and lower. You can mount equipment and have electricians walk on them when you don’t have a real green bed system. We had lights with gold gels every place we could hide them, including side altars and balconies. There was no way we could use flags, but we had cutters on the top of the wall. One of the advantages of the digital finish is that you can isolate and eliminate lights you can’t hide and anything else from shots.

“During my timing sessions with Steve Scott, we put a vignette over the top of all the walls in the cathedral, and darkened everything above the candelabras,” he explains. “We were backlighting character’s heads. There was no way to avoid getting some spill light on the floor. Steve solved that problem by darkening the floor around the actors.”

Cameron created a Transylvanian village about a 30 to 40 minute drive from Prague. Van Helsing arrives in time to see it being attacked by Dracula’s brides in broad daylight. The snow-covered mountains in the background, clouds and vampires flying through the sky were all visual effects elements composited with live-action footage.

Daviau also cites a close collaboration with assistant director Artist Robinson, who has frequently worked with Sommers. Weather was a factor. Daviau notes that when spring arrived, the foliage turned green, there were birds singing and the sun was out all day. There were scenes in the village that could best be shot at dawn and dusk. Robinson reserved the rest of the day for shooting interiors at practical locations and on stages.

“Each character has a motif or visual signature,” Daviau says. “The Frankenstein creature was wearing extraordinary makeup, so we didn’t want to get too much light on him, particularly in exteriors, where we used a lot of negative fill. We created stronger contrast on Dracula at all times with a hard key and very little fill. Jimmy Shelton, my key grip, was very aware of how to use negative fill to enhance shadows on characters.

“Hugh Jackman is a really handsome guy who can take all kinds of light,” notes Daviau. “That gave us a lot of flexibility. Kate Beckinsale is absolutely beautiful. She has long, dark hair, and liked the idea of letting it at least partially cover her face at times. Sometimes we had to fight to see both of her eyes. David Wenham (Carl) has a very adaptable face, which made our lives easier. We had a lot of makeup on Kevin O’Connor (Igor) and had to be careful not to show its texture.”

Daviau says that he mainly shot without optical diffusion except for close-ups of characters wearing heavy make-up. However, sometimes it wasn’t practical to go from a wide-shot to a close-up and then back to the wider angle. In those situations, he tended to shoot close-ups without diffusion. If necessary, Daviau did touch-ups to soften some faces during digital timing sessions. It’s not just the physical appearance of the actors, he stresses. It was also how emotions registered on the character’s face.

“Many scenes included bats and other CG characters, as well as people who were filmed in front of a blue screen, maybe flying on a cable,” Daviau says. “We used markers to show the actors on the set where to look and when, so their eyelines meshed with the positions of characters who were composited into scenes later. That was quite a challenge for the camera operators who performed admirably.”

About half of the film was shot in Los Angeles on stages built at the old Hughes aircraft manufacturing plant, and on a very large exterior lot at the old McDonnell Douglas factory in nearby Downey, California.

“A scene we filmed on that big lot in Downey was set in Dracula’s palace,” Daviau recalls. “It was a night scene with a huge bridge. We used an old-fashioned way of lighting that worked because the new stock enabled us to combine flame light with artificial, cold, blue moonlight. We used torches and other flames as sources, and moonlight came from a Beebe light at a far enough distance to turn the law of inverse square to our advantage.”

After principal photography was completed there was about two weeks of bluescreen work on a stage at the Hughes factory with different flying creatures, including leaping werewolves and wolf men, and Dracula’s brides on cables. Those elements were composited with live-action footage.

The film was scanned at 4K resolution at EFILM with pin registration used to lock each frame into place. Scott says that’s the minimum requirement for capturing the full dynamic range of tones, colors, contrast and textures captured on the negative.

“It avoids such artifacts as banding in both black and very bright areas, and aliasing that is noticeable at lower resolutions,” he says. “Allen and everyone else put a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this film, and they weren’t about to make compromises.”

The 4K files were “rezzed” down to 2K to speed up the timing process. That limitation is imposed by the time it takes to move the digital images through the system. Timing is basically an interactive process. Daviau was seated in a small theater with Scott at the control console. Images were projected on a big screen at 1K resolution.

“You don’t get true blacks at 1K, so at first, we recorded some scenes out to film,” Daviau says. “As I learned to make that adjustment in my mind, we did it less frequently. Steve Scott has a background as an illustrator and a painter, and he worked in special effects. He applied all of his knowledge to every shot he worked on. There are nuances in digital timing that you just can’t do any other way, but I’m not suggesting that we should shoot movies differently. I believe your dailies should reflect what your intentions are every day. But, now you can decide to frame a high angle shot, where it isn’t possible or practical to flag light off a building in the background, knowing that you can darken it later.”

Scott points out, “This project was in constant evolution. We loaded up all the images, and dropped in effects shot as we got them. The preview print contained rough animatics and pre-visualizations. Allen was making subtle adjustments every step of the way. He was very concerned with removing any telltale sign of artificial light. He really dug into the negative and pulled details out sometimes in radical ways, but usually it was very subtle. He’d say, ‘It looks a little too dense,’ and I’d interpret that by taking a little blue out and adding a little yellow until we reached the sense of density that he was after. Allen also listened very carefully and always welcomed a well-considered suggestion.”

Scott continues, “He was particularly meticulous about the vampires ball. The scene is stunningly beautiful. We brought the light on top of the cathedral walls down and brightened the floor where they are dancing using very articulated mattes that take on exactly the right shape for articulating around columns. It was like apprenticing to a great artist by helping to put the finishing touches on a canvas. I can’t imagine anyone wanting to do this without the guidance and direction of the cinematographer. It’s their vision.” •