Hell and High Water
John Seale, ASC makes major waves in
The Perfect Storm

By Pauline Rogers—Photos by Claudette Barius

“The perfect storm” is a tempest of monstrous proportions that may occur only once every 100 years. Created by a rare combination of atmospheric factors that could not possibly be worse, the nor’easter provokes waves 10 stories high and winds raging up to 120 miles-per-hour. The sea gets whipped up to inconceivable levels few people on Earth have ever witnessed. That is, except for the six-man crew of the Andrea Gail, a commercial fishing boat that headed towards its hellish center in October 1991. Taken from Sebastian Junger’s best-selling, true-to-life book, William D. Wittliff and Bo Goldman scripted The Perfect Storm as a detective story that tries to unravel what caused this vessel to sink. With no survivors left to relate the tragic tale, it’s up to director Wolfgang Petersen (Outbreak, Air Force One), cinematographer John Seale, ASC and ILM visual effects supervisor Stefen Fangmeier to envision what happened that fateful Halloween off the shores of Gloucester, Massachusetts.

The involvement of director of photography John Seale, ASC (The Mosquito Coast, The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley) stems from one of those typical Hollywood moments — being in the right place at the right time. “I met Wolfgang at a party [prior to Air Force One’s release] at the house of Harrison Ford’s agent,” he explains. “We had spoken about the possibility of doing a project called Shackleton together, but this was the first time we had met. [That picture was to be a biography of nautical adventurer Ernest Shackleton, who — in 1911— took 27 explorers in the Endurance to Antarctica in an attempt to reach the South Pole and continue across the ice cap to the opposite shore.] Subsequently, Shackleton fell by the wayside and The Perfect Storm came about.”

“Wolfgang kindly asked if would I like to be involved in the project,” Seale continues. “I had been given the book a couple of years earlier and could not put it down. As a lover of the sea, the story had immense appeal to me. I decided that, if anyone were to make the film, then I would love to be there. Two years later, my agent rang, told me to sit down, and said I had the film if I was still interested.”

With contagious enthusiasm, Petersen’s creative mind set about what way to approach the last voyage of sword fishing boat Andrea Gail, as captained by Billy Tyne (George Clooney), a veteran fisherman hit with a recent string of hard luck. Joining the ill-fated mission is Bobby Shatford (Wahlberg) who is enjoying a revived life with girlfriend Christina Cotter (Diane Lane). Inundated with the legal costs from a recent divorce, he opts to join the Gail’s crew. Tyne has convinced the young man that they can better their luck by surpassing the normal reach of New England fishing boats to the Flemish Cap, a remote region known for its rich fishing prospects. “Once out to sea, they hear about the storm brewing,” says Seale. “Veteran fishermen are used to ‘storms.’ They risk their lives for their livelihoods. However, no-one counted on the size of this storm.”

Initially, Seale couched his thoughts in a low-budget mode of moviemaking. To pull off The Perfect Storm quickly and economically yet accurately convey the extremely violent power of nature, he considered going on location amidst an actual maelstrom. “I decided that we would probably go to Capetown, South Africa [a cape infamous for its raging storms], grab a couple of look-a-like long-liners, wrap the cameras in garbage bags and get out there amongst it. Well, they looked at me like I was on drugs! They said, ‘No, my boy — think Stage 16 at Warner Bros.’ So it slowly evolved that it would all be done on the stages and ILM would handle the visual effects.”

It did take some time for Seale and crew to fully understand and appreciate the enormity of agitating ever-swirling whirpools of waves, wind and water. “To even contemplate putting full-size models of 32-foot yachts, 70-foot trawlers or long-liners, a full-size H60 helicopter hung over a landing pad on a 320-foot Coast Guard cruiser was awesome. Notwithstanding that we then had to throw thousands of gallons of water, rain and 100 mile-per-hour winds into the set.” Fortunately, the long period of prep — approximately three months — allowed them to iron out details that could have slowed down production. “Every single second was used to its fullest and proved once again that the value of good pre-production can never be underestimated. The camaraderie between departments was great! We all knew this film was a big one and we all wanted it to work as best we could. Even though, like all films, there is the question of money. All departments tried to keep their budgets in check without compromising the end result. And, their never-ending meetings were a great way for all of the departments to keep up with each other. No department was ever left behind.”

The Big Blue

Long before Seale came on board, Petersen had already immersed himself into deep and intricate discussions with all the relevant departments on how to shoot The Perfect Storm on set. Stage 16 has the highest ceiling of any soundstage on the Warner Bros. lot. (In fact, it featured a shallow tank where John Sturges’ 1958 film The Old Man and the Sea had been shot by ASC members James Wong Howe, Lamar Boren and Floyd Crosby, along with underwater cinematographer Tom Tutwiler). Nevertheless, it still came up short in the size department. “The tank was not big enough or deep enough,” states Seale. “Warner Bros. had to be approached to dig this out for it to be large enough to house the enormous gimbal that special effects had in mind for the sets.” The tank had to go from eight feet to 22 feet deep. The final excavation brought its dimensions to 92 feet by 100 feet by 20 feet, making it one of the world’s largest soundstage tanks.”

“The bluescreen, as well, had to be built,” he adds. “Some considered it to be the largest bluescreen ever built — 360 feet by 60 feet high. There was an 80-foot silk with a 40-foot by 40-foot center, which could be flown in. We could also use a 50-foot by 60-foot flyer to join the 40-by-40 to the 60-foot high sidewall also flown in. In addition, we had a spare piece of 50-foot by 60-foot, which could be dead hung and flown by a crane at the north wall. Then there was the decision to use a blue or a greenscreen, and what it would be made out of. We next tackled where to put all the special effects machinery — wind machines, dump tanks, wave makers, cranes and so forth. How do we schedule this amazingly complex series of scenes that would end up a smooth flowing film?”

During the storyboard’s editing phase, Seale engaged Petersen and visual effects production supervisor Helen Elswit in some of his most extensive preparatory discussions. “They included input to the storyboard artists as to how a particular scene should go — what angles and the direction of the ship,” details the cinematographer. “We would talk about at what moment were they in the storm, how high were the seas and how strong the winds. They then went off and drew the scene, which we later edited.” After reaching a sense of satisfaction with the storyboards, the trio then committed to animatics. Once again, these were edited until the scene became visually cemented to the moviemakers liking, a process “subject to change, obviously,” adds Seale. “It was most important to get those animatics, because from them I could plan the visual approach to the scene. The placement of the vehicles [yachts, helicopters, long liners] — particularly on Stage 16 — could then be positioned, allowing the other mass of special effects equipment to be set in position as well [such as wave makers, wind machines, camera platforms, lightning].”

“More meetings with the heads of departments could now pin down and clarify all details of any particular scene,” offers Seale. “One of the first problems to solve was the geographical continuity. We had to figure out in what directions would all these ships, planes, yachts and even cars onshore be going? So at another meeting, we decided that the camera would always be to the south of the United States and look north. That way, the Andrea Gail would head out to the Grand Banks left to right, and return right to left. As the storm gets too big for her, she turns around and runs left to right. Meanwhile, all rescue planes and ships would head out to sea left to right, and when returning would go right to left. This set the general directions for all vessels and, once established, would be maintained all the way through the shooting of the film — whether on the stage, at sea or in the village of Gloucester. This, of course, was included in the storyboards and animatics.”

One of Seale’s most significant tests for the layered stage photography involved fine-tuning the shade of the bluescreen surrounding the watertank for effects shots. A constant dousing with liquid would, in effect, alter the screen’s tonality enough that it became a burdensome issue. “We knew that the 100 mile-per-hour wind machines, of which there were four, would throw water all over the bluescreen,” he explains. “Tests showed that the digital blue paint darkened considerably, and in fact was way past the ILM bluescreen tolerances. So we packaged up the $17,000 worth of paint and sent it back. What proved best was the new Tempo cloth, which darkened when wet by only two-tenths of a stop [within ILM tolerance]. ILM did in fact suggest which color — blue or green. They wavered around a bit. First blue, then green and back to blue. I left the main decision to ILM, because all the bluescreen was their bag. And using their new 3D software, they were the ones who, in post, would have to battle with spray, foam, and rain around the live-action in foreground and paint through to the bluescreen in the background.

“The bluescreen, of course, is much denser and required considerably more light to expose it. We would be shooting on Kodak SFX 200 for the bluescreen material and we were on anamorphic lenses [11-to-1 zooms], wide open at T4.5. So using Image 80’s [KinoFlos] with DMX control, we would have to light the bluescreen to T2.8 and 1/3 reflected. I knew the T-stop for the entire shoot on the stage in pre-production would be T4.5, the eight-perf ILM camera had T4.5 lenses as did all the Primo zooms. It would have been so difficult to build the light any higher and that was basically not possible.”

In terms of bluescreen processing, Seale managed to give the ILM artists the adequate exposure latitude by deleting any blue or black tones from the actors’ wardrobe. The sole exception being the survival suits worn by the National Guard airmen after their helicopter deep-sixes itself into the aquatic abyss. Out of respect for reality, the shades stayed as is and that problem was left to the purview of ILM. Adding to this truth is a mobile setpiece — of the Coast Guard Cutter Tamoroa, which the airmen are trying to board  — that’s being “dunked” in and out of the turbulent waters. “We accomplished this scene by building a 40-foot by 20-foot set of the work deck and suspending this by two 20-ton cranes in each corner,” reveals Seale. “We then used the cranes to raise and lower the set as though the vessel is responding to the wave motion. At times, Dan Gold [A-camera operator] was handholding on the same deck, and Don Thorin, Jr. [B-camera operator] was above in the life raft. Here, we used a very low ambient light level from the 80-foot by 80-foot silk, and preferred to let the ship’s lights and spotlights do most of the work.”

Versimilitude was also of concern when trying to simulate a rising sun on the horizon to match with that to be “painted” digitally onto bluescreen backings during post. According to the film’s chronology, this particular sunrise actually appears on screen after frames of the digital daybreak. “The dawn shots were accomplished by lowering the ambiance so that the trawler work lights were increased. We also added warming gels to the lower FarCycs, and switched off the upper ones so the source of the dawn came from low on the horizon. This was one instance of many where our stage work would precede ILM’s work, even though their shot would precede ours in the final cut. But it was easier, obviously, for ILM to match ours than for us to match them — notwithstanding the time difference. The camera stop did not change from the T4.5, because the 11-to-1 zooms were still being used. It was simply a matter of underexposing the stock [EXR 200T 5293, force-developed] a little more and adding color to the lamps.”

Preproduction also included conferences with line producer Duncan Henderson and production designer Bill Sandell (Outbreak, Air Force One, Deep Blue Sea) regarding how pieces of the soundstages should be portioned out so as to maximize shooting space as well as juggle all their lighting and power demands. “There were always long discussions on how many sets were needed, particularly repeat sets — the Andrea Gail wheel house, which was the doozie!” emphasizes Seale. “It was a wheel house on the big Stage 16 and another on a gimbal on Stage 15, which later went on the room roll on 15 and later went upside down into the water on 16 again. Stage 15 had three different gimbals and each one had to be lit separately, and in continuity to 16. Stage 26 had a different set [the Crow’s Nest pub] and did not require a bluescreen, fortunately! However, it had an enormous TransLight instead, and we scheduled that set so it did not have to remain ‘hot’ throughout the film.

“All scheduling had to run like clockwork, or we had to build more repeat sets so we could leapfrog from set to set. The worst meetings were the ones where they drag you into the ‘heavies’ office and demand to know why the lighting budget for Stage 16 alone was  $1.5 million — that even shattered me!” Seale recalls ruefully. “But then you consider that the 80 by 80-foot softlight in the perms was 90 10K Skypans. Also, there were 20 20K Fresnel lamps on the outer greenbeds as well as rows of FarCyc’s [both top and bottom]. We had some smaller spot lamps for sky effects, a mass of 6K and 4K HMIs on the inner greenbeds to light the bluescreen on the wall, Nine-lights all round, six 70K Lightning Strikes and some smaller ones. And a whole floor package, ground rows on interiors of the vessels [all waterproofed.] The stage had to be ‘hot’ from day one to day 96. No wonder the budget was that high, and that was only on Stage 16!” When shooting night exteriors, Seale requested that the wattage of all on-board fixtures — even the navigational beacons — be boosted. Rigging gaffer Dennis Lootens retro-fitted all of the ship’s working lamps to give Seale a thick enough stop for his exposures on the [Vision 500T 5279] stock. However, as this upped amperage depleted their available power output, a third portable Honda generator had to be brought on ship.

Since most of the shoot takes place on drenched sets, the crew’s electricians had to insulate the crewmembers from the hazards of conducting currents. For safety’s sake, they utilized the K-Tec Corporation’s triple ground fault interrupting system — a.k.a. Shock Block — in all the “seabound’ working environments, be it the Andrea Gail, the National Guard helicopter or Coast Guard cutter. “Eventually, we found that the Shock Block system worked too well, resulting in frequent interruptions in the power,” notes gaffer John Carney. “Walls of water driven by hundred mile-per-hour wind machines managed to penetrate our waterproof connectors. The intense humidity level inside the hull of the Andrea Gail, where our power was brought in, would breech our system and trip our GFIs also.”

Deep Rising

Shooting all the crazed commotion aboard the Andrea Gail during the storm was no small feat, to say the least, especially since the deluge runs for about an hour-and-a-half worth of screen time. “It was a constant thought process for all involved. At the end of the day, it was a quick meeting to talk of the next day’s work, and to clarify with second unit their workload for the night. Likewise, Wolfgang would have done his homework the evening before and would ‘hold court’ first up in the morning and bring everybody up to date with any changes. The changes were never major — it was little things, simply clarification of the scene that we were doing and possible changes. It might also include a deletion of some ILM shot or the addition of one or two.

“Second-unit with Walter Lloyd at the helm carried a big workload and created some amazing shots,” the cinematographer continues. “Directed by David Ellis, they proved to be a great driving force. They also worked nights — as first unit would wrap at 7:00 p.m., they would be just starting. They would check our setups, go on into the night to sweep up after us and do their own shots, then swing the stage back to our lighting and reposition the wind, wave machines to our configuration so we could start to shoot pretty quickly in the morning. This was done for economics, and to allow the editor not to have to wait for weeks or even months for the shots to be able to cut the scene, and keep the assembly going.”

During pre-production, Seale mapped out a theoretical shooting plan, utilizing the art department scale drawings of the various soundstages, which he cross-referenced with the animatics. But he did encounter one major problem — locating an appropriate on-stage vantage point from which to film the Andrea Gail getting showered by surging salvos of seawater. “By using a scale rule, I found that some of the shots in the animatics could not be done,” he says. “The scale of the boats and stage were in conflict and I found that even using the Super Technocranes, the scale rule showed that it could not be done by putting the cranes on the land or the concrete aprons around the new pool. So we decided that we had to build two pontoons that would float around the pool. This would get the cameras into the area that would get the shots.

“But special effects would be creating four-foot waves in that pool, which would be detrimental to the steadiness of the cameras. So Ralph Kerr, a genius with hydraulics and engineering, built the platforms so they were ballasted and could float around the pool to a designated position and then hydraulically raise themselves — with the crane, grip crew and camera — into the air by four feet, clearing the waves. The whole system worked like a dream and is a great part of the success of the visual results of the film. The platforms were used extensively, although sometimes, overnight, one of the cranes would be put onto the apron and used for that scene, then transferred overnight back onto the platform.

“We also made quite good use of the Akela crane — in its 82-foot mode — to get great action top shots for various scenes. The Akela did not have to be as waterproofed as extensively as the Technocranes. It’s reach and height kept it out of harm’s way. The waterproofing of all equipment and cameras particularly were a credit to Trevor Loomis [first assistant camera] and Pete Romano from Hydroflex,” he adds. “One of the major criteria of the camera was that we didn’t want condensation on the front plate. We knew they would heat the water to about 80°[F]. Anything over 80° can cause severe fogging. But by using Pete’s soft waterproof bags, Trevor organized a pressure, dry-air system that would purge the bags to a small increase above the ambient pressure. This would help to exclude water from the bags and keep the air in the bag dry, so there was minimal chance of fogging — in fact, we never did have a problem. We found that we could dunk the whole lot underwater, as though we had a hard housing, but Romano doesn’t recommend that!”

“The camera power was also looked into,” Seale goes on. “With Panavision looking after us, we ran all the cameras on mains power converted to DC, with the ability to change the power for any one of the three cameras that we were expecting to use. Trevor also created this amazing ability to very quickly reload or change cameras in the bag or change the whole bag and camera in a very short time. This was essential, because we had to be able to go to eight-perf cameras, at short notice for any bluescreen work, or go to hi-speed cameras.”

Speaking of the multiple cameras, given their swift and involved motions, Seale reserves nothing but praise for his focus pullers, especially “when you consider that the camera is on a crane that’s moving around. Also, the vehicle is on a gimbal that is in constant movement and the focus pullers could not ride the vehicle and use camera focus gear. But we were always on the FTZAC system, and the crane is a snorkel as well. We were shooting wide open on anamorphic lenses, most often the 550mm end! The results were extraordinary. Both the first ACs [Trevor Loomis and Cal Roberts] should get technical Academy Awards. Their concentration and commitment were exemplary, and the film is a credit to them. I can not thank them enough for their fabulous contribution to the end result.”

Director of photography John Seale, ASC maintained a tight control on the first-unit work for The Perfect Storm. Since both he and director Wolfgang Petersen practice an extremely “hands on” working method, they sealed a pact with the effects artists. “We told ILM that ‘we’d wag their tail,’” laughs Seale. “They did an amazing job at what they are very competent at doing — the results are fantastic! Wolfgang’s discipline and confidence in his direction is the strength in the fact that The Perfect Storm was finished on schedule and under budget. That it’s a full-on emotional and action-packed drama is a direct attribute to his talent and approach to filmmaking and ranks as one of the greats!”