In the Line of Fire
Gabriel Beristain, ASC brings a tactical approach to S.W.A.T.

By Pauline Rogers • Photos by Merrick Morton

“It was the spirit of the classic television series that sold me on the project,” says cinematographer Gabriel Beristain, ASC (Blade 2, The Spanish Prisoner, Dolores Claiborne) of today’s version of the infamous S.W.A.T. teams of Los Angeles. “I was intrigued not only by the kinetic handheld quality director Clark Johnson (The Wire, The Shield, Soul Food, West Wing, N.Y.P.D. Blue, Homicide) wanted to use, but also the way in which he wanted to see Los Angeles.

“Clark was also very keen on reality,” Beristain continues. “The North Hollywood [bank] shoot-out was his inspiration. He felt that, within the bare walls of the real police stations, the real prisons and the real city, we were going to find the aesthetics of our film.”

Early on in pre-production, Beristain found Johnson’s zeal for reality contagious. “He was always wanting to know how I was going to photograph a scene in which the S.W.A.T. members use flash-lights and are in a very dark environment, yet where the audience could see relevant information, without our over lighting the scene,” Beristain recalls.

“I explained about my ‘film darkness,’ a concept that he liked a lot,” he adds. “Obviously, to say, ‘You see, but you do not see’ is a simplistic and confusing concept, so using pictures out of my preview system (a Nikon digital SLR camera adapted to his computer), which pretty accurately resembled what the actual film would see and are produced immediately, would dissipate any doubts and help keep us on the same page.”

To support Johnson’s fast paced and handheld directing style, Beristain proposed they bring it to the big screen by using multiple cameras. “The idea was to make the cameras active, and in many instances, be the eyes of the spectators,” he explains.

By introducing the Steadicam into the mix, Beristain had more control over the tremendous amount of action. “Our cameras did not have to be artificially hectic,” he explains. “The inner movement in the frame was, most of the times, sufficient to convey the idea Clark was looking for.

“In reality, we shot very little handheld, but achieved the feeling by creating different POVs,” he explains. “Contrary to a television show, where the single camera hurries to be in different places, I had my cameras already in those places, ready to register the drama. Just like in reality, when people gather around an event, the audience will be able to see everything from the POV of the victim, the attacker, the witness, to the police and the on-lookers. It is that combination of POVs that makes S.W.A.T. so unique.”

Beristain also suggested they introduce several Sony PD150 video cameras into the mix. They would capture the same thing as a film camera, but give it immediacy that would have the feel of a documentary that was shot by a bystander as the events unfolded.

Johnson’s approach to capturing this story was also rather unique. An actor himself, Johnson would work with his actors, often allowing them to improvise the moments. He would then capture the action in broad strokes, then go for the little details that would move the story forward.

“This really allowed us to create a staccato rhythm to the film, which we often supported by effecting the cameras, using anything from a 45 degree to a 90 degree shutter at times,” Beristain explains. “It gave the film a visual pace that is unique to these kinds of stories.

“This often resulted in an exercise in lighting compromises,” he adds, “since the 45 degree shutter takes two stops out of the lighting. We tried some pre-planning, mainly in night and interior sequences. Two stops is an awful lot of light to add on a whim.

“However, I was always prepared to do something, since more often than not, we found shots that were visually more interesting, with the vibrant staccato that the shutter manipulation allowed us,” he explains.

“We were very careful, though, not to abuse camera trickery,” he adds. “We did not want to contradict the reality Clark wanted to depict with our image manipulation. Every time we used 45 degrees, for instance, we did it in scenes where the audience could feel comfortable with the heightened reality. If we called too much attention to our devices, we would have failed.”

Beristain was also constantly involved in a balancing act between cameras. His game plan was always the Steadicam, a B-camera with a long lens really far away, a master camera on a Technocrane and a sub-master camera on a dolly. “It was a beautiful ballet,” he smiles.

“When we shot a master, there was always the constant pressure of the second or third camera, trying to get their shots,” he adds. “Our operators were always watching out for each other and for the specific bits we asked them to get within the controlled chaos of any given set up. In addition to this, they had to fight their own instincts and not always go for the pristine approach, but capture at least one or two good gems that would move the story forward.

“Needless to say, we had a lot of material to look at when we went to dailies!”

To create today’s S.W.A.T. look, Beristain did several tests. Along with producer Louis D’Esposito, a few actors and key camera people, he used three sets on the Sony lot. One was set up for a normal open exterior where actors walked into a room that was brightly lit by broken windows, then into a different room that was dark as night. The movement was captured in one long Steadicam shot, again with a tighter lens, then with a normal camera and finally a video camera.

“We shot the tests twice,” he explains. “We took one of the versions through a silver retention process applied to the negative and developed the second one normally. The silver retention was exciting, gritty and powerful. I loved the dynamic we got and the immediacy of the camera moves.

“We realized, however, that the bleach by-passed negative was magnificent and inspiring in the action sequences; however, S.W.A.T. is not all about action, but also about characters,” Beristain adds. “The grittiness, grain, high contrast and guts of the process would be a tremendous presence, which would distract the audience from taking in the personal drama of our characters.

“So, we decided to achieve the look in a more controlled manner, grading it from scene to scene, pushing the envelope when the action demanded it, and backing up when the drama needed attention with a digital intermediate process and color correcting the film digitally. This way, we could sell Los Angeles as a jungle of asphalt, working the texture of the city and the grittiness of some of its areas into the character of the film.”

Beristain chose to do most of the picture on Kodak’s 5279 because at the beginning of the shoot the new 5218 hadn’t been released yet. For some tricky shots he switched to 5274, knowing the 200 ASA would capture the gritty feeling just as well. And, when the 5218 was released, he immediately ordered as much as possible, shooting massive sequences like the one over the Sixth Street Bridge with this new Vision stock. “It was tremendous for the digital intermediate,” he says enthusiastically.

“With Vision stock, one has to think an awful lot about contrast,” he adds. “I told a group of students that I learned to light reducing contrast. Now, I light adding contrast. Thankfully, we have now got the opportunity to play with the sensitometric characteristics of the stock by manipulating gammas, highlights, mid-tones and shadows. 5218 has given us another great option: very fine grain. It is very useful in night exteriors, where we struggled in the past to keep our blacks from going milky.

“People believe it is easier to light Vision stocks, because of the latitude,” he explains, “but you can go over the edge so you have to be really careful. It is a beautiful stock. It is forgiving and produces pretty images, but like in golf, it does not matter how improved technology is, the player still does the swing.

“Now, we have a stock that allows us to paint pictures in both photochemical and then in the gamma and mid-tones in the digital intermediate, to make a more classic look.”

The technology of today allowed Beristain and team to capture massive shots quickly and with confidence. Much of the S.W.A.T. story involved pushing the envelope in many different directions.

“The first day of shooting involved an old fashioned Hollywood bank shoot out,” Beristain recalls. “The kind that was popular during the height of the television series (mid 1970s). We had five helicopters, some as camera ships (dressed as newscopters) in the shots and the others as dressing.

“The bank shootout was about immediacy,” he explains. “We used multiple cameras to produce that feeling. We had robbers both inside and outside the bank, S.W.A.T. people rappelling from the helicopters, news crews and onlookers.

“Much of the scene was covered conventionally,” he admits. “But when we wanted a certain image we would send Steadicam in and out.”

“S.W.A.T. is about fast-paced, fearless movement,” adds Steadicam operator Craig Fikse. “For instance, in one shot, we needed to capture Colin (Farrell) and Jeremy (Renner) dropping from a helicopter and sprinting to a rooftop hatch. Steadicam was perfect.

“Graceful, smooth, precise Steadicam movements reflected the style and skill a trained S.W.A.T. professional would have. Low, wide and tight framing gave a very heroic image.

“Gabby was always looking for the best way to photograph the team,” Fikse adds. “We often did this with a 21 mm leading an actor. As he would draw close to the lens, I would drop the camera as low as possible, still shooting up, then wrap around to reveal where the character was headed.

“Since most of S.W.A.T. was in motion, I rarely put the Steadicam down!”

Because cameras were going everywhere, Beristain had to light for the “big picture.” “In normal situations, this would be difficult without sacrificing the contrast,” he says. “However, we had two things in our favor. Los Angeles is flat and bright––even in the landscape. It’s really a place without shadows, unlike New York, which has shadows everywhere.

“And, we had characters dressed with black outfits and black helmets. They were black ghosts in the middle of this flat situation. That gave us a given contrast. So, we used it. And, since we could use it, we were able to do 150s or 180s or even 300 degree moves without a problem.”

“The location we used was a closed Bank of America in a very crowded and active neighborhood,” recalls Beristain’s long-time gaffer (this is their ninth picture together) Mark Vuille. “The interior of the bank had to be lit so that our cameras could run from the bright exterior to a lit interior, all in the same shot.

“We also had the challenge of placing our lighting instruments so they could not be seen from the helicopter camera ships and wide crane cameras,” Vuille adds.

“For this, Gabby and I came up with the idea of the day light balanced HMI Soft Sun by Lightning Strikes,” Vuille explains. “Our construction department cut eight 4 by 5 foot openings in the ceiling of the bank. We placed eight 10K Soft Sun units flush in the ceiling and dressed the openings accordingly.

“Our power cables were run out of a ‘mouse hole’ cut into the side of the building, across the parking lot, and 500 feet down the street to our generators.

“The art department aided us by painting the cables to look like the parking lot. This enabled the camera to follow the bad guys into the bank, turn 180 degrees and look outside without having to ‘pull a stop.’

“Boy, was it hot inside,” Vuille laughs.

Where lighting really played a major character in capturing the action was the huge Sixth Street Bridge sequence, shot on the new Kodak 5218 stock. “We had to see miles and miles of the city in a night shot,” says Beristain.

“The climax of the sequence is when a Lear Jet lands and then takes off on the bridge. We also have a limousine chasing the plane,” he explains. “Obviously, as soon as you have a small jet trying to take off and a limo with the heroes of the film preventing that from taking place, you have the most exciting chase sequence you have ever seen. And, I had the longest, biggest playground to light! And the lighting had to be impeccable, because at one point, we used it in a helicopter shot to make the bridge really look like a runway.”

“The bridge was built in the late 1920s,” recalls Vuille. “It stands 64 feet high at the center, over the Los Angeles river, and measures 4200 feet long (8/10th of a mile). On each side of the bridge, there are 42 very old 200-watt sodium vapor ‘cobra head’ lights, mounted on 25-foot high ornate light standards. When we were scouting, my incident meter read at 400 ASA with an F/1.4 to source.

“Because Gabby was going to shoot variable shutter angles and frame rates, I needed to get to a minimum of F/2.8 to source. This would give him an exposure at a stop that would still accent the city lights in the background as well as balance to our set.”

This posed a number of challenges for the team: How to hide the lighting so that it wouldn’t be seen by the aerial camera helicopters; how to reach an area that is 64 feet above a river and city warehouses; and how to power an area that has no place to put generators.

“We replaced all 84 sodium vapor ‘cobra head’ streetlights with new 400 watt versions,” Vuille begins. “Les Percy and his rigging grips painted all the stock ‘cobra head’ plastic reflectors with high gloss silver heat paint. We then customized, painted and integrated a 1K nook light into and under 36 of the ‘cobra head’ streetlights.

“Gam Products custom made a Full Plus Green dichroic filter that we attached to each of these nook lights,” he adds.

“I also found a 24 by 24 inch milk-glass bathroom fluorescent fixture at Home Depot,” Vuille continues. “We purchased 84 of them and the art department built a frame around each unit and mounted and aged the bottom of each street light pole to accent the environment.

“I then added ten 1K PAR cans and had them mounted into the steel trestle portion of the bridge. Then, two 60-foot articulating Condors were outfitted with two space lights and under hung from the basket, with a 5K Fresnel in each unit. They were color corrected to match our sodium vapor environment and driven to set whenever we did close coverage of our actors.

“On each end of the bridge, we had an SMS 110 foot aerial platform ‘Night Sun,’” he continues. “Each one was fitted with three 24-light Dinos with 1200 vnsp ‘fire started’ globes.

“And, as if that weren’t enough, on each side of the bridge, we placed a 15-light 6K BeeBee approximately 2000 feet away. We gelled the BeeBees with Lee #776 Nectarine gel. These BeeBee and SMS units were used strictly to illuminate background architecture and create shadow detail.

“Don’t get me started on the power,” Vuille laughs. “That would take a book in itself!”

“With all those lights, I was able to get a general F/2.5 stop––F/2.8 closer to the lamp and up to F/4 right underneath,” says Beristain. “I wanted the 2.5 for a simple reason: the bridge has a magnificent view of downtown Los Angeles and an average reading of that cityscape is anything between 1.4 and 2. By exposing at a 2.5, I was going to be half a stop under in the city, but I would still have sufficient detail everywhere.

“Besides, if I needed to use lenses with a maximum aperture of 2.8, I was going to need to under expose by another half stop and then correct in the print. One stop correction with the new stock is not a crazy proposition. I don’t recommend it, but in my case, I had no choice.

“So, by balancing my bridge and my city, I was going to be up and down and still retain every bit of detail. If my bridge had been brighter, my exposure would have gone to 2.8 or 3.5, making the city really murky in the background.

“I never thought I was going to opt for underexposure in an 80 million dollar film, but there you are. By knowing the film characteristics and trusting my digital pictures, we managed to get really compelling and realistic images––giving Clark, the actors, stuntmen, second unit and everybody involved total liberty to play and get incredible shots.”

To do this sequence, Beristain and team used a minimum of four cameras and at times seven. “When we were towing the limousine, we had seven cameras rigged to it, one for each of the characters and to capture both inside and outside when two of the actors come out the sunroof,” Beristain explains.

“Mike Price did an incredible rigging job to get all the cameras in place, to shoot each character, but not each other,” he adds.

“Gabby trusted me,” says Price. “He would tell me what he wanted each lens to see and gave me free reign to get there. Without micro managing, he would encourage our pushing the envelope every step of the way.

“For instance, there was this lengthy dialogue scene that took place in the limo, which was racing through gunfire and explosions,” Price continues “and we had four principal actors that we had to be able to intercut with the same performance. This meant rigging eight cameras to shoot simultaneously.

“Had it been done before? Who knows? But we did it. With the help of the effects crew, we rigged a special set of brackets that were welded onto the undercarriage of the limo. This not only helped secure the cameras, but also aided in their stabilization.

“Of course,” he laughs, “we shot on the oldest, most pot hole ridden streets in town on lenses up to 150 mm. Gabby’s old-school in that the art always comes first. But, being a bit of an iconoclast, he is always looking for a new way to deliver and it keeps it fresh for us.”

Of course, S.W.A.T. isn’t all about major chases, crashing helicopters and other big shots. It is also about interpersonal relationships. “We have a really interesting sequence where six members of the S.W.A.T. team meet in a tiny restaurant on Crenshaw Boulevard. A building surrounded by glass and with a gas station in the background that we weren’t supposed to see!

“Here, we have all the stars of the film plus several other important characters. A difficult lighting job, to say the least.”

Early on in pre-production Beristain and Vuille created a series of what they called “S.W.A.T. lighting devices.” “Mark had this cart of hand flashes, S.W.A.T. flashlights, camping lights, Devastators,” says Beristain. “These tools were great, when we were running with Samuel Jackson, for example. Or, when we were trying to put light in little areas like this restaurant, giving each character their own light without showing it.

“Portable sources like this are becoming very handy,” he adds. “We can create fairly mobile follow spots, get a good light in for details, and so forth, regardless of the skin color or the light’s motivation. They are better than China Lanterns because they are flat and soft, and above all, fully directional.”

“Gabby first came to me on the USA portion of Blade 2 and asked for a ‘portable eye light torch,’” recalls Vuille. “This is his Briticism for a custom flashlight. I worked up several variations using a tried and true tool from my Law Enforcement days, the Sure-Fire ‘Devastator’ flashlight.

“I fitted four separate units with custom made snoots and diffusion rings. One was fitted with Lee #129, one with #216, one with #250 and the other with Opal diffusion. Each had an ND 3 flip cap.

“This gave Gabby quick and immediate choices for those tight spot ‘eye winkles’ that we often needed,” he explains.

“These lights were designed for S.W.A.T. teams as entry lights in hostile situation. They produced a tight beam of very bright white light in a small handheld unit. Their only drawback is that they use four 3-volt batteries that only last for 20 minutes. Plus, they burn so hot that they automatically shut down after two minutes of continuous usage for a cool down period.

“Fortunately, none of our takes were over two minutes in length when we used these lights.”

“When one shoots a picture as complex as S.W.A.T., it is very easy to get lost in the size of it,” says Beristain. “If we’re not careful, we can get lost in the stellar cast and in the spectaculars of it all. But, among so many incredible skillful technicians, so many daring stunt players, and sophisticated equipment, I need to single out the ones whom I admire, respect and owe the most––my camera crew. In this case, my very many camera crews, and particularly my key first, Mr. Al Cohen, who coordinated it all and never––and I mean never––delivered a soft image in the film. To every camera operator, first, second, loader and trainee, in the main unit, the second unit, and the aerial unit, my gratitude and compliments.”