Following
on the heels of Raiders
and Temple
of Doom, the
Last Crusade presented
the optical effects unit at
Industrial
Light and Magic and the
physical effects team in London
with the ultimate challenge,
topping their own exemplary
work in the two previous films.
With such diverse assignments
as the construction of an authentic
World War I tank, the collapse
of an enormous temple, and the
aging of a man into dust without
the aid of cutaways, Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade
would prove to be the perfect
vehicle for cinematic one-upsmanship.
In the film's
opening sequence Indy must contend
with not only the bandits chasing
him, but also the train's inhospitable
occupants. At one point, he
fights with a bandit on top
of a boxcar while an angry rhinoceros
below pokes its prodigious horn
up through the ceiling. Lantieri
rigged the roof to break away
and then had technicians down
below thrusting a horn up through
the roof. A cuing system was
rehearsed so that at the crucial
moment, the horn would burst
up under River Phoenix's arm,
along his side and between his
legs. The massive foam and fiberglass
rhinoceros prop had been created
by the British special effects
crew but three days before filming
the scene, Spielberg decided
he wanted the rhino to move!
John Buechler took on the challenge.
The huge prop was delivered
to Buechler's North
Hollywood studio from
the stage at Universal.
Buechler and his crew set to
work re-inventing the rhino.
Over the course of three days,
Buechler and company resculpted,
re-cast, and mechanized the
beast to such a degree, that
not only did the rhino blink,
snarl, and snort as Spielberg
wanted, but it also wiggled
it's ears! The director was
so happy with the final creature
that he allowed Buechler to
call "action" and
"cut" on the final
shot of the film.
Buechler
re-inventing the rhinoceros. |
Elsewhere in the
sequence Lantieri relied upon
two mechanical giraffes built
in England by mechanical effects
supervisor George Gibbs and
his crew. "The giraffes
were operated by cables and
brake handles," Lantieri
explained, "and we cut
skylight holes in the top of
one of the boxcars so the heads
could stick up through. One
of the first things we learned
was that steam locomotives are
very loud - so loud that when
we were in the boxcar it was
hard to hear directions. Ultimately
we used radios to communicate
with David Tomblin, the first
assistant director. We could
not stick our heads out of the
car because it would ruin the
shots, so after a while we started
answering his questions with
the giraffes themselves. David
would ask if the giraffes were
ready, and the giraffes would
shake their heads 'yes' or 'no'
in response. It got to be pretty
funny."
Continuing his
hide and seek chase onboard
the steaming train Indy encounters
a ferocious anaconda, in reality
an animatronic one.
Young Indy's victory
is short-lived. Once home, he
finds his father preoccupied
and unwilling to listen to his
tall tale. Before he can convince
him of the urgency of the situation,
the priceless antiquity is reclaimed
by Fedora and the local sheriff.
In a grudging gesture of admiration
for the boy's tenacity, Fedora
places his hat on Indy's head,
the brim momentarily covering
his youthful face. Then, in
a cinematic transition, the
scene shifts to the deck of
a small freighter where the
adult Indiana Jones - now played
by Harrison Ford - is once again
embroiled in a struggle to reclaim
the elusive Cross of Coronado.
Though real rats
had been employed for wide shots,
George Gibbs and his team created
some 1000 rubber replicas for
shots that might endanger the
rodent performers.
For Indy and Elsa's
arrival at the Austrian stonewalled
castle, an actual castle was
photographed in West Germany.
When the real edifice was later
deemed too small, however,
ILM matte department
supervisor Mark Sullivan was
called upon to expand it with
a painting. "We also needed
to add a rainstorm over the
castle," said Sullivan.
"In the past, effects people
have had trouble shooting and
matting in real water, so we
tried something different, we
filmed granulated Borax hand
soap against black, threw it
into a fan to get the effect
of sheets of rain and shot it
high-speed. Then, since it was
a daylight shot, we just barely
double-exposed it in. If the
Borax had been brighter in the
shot, it might have looked like
snow. Also, we used a fast speed
so it would not appear to be
drifting." Mike Lessa in
the animation department added
lightning bolts to further enhance
the establishing shot.
Later in the film,
with Henry's diary saved from
a book burning rally, Indy and
his father race to the Berlin
airport to catch the next flight
out of Germany. The task of
creating a pre-war representation
of the Berlin airport fell to
the ILM
matte department. The live-action
basis for the painting was an
existing airport facility located
on Treasure Island between San
Francisco and Oakland. The airport
is now part of a military installation,
but in the 1930s it was used
as a terminal for seaplanes.
Also appropriate was the fact
that it had an art deco style
of architecture. Matte artist
Yusei Uesugi added a control
tower, Nazi banners, vintage
automobiles and a sign that
read 'Berlin Flughafen' as a
final touch.
Full-size
biplane
ready for action. |
|
Unable to get
a standard flight, the Joneses
opt for the only available alternative,
a commercial zeppelin. When
the zeppelin is ordered back
to Germany the Joneses, in order
to avoid capture, climb down
into a small biplane attached
to the underbelly of the ship
and fly off. Partial full-scale
sets and miniatures were used
for the sequence. For shots
of Indy and Henry lowering themselves
into the biplane, George Gibbs
and his crew constructed the
entire belly section of a full-size
zeppelin. The set piece was
suspended forty feet in the
air between two towers, and
a full-size biplane was attached
to a large scissor lift that
could lower it and move it around
in the frame. The full-size
setup was used solely for close-up
and medium shots. Wide angles
of the full zeppelin employed
a miniature constructed by ILM
model shop supervisor Michael
Fulmer and his crew. The airship
model, eight feet long and carved
out of foam, also featured a
like-scaled miniature biplane
small enough to fit in one's
palm. For scenes of the plane
separating from the zeppelin,
a larger-scale biplane with
a two-foot wingspan was built.
The zeppelin and biplane miniatures
were then shot separately under
motion control and combined
in optical.
Making
& filming the zeppelin
minature and the result
in the film. |
Though airborne
and free of the zeppelin, Indy
and Henry soon discover they
have not shaken their enemies
and are in fact being chased
by two Nazi fighter planes.
Once again, full-size airplanes
and miniatures were combined
to realize the sequence. For
live-action shots involving
the enemy pursuers, Swiss army
training planes were dressed
to look like German World War
II fighters. To simulate machine
gun fire, both the fighter planes
and the full-scale biplane were
fitted with electronic strobe
lights and a revolutionary new
firing system designed by George
Gibbs. "We built what we
call 'gas guns'- a new idea
we pioneered based on the internal
combustion chamber of an engine.
The guns run off liquid gas-propane
gas and oxygen-that we ignite
with a spark plug similar to
what is a Honda
motorbike. By doing this, we
are able to avoid using guns
that shoot blanks-which is an
advantage, not only because
blanks are expensive, but also
because you can hurt someone
who is standing too close when
the blanks go off. With these
gas guns, nothing comes out
of them except flames. Unfortunately,
the technology works only with
larger weapons like machine
guns. The equipment required
is too bulky for handguns."
After father and
son crash-land into a countryside
shack, they appropriate a car
as their next escape vehicle.
As the fighter planes try to
zero in on the speeding car,
Indy barrels around a comer
and ducks into a tunnel. One
plane veers away, but the other
crashes into the mountainside.
Its wings shear off completely,
but the flaming fuselage continues
on through the tunnel as Indy
and Henry race to stay ahead
of it. There was some discussion
of trying to filming the scene
full scale. They realized that
first of all it would be horrendously
difficult to do, especially
in a location like Spain where
you don't have all the support
and materials. But the main
consideration was the danger
of putting real people in an
old tunnel with fire and explosives.
So almost immediately it was
decided that there was no way
to do that practically. So the
ball fell in the ILM's
court.
The
miniature set of the tunnel
in on ILM's parking lot. |
"The fire
tunnel involved miniatures shot
against blue screen and also
a complicated miniature set,"
explained McAlister. "The
sequence begins when the plane
crashes into the tunnel. We
filmed the plane motion control
and made wings out of aluminum
foil that we stop-motion animated
to crumble and break away at
the moment of impact. Then for
shots of the action inside the
tunnel, we made quarter-scale
models of the car, the airplane
and the tunnel itself which
ended up being a hundred and
eighty feet long."
The
finished miniature tunnel
including the scale plane. |
Since there was
no stage big enough to accommodate
the miniature set of the tunnel
the filming took place in the
ILM's
parking lot. It took up about
14 parking spaces for a couple
months, which ticked everybody
off when they couldn't find
a place to park. "But it
was worth it," said McAlister.
The 210 feet long fire tunnel
was built in eight-foot sections,
with each section hinged on
one side so the top could literally
be lifted up like a canopy for
accessibility. The camera was
affixed to a very complicated
sled that was pulled along the
left side of the set by a cable
underneath the floor of the
tunnel. Both the car and the
airplane chasing it were also
on cables. The models were moving
at about twenty to thirty miles
per hour and at that speed,
things really had to be timed
very carefully. The miniature
plane was set on fire, sent
through the tunnel and filmed
at high-speed to help keep the
flames in scale. Since the ambient
light created by the burning
airplane was not enough to fully
illuminate the inside of the
tunnel, additional lights were
concealed within the detail
in the over-head rocks.
Ford
and Connery. |
|
For close-ups
of Indy and Henry inside the
tunnel, Ford and Connery were
photographed against blue screen
in a full-size vehicle. The
shots called for a dirty windshield
in front of them; but since
this would have interfered with
the transmission of blue, the
glass was removed and later
filmed in miniature for optical
insertion.
As the action
continues, the plane rockets
past Indy and his father, proceeds
on out of the tunnel and explodes.
For that explosion a background
plate of an actual tunnel was
shot in Spain. The same location
was used for the very end of
the sequence where a real car
with stuntmen drove out and
crashed through the airplane
debris. For our plate, we shot
the exit point of the tunnel
with a big explosion going off
to give us the correct lighting
effect on the hillside around
it. Later we shot the miniature
airplane motion control as it
skids out of the tunnel to the
point where the practical explosion
on the plate takes place. To
get pieces of the plane flying
around, we then blew up the
model with a miniature explosion.
We also shot additional miniature
explosions to fill in the gap
between the practical explosion
on location and the model explosion.
To make it appear that the miniature
plane was kicking up rocks and
dirt before it exploded animated
shadows and dirt elements were
incorporated into the final
composite.
Toying
with scale plane. |
|
Emerging unscathed
from the tunnel, Indy and Henry
drive on with the remaining
Nazi fighter still on their
tail. The plane drops a bomb
on the road ahead of them, gouging
out a huge crater, which Indy
cannot avoid. With their vehicle
crippled Indy and Henry make
their way, on foot, down to
a beach, only to find themselves
about to be strafed by the low-flying
fighter plane. Sighting a flock
of seagulls on the sand, the
professor uses his umbrella
to frighten them away. The birds
fly up into the flight path
of the airplane, causing the
pilot to lose control and crash
into a mountain nearby.
Dropping
seagulls. |
|
To actualize the
sequence, McAlister had to create
images of a plane smashing into
a flock of seagulls without
actually harming any real birds."For
the scenes where the airplane
hits the birds, we made up a
whole bunch of crosses with
feathers glued on them. Actually,
they looked pretty stupid; but
because the shots were quick
cuts, all we needed moving through
the frame were shapes that looked
like birds. We took the miniature
plane that we used for the fire
tunnel, cleaned it up, put the
wings back on and hung it up
in the air on a long crane arm.
Then we placed a painted backing
behind it and had the camera
pan past the airplane so that
it looked like the background
was moving and the plane was
actually flying. During filming,
I had about a half dozen people
dropping these cross shaped
feather balls onto the airplane
from a grid above the stage."
The feather balls
served as the base effect, but
to simulate a flock of birds
in flight, a slightly more sophisticated
approach was employed. "We
found flying toys called Timbirds
that you wind up like you would
an old-time glider airplane,"
McAlister explained. "When
you release them, their wings
flap and they actually fly.
I believe they are loosely based
on a Leonardo da Vinci design
from centuries ago. Just by
chance, one of our cameramen
brought a Timbird
in one day and released it just
before dailies. I thought it
was neat, but didn't give it
another thought until about
a month later when I was having
trouble finding real birds to
use as a second element on these
shots. So we bought several
hundred of these Timbirds,
wound them up and released them
into the air against a black
background. Then we double exposed
them into the scene to create
a denser flock of birds flying
through the frame." For
one additional close-up shot
of the plane's propeller grinding
to a halt, a miniature propeller
was filmed with ordinary feathers
falling towards it.
Making
& filming the zeppelin
minature and the result
in the film. |
The use of special
effects for shots of birds crashing
into a plane was to be expected.
However, even the shots of gulls
sitting on the beach had to
be created by the special effects
team. "For three months
I had people in Spain trying
to get seagulls," Robert
Watts remarked, "but no
one could come up with any.
Usually, if you go out on a
beach and throw a few pieces
of fish around, millions of
gulls will swoop in; but because
it was their nesting season,
there were none about. So we
ended up using dummy seagulls
that we cast in plaster and
covered with feathers. We had
some standing on the rocks,
some on the beach, and some
out in the water with anchors
on them, bobbing up and down
on the waves. They looked fantastic.
Even standing ten feet away,
it was impossible to tell they
were not real. Their feathers
fluttered in the wind, which
gave them movement. Once we
had everything all set up, real
seagulls suddenly started to
appear in the sky - with all
those dummies on the beach,
they must have wondered what
was going on and decided to
check it out." For one
additional shot of the birds
actually flying up through the
scene, Watts rounded up hundreds
of white pigeons. Since all
they needed to do was move through
the frame very quickly, the
impostor pigeons were able to
pass convincingly as seagulls.
For the establishing
shot of the fictional Republic
of Hatay in the Middle
East Mark Sullivan and the matte
department created the striking
image of a city at dusk. While
Sullivan's painting of the German
castle was an extension of a
real castle, this nonexistent
city was created entirely in
silhouette with cutout buildings
and telephone poles made from
photo-etched brass and sheet
aluminum. "We grouped the
brass and aluminum pieces together
in forced perspective about
twenty feet deep and sprayed
them black," Sullivan explained.
"Then we pumped in a lot
of smoke and backlit it which
created a pretty realistic effect
that was shot by Wade Childress
and Jo Carson. To bring life
to the silhouettes, we added
a matte painting that created
the appearance of fill light
inside the shadows and rim light
on the edges of the buildings.
I also painted in the sky, and
in a couple of passes we put
in some smoke coming out of
the chimneys and even a few
animated birds flying across
the scene." Over the city
shot appears a title identifying
the locale. Usually such a title
would be added later in an optical
duping situation; but to avoid
this extra generation, the entire
shot was created latent image
with a holdout matte bipacked
in the camera. Then after the
various silhouette and painting
passes were completed, Childress
burned the text into the final
image.
The scale tank
in action. |
|
Having freed Henry
and Brody from the belly of
the steel beast, Indy fights
it out atop the tank with Nazi
officer Vogel. Caught up in
their scuffle neither man is
aware that the armored vehicle
is heading straight for a cliff.
When the tank goes over the
precipice, it appears that Indiana
Jones has indeed made his last
crusade. "For obvious reasons,"
noted Mike McAlister, "the
scene could not be done with
a real tank and a real cliff.
Not only would they lose actors
if the tank did not stop at
the right moment, but they also
did not want it to look like
the tank was slowing down as
it got closer to the edge, which
it would have had to do if it
were being shot for real. So
we created the illusion of a
cliff by combining the full-scale
tank footage with miniatures
and a matte painting. We started
by picking a suitably flat spot
over in Spain where we could
simulate a cliff edge. We shot
the scene with the actors on
the tank just as if the cliff
were really there. During filming
of the live-action, the tank
got closer and closer to our
imaginary cliff line and then
continued right over."
To complete these wide-angle
shots, a matte painting was
added to create the precipice
itself. Then for other angles
of the vehicle actually tumbling
over the edge and crashing into
a ravine below, a quarter scale
miniature tank built by the
Gibbs unit was filmed going
over a fifty-foot high cliff
in Spain. Additional shots of
the tank plummeting into the
chasm employed matte paintings
and a tank miniature shot against
blue screen at ILM.
Final shots looking down on
the chasm featured the miniature
tumbling into a rock quarry
located near the effects facility.
Amazingly, Indy
once again cheats death and
rejoins his friends at the edge
of the cliff. With barely a
moment to catch their breath,
the determined foursome race
off to find the Grail temple
and block the Nazi pillage.
Their quest takes them to the
Canyon of the Crescent Moon
where they discover a mighty
temple carved into the face
of a cliff. The initial long-distance
view of the full canyon was
yet another Mark Sullivan matte
painting, augmented with a miniature
set built by Paul Huston.
Once inside the
temple Henry gets shot in the
stomach and Indy has no choice
but to face the temple's three
challenges. The first, The Breath
of God, requires a 'penitent
man' to pass. Indy grapples
with this cryptic phrase as
he walks down a temple corridor
and realizes a penitent man
would get down on his knees
in prayer. Indy does so just
in time to avoid being killed
by an array of circular blades
that slice into the passageway
from the walls and ceiling.
The blades themselves were a
combination of fully operational
mock blades built into the temple
set and miniature blades blue
screened in by the ILM
effects team.
Adding
cobwebs to the
cavern's miniature. |
|
Indy quickly disables
the device and then moves on
to a passageway of stepping
stones marked with individual
letters. For this second challenge,
the Word of God, Indy deduces
that he must spell the name
of God in order to proceed.
However, when he steps down
on the stone marked with a letter
'J', for Jehovah, the rock collapses
beneath him and he nearly falls
into an enormous chasm below.
Initially, the scene was filmed
with Harrison Ford stepping
on the wrong stone and being
attacked by a big spider but
the result wasn't satisfactory
enough and they came up with
the a chasm underneath. In the
scene, the chasm was realized
in a matte painting showing
a view from the bottom of the
cavern looking up at the place
where Indy's foot has pushed
through the floor. To create
the shot, a stuntman was filmed
on a set built thirty feet above
the floor of the ILM
main stage. The set represented
a portion of the ceiling of
the cavern, or the underside
of the floor Indy is walking
on, and was made to look like
it was constructed from inlaid
stones. The camera was positioned
on the floor of the stage looking
up to get the correct angle
on the stuntman's foot crashing
through. "On the wall behind
the set," Sullivan said,
"I placed a background
painting depicting the wall
of the cave so that as the stuntman's
foot fell through, we could
also film debris and dirt falling
away from him. The painting
was done on a large canvas,
fifteen feet wide and forty
feet high, that was erected
vertically in the main stage.
This shot was actually added
late in our schedule and I had
to do the painting in a hurn,
so I literally threw buckets
of paint onto the canvas and
smeared it around with brooms.
Since the background was supposed
to be dark and mysterious, it
did not need a lot of detail."
Once this live-action plate
was filmed latent image, it
was incorporated into a matte
painting of the rest of the
cavern. In separate passes,
foreground miniatures were shot
to add cobwebs and support pillars
for the 'safe' stones in the
ceiling. To complete the illusion,
matte paintings of aerial haze
and light streams were double-exposed
into the shot.
Indy manages to
catch himself before he falls
into the cavern. Quickly he
realizes his error, spells out
Jehovah on the correct stones
and then proceeds on to face
the final test. The Path of
God involves a narrow tunnel
that leads out to a ledge overlooking
a chasm, with no apparent way
to cross over. The riddle tells
Indy that he must make a 'leap
of faith' so he slowly, and
with great trepidation, steps
out into the void. To his astonishment
his foot lands on something
solid, yet he appears to be
standing in midair. As Indy
proceeds to walk across the
abyss to a ledge on the other
side, the camera swings to the
right and reveals the trick,
Indy is walking on a bridge
painted to match the rock on
the opposite cliff face, thereby
making it invisible from his
original vantage point. The
camouflaged bridge was a Spielberg
inspiration. "I thought
it would be interesting if somebody
hundreds of years ago painted
a false perspective on a bridge
that matched the terrain two
hundred feet below in color
and texture. Of course, thinking
the idea up and having it sketched
was the easy part. We never
knew for certain if it would
work until ILM
got involved and made it happen."
"The leap
of faith shot was an example
of a scene that could not exist
without the use of special effects,"
McAlister said. "When the
shot was first conceived, there
was great discussion in England
on how to do it and Douglas
Slocombe, the director of photography,
was pretty sure he could come
up with something there that
would work. But Elliot Scott
was very worried about whether
or not they could accomplish
it practically. Also, it would
have been much too expensive
to build a full-size set because
the sequence only involved four
or five shots. So the buck was
passed to us early on, and I
was sure, that if anyone could
accomplish it, we could, partly
because we would have more control
over the elements."
ILM's
solution to the leap of faith
dilemma was to use a combination
of matte paintings and miniatures.
The first shot in the sequence
was a matte painting by Yusei
Uesugi. It was the basic bottomless
pit shot, looking down the side
of an enormous rock cliff that
just goes on and on into darkness.
Since this was supposed to be
Indy's point of view, his feet
are visible in the frame. The
feet and the rock that they
are standing on were miniatures
built by Paul Huston. They found
some small boots about one-third
the size of the real boots used
by Harrison Ford, and positioned
them over a miniature rock placed
in front of the painting. Then
they puppeteered them a little
bit so they would not look like
stiff shoes.
Yusei
Uesugi working on the first
matte painting shot. |
The remainder
of the leap of faith shots involved
a model of the bridge, nine
feet tall by thirteen feet wide,
that was carved by Huston out
of green styrofoam. To paint
the bridge, the camera was placed
in the starting position of
the shot so that Huston could
view the model from the same
angle as the camera. "In
the start position of the shot,"
said McAlister, "the camera
was at a very high angle looking
down at the bridge and the cliff
below. Paul looked through the
camera and first sketched on
the bridge the detail that he
saw below. If, for instance,
there were certain rock formations
way down low in the abyss, he
painted those same formations
on the bridge so that through
the lens the bridge appeared
to blend in with those formations.
As long as we photographed the
bridge from the same angle that
Paul painted it from, it was
impossible to tell that the
bridge was there." To facilitate
the painting process, 35mm
Kodacolor print film
was loaded into the Vistavision
camera. As Huston painted, stills
were shot every hour and developed
at a nearby one-hour photo store,
enabling an on-going assessment
of the work in progress.
The illusion of
invisibility is broken immediately
when the camera moves off its
initial axis. Once all the lines
and textures on the bridge no
longer match up with those on
the cliff wall behind it, the
nature of the bridge becomes
fully evident. This camera move,
crucial to the success of the
illusion, was actually determined
many months earlier during live-action
shooting on the ILM
blue screen stage. "We
shot Harrison Ford against a
blue screen long before we built
the miniature bridge,"
McAlister noted. "We did
a shot of him stepping out into
supposed midair, realizing he
is on something solid and then
starting to take a few steps
forward. I had to imagine as
well as I could the move that
we would ultimately do on the
miniature and then make that
move on Harrison. It was important
that the perspective change
on Harrison match the perspective
change we would later do on
the miniature. In a way, it
made sense to shoot Harrison
first because then we could
conform our miniature shoot
to whatever restrictions we
had on the live-action."
The
model of the bridge and
Ford taking the "leap
of faith". |
Since Ford was
filmed in a blue screen environment,
he did not have a shadow, which
was clearly needed since a strong
shaft of light was streaming
into the finished scene. To
create the shadow, a miniature
puppet figure was photographed
on the miniature bridge. A stop-motion
puppet was positioned on the
bridge right where the blue
screen element was going to
be composited and then imitated
Ford's movements. They did one
pass with the puppet on the
bridge and then one of the bridge
itself. Later they split-screened
the puppet out of the shot,
leaving only its shadow. Then
they matted Harrison in and
he suddenly had his shadow.
Indy successfully reaches the
ledge on the other side of the
abyss and tosses a handful of
dirt onto the bridge to aid
those who are following him.
"This shot was created
by first filming Harrison on
a small mockup of the ledge
that was constructed at the
studio in England. Then on a
black stage we shot handfuls
of dirt being tossed onto a
cloaked platform built in the
shape of the bridge. We found
the take that best matched the
plate of Harrison pretending
to throw gravel, then projected
the live-action into the miniature
and matted in the dirt falling
onto the bridge shape."
The
finished "leap of faith"
shot. |
For the death
scene of the film's villain,
Donovan, Lucas and Spielberg
played with an idea that was
originally explored for the
opening of the ark in Raiders.
The idea was that all the Germans
at present would be disintegrated,
with their skin being rotten
and falling off their faces
and then with their bones being
turned into dust. Unfortunately,
the technology at the time could
not support such a venture and
the idea was dropped. Inspired
by this, Boam wrote a scene
where Donovan was supposed to
age in a matter of seconds and
wither away until he is only
skeletal dust. The effect, tagged
at ILM
as 'Donovan's Destruction',
was considered common enough
for the special effects of the
late 80s but was given a different
wrinkle by Spielberg. "I
would not agree to Donovan's
destruction unless it could
all be done on camera in one
continuous shot," he stated.
"I just did not want to
do a series of cutaways so that
the person could be advanced
in makeup. We've all seen that,
and I think people do have a
level of expectation with these
movies. They expect to see certain
things that have not been done
before. Also, the minute they
know ILM
is involved; they have a very
high expectation that the people
up there will somehow top themselves.
So things like having the decomposition
in one shot are important, I
think the ILM
crew would be disappointed in
me if I did not offer them a
challenge like that."
To meet the Spielberg
challenge, Mike McAlister and
his team had to incorporate
three different approaches.
First, Julian Glover spent three
days to shoot the needed scenes.
It began with six takes with
progressively older make up,
then another day with inflating
pads taped to his forehead and
cheekbones. As these were pumped
full of air, his eyes seemed
to recede into their sockets.
To make him grow instant long
gray hair, he was fitted with
a wig into which the hair was
drawn back mechanically. Then
the film was run backwards at
higher speed. Three motion-controlled
puppet heads were filmed showing
Donovan in advancing stages
of decomposition. Then to blend
the heads together so they appeared
to age seamlessly, a variation
of the computer 'morfing' technique
pioneered on Willow
was employed. "When Donovan
first starts aging," said
makeup effects supervisor Stephan
Dupuis, "you see him from
behind as his hair grows long.
That initial shot was done in
England. Then they cut back
to a reverse shot over Elsa's
shoulder. That's where we came
in with Donovan already aged
slightly. We took a head cast
of Julian Glover and made a
latex head built on top of a
torso. Inside this head were
motion control mechanics designed
by Kelly Lepkowsky. The first
head went through programmed
moves that made Donovan's cheeks
suck in and his nose go back
so that he looked a little like
the Phantom
of the Opera. When that
head reached its most decayed
position, we took a cast of
it and made a second head. We
attached that head to the same
motion-controlled rig and made
it age even further. Donovan's
nose went completely in, the
eyelids shriveled up and went
inside his head, and the mouth
curled back even more. At that
point he looked like a mummy,
and from this we cast the third
head."
Motion
control mechanics inside
the latex head. |
The first two
heads had simple foam latex
skins, but the third one was
more complex because it had
to shrivel down to a skeleton.
"We started with a gray
skull underneath," Dupuis
continued. "Over that I
needed material that would shrivel
up under heat like saran wrap.
I looked at different materials
and finally just took styrofoam
cups and melted them in a solvent
until I got liquid. Then I painted
this liquid on the inside of
the mold for the third head.
When that dried I had a very
thin plastic skin that served
as the outside skin on the face.
Between this skin and the gray
skull underneath we placed pieces
of Shrink hard-a plastic that
shrinks when you heat it. We
cut out pieces in worm-like
configurations and pasted them
on the inside of the skin so
that when the face was heated
up, those things would shrivel
and curl and open up the skin.
They looked basically like a
bunch of maggots, pretty gross,
but on the screen you do not
really see that much of it."
Making
one of the heads and the
foam latex skins. |
All three heads
were placed on the same motion
control rig so that they would
go through the exact same motions
in the frame. "We needed
to have the three heads in perfect
register for editing,"
McAlister explained. "As
Donovan disintegrated, we wanted
to be able to cut from the first
head to the second at the best
possible point, and then from
the second head to the third.
By having all three heads go
through the exact same motion
in the frame, we could then
choose any point to make the
transitions between them."
Once the puppeteered heads were
filmed, the next step was to
blend them together seamlessly
using digital imaging processing.
"We first used the morfing
technique during Willow
for the transformation of Raziel
from a goat to an ostrich to
a turtle to a tiger and then
to a human being. On Willow
they had the benefit of cutaways,
plus the animals were so dissimilar
in shape that no one could say
how they would actually transform.
But for Indiana Jones we had
to transform a human face, something
that people are very familiar
with, and we had to make our
shots look as realistic as possible.
The other major difference was
that on Willow
they only morfed individual
elements that were then composited
optically. But for Indy we set
out to create an image that
was almost completely composited
inside the computer so that
what we scanned back out was
essentially the final shot.
As far as I know, this is the
first time anyone has ever accomplished
this type of digital compositing
for a full-screen, live-action
image."
The
heads placed on the same
motion control rig.
|
To perfect the
transition, McAlister first
tested optical cross- dissolves
at the points he thought the
head changes should take place.
Once the transition points were
firmly established, the original
footage was then scanned into
a Pixar image-processing computer
and translated into digital
format so that computer artists
could begin the time-consuming
process of making the transitions
appear seamless. "Basically,
we had to pretend that the picture
was on a sheet of rubber,"
explained digital compositor
Les Dittert. "With morfing
we were able to grab part of
that picture and stretch it.
For instance, if we had to line
up the outside of the second
head with the same frame number
of the third head, we used the
computer to shift around this
imaginary sheet of rubber so
that the edges lined up perfectly.
By doing that, we were able
to correct any misregistration
on the photography as well as
line up features within the
faces. We could also control
the speed of the dissolve to
different areas of the frame.
For instance, we could make
the nose of the second head
come through before the rest
of the face. Something like
that would be hard to do in
a normal optical. In optical
you can realign for one thing,
like the tip of the nose, but
then the side of the head would
probably be off."
Directing
Alison's double. |
|
Making the morfing
even more complicated was the
fact that the second and third
head imagery had to be placed
directly over the first head.
In the scene, the camera watches
Donovan decompose from over
Elsa's shoulder. As a result,
the first head was shot on a
torso with a double for Alison
Doody in the foreground and
a portion of the chamber set
in the rear. The double was
then sent home and the other
two heads were filmed without
her. "The background and
hair of the first head were
used through the entire shot,"
Dittert said, "and the
other faces were mapped over
the first one. That presented
problems because the last head
was practically a skeleton and
it was a lot smaller than the
first head. If we had just matted
the last head in, audiences
would have seen what we called
the 'peek-a-boo effect' where
the first head would have peeked
out on one side or the other
because it was bigger. So we
had to do a little face-lift
and pull the whole face over."
Because Donovan's clothing also
had to age, some miniature clothes
were shot on a fourth torso
puppet, also motion-controlled.
"We had two clothes elements,"
said computer graphics animator
Doug Smythe, "the second
more deteriorated than the first.
Both had to be mapped over Donovan's
upper body and shifted into
position so they would not expose
the torso mechanism. Those were
shot against blue screen and
scanned into the computer. Then
the blue screen was extracted
and the clothes were morfed
to make them fit where they
had to go."
To complete the
effect McAlister needed some
information on how to rapidly
deteriorate clothing without
using dangerous acids. He called
an association of dry cleaners,
who referred him to a clothing
damage expert in Utah. Utah
sent them to Mary Baker, who
was employed at the textile
research facility at the Smithsonian
Institute. McAlister explained
his situation and asked for
any advise. The reply that came
over the phone sounded like
a joke, "Have you tried
ILM?
They can do anything."
After a chuckle, McAlister responded,
"Ma'am, we are ILM."
As it turned out, Mary Baker
was involved in preserving Yoda
for the Smithsonian's traveling
exhibit on Star
Wars. Eventually she
came to ILM
to train the crew in the handling
and use of the acids involved.
Once the clothing
and the faces were successfully
merged in the computer, the
whole shot was digitally composited
and scanned back out in Vistavision
format. Ultimately, this image
was not the final composite
because it had to be reduced
in optical to four-perf projection
format. At that time, an additional
smoke element was incorporated
to help it match other shots
in the Grail chamber.
A
skeleton ready to
shatter. |
|
Donovan's destruction
is complete when Indy pushes
the skeletal remains away from
a screaming Elsa and the bones
fly against a chamber wall and
shatter. To create this effect,
a skeleton was assembled from
bones made out of a brittle
polymer. These hollow bones
were then filled with fuller's
earth and a ground glass product
called Cab-I-sil and hung together
by wires on a trapeze-like device.
"Donovan's skeleton looked
like a giant marionette,"
Dupuis recalled, "which
we swung into a mockup of a
cave wall. All the bones were
supposed to release on impact,
but we had to do several takes
because there was always one
bone that would not detach and
would still be floating in midair
after the rest had crashed into
the wall. We finally had our
pyro expert, Bob Finley, attach
explosive squibs to the wires
on the trapeze. When the skeleton
hit the wall, he pressed a button
and all the wires broke on cue.
The shot was so quick and there
was so much dust and smoke in
the shot that the wires were
easily concealed." Equal
to Belloq's explosion in Raiders
Donovan's Destruction was one
of the film's most thrilled
scenes and at the same time
marked a technological breakthrough
in effects work.
Having rid of
Donovan, Indy must still find
the real Grail to save his father's
life. Imagining how the real
Grail would look like led to
the creation of a modest pottery
cup. "Our inspiration for
the Grail was that Christ was
a carpenter," Spielberg
said, "and we did not think
there would have been a golden
goblet with inlaid jewels at
the Last Supper. In respectful
defiance of some of the court
art that has been done over
the years, we just felt the
goblets would be very ordinary
and earthen."
Filming
the mortal
wound. |
|
Armed with the
authentic Grail, Indy races
back through the temple and
pours water from the sacred
vessel onto his father's mortal
wound. The Grail proves its
healing powers when the elder
Jones' wound mends right before
Indy's eyes. The healing of
Henry Jones was made in two
cuts. The first was a make-up
effect involving baking soda
and vinegar. The makeup had
a high content of baking soda
so that when the vinegar was
poured onto it, the baking soda
fizzed up like hydrogen peroxide.
In the second cut, the wound
appears to be foaming up even
more and when Indy pours more
water on it the wound washes
away revealing healed flesh.
For this shot, the effects team
simply sprinkled baking soda
on the actor's skin, dumped
vinegar on it until it got real
foamy, turned the camera on
and then washed the foam away
with more vinegar. It was shot
more or less live-action style
with a four-perf camera and
did a bunch of takes until they
got one that looked right.
With all the special
and visual effects for Last
Crusade complete and
despite the revolutionary techniques
created McAlister dared to comment
that, "The most common
challenge in effects is not
to come up with brand new techniques,
but to find new ways of using
old ones."
While ILM
was working on the special effects
sound designer Ben Burtt and
his associates were making recordings
for such sounds as horses, crashes,
aircraft, a tank, and artillery.
Burtt had built a large Indiana
Jones sound library since working
on Raiders
of the Lost Ark but he
preferred to look for original
sound material. "Indiana
Jones and the Last Crusade
has a collection of all the
highlights any sound editor
could dream of: explosions,
fire, gunfights, earthquakes,
windstorms, and chases in all
sorts of different vehicles,"
said Burtt. "I could go
to my sound effects library
catalogs and no matter what
page I turned to, there would
be an appropriate sound for
a scene in the film."
After Burtt began
his work by categorizing the
sounds he planned to use, he
started to collect them, on
one occasion riding in a biplane
upside down while recording.
Traveling to find the best sounds
possible, Burtt attended the
destruction of a wind turbine
over 300 feet high to record
sounds to be utilized for crash
scenes. Gunshots and ricochets
were created and recorded in
isolated locations in Utah and
Texas.
The recording
of a styrofoam cup at a family
picnic became the basis for
a roaring inferno after Burtt
multiplied the sound at different
frequencies with a computer.
"The digital process of
manipulating sounds, stretching
them, shrinking them, or changing
the pitch, is one of the big
steps forward in the last ten
years. Most of the things we
now do with a Synclavier
computer we used to do with
tape and cutting." At the
end several hundred sound effects
were collected on 41 tapes with
an average of 20 effects on
each tape, around 800 in all.
The
Last Crusade was being
released in selected theatres
in a special sound format called
70mm
Full-Field Sound. "With
this format we can move sounds
not only from front to back
in the theatre but from side
to side," Burtt said. "A
film like this is brought to
life with sound, which dramatically
enhances and brings a natural
dimension to the special effects."
Photographically
Slocombe approached Last
Crusade as a continuation
of the first two pictures. "The
three pictures have become one
picture. All three are anamorphic,
and all three have a lot of
showing in 70mm," said
the excellent cinematographer
who hasn't a light meter for
more than 15 years. "Julia,
The
Great Gatsby and the
Raiders
pictures were all shot
without a meter, not for a single
shot. I just got used to using
my eyes, instead of relying
on a box."
"From my
point of view, one of the intriguing
things about working on a picture
like this is that you have to
go along the same way the film
does, at breakneck pace. I would
guess that the average film
is told in something like 300
to 500 setups. But all three
Indiana Jones films have to
run at least 1500 setups, probably
close to 2000. It's an incredibly
expensive exercise, so there
are great pressures to keep
to the schedule, which is tight
to begin with. I rarely had
time to sit back and put finishing
touches to a scene. The point
is to tell the story as simple
as possibly. I can't remember
the number of times when I was
saying a few words to an electrician
about where I wanted a lamp,
or some detail I wanted to fix,
and I would hear Steven shout,
'Turnover!!'. So at that pint
I would know my time was up."
With the Young
Indy scene and the introduction
of Indy's father, the
Last Crusade dealt with
personal relationships more
than any of the previous films.
In this one Indiana Jones emerged
as a very interesting character
with a lot of potential. He's
not a hitman or a superhero
but he's a strange mixture of
academic and man of action.
The filmmakers opted to expand
on the character's potential
by including dialogue and discussion
surrounding Indy's past relationship
with his father. That had its
comedic moments but, on another
level, it was quite poignant
as well.
There was definitely
a change in the approach of
directing this film. Spielberg
took an increasing amount of
care and time on the dialogue
scenes. The fact that so much
time was given to character
development indicated definitely
maturity by the filmmakers.
"People are
going to get beyond narrow escapes
and the bullwhips. They're going
to get a full-blown sense of
the character. And if audiences
come away from Crusade
with a deeper understanding
of the character, then a new
facet of these films will have
been introduced and new points
will have been made," said
producer Robert Watts, a veteran
of all three. "The
Last Crusade was the
toughest Indiana Jones picture
to do because of its scope.
First of all, we had virtually
every form of transportation
people used during that period,
planes, trains, boats, cars,
horses, zeppelins, bicycles,
motorbikes with sidecars, everything
except skis. Also, we shot the
movie in Spain, London, Venice,
Jordan, Austria, Germany, Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah, California
and, finally, Texas. So it was
quite a world tour." And
continued his revision on the
trilogy, "We've traveled
all over the world with this
trilogy: four continents, nine
countries, and eight states.
But as Indy once said 'It's
not the years, it's the mileage'."
When asked about the future
of the franchise Watts said,
"In a sense, each of the
Indiana Jones movies has tied
itself up. Strictly speaking,
the movies have never been sequels
but rather individual stories
with a returning central character.
The third film won't end with
Indiana Jones settling down
in the suburbs with wife and
kids. You won't be left with
the impression that he's getting
out of the adventure business
forever."
Next:
Apotheosis
>>
|