The Late, Truly Great, Pete Kozachik
Cinematographer of The Nightmare Before Christmas
TRY NOT TO ANNOY THE KANGAROO
The Four Week Extension - The Spreadsheet
Hardware Per Stage – Skellington Productions Sept 29, 1992
Equipment/Gear Model/Specs Number of Units
1K Mole Tungsten Standard w/Stands 6
2K Mole Tungsten Standard w/Stands 6
1K Tungsten Junior w/Stands 6
1K Tungsten Baby 6
500W Tungsten Standard 6
200W Tungsten Standard 6
C-Stands Standard 20
C-Stands Shorties or Juniors 5
Sandbags Standard 25
Sandbags Minis 10 (If possible)
Flags Various Set
Meat Axe 1
Gels CTO, CTB Full, Half, Quarter, Eighth
Diffusion 216
Gaffers Tape 2” Ongoing
Gaffers Tape 1” Ongoing
Camera Tape 1” Ongoing
Mitchell Tripod Wooden 1
Geared Head What’s Available 1
Worrall Head Geared Good Luck 1
Mitchell GC or G7 Camera Ditto 1
Additional Notes: Set of Nikon Still Lenses Various Focal Lengths (See Pete Kozachik) 1 Set Per Stage. Can Mix and Match
Mitchell Magazines 400’ Two per camera
More Obscure Stuff Now Used as Paperweights Actually useless One paperweight per stage, PLEASE.
NOTE: This is a base comprehensive list, and a minimum. Some of the stages will require frame grabbers and Mo-Con rigs which will have to be purchased or built, respectively. Mole-Richardson should be contacted for a local vendor to buy the lights and grip in bulk. JCX can source the production supplies. Now, regarding the camera gear . . . Good Luck.
XO,
Phil
As previously stated, to the point of putting you off reading the rest of this book, Phil Lofaro had the ability to do anything and everything in production, but per his note, I discovered something that frustrated even him.
Camera gear for a stop-motion feature.
Neither of us had any experience with anything even remotely similar to what Skellington needed to shoot TNBC. Phil suggested I start with the company’s DP, Pete Kozachik.
I met with Pete, the off-the-charts brilliant Director of Photography of the movie, to discuss camera gear. The meeting ended with the awarding of an honorary degree in Theoretical Physics from M.I.T. and an enormous migraine, both mine. The following is my takeaway, other than the A minus I received in Differential Equations.
1. Mitchell GC or G7 cameras, the hardware of choice, were manufactured and used extensively . . . during World War II. Footage shot by one documentarian filming another documentarian generally shows a Mitchell GC or G7 camera in the hands of someone heading into the teeth of a battle armed only with a Mitchell GC or G7 camera. When I asked Pete how so many of the cameras survived such fierce firefights, he looked at me nonplussed and replied, “Not sure those statistics are available.”
2. The cameras can be sourced through various local newspapers, trade publications, and industry magazines, none of which Skellington Productions currently had. Pete did have a copy of American Cinematographer with a picture of DeMille on the cover on the set of ‘Birth of a Nation,’ which he allowed me to look at, but not touch. He suggested a phone call or two to some company called Harrods or Harrows. I did after getting my diploma. They specialized in tractors and cotton gins.
3. Stop motion is the sole reason for using Nikon still camera lenses, said Pete, when I asked why we would not use standing cinema lenses. Provided I could convince the Knights Templar to give up their stash of Mitchell G model cameras, they would all have to be retrofitted with a lens mount that accepted Nikon still camera lenses. When queried about the need and expense for such an operation, Pete addressed me as Grasshopper and made me promise never to ask him that question again, in public or private.
4. I asked Pete if I might be able to find the accessories such as the tripod and magazines, where I had located one of the G model cameras. He happily replied, “Probably not.”
5. The person who would retrofit the Mitchell G model cameras lived in his ex-wife’s basement apartment in the Tenderloin. He would disappear for long periods of time and couldn’t be counted on to deliver anything when he said he would. He was stupidly expensive and smelled like hydraulic fluid. Other than that, dropping off and picking up the cameras would be a snap.
I walked out of Pete’s office, which also happened to be mine, and contemplated calling Harrods or Harrows back and asking if they had a Cotton Gin G7 that might have at one time been owned by someone named Mitchell. If so, I’d buy it and consider my job finished.
Goading Phil up onto the roof of the studio also seemed like a better option than what I currently had going on. And then the lightbulb flashed over my head.
Charlie Pickell.
TOMORROW: CHARLIE PICKELL, THE FIXER
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