17-03-17【ARRI编年史 Historical Chronicle】血洒110街 Across 110th Street

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ARRI编年史

《血洒110街》

2017年ARRI成立100周年之际，我们每周会推出一期ARRI编年史，带您见证ARRI陪伴影视工业逐步发展的每个重要时刻。

本期为您带来的是1972年电影《血洒110街》的幕后故事。

在筹备这部以棱角分明的哈林区为故事背景的“黑人剥削电影”时，导演巴里•西尔斯（Barry Shears）早已认定只有在真实的场景拍摄才能把帮派争斗和血腥的街头暴力主题原汁原味地真实展现出来。来自好莱坞的同仁提醒他，纽约是最不适合拍电影的城市，因为员工薪资水平高，还要面对堪称噩梦的拍摄许可审批过程。而哈林区是纽约市最糟糕的区域，那个时期哈林区是全美最无法无天的贫民区。

西尔斯没有被这番劝告吓到，他找来一位实景拍摄的顶级专家福德•萨伊德（Fouad Sa’id）担任联合制片人。萨伊德出道之时在NBC的先锋剧集《我是间谍》剧组做摄影师，这部剧集混合棚内拍摄与来自全球的实景拍摄素材，开创了美国电视行业的先河。他们的成功缘于放弃了当时普遍使用但笨重的Mitchell摄影机，以轻便的ARRIFLEX 35IIC摄影机取而代之。

使用ARRIFLEX 35BL拍摄一个快节奏的动作场景。

在主要镜头的摄影期间，萨伊德得知备受关注的第一款量产版型号的ARRIFLEX 35BL摄影机刚刚送到纽约。在多年的《我是间谍》拍摄中萨伊德与ARRIFLEX结下了不解之缘，他说服当时的ARRI美国分公司副总裁沃尔克•巴纳曼（Volker Bahnemann），先把35BL交给《血洒110街》试用一周。

这台摄影机一来到哈林街头就革新了他们的拍摄模式，35BL是一台自带隔音罩的机器，在它的后端有两个同心的胶片仓，肩上平衡非常完美。“它是最好的摄影机，”ASC摄影师杰克•普力斯利（Jack Priestley）当时这样断言：“它像教堂里的老鼠一样无声无息，灵活性绝佳，特别是它的重量只有33磅。如果没有它，有大量镜头我真不知道该怎么办，尤其是经常要遇到的那些小房间场景。你可以用它上肩、跟拍、俯拍、蹲低机位、搁大腿上拍，随便你。我认为35BL极大地提升了整个电影行业的水准。”

摄影指导杰克•普力斯利在纽约的一处屋顶。

一周的试用证明35BL的不可或缺，于是萨伊德再次与ARRI商量，继续保留35BL用于最后四周的拍摄。当时的掌镜摄影师索尔•内格林（Sol Negrin）后来成为了备受尊敬的摄影师与ASC成员，他对35BL的评价是这样的：“在条件有限的空间里拍摄需要同期声的重要场景时，我们需要保持灵活与安静，不可能派上大型的摄影机，这时我们会用35BL。在‘小意大利’的建筑屋顶我们也用35BL，那里的房屋都没有电梯。ARRIFLEX 35BL非常安静，让我们可以在小场景中同步录音，以往那些桥段的对白都需要后期配音，但35BL免除了这些麻烦事。”

福德•萨伊德对实景拍摄把控的丰富经验与ARRIFLEX突破性的技术相得益彰，西尔斯实现了他写实化还原故事背景的梦想。这部电影有一惊人之处：95%的剧情都是在哈林区总共60个不同的室内与室外场景拍摄的。

下期预告：

《从海底出击》（1981）幕后故事

往期回顾：

斯坦利•库布里克

20世纪60年代

战后黄金时期

第二次世界大战时期

ARRI Historical Chronicle

Across 110th Street (1972) 

2017, ARRI is celebrating the 100th anniversary. Each week, we continuously post ARRI's historical chronicle to bring you closer to ARRI and its developents during the past century. 

This week, we'd like to tell you the making-of Across 110th Street (1972).

When planning this gritty Harlem-based ‘blaxploitation’ movie, director Barry Shears was adamant that only by filming in real locations could he bring a suitably raw and genuine feel to its themes of gang warfare and bloody street violence. Hollywood colleagues warned him that New York was the worst city in which to film, due to labor costs and permit nightmares, and Harlem the worst part of New York, due to its status at that time as the most lawless ghetto in the US. 

Undeterred, Shears took on Fouad Sa’id, an unrivalled expert in location shooting, as a co-producer. Sa’id had cut his teeth as a cameraman on the pioneering NBC TV series, I Spy, which broke new ground for American television by mixing studio work with location footage shot all over the world; a feat made possible by abandoning the ubiquitous but unwieldy Mitchell cameras of the day in favor of the lightweight ARRIFLEX 35IIC. 

A fast action sequence is filmed with an ARRIFLEX 35BL. 

Sa’id found out during principal photography that the first production model of the much anticipated ARRIFLEX 35BL had just arrived in New York. Having established a long and successful relationship with ARRIFLEX over the I Spy years, Sa’id persuaded Volker Bahnemann, at that time Vice President of the ARRI division in America, to let his Across 110th Street crew be the first to try out the 35BL, for a week. 

The camera immediately revolutionized what they were able to achieve on the streets of Harlem. It was self-blimped and featured a dual-compartment coaxial magazine positioned at its rear for perfectly shoulder-balanced handheld shooting. “It’s a real winner”, affirmed cinematographer Jack Priestley, ASC, at the time. “It’s as quiet as a church mouse and has great exibility, especially as it weighs only 33 lbs. I don’t know what I would have done in a lot of spots without it, especially in those small rooms where we often had to shoot. You put it on your shoulder and walk around, bend down, sit down, hold it in your lap – everything. I think it’s going to help the film industry tremendously.” 

DoP Jack Priestly on the rooftops of New York. 

One week with the 35BL proved it to be such a valuable tool that Sa’id negotiated keeping the camera for the last four weeks of filming. Camera operator Sol Negrin, later to become a highly respected cinematographer and ASC member, reported of the 35BL: “It was used in major sound sequences shot in confined quarters where it was impossible to use a large camera, but where we needed portability and quietness. We also used it on the rooftops of buildings in Little Italy – buildings that had no elevators. The low noise level of the ARRIFLEX 35BL permits shooting sound sequences in confined quarters, thus eliminating the post-dubbing of dialogue that is usually necessary under such conditions.” 

A combination of Fouad Sa’id’s radical location skills and ARRIFLEX’s ground- breaking technology allowed Shears’ dream of a realistic backdrop for his story to be accomplished. A staggering 95% of the movie was shot at a total of 60 different interior and exterior locations in Harlem. 

Coming Next:

Das Boot (1981) making-of story

Previous Stories:

The 1970s

The Golden Age

World War II