DR: Each one of the guys had their own tribute to their own classic film. For instance the scene with the dry lake bed and Kirk being chased by the biplane, was a tribute to North by North West, the Hitchcock film. We wanted to do it one step better. Now we have the technology that was not available to them at that time. The rotunda scene with Jason was a cross between Midnight Express and Brazil. In Midnight Express everyone is walking in a circle and the guy walks in the opposite direction which is a tribute to that as well as the uniformity of Brazil. James did a sequence from Bullet, the Steve McQueen film. Finally, the scene with Lars jumping out of the building was a tribute to the Die Hard movies.

FFX: What were some of the challenges shooting on top of the butte?

DR: The hardest thing about shooting on the butte was getting the equipment up there and making sure that all the necessary equipment was with us. On a regular set, if something was left behind it would be easily accessible, but on the butte we would have to take a helicopter down. We used three helicopters and spent the morning shuttling equipment, dollys, generators, steady cam etc., to the top of the butte. We were up there the whole day from sunrise to sunset.

FFX: What were some of your concerns when you were shooting the chase scene with the biplane?

DR: As opposed to doing a lot of blue screen work, we tried to shoot it as ‘real’ as we possibly could. Kirk was worn out by the end of the day, being chased by the biplane. He must have ran fifty miles by the time we were finish with him. He was up and down the dry lake bed all day long.
Mounts were placed on the plane, the biplane and the helicopter. We also had the westcam (a gyro mounted stabilized camera) on the helicopter, which was above the plane chasing Kirk.

FFX: How were you able to achieve the close up, unbalanced look of Jason in the rotunda?

DR: The body mount camera is a vest he is actually wearing with a pair of rods that pushes the camera away from him. Jason actually became the camera operator because it was physically mounted to his body. We wanted it to have that crazy manic feel to it. We had approximately fifty extras, just enough people to fill the stair case. In post we built the rest of the people around them.

FFX: How did you have the cameras set up with Lars running through the building?

DR: Well we had two cameras that were running high speed as well as the steady cam. There were three cameras inside the building and we ran anywhere between 7-8 cameras outside the building using helicopters, cranes, mounts and all the toys!

FFX: Working as the director of photography with Wayne, what (in your opinion) makes him such a great director?

DR: It’s always a challenge to work with Wayne because you’re always trying to do more than you should be doing. You are dictated by the time and the budget, but you always seem to pull it off because he always has that driving force. I adore working with Wayne, he pushes you and always has great ideas. The final product always turns out to be absolutely brilliant.

FFX: Is there anything unusual that happened during the shoot?

DR: Each one of the scenes is unique in it’s own way. The scene on the butte was actually shot on a sacred American Indian holiday. We had to get permission from the Indian council in order to shoot. We had to go through a whole ceremony. Everybody and all the equipment had to be blessed.

Asylum visual effects artist Nathan McGuiness

FFX: How did you create the storm chasing the Camero?

NM: The car scene was basically created by two of our visual effects artists. They actually busted out the idea of the whole building ripple effect and the storm coming towards the camera. Basically they worked on that using their Maya work stations. The scenes were completed within a couple of weeks which was pretty fast for what they accomplished.

FFX: What is it about the ‘I Disappear’ video as far as the visual effects are concerned that you think really make the video stand out?

NM: Its an effects joy ride! It’s just the intensity of it all and the shear number of effects rolled into one.