"The central core concept is that the musical numbers take place in different theatrical environments," Eisenhauer explained. "There is a contrast between the real-time scenes and the 'fantasy' musical numbers. All of the lighting in the film was achieved in a wonderful collaboration with the Cinematographer, Dion Beebe. In addition to lighting the musical numbers Jules and I collaborated with Beebe on many of the transitions between reality and fantasy."
Eisenhauer and Fisher used 20 VL2000 Spot luminaires and 12 VL2000 Wash luminaires, supplied by Toronto-based William F. White International, a member of the Vari-Lite dealer network. The company also provided all of the lighting and grip equipment, as well as two VL- trained technicians, Doug Hook and David Nicholson. The equipment was controlled through a Vari-Lite Virtuoso DX console, operated by programmer Matt Hudson from VLPS New York. "We had 32 Series 2000 luminaires on the project for about 14 weeks with outstanding success," said Terry Lord of William F. White. "The two lighting designers on the project are very discerning, so the lights got a true test in their functionality, reliability and durability."
A challenge for the lighting designers was to use modern lighting, while preserving the period theatrical environment of the late 1920s and early 30s. They accomplished this with the VL2000 spot luminaire, which provides the benefits of today's automated lighting products and is also bright enough to replicate the look of followspot, which would have been used during the earlier era.
The lights were used an average of 12 hours per day for the entire filming period. Many times, the designers would have to faithfully recreate the lighting for a different camera angle, a different day or for a scene shot out of sequence, so it was critical that the lighting was exactly the same from take to take. By storing each take in a separate show file on the Virtuoso DX, they were able to create a numbering system and log what they had shot previously, thus ensuring repeatability for the various scenes.
"The cinematographer was amazed at what the system of lights could provide at a moment's notice," Eisenhauer said. "Things that normally would have taken hours and hours to set up and focus manually for a single take, we could do in a matter of minutes."
'Chicago,' starring Rene Zellweger, Richard Gere and Catherine Zeta-Jones is scheduled for release around Christmas 2002.
(Lee Baldock)
