A track shot begins with 35 minutes of frantic activity where the
director describes the shot, and the crew hurriedly unloads the contents of one
or more of the many trucks that fill the immediate neighborhood. The tinker-toy
aluminum spans begin to grow (here down the driveway, underneath the port
cochere, toward the garage) until the entire span of the shot is in view from
the correct angles. Shown here only in part, the flat aluminum spans are kept
flat through the use of sandbags and blocks in areas of lower elevation (in the
far rear of this shot, see the number 32 jersey). When complete, four very
strong guys lift the motorized Panavision® camera platform onto the track
and all is ready for "action".
Then, more quickly than it went up, the whole construction disappears
back into the trucks the instant the Director declares the shot a
"print". No remnant of all that construction remains except for the
celluloid work product and photographs like this one.
Last updated: 4-25-97