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Rainbow (1996 film)
Encyclopedia
Rainbow is a 1996
family adventure film directed by Bob Hoskins
, written by Ashley Sidaway and Robert Sidaway and starring Bob Hoskins
, Terry Finn
, Jacob Tierney
, Saul Rubinek
and Dan Aykroyd
. The story concerns four children and a dog whose journey in a magical rainbow results in an adventure that finds them on a race against time to save the world.
From a technical standpoint, it was also the world's first film to be shot in high-definition video
. Shot entirely with Sony's first Solid State Electronic Cinematography cameras and featuring over 35 minutes of digital image processing and visual effects, all post production, sound effects, editing and scoring were completed digitally. The Digital High Definition image was transferred to 35mm negative for theatrical release.
. His notable family members include his grandfather Frank, a magician; mother Jackie; and older brother Steve who is a loner and wishes to join a local street gang. Mike encounters a stray dog who he names Mutt, who leads him to a spot where he seemingly witnesses a rainbow
actually land. He attempts to inform his friends Pete and Tessy of his encounter and takes them to the landing site, but they do not believe his claims. At the site they find a thirty-metre wide triangular crater, Tessy taking a soil sample and testing it, the soil illuminating in colour and vanishing in her hand. Mike, Pete and Tessy prepare a scientific project to track down the next rainbow and properly examine it.
Eventually, on a rainy day, a rainbow appears and the three, along with Steve and Mutt, race across the town on their bicycles to get to the rainbow before it vanishes. Upon arrival, they witness the rainbow land and are sucked into a colourful pathway, taking photographs as they go. They then enter a dark area of the rainbow filled with gold
, Steve taking three pieces which causes the rainbow to vanish and drop the group in a cornfield. They are revealed to be in Kansas
, and are taken to the local sheriff
's office at an airport. Sheriff Wyatt Hampton contacts Jackie to pick them up, but the group flee into the airport to print their photos of the rainbow's interior. Jackie and Frank come to the children's aid when they arrive back in Hudson Harbour, but no one believes their story except Frank. Steve sells one of the pieces of gold to a pawnbroker's, and another to the street gang, and attempts to join, only to be humiliated and rejected. The children's school science teacher, Sam Cohen, obtains the photos and discovers the children's project.
Eventually, colour begins to drain from the world and people either act aggressively towards each other or fall unconscious. The children, Frank, Jackie and Sam all deduce that due to Steve's removal of the gold pieces, the rainbow has been damaged and caused colour, oxygen
and photosynthesis
to be drained, and all life could be threatened. The group split up to retrieve the gold pieces. Mike and Frank break into the pawnbroker's and retrieve a piece of the gold, Tessy and Jackie gain results on where the next rainbow will appear, and Steve, Pete and Sam gain the other gold piece from the street gang. With time almost up, Mike, Steve and Mutt race out to the new rainbow's landing site. Mike and Mutt are absorbed by a faulty rainbow, but Mike tosses the gold pieces back into it, restoring the rainbow and the world to normality. Mike and Mutt then end up in a tropical rainforest
, as the film ends.
on September 21, 1994, the start of a nine week shoot that would take the cast and crew through to the end of November. This included two weeks of blue screen, or in this case green screen studio filming.
Clarenceville, a 30-minute drive from Montreal
, was the site of the important cornfield scenes (doubling for Kansas
), and the opening and closing of the film features aerial footage in New York
and Hawaii
. The remainder was shot in Montreal
.
Montreal
was chosen for the production site due its ideal mix of architecture and weather conditions which closely approximated those in the script. "When the script was originally written, the locale was set in Washington D.C." Visual Consultant, 2nd Unit Director and Executive Producer David L. Snyder stated. "When we arrived in Montreal
Bob and I made the decision to change the locale to New Jersey
and not move the production around, as we had found everything we needed in Quebec. A fictional city located in New Jersey
can be fairly nondescript and much less identifiable than Boston
, New York
, or Washington for that matter."
"Using composite photography, the view from New Jersey
looks like New York
. And Montreal
was perfect in every way for our purposes; the suburb Outremont, where the school scenes are filmed, is an older, residential area which had a choice of schools to shoot in. Montreal
also has both that traditional 1950's downtown look you find in so many American cities and hi-rise contemporary structures & municipal complexes"
"There's a schematic geography to all this," adds Snyder. "And we have all these different looks we've been able to achieve, plus the interior of a TV
broadcast studio (shot at the TVA building which houses working studios), commercial streets and the area where the diner and comic book store are. We wanted Jackie and her boys to reside in an urban environment at a specific economic level and we've been able to do that here."
Hoskins chose Snyder to establish the appropriate look after their experience working together on Super Mario Bros.
Pre-Production commenced at Ealing Studios
, London
prior to the move to Montreal
. The Ealing conferences dealt with script readings and visual concepts, including some preliminary filming of various 'practical' man-made rainbows.
Once in Canada
, Snyder then met with Production Designer Claude Pare and asked him to turn his concepts into reality, which included design ideas for the Hudson Harbor settings. A primary task involved taking a French-Canadian city and replacing all the French language signage with
English language graphics and signage.
For a film that’s featured set-piece is a ride through the Rainbow and whose story features the loss of color to the world, costume designer Janet Campbell's role was especially important. Said Campbell: "I'm trying to impart a timeless look to the characters, because the producers want the film to become a classic to be watched forever. So I've avoided that heavy grunge look so prevalent among kids today [1994]. Instead, I've given them a classic look."
Each character's look was also designed to reflect his or her individuality. "Steve is one good example," says Campbell. "He's older than the other kids and is a rebel, so the colors I've chosen for him are darker. But toward the end, when his true nature begins to shine through, the colors of his clothing become brighter."
"Another example are the uniforms of the Tigers, the gang that Steve wants to join. Although they're quite similar, each one sports something colorful that shows that member's individuality, like a patch, a vest, a shirt or whatever. Yet, you can still identify them as the Tigers."
The best example of Campbell's attempts to showcase color came in the guise of Jack The Prophet, the character which warns about the impending advent of doomsday. "The Prophet is a street person, so we decided to have him attach the objects he finds on the street to his coat. His coat becomes a mass of bright ribbons, buttons and other objects and when the color begins to fade from the world you'll notice that his coat will become desaturated with color."
"Those small objects are proof that a designer's job is as much about good shopping as good designing. You'll notice in the film that the photoshop attendant in the Kansas airport scenes is wearing a camera shaped bolo-tie. I wanted to give the character a fast-food sort of look and while lying in bed one night, I thought of that bolo as a way of accomplishing it. It's a little thing but it imparts an overall look to the character."
In early October, in the area of Montreal
known as the Plateau Mont Royal, the cast and crew spent several days filming both the inside and outside of an authentic American diner. The Galaxie Diner, transformed for the film into Ynez and Charlie's Galaxie Diner, serving Spanish-Chinese food, plays an important part of the film. It's the site where the kids first see the colors in the Rainbow's soil.
On day thirteen of filming, October 9, the cast and crew moved to the center of downtown Montreal
and Square Dorchester (which features imposing statues of two early Canadian Prime Ministers). The warm sunny conditions were perfect for shooting the film’s pivotal riot sequence.
About seventy-five extras were needed to portray a mob brandishing baseball bats, overturning cars and generally causing havoc as the world turns headlong into disaster. Opposing them are 15 members of Montreal's actual SWAT
team (many of them whom had prior experience working on films) and several mounted policemen.
The eight-strong stunt crew included veteran, five time world karate champion, Jean Frenette. He performed the motorcycle jump over a car and through the deadly ‘Wall of Fire’, with a pillion rider seated behind him. "It's very difficult because I've got another rider with me and I can't afford to slow down," Frenette admitted just prior to the stunt. "And I don't have a crash helmet. When the character sees the world coming to an end around him, he can't worry about the helmet."
To achieve the floating quality for the interior of the Rainbow, originally the traditional special effects concept of harnesses and wire rigs hanging the actors from the rafters was suggested. However, the film's Visual Effects Supervisor, Steven Robiner
, brought in from Sony Pictures in Los Angeles, had a different idea. Robiner said "Aesthetics was my main concern; we wanted to show the kids really floating through the rainbow, and none of these actors were gymnasts so I felt strongly that it would be much easier for them to express this feeling of floating and weightlessness being underwater. It was also going to be much easier in the post production process to composite the children within the rainbow, and not have to worry about hand-painted wire-removal" Robiner's plan was to submerge a green screen inside a diving training pool that had an instructors window, under the water, at the side. Fortunately, a nearby Montreal university, located in Montreal
's east end, had exactly the type of pool he was looking for. At first this underwater concept was questioned as being too radically different and untried, however after Robiner pointed out that this would also save the production about 3 days of shooting because more than 70% of the rainbow interior scenes could be all shot at this one single pool location with a locked off camera and lights, the producers agreed and the underwater shoot was accepted. Robiner said, "The underwater shots were particularly exciting. It was important because we had to accomplish that weightless look perfectly for the shots inside the rainbow. You can't do that by using a rigid harness. Just ask Bob, who was well aware of that, having spent two weeks wearing such rigs in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. It was very uncomfortable for him."
To help the children adjust to this potentially hostile environment, the producers engaged the services of aquatic consultant Daniel Berthiaume. "I had to go underwater and push or pull them to keep under at first," says Berthiaume. "Later, we used weight belts, but it wasn't easy at first."
"So to help them gain confidence, I asked them to do things naturally, the way they wanted to. After a while, they were more confident." Floating, she says, was the most difficult thing for the kids to master and they had to be at the right level for the camera. So in tandem with a scuba diving team who could help them take off their mouthpieces at the bottom of the pool and then float upwards for the camera, Berthiaume succeeded in helping the crew get the necessary shots. Members of the local swimming team were also used as doubles.
Shooting under water lasted for two full days and Berthiaume was in the water for periods of three to five hours at a time.
The last portion of the shoot continued on a large sound stage in Montreal, where the Visual Effects segments involving the kids traveling through the rainbow was to be filmed. The stage's 3-story high walls and floor were all painted with the special green colored paint necessary for the compositing process. Special mechanical seats, platforms and camera rigs concept designs were made by Steven Robiner and John Galt and then engineered and built by Special Effects Supervisor Antonio Vidosa and his crew. Robiner said "Artistically and technically, Antonio is like a DaVinci, he's incredible -- working with him was a fantastic experience." For a shot in which the four kids are to float, spinning in the form a circle with each child holding the hand of the kid on each side of them, with their heads together and feet at the outer edge, then they let go their hands and each spin off and away from the others. Originally it was suggested to do this with the four actors hanging on wires, but Robiner rejected that idea because "hanging four kids on wires just seemed to be a dangerous and time-consuming idea, on top of being difficult for them to perform in..." Robiner continued, "...so, I sketched my conceptual design for how to handle this critically important shot using a custom-made large, radial, four-armed spinning platform where each arm would also have an elbow and another arm which in turn held each of the four kids lying on their chests and hips. I showed it to Antoni, and he got it right away, no further explanation needed... then three weeks later the entire rig was engineered and completed."
In order to produce a shot in which the kids are supposed to be spinning head over heals while floating in the rainbow, another rig was used that let the actor remain motionless while the camera rotated 720 degrees over his head, behind his back, and then under his feet and up again. The old style HD cameras had umbilical cables for power and signal transmission which needed to be carefully wound around a large spool as the camera rotated.
by marriage, has a small part as one of the Tigerette gang.
1996 in film
Major releases this year included Scream, Independence Day, Fargo, Trainspotting, The English Patient, Twister, Mars Attacks!, Jerry Maguire and a version of Evita starring Madonna.-Events:...
family adventure film directed by Bob Hoskins
Bob Hoskins
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...
, written by Ashley Sidaway and Robert Sidaway and starring Bob Hoskins
Bob Hoskins
Robert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...
, Terry Finn
Terry Finn
Teresa Jo Ann Bernadette 'Terry' Finn is an American actress best known for creating the role of Gussie Carnegie in the original Broadway cast of the Stephen Sondheim/Hal Prince/George Furth musical comedy Merrily We Roll Along and its Original Cast Album.-Early life:Terry Finn was born on August...
, Jacob Tierney
Jacob Tierney
Jacob Daniel Tierney is a Canadian actor, film director and screenwriter.Tierney was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of veteran producer Kevin Tierney...
, Saul Rubinek
Saul Rubinek
Saul Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film and the stage.-Early life:...
and Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
. The story concerns four children and a dog whose journey in a magical rainbow results in an adventure that finds them on a race against time to save the world.
From a technical standpoint, it was also the world's first film to be shot in high-definition video
High-definition video
High-definition video or HD video refers to any video system of higher resolution than standard-definition video, and most commonly involves display resolutions of 1,280×720 pixels or 1,920×1,080 pixels...
. Shot entirely with Sony's first Solid State Electronic Cinematography cameras and featuring over 35 minutes of digital image processing and visual effects, all post production, sound effects, editing and scoring were completed digitally. The Digital High Definition image was transferred to 35mm negative for theatrical release.
Synopsis
Mike "Mikey" Bailey is a rambunctious 10-year old living in Hudson Harbour, New JerseyNew Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
. His notable family members include his grandfather Frank, a magician; mother Jackie; and older brother Steve who is a loner and wishes to join a local street gang. Mike encounters a stray dog who he names Mutt, who leads him to a spot where he seemingly witnesses a rainbow
Rainbow
A rainbow is an optical and meteorological phenomenon that causes a spectrum of light to appear in the sky when the Sun shines on to droplets of moisture in the Earth's atmosphere. It takes the form of a multicoloured arc...
actually land. He attempts to inform his friends Pete and Tessy of his encounter and takes them to the landing site, but they do not believe his claims. At the site they find a thirty-metre wide triangular crater, Tessy taking a soil sample and testing it, the soil illuminating in colour and vanishing in her hand. Mike, Pete and Tessy prepare a scientific project to track down the next rainbow and properly examine it.
Eventually, on a rainy day, a rainbow appears and the three, along with Steve and Mutt, race across the town on their bicycles to get to the rainbow before it vanishes. Upon arrival, they witness the rainbow land and are sucked into a colourful pathway, taking photographs as they go. They then enter a dark area of the rainbow filled with gold
Gold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
, Steve taking three pieces which causes the rainbow to vanish and drop the group in a cornfield. They are revealed to be in Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
, and are taken to the local sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
's office at an airport. Sheriff Wyatt Hampton contacts Jackie to pick them up, but the group flee into the airport to print their photos of the rainbow's interior. Jackie and Frank come to the children's aid when they arrive back in Hudson Harbour, but no one believes their story except Frank. Steve sells one of the pieces of gold to a pawnbroker's, and another to the street gang, and attempts to join, only to be humiliated and rejected. The children's school science teacher, Sam Cohen, obtains the photos and discovers the children's project.
Eventually, colour begins to drain from the world and people either act aggressively towards each other or fall unconscious. The children, Frank, Jackie and Sam all deduce that due to Steve's removal of the gold pieces, the rainbow has been damaged and caused colour, oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
and photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
to be drained, and all life could be threatened. The group split up to retrieve the gold pieces. Mike and Frank break into the pawnbroker's and retrieve a piece of the gold, Tessy and Jackie gain results on where the next rainbow will appear, and Steve, Pete and Sam gain the other gold piece from the street gang. With time almost up, Mike, Steve and Mutt race out to the new rainbow's landing site. Mike and Mutt are absorbed by a faulty rainbow, but Mike tosses the gold pieces back into it, restoring the rainbow and the world to normality. Mike and Mutt then end up in a tropical rainforest
Rainforest
Rainforests are forests characterized by high rainfall, with definitions based on a minimum normal annual rainfall of 1750-2000 mm...
, as the film ends.
Cast
- Willy Lavendel as Mike Bailey, the main character who seeks to chase the rainbow.
- Jacob TierneyJacob TierneyJacob Daniel Tierney is a Canadian actor, film director and screenwriter.Tierney was born in Montreal, Quebec, the son of veteran producer Kevin Tierney...
as Steve Bailey, Mike's older brother who wants to join a local street gang. - Jonathan Schuman as Pete, one of Mike's friends.
- Eleanor Misrahi as Tissy, Mike's other friend who shows great intelligence.
- Bob HoskinsBob HoskinsRobert William "Bob" Hoskins, Jr. is an English actor known for playing Cockney rough diamonds, psychopaths and gangsters, in films such as The Long Good Friday , and Mona Lisa , and lighter roles in family films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit and Hook .- Early life :Hoskins was born in Bury St...
as Frank Bailey, Mike's grandfather who is a skilled magician. - Terry FinnTerry FinnTeresa Jo Ann Bernadette 'Terry' Finn is an American actress best known for creating the role of Gussie Carnegie in the original Broadway cast of the Stephen Sondheim/Hal Prince/George Furth musical comedy Merrily We Roll Along and its Original Cast Album.-Early life:Terry Finn was born on August...
as Jackie Bailey, Mike and Steve's mother. - Saul RubinekSaul RubinekSaul Rubinek is a Canadian actor, director, producer and playwright, known for his work in TV, film and the stage.-Early life:...
as Sam Cohen, a school science teacher. - Dan AykroydDan AykroydDaniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...
as Sheriff Wyatt Hampton, the sheriff of an airport in KansasKansasKansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
. - Richard Jutras as Deputy Head, Hampton's silent deputy who spitwads as a running gag.
Production
Principal photography began in MontrealMontreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
on September 21, 1994, the start of a nine week shoot that would take the cast and crew through to the end of November. This included two weeks of blue screen, or in this case green screen studio filming.
Clarenceville, a 30-minute drive from Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
, was the site of the important cornfield scenes (doubling for Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...
), and the opening and closing of the film features aerial footage in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and Hawaii
Hawaii
Hawaii is the newest of the 50 U.S. states , and is the only U.S. state made up entirely of islands. It is the northernmost island group in Polynesia, occupying most of an archipelago in the central Pacific Ocean, southwest of the continental United States, southeast of Japan, and northeast of...
. The remainder was shot in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
.
Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
was chosen for the production site due its ideal mix of architecture and weather conditions which closely approximated those in the script. "When the script was originally written, the locale was set in Washington D.C." Visual Consultant, 2nd Unit Director and Executive Producer David L. Snyder stated. "When we arrived in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
Bob and I made the decision to change the locale to New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
and not move the production around, as we had found everything we needed in Quebec. A fictional city located in New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
can be fairly nondescript and much less identifiable than Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, or Washington for that matter."
"Using composite photography, the view from New Jersey
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...
looks like New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
. And Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
was perfect in every way for our purposes; the suburb Outremont, where the school scenes are filmed, is an older, residential area which had a choice of schools to shoot in. Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
also has both that traditional 1950's downtown look you find in so many American cities and hi-rise contemporary structures & municipal complexes"
"There's a schematic geography to all this," adds Snyder. "And we have all these different looks we've been able to achieve, plus the interior of a TV
broadcast studio (shot at the TVA building which houses working studios), commercial streets and the area where the diner and comic book store are. We wanted Jackie and her boys to reside in an urban environment at a specific economic level and we've been able to do that here."
Hoskins chose Snyder to establish the appropriate look after their experience working together on Super Mario Bros.
Pre-Production commenced at Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios
Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
prior to the move to Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
. The Ealing conferences dealt with script readings and visual concepts, including some preliminary filming of various 'practical' man-made rainbows.
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, Snyder then met with Production Designer Claude Pare and asked him to turn his concepts into reality, which included design ideas for the Hudson Harbor settings. A primary task involved taking a French-Canadian city and replacing all the French language signage with
English language graphics and signage.
For a film that’s featured set-piece is a ride through the Rainbow and whose story features the loss of color to the world, costume designer Janet Campbell's role was especially important. Said Campbell: "I'm trying to impart a timeless look to the characters, because the producers want the film to become a classic to be watched forever. So I've avoided that heavy grunge look so prevalent among kids today [1994]. Instead, I've given them a classic look."
Each character's look was also designed to reflect his or her individuality. "Steve is one good example," says Campbell. "He's older than the other kids and is a rebel, so the colors I've chosen for him are darker. But toward the end, when his true nature begins to shine through, the colors of his clothing become brighter."
"Another example are the uniforms of the Tigers, the gang that Steve wants to join. Although they're quite similar, each one sports something colorful that shows that member's individuality, like a patch, a vest, a shirt or whatever. Yet, you can still identify them as the Tigers."
The best example of Campbell's attempts to showcase color came in the guise of Jack The Prophet, the character which warns about the impending advent of doomsday. "The Prophet is a street person, so we decided to have him attach the objects he finds on the street to his coat. His coat becomes a mass of bright ribbons, buttons and other objects and when the color begins to fade from the world you'll notice that his coat will become desaturated with color."
"Those small objects are proof that a designer's job is as much about good shopping as good designing. You'll notice in the film that the photoshop attendant in the Kansas airport scenes is wearing a camera shaped bolo-tie. I wanted to give the character a fast-food sort of look and while lying in bed one night, I thought of that bolo as a way of accomplishing it. It's a little thing but it imparts an overall look to the character."
In early October, in the area of Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
known as the Plateau Mont Royal, the cast and crew spent several days filming both the inside and outside of an authentic American diner. The Galaxie Diner, transformed for the film into Ynez and Charlie's Galaxie Diner, serving Spanish-Chinese food, plays an important part of the film. It's the site where the kids first see the colors in the Rainbow's soil.
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
and Square Dorchester (which features imposing statues of two early Canadian Prime Ministers). The warm sunny conditions were perfect for shooting the film’s pivotal riot sequence.
About seventy-five extras were needed to portray a mob brandishing baseball bats, overturning cars and generally causing havoc as the world turns headlong into disaster. Opposing them are 15 members of Montreal's actual SWAT
SWAT
A SWAT team is an elite tactical unit in various national law enforcement departments. They are trained to perform high-risk operations that fall outside of the abilities of regular officers...
team (many of them whom had prior experience working on films) and several mounted policemen.
The eight-strong stunt crew included veteran, five time world karate champion, Jean Frenette. He performed the motorcycle jump over a car and through the deadly ‘Wall of Fire’, with a pillion rider seated behind him. "It's very difficult because I've got another rider with me and I can't afford to slow down," Frenette admitted just prior to the stunt. "And I don't have a crash helmet. When the character sees the world coming to an end around him, he can't worry about the helmet."
To achieve the floating quality for the interior of the Rainbow, originally the traditional special effects concept of harnesses and wire rigs hanging the actors from the rafters was suggested. However, the film's Visual Effects Supervisor, Steven Robiner
Steven Robiner
Steven Robiner earned an MFA from the University of Southern California, then supervised and co-produced the first ever digital visual effects motion picture created featuring the Marvel comic book super-hero Silver Surfer during his post graduate tenure at USC...
, brought in from Sony Pictures in Los Angeles, had a different idea. Robiner said "Aesthetics was my main concern; we wanted to show the kids really floating through the rainbow, and none of these actors were gymnasts so I felt strongly that it would be much easier for them to express this feeling of floating and weightlessness being underwater. It was also going to be much easier in the post production process to composite the children within the rainbow, and not have to worry about hand-painted wire-removal" Robiner's plan was to submerge a green screen inside a diving training pool that had an instructors window, under the water, at the side. Fortunately, a nearby Montreal university, located in Montreal
Montreal
Montreal is a city in Canada. It is the largest city in the province of Quebec, the second-largest city in Canada and the seventh largest in North America...
's east end, had exactly the type of pool he was looking for. At first this underwater concept was questioned as being too radically different and untried, however after Robiner pointed out that this would also save the production about 3 days of shooting because more than 70% of the rainbow interior scenes could be all shot at this one single pool location with a locked off camera and lights, the producers agreed and the underwater shoot was accepted. Robiner said, "The underwater shots were particularly exciting. It was important because we had to accomplish that weightless look perfectly for the shots inside the rainbow. You can't do that by using a rigid harness. Just ask Bob, who was well aware of that, having spent two weeks wearing such rigs in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?. It was very uncomfortable for him."
To help the children adjust to this potentially hostile environment, the producers engaged the services of aquatic consultant Daniel Berthiaume. "I had to go underwater and push or pull them to keep under at first," says Berthiaume. "Later, we used weight belts, but it wasn't easy at first."
"So to help them gain confidence, I asked them to do things naturally, the way they wanted to. After a while, they were more confident." Floating, she says, was the most difficult thing for the kids to master and they had to be at the right level for the camera. So in tandem with a scuba diving team who could help them take off their mouthpieces at the bottom of the pool and then float upwards for the camera, Berthiaume succeeded in helping the crew get the necessary shots. Members of the local swimming team were also used as doubles.
Shooting under water lasted for two full days and Berthiaume was in the water for periods of three to five hours at a time.
The last portion of the shoot continued on a large sound stage in Montreal, where the Visual Effects segments involving the kids traveling through the rainbow was to be filmed. The stage's 3-story high walls and floor were all painted with the special green colored paint necessary for the compositing process. Special mechanical seats, platforms and camera rigs concept designs were made by Steven Robiner and John Galt and then engineered and built by Special Effects Supervisor Antonio Vidosa and his crew. Robiner said "Artistically and technically, Antonio is like a DaVinci, he's incredible -- working with him was a fantastic experience." For a shot in which the four kids are to float, spinning in the form a circle with each child holding the hand of the kid on each side of them, with their heads together and feet at the outer edge, then they let go their hands and each spin off and away from the others. Originally it was suggested to do this with the four actors hanging on wires, but Robiner rejected that idea because "hanging four kids on wires just seemed to be a dangerous and time-consuming idea, on top of being difficult for them to perform in..." Robiner continued, "...so, I sketched my conceptual design for how to handle this critically important shot using a custom-made large, radial, four-armed spinning platform where each arm would also have an elbow and another arm which in turn held each of the four kids lying on their chests and hips. I showed it to Antoni, and he got it right away, no further explanation needed... then three weeks later the entire rig was engineered and completed."
In order to produce a shot in which the kids are supposed to be spinning head over heals while floating in the rainbow, another rig was used that let the actor remain motionless while the camera rotated 720 degrees over his head, behind his back, and then under his feet and up again. The old style HD cameras had umbilical cables for power and signal transmission which needed to be carefully wound around a large spool as the camera rotated.
Royal connection
Autumn Kelly (age 17), later a member of the British royal familyBritish Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
by marriage, has a small part as one of the Tigerette gang.