The "Pit of Despair"

In addition to the Badlands shoot, portions of the asteroid surface sequences were done with miniatures, while the remainder, primarily the astro-drillers' attempts to bore into the rocky core, were staged over the course of about seven weeks on Stage 2 at Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, California. It was here that AC's editors visited the Armageddon crew in mid-January of this year. Construction had begun months earlier, after the stage's 240' x 300' floor had been removed and 30' of soil was excavated to accommodate production designer Michael White's extreme topography. "That gave us about 90 feet of height," Bay describes, "which was great because I like low angles. We then blacked out the perms. Because of the set's bowl-like shape, along with the atmosphere effects we had going, very few sky replacements had to be done in postproduction."

While Schwartzman initially thought of using a bank of 100 synchronized Vari-Lites to add a sense of movement to the set's illumination lending credence to the idea that the asteroid was spinning through space the plan proved impractical. Also discussed was a single-source approach like the one cinematographer Gale Tattersall recently used while shooting lunar sequences for From the Earth to the Moon. (Ironically, Armageddon had originally planned to built their asteroid set in the same Tustin, California blimp hanger utilized by the HBO project, but ultimately could not book the site.) "I later read about how Gale did that in American Cinematographer," Schwartzman says, citing the magazine's April 1998 story. "But his approach worked because he had enough room beyond the set to cast an immense source and get nice sharp shadows. I just didn't have as much room, because our set at Disney was built to the perms."

Echoing his approach in the Badlands, Schwartzman's lighting solution was to once again deploy 12/18Ks and HMI 6K and 4K Pars to create shafts of light cutting through the asteroid's rocky shapes. He offers, "I could have used another 50 feet of throw for the lamps, but there was just no room. Actually, I wish we could have taken our set and actually put it in a larger space where we could drive a Musco around it. That would have given us our single source."

Schwartzman notes that his HMIs were primarily Cinepars supplied by Sun Valley, California-based LTM. "I love burning arcs for daylight exteriors, but I have always been an LTM HMI user," the cameraman testifies. "Their 12/18K lamp is the best instrument of its kind. It puts out more light and has a better spread, and that means I don't need as many fixtures."

The harsh shooting conditions on the asteroid set earned it an appropriately bleak nickname: "The Pit of Despair." Bay credits this moniker to the special effects crew's use of Rice Crispies cereal to help them whip up interstellar stormfronts. Soaked with water, the mushy foodstuff went moldy, resulting in a foul smell and sinus infections for almost the entire crew. "On top of that, the set was physically debilitating," Bay says. "There were no level surfaces and no spots to be comfortable, so we just couldn't shoot in there over a straight run. We ended up switching out with shooting in the shuttle interior, which we called ‘The Womb' since it was relatively nice and calm."

Armageddon's cast members were forced to endure their space suits throughout the entire "Pit" shoot. The helmet design is quite remarkable, featuring a large glass faceplate which curves across approximately 180 degrees of its surface. Bay notes, "We spent about $250,000 designing these helmets in order to provide radio communications and an optically clear glass dome, and to perfect an airflow system that would prevent fogging. The glass dome was actually built by the same company that builds NASA's helmets."

Added to the helmet was a specially built mini-lamp. "I knew Michael would want a blue helmet light," Schwartzman says. "My first thought was that I could use a CTB-gelled MR-16 bulb, but those burn way too hot, so I went to LTM, hoping they could come up with something." Their solution was a tiny 18-watt HMI bulb mounted in an MR-11 fixture, powered by a 12-volt battery built into the back of the lamp housing. "It created a beautiful light, and they made 50 of them for us," the cameraman says, adding that the custom lamps were provided free of charge because the LTM company logo was prominently added to each. "I came to Michael with the idea that in the future, NASA might rely on corporate sponsorship. He replied, 'If it gets me 50 helmet lights for free, I love the idea!' All joking aside, though, LTM really came through for us in the crunch.

"The beauty of this for me was that if I needed to sneak in a 200-watt Par to light some specific detail, I could do it whenever I wanted to because it could be motivated by anybody's helmet lamp. If I'd had to black out every single source I used, we'd still be shooting Armageddon today."

The space suits weren't just for show, however. The special effects department's vicious artificial tempests showered the cast (and crew) with clouds of smoke and nitrogen gas, hail-like ice and grimy grit, so the protective helmets and padding were literally necessary for survival. Bay remembers, "There were times when 10 guys were operating these 100-mile-per-hour fans, big air movers, and machines shooting huge ice chunks through the air, and I'd hear Bruce Willis on the radio saying, 'Knock it the f- off with the baseball-sized chunks of ice!' They were just pelting him, and it would hurt like hell if you weren't wearing a space suit."

Mission accomplished

After the main unit finished its work at Disney, Bay and his editing team, led by Mark Goldblatt, concentrated on cutting the picture at producer Jerry Bruckheimer's complex located in Santa Monica. Throughout the show, the editors utilized North Hollywood-based Digital Editing Solutions' digital dailies service and the Avid Film Composer system. DES' direct film-to-digital format transfer produces a high-quality image and facilitates the cutting process by providing ready-to-use 9-gigabyte Avid files complete with scene and take logs. DES simultaneously creates a tape version in whatever format is required, and can even burn off CD-ROM dailies for viewing on desktop or laptop computers.

Although Armageddon is constructed from an astonishing number of shots, Bay notes, "We were working in the land of big toys, which called for us to slow the pace down a bit to take it all in and make the film seem more epic." Comparing this style to the amped-up feeling of The Rock, he offers, "Conceptually, The Rock was a 'B' idea. Armageddon is an 'A' idea. The Rock's story boils down to 'a fanatic on an island.' To make it seem more real, I hired classy actors to fill the roles you believe Ed Harris and gave it a story clock that moved at hyperspeed. That approach wouldn't fit Armageddon because of the nature of the story; there's just too much going on."

Long after Armageddon wrapped, Bay was still shooting. After screening a 50-minute portion of the show at the Cannes Film Festival in May, the director photographed extra footage in the gothic French city of San Michele, and then jetted off to Istanbul, Turkey, and the Taj Mahal in India in order to add a more global context to the disaster saga. (Additional footage depicting the destruction of Shanghai was shot by Janusz Kaminski, ASC.)

Assessing the ordeal of making Armageddon, Bay offers, "There's a level of detail in these kinds of films that you take for granted, and I'll never make another space movie again. But the picture also has some really tragic, emotional scenes that have made audiences cry, which is great. The film is a huge combination of visual, physical and dramatic elements, and I think it works."

Despite the various trials he faced on Armageddon, Schwartzman contends that this shoot was far easier than The Rock. "On that show, we spent the first six weeks on Alcatraz, which was brutal," he describes. "We never recovered, whereas on Armageddon, we all knew how to pace ourselves. I was no more exhausted on the last week of the show than I was on the third week." He credits gaffer Andy Ryan, rigging gaffer Jeff Soderberg, key grip Les Tomita, rigging key grip Jake Jones, operator Mitch Amundsen, B-camera/Steadicam operator David Emmerichs, first assistant Richard Mosier, second assistant Thom Lairson, B-camera first assistant Heather Page, B-camera second assistant Charles Katz, loader Dan McFadden and the rest of his crew for making the shoot run smoothly. Schwartzman concludes, "This picture was unique in that we had an idea of how it should look, but discovered things as we went along. That can be hard on the assistant directors, but it makes for exciting filmmaking."