Birth of the movie

Camerawork

Speaking of director and fellow producer McTiernan, Ned Dowd says, "John had a terrific vision of this film and he had the consistency and the passion to bring it into being, despite so many challenges. I think he is telling a very different story here. It’s a classic done in a new key that is really contemporary and accessible. He immediately brings you into the story and takes you on this incredibly enjoyable and wild ride that everyone can enjoy."

Director of photography Peter Menzies, Jr. worked with McTiernan to capture the excitement and scope of this action epic. "One of the key points of approach for photographing this film was to keep it believable," notes Menzies, Jr. "It is an action film, but it is also a period piece and so we used fire light wherever we could as the principal source of light."

During shooting "The 13th Warrior"

Fires and torches give a distinctive quality of light, but are obviously not as powerful. Menzies, Jr. continues, saying, "Since we wanted to use torches for the night shooting, we also had to play with the technology of modern filmmaking, using high speed films, flashing the negative, forcing the processing. I’m very proud of this work because nobody can believe that we really just used fires and torches to light scenes in our big Hollywood film. It certainly had some risks, but we were all pretty happy in the end.

"This is an epic film and we wanted to get that scope on a wider screen, so we shot it with an anamorphic ratio," says Menzies Jr., referring to the wider lens format used to photograph a horizontally extended image. "We did mount the camera onto modern vehicles and steadicams, and we used planes as well for some photography. Yet the audience still needs to be involved in the action and to move with the story, so we did a great deal of hand-held work which gave it that very involving, third-person sort of feel."