Empire of the Sun
Elstree Studios & Spain - 1987
Empire of the Sun tells the story of a twelve year old Cathedral Schoolboy, James Graham, interned in a Japanese prisoner of war camp and based on the book of the true story of J.G. Ballard's childhood. The boy chosen by Spielberg to play Jim was Christian Bale and the entire camp, including airfield with working runway was built on farmland in Trebujena on the outskirts of Jerez in Andalusia.
Empire was originally to be directed by David Lean with Spielberg as Executive Producer but after working on it for 12 months Lean concluded that really Steven should make it. Lean did visit the set in London, a tall stately figure with elephantine ear lobes, but remained a shadowy figure reluctant to be photographed. I tried and he scowled. While finishing touches were being made to the main camp set in Spain, the UK shoot began at Elstree Studios in Borehamwood and it was to prove a bizarre and unique introduction to Steven Spielberg for me.
The set was a hotel bedroom suite overlooking a painted backdrop of Shanghai harbor. The scene would involve Jim (Christian Bale) and his father (Rupert Frazer) and we were on set before the actors arrived to set up for the scene. Christian was to start the shot lying on the bed and my cameraman, Mike Miles asked me to go lie on the bed so he could get some focus marks in advance, so I complied. No sooner had I made myself comfortable when Spielberg walked on to the dimly lit set, he turned towards the bed, and then continued to stride towards me with the bizarre greeting: “Ah good morning Christia....” curtailing his words as the light bulb went on realising I was not the 13 year old kid he had hired for the part. I jumped off the bed and retreated to the shadows thinking a right royal rollocking was winging its way to me. Sure enough the First Assistant Director David Tomblin (remember this was the guy who previously caught me on the closed set of Temple of Doom) came over and in his gruff monotone voice announced: “How tall are you?”, I told him I was 5' 7” and he said I just did myself out of a job because Steven thought I looked like Christian and would make a good photo double for the prison camp shoot in Spain (Christian was about 5'4”) Photo doubles are used for wide shots or any time the audience won't really tell it's not the real actor, back of the head, passing in a car and so on. In the end when I got to Spain they had hired a girl to be his photo double. Still at twenty-six I was happy to be mistaken for a thirteen year old by one of the greatest filmmakers on the planet.
Spain
The entire shooting crew were transported to southern Spain by charter plane for the 10-week location shoot. Early morning taxi's were despatched to all of us to make sure everyone made the flight from Heathrow to Jerez. This was the first time I met the American cameraman John Toll, hired by Les Mayfield to shoot the documentary. John was, then, a camera operator in LA and wanted to do the shoot because he had worked with Cinematographer Allen Daviau on 'ET' and Allen was shooting Empire. For those who are not familiar with the history of Allen and Steven's friendship; Allen shot a short film for Steven when they were nineteen, titled, 'Amblin'. Steven called his production company Amblin Entertainment, a reference to this early foray into film making. But I digress. A handful of hours after leaving the damp chill of London I arrived in Andalusia, my home for the next ten weeks. I was of course in charge of looking after the camera equipment, all of which was owned by Amblin, a really great 16mm camera called an Aaton LTR-7.
The Japanese Prisoner of War camp was a twenty minute drive from our hotel so the morning routine was piling in to our rental at 7am and taking it in turns driving out to the location; well all but Les who passed on the rota. Mornings were quite chilly but the sun and heat of the day meant you had to dress for that fact. We always made a brief stop en route to have a shot of espresso and a pastry, which helped kick start the day.
Les Mayfield - Ken King - John Toll & Me
Steven has a tradition that before the first slate was shot, all the crew gathered round and we were all given a glass of champagne; Steven then made a short rallying speech about what a great time we would have making Empire as a team; and he was right we did. That was the last drink he had (he did not drink at the time) until wrap on the last shot 10 weeks later.
Spielberg is a very efficient director and likes to work rapidly, only shooting about six takes on average. I found his efficiency sometimes unusual especially given his lead, Christian Bale, was so young. Steven would be positioned in a tent watching the video monitor while Christian would be out in the baking sun of the camp in front of camera, with only the operator and focus puller, Eamonn O'Keefe. Steven would yell action, Christian would run his lines (he never forgot a line of dialogue throughout the shoot) then the camera would cut and Steven would start bellowing some notes on his performance which poor Christian could barely hear. Then focus puller, Eamonn, would continue to unravel and interpret the vaguely heard notes to Christian who would incorporate them into his performance for the next take.
Just a note here on Christian, he was a fiercely intelligent kid and not at all pretentious despite being the lead in such a huge movie. He seemed to take it all in his stride as if he'd been doing it 20 years. I even witnessed him making suggestions to Steven about how he might direct a scene, such was his confidence in his role; and he did it with such charm Steven just agreed and tried it Christian's way!
Because of child labour laws Christian would finish at about 5pm but the shooting days always ended at 7pm as the dying rays of the sun beat a retreat. Evening routine would be a hasty drive back for a welcomed shower to wash off the thick layer of sun tan oil and dust, then out to the bars of Jerez for Tapas and a refreshing San Miguel beer. Location shoots are traditionally six day weeks with Sunday a 'recovery' day. The Andalusians don't really go for dinner until after 11pm and despite the fact we would have to be up again at 6am we tended to follow the locals. Because John Toll knew Allen, I would spend the evening with John and Allen who absolutely loved his food and my introduction to squid in black ink sauce was at Allen's insistence. Sometimes Christian's Mum and his sister would join us after putting him to bed, his mum acting as his chaperone.
One of the key spectacle sequences was a destructive attack on the Japanese airfield, built on the edge of the camp. During one lunch break I spent some time wandering around the mock airfield with its wooden plane hangers. Wandering the full-scale hangers I noticed ribbons of wires lacing the beams, then it suddenly struck me the entire building was loaded with explosives for the airfield attack sequence; I was effectively stood inside a very large bomb! It was like mission impossible as I picked my way through a lattice of tripwire cables crisscrossing the floor and while they were no doubt not live I was bricking it that I might damage a link and the entire sequence could be ruined...
The shot was going to be done in one take, as the entire airfield would be destroyed at the end of the take about eight minutes later. Christian was to be on the roof of the camp commander's building relishing the spectacle and we were also allowed to be on the roof to record this one take event. Steven had given Christian instructions that after the main hanger blew up, if it did, he should turn away towards the camera behind him so we could see the joy in his face. Real WW2 American fighter planes would bomb the field and strafe the Japanese crews as a handful of cameras recorded the destruction. The first AD, David Tomblin called for the FX team to 'go live', then for all cameras to roll and waited for the confirmation replies of 'SPEED' from each camera.
Well, the eye popping spectacle that ensued was truly jaw dropping as the airfield began to explode in real time; three American P-51 Mustangs tore through the sky no more than 50 feet away from us, level to the roof, dropping fake bombs that would time with the hangers blowing up. Christian yelled and sprang victoriously in the air, problem is he was so engrossed in the mayhem (as I was) he totally forgot to turn round to camera so we could see his expression as Spielberg had directed him to.
Well, of course nothing could be stopped and Spielberg tried yelling at Christian but the noise of the planes and explosions drowned him out. The scene played out until the film had run out of the gate of each camera (35mm film magazines last 10 minutes – 1000ft of negative). The airfield continued to burn and Steven just went over to Christian, pointed out his error, then in his inimitable efficient manor asked for the Mustangs to fly by again, told Christian to do it again this time with the turn, brushing aside any questions with the words: 'quiet guys I'm in the kitchen baking”, and so proceeded to salvage a tighter shot of the scene. We disappeared for the rest of the day figuring he was not left in the best of moods.
The completion of the shoot ended as it had started with a glass of champagne for the entire crew, the second time Steven had a tipple. He rode manically around the camp set on a Quad bike like a little kid on the first day of school break. A quirky tradition was executed by Producer Frank Marshall whereby a cream covered cake, perhaps over a meter square was presented on a table, Frank then took a run up and belly flopped slap bang in the centre of it. Not sure he still does this one?
ENGLAND
The final sequences of the film were shot back in England, at a house in Sunningdale, a wealthy part of Berkshire west of London. It was used as Jim's family home in Shanghai. One notable moment, which I'm sure Christian Bale remembers to this day, is a scene where Jim returns to the house to find the Chinese staff looting the property. A housekeeper was to approach Jim/Christian who was questioning what they were doing and she responded by striking him across the face. What Christian did not know is that rather than do a 'movie' slap where no contact is made, Steven had instructed the housekeeper to do it for real. I can only assume this was with the consent of Christian's mum? Again, this was only going to be a one-take shot, as no one knew how it would go. We rolled our documentary camera; the main unit camera rolled and tracked in towards Christian following the approaching maid who proceeded to give him one almighty crack across the face producing a violent sound that reverberated off the marble walls of the hallway we were filming in, magnifying the intensity of the contact her hand had with Christian's face. He was visibly shocked, as was I, his eyes loaded with tears, fighting back the obvious desire to cry. At the end of the take Steven hugged him and apologised for not telling him. The ever resilient Bale just wiped away his tears and laughed it off. Steven called a wrap for the day assuming Christian may not be so helpful the rest of the day. If you watch the film again you will see the shot goes soft half way between the track in then snaps back in focus just before the slap. It was the only take Steven had so it was used despite the focus error.
By the end of the shoot I had loaded 556 magazines of 16mm film and at ten minutes per reel the director Les Mayfield had over 92 hours of documentary material to play with. It was eventually crafted into a feature length documentary, The China Odyssey. I remained in contact with the American cameraman I had assisted, John Toll, who kindly put me up at his Venice beach house during a trip to Los Angeles. John went on to become a highly regarded cinematographer winning two Oscars for his work on Braveheart and Legends of the Fall.
I was to briefly meet Allen again in difficult circumstances while on the dire 'Fred Claus'. The next time I met Christian Bale was on, 'Batman Begins' and he had morphed into a towering, brooding, six-pack toting, rubber-clad superhero. Empire was nominated for six Academy Awards, including one for Allen Daviau's lustrous photography, although oddly did not include Steven as Best Director; it won in no category.
Production Budget $35 Million
Worldwide Box Office $ 66.7 Million
NOTE ON DAVID TOMBLIN
David Tomblin is widely regarded as the finest 1st Assistant Director in the World. The co-creator of TV series, The Prisoner, he worked on all the Indiana Jones Films, Return of the Jedi for George Lucas and wrangled over 300,000 extras for the funeral scene in Ghandi with the apocryphal line of background direction: “All look sad, Ghandi's dead.”
Always a sea of calm with a low, flat gravelly voice and keen sense of humor, he worked on over 400 films and having met him on several occasions can fully understand why Spielberg, Lucas, Attenborough and many others only had a short list of one when selecting their first assistant. Sadly, he died in 2005.