Duel: A Conversation with Director Steven Spielberg Page #3

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Where I did fall behind schedule

in the last three or four days...

was where Wally Worsley said...

"No one could have done

that film in 10 days. "

We wound up shooting that in 12.

Maybe 13.

I went two or three days

over schedule on that...

which made the studio not very happy,

but I was getting good stuff.

Well, I'm never gonna make

that appointment now.

In order to stay on schedule,

I couldn't just do single setups.

I knew I had to do

some multiple cameras.

But there's only so many cameras

you can put on so many mounts...

hanging off a car

before that starts looking like process.

I wanted a lot of

independent movement...

so we got Pat Hustis to bring

this camera car he invented...

and designed for the movie Bullitt.

He brought this low racing car,

insert car.

I was able to get these cool

low-angle shots of the truck and car.

And also was able to plot the shots.

So I'd put four or five cameras

on a mile stretch of road.

I'd have on one mile run of the truck

chasing the car, I'd get five run-bys.

They'd be all right to left.

Then I simply took the cameras...

took them to the other side

of the road...

which looks different than

the side of the road I was shooting.

When you go to the other side of

the road and look back the other way...

I got five more shots when the truck

and the car were turned...

to their starting positions.

That was the way I was able to quickly

shoot some of the chases in the film.

What took time was more

on the insert car.

We're getting complicated shots

moving in and out of the truck.

Pulling ahead of the truck

where the car comes in the shot.

Letting the car overtake us

and going right into the grill...

with all the dead bugs

I put into the grill of the truck.

And splattered dead bugs

across the windshield.

Things like that took the time,

but things like that created suspense.

I said, "Let's plot the entire

74-minute film...

on an overhead map,

so I can just plot my cameras. "

We did kind of like

a architect's overhead plan...

of all the highways in Pearblossom

and Soledad Canyon and Sand Canyon...

out in Palmdale

where I shot Duel.

Put all of these incidents- the

caf, the phone booth and snake farm-

all the incidents or the set pieces

along the road of the narrative...

on this big overhead map,

and it was a huge mural.

It wrapped around the entire

motel room that I was given...

to stay in for the time

I shot on location.

But I was able, every day,

to make notes on the map

and plot what the menu

was going to be to achieve that day.

The day's work that I needed

to achieve...

in order to stay on schedule

and make a really good movie.

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