Why Karen Allen's Scenes In Raiders Of The Lost Ark Took Up So Much Time
"Raiders of the Lost Ark" isn't just the best Indiana Jones movie, it also looks the best of all the films. 1981's inaugural Indy outing is visually stunning thanks to cinematographer Douglas Slocombe's shot composition and lighting. It's even more impressive how good "Raiders" looks when you consider that director Steven Spielberg was in a bit of a hurry to get his shots in the can.
Writing in American Cinematographer, the esteemed filmmaker revealed how the $20 million budget provided by Paramount Pictures would "pay for 87 days of shooting," but that he had a whole other, 73-day schedule worked out. It was all so that Spielberg could, in his words, "make 'Raiders' economically and make it look like $40 million and, in fact, spend only $20 million."
As a result, "Raiders" had Spielberg doing things he swore he'd never do again, like having Harrison Ford race a 300-pound boulder for the film's famous opening sequence — multiple times. But his speedy approach to shooting also infused the film with all the spontaneity and dynamism we've come to love about it. It also ensured the spirit of the serial adventures upon which creator George Lucas had based Indiana Jones was present in the final cut. Spielberg was averaging 35 setups a day while shooting the film, which is an insane amount considering the scale of the movie and how good it ended up looking.
Still, in order to keep up his hasty approach to shooting, Spielberg had to overcome some obstacles, particularly when it came to Slocombe's lighting methods.
Spielberg kept his schedule a secret
As Steven Spielberg confirmed in his American Cinematographer piece, he was pretty much the only one who knew about the shorter schedule he'd worked up prior to filming. Luckily, he found that Douglas Slocombe was very adaptable once filming got underway. Not only that, much like the stunt team on "Raiders" who came close to death or serious injury multiple times, Slowcombe was so dedicated that he put himself in perilous situations throughout filming, at one point coming mere steps away from a cliff-plunging death. But he was also remarkably speedy. As Spielberg wrote, "When I said, 'I'd like the third camera on the hill' — I'd turn around and Dougie would be on the hill with a third camera two minutes after I had spoken."
However, Slocombe wasn't always so quick when it came to getting scenes shot. In particular, the cinematographer, who'd worked with Spielberg previously on a sequence from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," seemed to want to take his time when it came to lighting actor Karen Allen. Allen, of course, played Indiana Jones' former love interest Marion Ravenwood, who reteams with her erstwhile lover on his quest to recover the Ark of the Covenant before the Nazis get ahold of it.
Allen had already started to build a significant acting career before "Raiders" but was yet to land her breakout role. Having debuted in 1978's "Animal House," the actor had gone on to co-star opposite Al Pacino in William Friedkin's 1980 crime thriller "Cruising" prior to being cast in Spielberg's adventure epic. Playing Marion Ravenwood would prove to be that elusive breakout role, and it helped that Slocombe made Allen look better on-screen than she ever had.
'Dougie, how are we coming?'
In his American Cinematographer piece, Spielberg wrote:
"Dougie Slocombe is an amazing connoisseur when it comes to photographing women. I took Karen Allen's freckles off with makeup and then Dougie took over from there and made her look just wonderful. She was marveling in dailies how she had never appeared better in movies."
But in order to display Allen — who initially hated the title "Raiders of the Lost Ark" — in such vivid resplendence, Slocombe had to spend a lot longer lighting her than the film's star, Harrison Ford. Spielberg continued:
"Dougie would take at least twice the time lighting Karen as he would Harrison [...] Where Harrison was concerned, Dougie would say, 'We're ready.' And I would be amazed at how quickly I'd be back on the set shooting with Harrison, but where Karen was concerned, I would be on the set pacing for a long time, saying, 'Dougie, how are we coming?' Dougie would smack his lips together — smack his tongue, which was characteristic of Dougie — and he would say, 'Oh, 10 minutes.' I'd always hear 10 minutes for Karen — 10 minutes meaning half an hour — and with Harrison it would be five minutes meaning 15, which I think was part of Dougie's charm."
Incredibly, even with Slocombe's meticulous lighting procedure for Allen, and the numerous setbacks faced by the "Raiders" production, Spielberg still managed to shoot everything within his 73-day schedule. As the director wrote, "It was actually the shortest schedule of completion that I've been involved with [...] which I'm quite proud of."