Modern art does a lot in terms of concept, does a lot in terms of color relationship, in terms of balance, in terms of aesthetics. When you think about it, there is always something that is worth looking at. The brain organizes it and there is always something that requires you to get there, another brain work. I am fond of abstract paintings, because the shape is the way it is. Because the surface is the way it is. Because the interaction between the color, between the blue and the red, is the way it is. It is the major exercise of a brain to get there.
When we work, we need answers all the time. In other words, we are confronted with stuff that comes in front of us. We have to have an immediate answer. And you can always give these answers if the brain is accustomed to it, if you feed your brain with the aesthetics. Besides, I personally think that aesthetics could solve a lot of things in life.
Film culture changes with the changing times. The audiences and their demands need to be met by responsive filmmakers.
Harris Savides, ASC
I believe that you cannot trick the audience with artifice and overly stylistic light and camera movement. Today’s audience is very sophisticated and visually savvy; I feel that they like to look at things that look real and natural.
It is because of a situation that we have placed ourselves in. The world is what it is, the political climate is what it is. I think that in this period people want to go to the movies. There was a time when people needed to see those exploitive kinds of special effects, crazy wild movies. Now, I see, people want to see reality. I am probably talking about a certain group of people, but I think that they want to be respected and they want to see reality, they want to be lost in the story. The first thing is the content in films. In commercials it is a different thing. But in film the first thing is content. If the lighting doesn’t work for the content, then you are just doing exercises. Just because you can, just because it is interesting or because you want to copy something you saw in another movie. I think that the most difficult part is getting there. You have to understand what that is. And you feel good about it, you feel like you can do it, you feel like it is right and everybody likes it. Once that’s done, it is almost like your work is finished.
It is just by the sheer fact of going through the script that the dialogue with the director starts. You start poking around the scene. That prompts a memory. You bring that up, you talk about something. It is a discussion; you need that time to sit with the director and go through everything in the script and just talk about what they thought of, what they want. I have been fortunate in working with a lot of writer-directors. So there is a different connection to the material.
Working with the Art Director
The relationship between the cinematographer and the art director cannot be stressed too much. The art director, in supervising the designers of sets and costumes, is an invaluable partner.
The positioning and intensity of the practicals on the set is something the cinematographer should establish with the art director. These visible light sources of various kinds serve to visually enrich the scene, to justify the directions of studio lighting, and to contribute to the level of illumination on the set. They may even serve as the major modeling lights for the scene.
The shape of the set and certain architectural components such as beams or moldings help the cinematographer to hide lamps, stands, and cables. The shape, texture, and color of the walls and furniture have understandable impact on the visual organization of the frame. The way in which the set is positioned on the studio floor—for example, how much space there is outside the windows—will also influence the lighting directions and angles. For these reasons the production designer, art director, and all the people involved in shaping and dressing the sets or in choosing locations should work hand in hand with the cinematographer. The cinematographer in turn can either enhance their efforts or diminish them with choices for lighting.
Haskell Wexler, ASC
Any work the cameraman can do with an art director is money in the bank, because basically an art director is giving you what you photograph. You will be asking for practicals, you two will be deciding where the windows are, whether certain walls are wild, whether ceilings are wild, how high the walls are, and what color they are painted.
Today’s sets, particularly in the special effects films, have very intricate lighting built into the set, like lighting through the frosted glass floors or illuminated tabletops. Sometimes the instrument panels will practically light the set for you. On occasions the lighting that comes with the set or with an event which is part of the scene may have tricky exposure values.
Dion Beebe, ASC
For any cinematographer, working with a production designer is key. I like to work with practicals, so that process of choosing practicals and wall colors, motivating light sources in rooms is very important. Also the choice of shades on the lamps, because the shade emits a color, creates an atmosphere within the room. For me it cannot be random; it is very much an aesthetic choice. It is going to affect what we do in this space.
I really like the sets and costumes to have a little sense of life to them when it is appropriate. Particularly when the costumes are dark, then the choice of fabric becomes really key. You don’t want matte black. The colors and the sheen of fabrics are really important.
James Plannette, gaffer
I did a movie with Steven Soderbergh called Solaris. We wanted to shoot the whole movie at T/2.8. So we did. We had this large space station, and the production designer called me before he really started designing the set with the idea that we’ll design the lighting into the set. He had a bunch of practicals that he had shown me, so I suggested that he put lights in the wall and that we put our own lights behind. We used four hundred nook lights behind these openings. We had them on dimmers, so when they were on camera they were one intensity and when they were off camera they were another. The way it worked was that I would read it with a spot meter, and if the light was three stops over, it was good; anything more than that and they would begin to flare.
It is evident that a wise producer should bring the cinematographer and the art director together as early as possible. However, some producers do not see it this way.
Conrad Hall, ASC
Hopefully you work a lot with the art director. There are very many producers who try to keep the two of you separated—for financial reasons, they say. What a mistake! We should be the closest of collaborators. After we hear what the director has to say, the two of us should collaborate very strongly to provide what he wants.
This unfortunately is not always the case.
Robert Wise, director
I found that some cinematographers are not too inclined to be overly receptive to designers’ set sketches that might indicate certain kinds of lighting, sources of lighting. I had one cinematographer on a major film where the designer would come up and show the sketch of the set coming down the line and the cameraman would look at it and go his own way. He would never really turn to the designer for any thoughts that he had in his head about how it might look. And a few years later I had just the opposite experience with Ted McCord on The Sound of Music.
Much depends upon the personalities involved and also on how much the cinematographer is in tune with the aesthetics of the art director. Avoiding personality clashes saves both the producer’s and director’s sanity.
Alexander Mackendrick, director
If the casting of key talents has not been done wisely, there can be misunderstandings between the production designer and the director of photography. An assertive designer may hanker after lighting that is diffused, general, and unobtrusive, so that tone and color values in the settings and costumes retain their pictorial values. An equally assertive cinematographer may prefer the set, costumes, and furniture to be neutral in color and tone so that the scene is left for him to “paint with light.” If there is discord between the production designer and the director of photography, the director and producer shou
ld resolve the disagreement at the earliest stage of production planning.
Filmmaking is not only teamwork, but the team is also composed of people with strong creative egos. This makes it doubly difficult to keep a production on an even keel.
Conrad Hall, ASC
You have to get the right chemistry of the people involved. One important ingredient by which filming chemistry will succeed or fail is the handling of ego. When ego gets involved, it destroys. Now, that does not mean that you do not have an ego. And it does not mean that your ego is not manifesting your artistic decisions, but like being in the army, there is definitely a law of involvement that should be respected. The director should direct, the cameraman should shoot, the art director should art-direct. As soon as we start introducing our egos to take over our jobs from one another, we malign the chemistry by which the films are made. The ego out of line is a bad ingredient, but a strong ego is a wonderful thing for an artist to have.
Richard Brooks once said to me, “Would you ever like to direct, Conrad?” I was just a brand-new cinematographer at the time, and I said, “Well, I think so, but I am not sure yet, I will see,” and he said, “Everybody should direct a film. You probably want to direct one, but direct your own damn film, don’t direct mine!” And I respect that attitude and I want it respected when I am directing. I am an aide to that man. I am not anybody who is trying to take anything away from him.
Working with the Designers
The costume designer and the makeup artist should also consult closely with the cinematographer. It is particularly essential in black-and-white film, where two colors, like certain hues of red and green, may look exactly the same on the screen, or where a light blue shirt may be preferable to a white one that could create too much contrast. For the same reason, light blue or green bedsheets will be more suitable than white.
In color film production, white fabrics may still need to be “teched” down. This is often accomplished by rinsing them in weak tea. Certain dark velvets may be avoided because in a low-key lighting situation they will look black. Makeup artists will consult the cinematographer about the red sensitivity of a given black-and-white emulsion. With color stock they may be more interested in skin textures.
At the preproduction stage many of these elements will be examined in a series of tests. John Alonzo describes them as helping him to establish the visual character of the picture.
John Alonzo, ASC
I do a lot of tests in different kinds of lighting. Makeup and hair tests, wardrobe tests, and so forth. In those tests I have them moving around in five or six different types of lighting, so that the director can look at it and say, “I like that, I don’t like that.” We try different lenses, different sizes for close-ups: a 50mm or a 150mm, to see how the perspective changes. We don’t just stand an actor and say, “Turn three different ways,” and that’s it. We choreograph moves for all these tests.
For more elaborate productions, these tests will also include sets.
Robert Wise, director
If you get into any kind of special shows, you make endless tests. You test the sets for color, you test your costumes, and you test the labs. You get a difference in the values of your colors from the different labs. You have to test all the way around. And sometimes if you have a big set and you are going to have some prelighting, try to have it done while you are shooting something else. You will test the lighting of the set and you will see how it is coming off. On anything other than a subject that is simple and straightforward, it is very advisable to test to the extent that you can.
Rehearsals
Once the production starts, the relationship between the director and the cinematographer becomes almost symbiotic. There are many variations of this relationship. On one end of the spectrum you will have veteran directors who know exactly what type of staging and what camera moves they want. On the other end there will be newcomers, perhaps from the theater or from screenwriting, who will depend on the cinematographer in these areas. Even the most experienced directors are usually open to suggestions. They recognize that staging and camera movements are inherently connected with lighting and that all these elements create the picture.
The first days of shooting are crucial. You almost have to read the director’s mind. You have to stay physically close during the rehearsals, especially if your director is not too good at expressing his or her ideas. Production time on the set is so expensive that you do not want to spend too much time on theoretical discussions. You try to discuss the scene early in the morning or after watching the dailies the night before.
A storyboard provides a good frame of reference and indicates the coverage needed for the given scene. It can be an important time-saving device. The cinematographer should treat the storyboard as what it is: a guide to the scenes, useful in prerigging the lights.
Robert Wise, director
I storyboard most of the time. The storyboard usually starts before the cameraman is on. Of course you discuss it with him when he is around. Before we start to shoot, he is involved in the storyboard. I like to have a storyboard so that when you walk on the set, you know where you are going to start, where you want to start, where you will put the camera, and where the actors are going to make an entrance. You discuss it with your cameraman in advance. I think that you must know where you are going. But in developing the scene with the actors, in getting the scene on its feet, if it wants to move away from the storyboard, if the actors find additional things that you cannot anticipate sitting in your office, if you find new values, new dimensions, and if that means moving away from the storyboard, you make the adjustments.
On the set, staying close to the director and watching rehearsals allows the cinematographer to understand what the director is trying to do with the scene in terms of the dramatic rhythm of punches and pauses. Only then does it become apparent how the composition, the camera movements, and the lighting can visually emphasize the dramatic structure. At this point a cinematographer’s instinct comes into play. He or she will be influenced by personal background, consciousness, and the subconscious. Films and paintings seen, music heard, books read will all have an effect on the cinematographer’s visual interpretation of the scene.
This is how several cameramen see what is happening on the set at this stage.
Caleb Deschanel, ASC
An ideal situation is one where the camera angle or movement never becomes a matter of discussion, where you and the director are very much in sync and he suggests something and you concur, or you suggest something and he says, “Yes, of course,” or you both say, “What if we did this?” At its best it is a process that evolves. Hopefully no one’s ego becomes involved and you say, “Gee, this was my idea and that was someone else’s idea.”
I believe in waiting for a scene to develop. When you start to see a scene evolve, when actors are rehearsing, there is a point early on when it seems very chaotic and it seems almost impossible to put on film. But eventually the scene starts to have a certain continuity to it; you eventually start discovering that there is a way to put it on film. And the way I really like to work is that you resolve the whole scene from beginning to end before you start shooting. Some directors don’t like to work that way; then inevitably you will get into a situation where you carry the scene halfway through and you are in a position where you have to make certain compromises because you have not figured the whole thing out—compromises in lighting, in camera moves, in positions where you will put the camera, etc. I like to figure out how the scene should play all by itself, which usually means that you have to make a judgment about what the rhythm of a scene is while you are filming it. And where the camera should be. And then usually everything will fall into place.
Planning scene coverage in advance is the most essential element in an effective lighting design.
Allen Daviau, ASC
A big thing for a cinematographer is to get into the habit of asking, “How are you going to cover the situation?”
Work with your director on the coverage, because we all can fall into the trap of making a beautiful master scene that is absolutely horrible for the coverage. Particularly when you are working on a TV movie, where you are really moving fast, you’d better be able to get in there, get your master shot, and know exactly how you are going to proceed with your coverage.
All too often we fall in love with our master and then we find out in editing that the scene plays mostly in the close-ups. It will happen that way, and it is terrible if you have sloughed off the detail in your close-up.
You get to know how a director likes to work. Many times you get the basic gist of it and you start lighting before the rehearsal is even completed. The official procedure is to have the rehearsal, mark the positions without the camera, then start lighting the scene. The operator starts working with the camera, and we have full rehearsal before shooting. What happens more and more is that if I wait till the director stops staging a complicated master, I will be out of time. So I often have to start lighting when he is blocking. If suddenly he says, “This does not work, let’s go over here and change it all,” well, I have to tear it out and it is gone. But more often than not I will be well ahead of the game by starting to light during the blocking of the scene.
Film Lighting Page 3