Cinematography

THE CINEMATOGRAPHER'S TECHNIQUE

It is often difficult for technically naive viewers to grasp that although in everyday situations the eye typically adapts to variations in light and produces a credible "image" of reality under most lighting conditions, the camera—even an extremely expensive and elaborate one such as the Mitchell BNC 35mm or the Éclair, Arriflex, or Aaton 16mm—can "see" only what the film stock with which it is loaded is sensitive enough to record within a field that has been adequately lit. Onscreen, even darkness, shadow, gloom, and mist need to be properly lit in order to show up visually as such. Simply withholding light from part of a scene will produce a completely underexposed patch in the negative, not an area that will seem to be rich with the characteristic texture of darkness. The dark sequence in Touch of Evil (1958), for example, wherein Joe Grandi (Akim Tamiroff) is tortured and killed by Hank Quinlan (Orson Welles), shows exemplary achievement in cinematography, since even in the gloom of the seedy hotel room where the action is set, cinematographer Russell Metty produces a full and rounded range of mid-tone grays and a gritty, textured objectivity.

Also often taken for granted are the delicate screen compositions with light that can move the eye systematically through the editing. To sit back with the sound off and watch Allen Daviau's bicycle chase sequence in Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), for instance, is to be astonished by the exquisitely framed screen compositions and the use of highlighting and camera movement to move the eye seamlessly from shot to shot. Very often in a more casually photographed film, the soundtrack is utilized to smooth cuts between poorly matched shots. Since the earliest days of narrative film in a rudimentary way, and since the 1930s with more sophistication, one of the functions of film lighting has been to guide viewers in pinpointing the narratively central material and details in a scene. From a uniformly accessible visual field, particular material is selected in this way for dramatic emphasis. For example, in the conclusion of Orson Welles's (1915–1985) celebrated Citizen Kane (1941), a child's sled is picked up from a pile of objects and thrown into a blast furnace. Gregg Toland's (1904–1948) camera zooms into the furnace door to pick up the sled being consumed by the flames. Because of the overall darkness of the surrounding area, and the intensity of the light produced by the flames, special key lighting had to be used on the sled in order for the viewer's eye to discover it as a special object in the already bright visual field.

In addition to planning with the director and the designer of a film before shooting, cinematographers work collaboratively during the principal photography stage. Sets must be built or locations selected with the cinematographer's needs at least partially in mind. For example, a "wild" wall is a part of a set that can be removed easily so that a shot can be taken from that point of view; for Hitchcock's Rope (1948) virtually all the walls of the single penthouse set were wild, since the film was to be shot (by Joseph Valentine [1900–1949] and William V. Skall [1897–1976]) in eleven-minute masters, with continuous camera movement and no discernible cuts. Conversely, Clint Eastwood (b. 1930) prefers to eliminate wild walls, so that the cinematographer is always placed—like the characters—inside the situation where he will have to find a "natural" point of view. Cinematographers do not always work with sets fixed inside buildings or locations; for Spike Lee's Get on the Bus (1996), for example, Elliot Davis had a specially rigged bus, with light boxes fixed behind the seats and a camera track mounted on the luggage racks.

As well as set architecture, the colors of sets and costumes will affect lighting and film stock selection. Since the concluding ballet sequence of An American in Paris (1951) required bizarre and theatrical transitions with extreme, colored light, and since no work was going to be done optically in the lab, all the transitions had to be effected through set lighting. To get stark and saturated color effects, John Alton (1901–1996) used color film stock with lighting typical of black-and-white movies. In addition, the cinematographer's team requires time to set up for shots. Both the director and assistant director, one of whose tasks it is to plan shooting schedules efficiently, must collaborate closely to ensure that complicated setups are practical from the budgetary point of view.

A team of grips is under the cinematographer's direction, in order to unload pieces of the camera and dolly, set up the photography equipment, and move the camera and dolly during shots: the chief member of this team is called the "key grip" and has principal responsibility for camera movement. A particularly spectacular case of prodigious grip technique is to be found in the party scene of Hitchcock's Marnie (1964), in which Robert Burks shoots from a vantage point on the balcony overlooking the spacious foyer of an estate house, where dozens of well-dressed socialites are mingling. As the doorbell repeatedly sounds and a uniformed butler opens the door to various guests, the camera moves, in one fluid crane shot with perfectly modulated focus, twenty feet down to floor level and forty feet forward to swoop into the face of Sidney Strutt (Martin Gabel), the very last person anyone wants to see appearing at this soiree, as he stands stiffly on the doorstep.

Another team, the gaffers, of whom the chief is given the special title, "best boy," handles unpacking, wiring, setting up, filtering, adjusting, and moving all of the lights. A particularly fascinating challenge for gaffers was the "wake-up" scene of Jerry Lewis's The Ladies Man (1961). In it Wallace Kelley's camera shows coeds waking up bedroom by bedroom in a huge boardinghouse; then it pulls back to observe them marching out of their rooms, down the hallways to the stairs, and downstairs to the breakfast room; then it pulls farther back to show this happening on many floors simultaneously, then farther back to show the entire structure like a giant dollhouse, then even farther back to show the entire sound stage. All of the areas, from the stage to the individual rooms, had to be lit for optical coherence. The rooms had to have lighting for Technicolor unaffected by the very high lights that would ultimately show the entire set.

The camera operator works under the cinematographer to operate the camera during shots. He or she is assisted by one or more focus pullers, who must measure the lens-to-performer distances the shot will require, establish a schedule of focuses for the shot, and achieve consistent focus as the scene continues. It is solely within the province of the cinematographer and his team to peer through the viewfinder of the camera, although in the United States union regulations forbid cinematographers from actually operating cameras.