American Cinematographer - February 2008 - (Page 54) A Cinematic Passport Lassally and crew film a sandstorm scene for The Web on location in the Sinai desert. that lasted for more than a decade, and the cinematographer’s extensive experience with making do on location with limited technical means came in handy on location in India, where a number of the duo’s films were set. Lassally earned BAFTA and BSC award nominations for his work on Merchant-Ivory’s Heat and Dust and The Bostonians. “Heat and Dust seemed to start off a whole new wave of British productions made in India, including such epics as Gandhi and A Passage to India,” he says. “I considered Heat and Dust my best film since Electra.” The 1970s also brought Lassally jobs in the United States. Cinematographer Tom Houghton, then a gaffer, worked with Lassally on several U.S. productions, including the telefilm Too Far to Go. “Walter knows his stuff backwards and forwards,” says Houghton. “He knew how to keep things simple based on the budget and the schedule. We were able to use HMIs, which were relatively new — the biggest was a 4K. We also used umbrellas for bounce to create soft lighting setups. He was also great with hard light. He took a great deal of care in the placement of lights, and it was an amazing experience to watch him. The more I worked with him, the more I understood what he was going for. He knew how to create subtleties and nuances in the midst of simplicity, and he brought that sensibility from the smaller projects to the bigger films. We developed a trust and friendship that had an important impact on me in that early phase of my career. “Walter’s early films, like Beat 54 http://www.efd.com.mx http://www.efd.com.mx http://www.efdusa.net
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