American Cinematographer - February 2014 - 68

◗

Distinguished Service

Top: Rawlings (second from left) on the set of Guns of Paradise (1988-1990). Bottom: Rawlings (right)
poses with members of the Paradise crew. Next to him are (from left) actors Lee Horsley, Gene Barry and
Jack Elam; director Cliff Bole; actor Hugh O'Brian and series creator David Jacobs.

President William S. Paley visited the
set and made a point of approaching the
young camera assistant. "He told me,
'Keep an eye on your dad - he's a great
cameraman, and you can learn a lot
from him and end up in the same position,'" Rawlings recalls. "I was 22 years
old, and that was a lot to take in."
Rawlings worked constantly,
moving from series to series as studios
throughout Los Angeles bustled with
network productions. He worked on
The Wild Wild West, Gunsmoke, The
68

February 2014

Doris Day Show and many others. In
addition to assisting his father, he
worked for other seasoned pros, such as
ASC members Ted Voigtlander,
Monroe Askins, William Spencer,
Charles Wheeler and John Nickolaus
Jr., who helped him learn a variety of
approaches to the craft. Rawlings
absorbed techniques that he used
throughout his own cinematography
career, even as changing styles and faster
emulsions altered his toolset.
"With every actress I worked
American Cinematographer

with [as a cinematographer], regardless
of whether she was the lead or a guest
star, I would always take her aside and
explain, 'If you see me staring at you,
don't get worried. I'm trained to see
what light does to your face, and I'm
learning the different angles so we can
put the light in the perfect place for
you,'" he recalls. "And I would guarantee
that the camera would not be turned on
unless she was lit properly. That way, she
didn't have to worry about how she
looked."
The opportunity to move up to
camera operator arose on the series
Apple's Way, which was also shot by
Rawlings Sr. "My dad had just turned
the series Kung Fu over to his operator,
Chuck Arnold, in order to pursue new
adventures," he says.
After spending the early 1970s as
a sought-after operator, Rawlings was
asked to take over cinematography
duties from his father on the hit series
Charlie's Angels. Producer Aaron
Spelling wanted to reassign Rawlings Sr.
to the new series Dynasty. "My dad said,
'Spelling loves your work and the way
you interact with the actresses.'
[Spelling] went to my dad - my dad
didn't go to him."
It was the fall of 1978, and
Rawlings was shooting one of the most
popular shows on the air. It was also a
time when ASAs were climbing higher
than they'd ever been, and lighting styles
were changing. "I'd go onto other sets
and see all this bounce board up in the
perms," Rawlings recalls. "Instead of a
hard light for backlight, they'd put up 4by-8 cards and bounce light. I started
doing things like that on Charlie's Angels;
I'd use bead board or white bounce for
fill instead of the Nine-lights and other
big units we'd been using."
Rawlings stayed with Charlie's
Angels until it wrapped in 1981, and he
continued working for Spelling through
the mid-1980s, shooting such series as
Matt Houston, which starred Lee
Horsley as a private eye. Rawlings loved
the work but admits that he sometimes
felt a bit constrained working for
Spelling, who wanted all of his shows to

American Cinematographer - February 2014

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2014