American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 46

Passion for the

Craft

Lifetime Achievement Award
honoree Russell Carpenter, ASC
recounts the roller-coaster ride that
led him to Titanic and beyond.
By Jon Silberg
*|*

W

hen James Cameron hired Russell Carpenter, ASC -
this year's recipient of the ASC Lifetime
Achievement Award - to shoot the feature True Lies,
it was the cinematographer's first shot at a massivebudget, tech-heavy science-fiction project, though nobody
could say Carpenter hadn't paid his dues. Having worked his
46

February 2018

way up from low- to modestly budgeted horror films like Pet
Sematary II, Critters 2, The Lawnmower Man and others, the
spy thriller starring a peak-of-his-popularity Arnold
Schwarzenegger was a great leap in Carpenter's evolution.
The enormous success of True Lies paved the way to Cameron
and Carpenter's feature reteaming for Titanic - which earned
Carpenter the Best Cinematography Oscar - and to more
than 20 features that followed, including The Negotiator;
Shallow Hal; and a small Indian film called Parched, which the
cinematographer is quite proud of. It's been a long road, filled
with surprising ups and downs, but to hear Carpenter and his
colleagues tell it, he's always loved the work.
Growing up in "deepest, darkest Orange County" in the
1960s, Carpenter might as well have been a thousand miles
from Hollywood. His mother worked at Ford Aeronautics.
"The gift of having a working mother with four children is
that we all became tremendously independent," he says. "It's

American Cinematographer



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - February 2018

Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - Sponsor
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 1
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 2
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - Contents
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 4
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 5
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 6
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 7
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 8
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 9
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American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 11
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American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 17
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 18
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American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 20
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American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 27
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 28
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 29
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 30
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 31
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 32
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 32a
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 32b
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 33
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 34
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 35
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 36
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 37
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American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 40
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American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 42
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 43
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 44
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 45
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 46
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 47
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 48
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 49
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 50
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 50a
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 50b
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 51
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 52
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 53
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 54
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - 55
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American Cinematographer - February 2018 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - February 2018 - Cover4
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