American Cinematographer - March 2008 - (Page 59)

Opposite: Director of photography George Spiro Dibie, ASC recently became the second recipient of the ASC Career Achievement in Television Award. This page, left: Dibie takes five with an unusual cast member on one of his television projects. Right: The cinematographer films a hairspray commercial with Farrah Fawcett at the peak of her popularity. light more, and tasked fewer instruments with performing more functions on set. “Less is more and more is less,” he says. “I always talk about a ‘kiss’ of light.” Dibie won that battle with the video engineers, but he knew they weren’t the last line of defense between his images and the audience’s TV screens. To prevent technicians at TV stations from bringing up the video level in order to brighten shadowy areas of the frame, Dibie lit the practical globes, ever-present in wide shots, to nearly the highest level possible. “We would bring faces to between 40 and 60 IRE,” he explains. “Then, I would let the globes in the station house go to 95 or 96 percent, so if somebody in Timbuktu wanted to bring up the shadows, they’d completely blow out the practicals. That way, I knew they’d leave the image the way it was supposed to be.” Dibie spent the next three decades as one of the most indemand cinematographers in the sitcom world, shooting on both film and video. He spent 10 years under contract to Warner Bros. Television as a supervising director of photography; he always worked on the top series, sometimes two at a time. Over the course of his career, he won five Emmy Awards, for Sister, Sister; Just the 10 of Us; Mr. Belvedere; and Growing Pains (for which he won two). As president of International Cinematographers Guild, Local 600, a position he held for 20 years, he helped open up the roster to women and minorities and initiated an aggressive plan to educate aspiring camerapeople — an effort that was initially met with concern by some more traditional members. He recalls, “Some cinematographers didn’t want to give away their secrets. I am not like that.” Dibie’s success didn’t come easily. He was born in Jerusalem — before the formation of Israel — to a Lebanese Catholic mother and a Greek Orthodox father. As a child, he built a tent in his backyard and charged friends admission to see comic panels scrolling in sequence on a device he built using paper rolls. As Christians, his family was neutral in the war between the Arab countries and the new state of Israel, but they eventually relocated to Amman, Jordan. There, while Dibie was working as a translator for the U.S. Information Agency at the U.S. embassy, an official helped him get papers to go to America, an opportunity he’d hoped for but did not expect. Dibie arrived in San Francisco and soon headed for a warmer climate, moving south and enrolling in Los Angeles City College. He later studied directing at the Pasadena Playhouse, where a number of soon-to-be-famous actors, including Dustin Hoffman and Gene Hackman, were learning their craft. Although he hoped to direct for the stage, Dibie also took television courses. By the time he finished his studies, he had learned two things: “I learned how to work with people, and I learned that I could not survive as a theater director.” Trying to find his professional footing, he took a job at a supermarket. One day, he struck up a conversation with a customer who worked at 20th Century Fox; the customer got Dibie a job interview in the electrical department. He toiled at the lowest level of the department on the epic Cleopatra (1963) and steadily worked his way up. “I moved fast,” he recalls. “Three years from best boy to gaffer — ¢ bang, bang, bang.” American Cinematographer 59 Photo on opposite page by Owen Roizman, ASC. Photos courtesy of George Spiro Dibie.

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2008

American Cinematographer - March 2008 Contents Editor’s Note Short Takes: Bill Viola’s Ocean Without a Shore Production Slate: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days Production Slate: Chantal: A Night at the Pyramids Magical Mystery Tour Some Kind of Monster Tantalizing Television Making Sitcoms “Sexy” Post Focus: Mega Playground Helps Set Look for Sibling Post Focus: Visual Effects Society Launches White Paper New Products & Services International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index In Memoriam: John McPherson, ASC ASC Membership Roster Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up: Wayne Kennan

American Cinematographer - March 2008

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