American Cinematographer - March 2008 - (Page 61)

he prevailed. “Within a month, I was a member of the union with a card as a director of photography,” he says, the pride still evident in his voice. There was, however, a caveat: at that time, the guild had a special “E,” which stood for “electronic,” on the card next to the director of photography classification, and cameramen who shot video were only in the union as video shooters — they were prohibited from working on film projects. Dibie felt this was unfair, and the situation reached a boiling point when producer/director George Schlatter, best known for his work on the Laugh-In variety show, decided to make the feature Norman, Is That You? on video. (He planned to use a very early tape-to-film process to make prints.) Dibie recalls, “The board at the guild told me I couldn’t shoot it because it was a feature. I said, ‘You said I can only shoot video, and this is video!’” The “E” classification was eventually crushed under the weight of the hypocrisy, but it didn’t happen without a fight. It’s no secret that multi-camera TV work is seldom treated with the same respect given to singlecamera work. Some see it as limiting; lighting and camera placement have to accommodate four cameras simultaneously, and although there is no chance to re-light for closeups, the stars must look as attractive as possible in order to keep viewers coming back. Dibie has always viewed this as a challenge rather than a limitation, and when he and Isidore Mankofsky, ASC served on the Board of Governors at the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, they were instrumental in convincing the academy to offer an Emmy Award for filmed multicamera shows. That honor was introduced just six years ago. It was on Barney Miller that Dibie worked out his approach to lighting for multi-camera work. He knew what he didn’t want: the look of most other videotaped sitcoms. To Dibie, those shows seemed overlit; light came from everywhere, and none of it appeared to be motivated by practicals or windows. Also, there was rarely any change in the look from scene to scene or episode to episode. Early black-and-white multi-camera shows also tended to use more frontal light than Dibie liked. In fact, he doesn’t cite any predecessors in multi-camera shooting as an inspiration for his work. The cornerstone of his approach was what he calls the “Dibie square” theory of lighting. This refers to his desire to light the stage so that any areas where an actor plays a scene with another can have one light act as one performer’s key and the other’s backlight, and a second light that does the same thing coming from the other direction. “I always wanted to have back/crosslighting,” he says. Fill came from very diffused lights pointing straight down from the grid and above the cameras facing the stage. But wherever possible, the key lights functioned as back/crosses. “When I worked with the production designer, I always made sure there were windows and practicals in rooms or hallways. If windows weren’t feasible, I at least wanted practicals — something to motivate the light.” Dibie is quick to add that he is not a slave to the concept of precise lighting motivation. “I worry about source up to a point,” he says. “I want to give you the feel of the source. We are in the movie business, and the most important thing is to tell stories and make you feel the story is real.” ¢ Left: Dibie checks the light on Mary Tyler Moore for the 1976 TV special Mary’s Incredible Dream. Above: The cinematographer and his crew set up a shot on the series Buffalo Bill, a multicamera show shot on 35mm. American Cinematographer 61

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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