American Cinematographer - March 2010 - 73

Opposite: Sol Negrin, ASC poses at New York’s Hy Brown Studios in 1963. This page, far left: In 1949, Negrin assisted on a series of films entitled Marriage for Moderns at Stevens College in Columbia, Mo. Near left: Negrin works on a documentary with President Harry S. Truman. of Art and Design], showed some of my artwork and got in. It was the only school at that time that taught both still photography and filmmaking, and I gravitated to the film work. I shot short films for the school, which had a lot of Army surplus equipment, including 16mm Cine Special cameras.” Negrin literally pounded on doors in New York looking for work to sustain him through high school. He held a darkroom job for two months, but he didn’t like it. He found his way to Hartley Productions, a company that produced industrials and commercials for clients such as Pan Am and the U.S. government. He started off by sweeping the floor for $5 a week, watching for any opportunity to learn. He was gradually given more responsibility, and after 18 months he became a camera assistant. When he graduated from high school and began working full time at Hartley, he got a ground-floor, hands-on education about everything related to 16mm and 35mm filmmaking. “I worked on commercials, documentaries, industrial films and, eventually, feature films and television,” he says. In 1948, Negrin joined ADTFC/NABET, a union whose membership worked in documentaries and television. By 1952, he was able to join the International Photographers Union-Local 644, which represented commercial and feature-film camera crews. He furthered his training at City College Film Institute and took courses at the RCA Institute through the International Photographers Guild. Negrin worked as a camera assistant from 1948 to 1960 alongside noted ASC cinematographers such as Torben Johnke, Joe Brun, Jack Priestley, Lee Garmes, Joe Biroc, Leo Tover, Harry Stradling Sr., Hans Koenekamp, Charles Lang, Charles “Buddy” “Sol’s efforts to teach the next generation of image-makers their craft are without compare.” — ASC President Michael Goi Lawton, Mario Tosi and Boris Kaufman. “The best part about being an assistant is that you get to observe,” he says. “From Lee Garmes, I learned simplicity. He had an eye for composiwww.theasc.com tion and good taste. He knew his diffusion. He was a master in every respect. I worked with Hans Koenekamp on some visual-effects shots for Damn Yankees. He really knew his effects and was a master lighting cameraman as well. With Charles Lang, we were doing a shoot where Joan Crawford spoke to stockholders of Pepsi-Cola, which she had taken over from her late husband. Charlie photographed her as if it were a feature, using all the diffusion nets and glass as needed. That was an education in itself. Boris Kaufman was from a different generation; he was a master of hard light. Like Harry Stradling, he knew how to use one large source and make it do the work of many lamps.” Negrin had a special relationship with Johnke, who had emigrated from Denmark. “I worked with Torben as an assistant when he first arrived in this country, and later I worked for him as a director of photography when he became a producer and director,” says Negrin. “He was one of my mentors. He had his own techniques, and he taught me a lot. We’re still friends. I worked with him on one of the last Technicolor monopack films, which we shot at the old Fox Studios on 53rd Street. We had the Bell Telephone Orchestra with about 70 musicians. The film was actually Kodachrome reversal stock. When it was processed, they made three matrix March 2010 73 Photos courtesy of Sol Negrin.

http://www.theasc.com

American Cinematographer - March 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2010