American Cinematographer - April 2011 - 48

◗

A Woman on the Verge
(The negative was processed at Technicolor New York.) He opted for 35mm lenses. “I wanted the feel of the coverage that 35mm lenses provide,” he says. The camera package, from Arri CSC, comprised two sets of Cooke S4s (ranging from 14mm to 150mm), two Arri Master Zooms (16.5-110mm) and a Cooke Varotal Prime Zoom (1030mm). “Many cinematographers find the Arri zoom heavy and cumbersome, but I was really happy with it because of the lack of focus breathing,” Lachman reports. “We stayed away from the wider-angle lenses because Todd wanted that 1970s look, which seemed to favor the medium range. We pretty much stayed between 32mm and 75mm.” Another characteristic of American films of the 1970s is that camera movement is often motivated solely by the actors. In a similar vein, “Todd didn’t want the camera to be independent of the actors or their movements,” Lachman says. “It was [the opposite] of Sirk, who liked the camera to have its own methodology and move independently from the character in order to create a state of mind or a world for the character. By comparison, Seventies movies had a much more restrictive camera, due to the use of static camera positions or because the camera was motivated primarily by the actors’ movements. Consequently, the camera style was much more formal.” Lachman laughs as he recalls the first day of production. “Todd said, ‘We’re not going to dolly in this film. The camera will always be on a tripod.’ Of course, the first shot we did was a tracking shot of Mildred walking into the restaurant, seen through a glass pie case. And we tracked or adjusted with the dolly for the rest of the film!” The only handheld scene in the picture is used to show a humiliated Mildred storming out of a mansion where she interviews for a job as a servant. (Steadicam was never employed.) Lachman’s lighting was always motivated, usually by windows and practical lamps. In general, he prefers to

Lachman’s lighting in the show is always motivated, usually by windows or practical sources.

through a digital intermediate almost mimics the way film looked 20 or 30 years ago, because it has a little more grain structure. But the reason I really wanted to shoot film was for the exposure latitude, which I still feel is greater on film than any digital format, and for the color rendition.” Noting that the film’s color palette comprises secondary colors — muted yellows, greens and maroons —
48 April 2011

Lachman observes, “Color temperatures are different on film and digital formats, and colors definitely render differently. Furthermore, digital chips are daylightbalanced, and I don’t care if someone tells me you can change it to 3,200°K, because it still affects the color temperature when you are shooting.” He used three Kodak stocks on Mildred Pierce: Vision3 500T 7219 and 250D 7207 and Vision2 50D 7201.
American Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - April 2011

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 2011