American Cinematographer - August 2008 - (Page 27) Mulder and Scully’s relationship and how it’s affected by this case; there are some really intense scenes between them.” X-Files creator Chris Carter, who is making his feature-directing debut with the new film, notes that although its subject differentiates it from the first X-Files feature, the conspiracy-themed Fight the Future (directed by Rob Bowman and shot by Ward Russell; AC July ’98), the visual goals were essentially the same. “I wanted David and Gillian to look great onscreen, and I knew there were things we wanted to obscure, to hide in shadows,” says Carter. “I’d call that the heart and soul of the X-Files look: certain things are scary because you half-see them.” Touching on another stylistic hallmark of the series, which grounded fantastic subject matter in realistic settings, he adds, “We shot a lot of this movie in snow, in urban environments and in medical environments — one sterile, one not-sosterile — and the nature of those environments dictated the look of the movie. The look is the look of The X-Files; we didn’t really want to change that.” Given that The X-Files scored a record 10 ASC Award nominations during its nine years on the air, few would argue with him. The pilot, shot by Thomas A. Del Ruth, ASC, started the run; John S. Bartley, ASC, CSC, the series’ original director of photography, earned three nominations; Joel Ransom, CSC, earned one; and Roe, who shot the series from 1998-2002, earned five, winning twice (for “Drive” and “Agua Mala”). Throughout the show’s remarkable evolution from an ultra-low-budget effort shot in a drafty brewery (see sidebar on page 32) to an international hit that cost $4 million per episode, it looked like nothing else on television. “John Bartley deserves an enormous amount of credit for defining the look, Joel Ransom and Jon Joffin took it further, and Bill, from day one, just effortlessly had it,” says Frank Spotnitz, an executive producer/writer on the series and producer/co-writer of I Want to Believe. The show’s venerated style was never easy, however. “Everything in the X-Files world wants to feel designed,” Spotnitz observes. “It’s composed and shot so the pieces feel like they were meant to cut together. It’s a very formal style, a hard one to pull off, and reconnecting with it after six years was probably harder for me than reconnecting with the characters.” Roe’s expertise in that style, and the close working relationship he and Carter established on the series, led the director to invite him aboard I Want to Believe, the cinematographer’s third feature. “On the set, Bill has the presence of everyone’s favorite dad: gentle but very commanding,” says Carter, who was prepping another picture with the cinematographer, an independent feature, when he spoke to AC. “He has done every job in the camera department, so there’s a sense you’re with a true journeyman. His lighting is very painterly … and he is, thank God, an inveterate operator, so he really helps you work out the shots.” Opposite page: Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) discuss an ongoing FBI investigation in rural Virginia. This page, top: Father Joseph Crissman (Billy Connolly), a defrocked priest, leads agents on a search of a snowy field. Left: Crissman’s violent vision of a victim stuns Mulder and FBI Agent Whitney (Amanda Peet). Photos courtesy of 20th Century Fox. American Cinematographer 27
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