American Cinematographer - December 2007 - (Page 49)

approach, he and Scott took inspiration from a few classic crime films: The French Connection (1971), Serpico (1973) and Prince of the City (1981). “We didn’t want to ape those films, but I think their color palette is what evokes that period in people’s minds — or helps to sell it,” explains Savides. “If this movie had the color and resolution of modern films, it wouldn’t play as well.” During preproduction, the filmmakers decided to finish the picture photochemically — “no digital intermediate [DI], nothing artificial,” says the cinematographer. “I had in mind that we would treat the print somehow in the end, but I wasn’t sure what that process would be.” Working closely with Technicolor, Savides tested different strengths of the company’s patented ENR process on various stocks. He also tested Technicolor’s new OZ process, named for its creators, Bob Olson and Mike Zacharia. “We weren’t initially interested in what we saw with the OZ process, but it was still being tweaked at that point, so we didn’t reject it altogether,” recalls Savides. “We knew we would do something to the film in post, but we didn’t determine the specific process until later.” Savides filmed American Gangster on a single stock, Kodak Vision2 Expression 500T 5229, rating it at 1000 and pull-developing the negative by 1 stop to achieve softer contrast and reduced color saturation. “Considering Ridley’s mandate about the look, I did whatever I could to get rid of the incredible contrast and vivid saturated colors,” he says. “I didn’t go as far as flashing the negative, but I did what I could to get close to the black-and-white feel he wanted.” The catch, of course, was that as Savides was working to desaturate the image, he was reducing the contrast and the strength of blacks on the negative. “By pulling and underexposing I got a flatter negative, which, of course, did not create the kind of blacks Ridley likes. I was a little worried, honestly, because I wasn’t sure what we were going to do in post to get those blacks back — ENR, partial ENR, OZ, or possibly just print on [Kodak Vision] Premier Opposite: Harlem drug lord Frank Lucas (Denzel Washington) finds his every move scrutinized by Det. Richie Roberts (Russell Crowe) in American Gangster. This page, top: Lucas urges criminal colleague Nicky Barnes (Cuba Gooding Jr.) to tone down his flamboyance. Below: Roberts and his police cohorts stake out an Ali-Frazier heavyweight championship fight in the hope of photographing the elusive Lucas. Photos courtesy of Universal Pictures. American Cinematographer 49

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American Cinematographer - December 2007

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