American Cinematographer - December 2017 - 106

Storaro (left)
and Allen plan
their next
setup on the
beach at
Coney Island.

into two different emotive tonalities - I was
able to WRITE WITH LIGHT the story of
Wonder Wheel.
Thanks to Isaac Newton's science
and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Theory
of Colors, and their palette of RED-
ORANGE-YELLOW-GREEN-BLUE-INDIGO-
VIOLET, I had the "seven" colors at my
disposal - but I used the LANGUAGE OF
COLORS, basically extracting only two,
orange and blue, which, although often in
conflict with each other, best helped me to
visually recount the feelings and emotions
of the various protagonists of this story that
starts out as a comedy but takes on increasingly dramatic tones, and certainly
enhanced the different moods of the film.
No one should be afraid of color. We
have to get to know it and its expressive
potentialities. By creating harmony or
conflict between the three primary colors
red/green/blue, and their three complementary colors cyan/magenta/yellow, we can
convey visual emotions to the audience, in
the same way that words convey emotions
in literature, and notes in music. I think a
knowledge of the symbolism, dramaturgy
and physiology of color is fundamental,
particularly in the digital age. It allows us to
use color with greater awareness in the
visual arts, and especially in cinema.
Today, the cinematic image no
longer has the mystery it once had, and a
knowledge of the meanings of LIGHT and
COLORS is both indispensable and essential
to intuit, to suggest, to create and, if necessary, to modify the COLOR IMAGES THAT
THE MONITOR SHOWS US ON THE SET -
106

December 2017

IN FRONT OF EVERYONE.
In digital cinema, the arrival of the
HDR (High Dynamic Range) system that
offers enhanced color saturation and
produces bright, high-contrast, color-saturated images suitable for action movies and
spectacular special effects, may lead us to
believe - as in the 1950s - that this kind
of vision is not appropriate for films about
human feelings or for dramatic stories. To
satisfy the vast young public, HDR images
will be requested for all films. But this will
not be a problem, even for the most creative
movies, as long as we are familiar with the
meanings and symbols of the language of
color. Indeed, it could be a great help if we
use the dramaturgy of color "with awareness," like the great Russian director Sergei
Eisenstein advised us to in the chapter
"Color and Meaning" of his book The Film
Sense. I know that Amazon Studios will
request the HDR version of Wonder Wheel,
and I will be happy to prepare it, because it
will be in line with the vision of the story.
GREEN represents protection from
the dangers of the outside world. Its inner
vitality indicates peace. Positioned in the
middle of the spectrum, it links the two
worlds of Beginning and End, of Light and
Darkness. It divides materiality from the
destiny of spirituality. It is the Color of the
Soul, and represents Knowledge.
The composition and rhythm of
the images captured by the digital cameras
guided by operator Will Arnot, the quality
controls carried out by DIT Simone
American Cinematographer

D'Arcangelo, and the close examination of
those images for the rushes by colorist
Anthony Raffaele at Techniclor-PostWorks in
New York, were certainly fundamental for
me in envisaging, creating and perfecting
the figurative quality of the film during the
entire period of preparation and production.
The latter was actually very fast: 30 days of
shooting. With the digital-intermediate
session, which also took place at Technicolor
with Anthony Raffaele, and with the confirmation of some additional images outside
the windows of the family's apartment
by the visual-effects department of Brainstorm and visual-effects supervisors Rich
Friedlander and Eran Dinur, the visual work
in harmony with the dramaturgy of
Woody's original screenplay was completed.
When every aspect of a film, from its
conception to its realization and postproduction, melds so perfectly, and the various
protagonists and co-authors are in harmony
and well-directed by the director, that film
has all the ingredients for conveying its story
to the audience as effectively as possible.
Indeed, I believe that today's SENSOR and
the film stock that came before it have
always been and will always be more sensitive than technicians tell us. They are actually able to capture the EMOTIONS OF THE
WHOLE CREW THAT PARTICIPATES IN
MAKING A FILM. And when this is done in
CREATIVE HARMONY, there is a probability
that the film will turn out well - THAT IT
WILL BE A GOOD FILM.
BLUE is the color of thought and
intuition; it is conducive to keen intelligence.
Of a spiritual nature, it has something superior to the human being itself; it represents
awareness, its sensory perception is Gentleness, its emotive content, Tenderness.
Psychologically speaking, it increases a
tendency toward Sensibility, its movement is
Centrifugal, it tends to recede from the eye.
Blue is the color of INTELLIGENCE and the
FUTURE.
Leonardo da Vinci says: "A good
painter should paint two principal things:
the man and the concept of his own mind."
While we were wrapping the film, I
heard someone say: "If Woody and Vittorio
have a bit of a future together, who knows
●
what THOSE TWO will do next!"

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