American Cinematographer - January 2010 - 76

◗ The Right Stuff Stephen Burum, ASC. Deschanel then shot two more films for Ashby, the Rolling Stones concert film Let’s Spend the Night Together (1983) and the comedy The Slugger’s Wife (1985). The Stones film offered him a chance to coordinate multi-camera shooting at an array of large arena concerts. Deschanel recalls that Ashby was dividing his time between the Stones film and another project during prep, and the cinematographer often found himself planning coverage based on the band’s frustratingly impermanent set list. The Stones weren’t always delighted to find themselves on camera while offstage, he adds. “At one point, Keith Richards spotted [Steadicam inventor] Garrett Brown filming him backstage and turned and shoved the Steadicam really hard. Now, Garrett’s 6-foot-6, and he doesn’t like people shoving his Steadicam. I saw the expression on Garrett’s face, and I knew he would really like to pummel Richards; I also knew that would not be a good idea five minutes before the show! I caught Garrett’s eye and shook my head. Fortunately, he calmed down, regrouped and followed the Stones out onstage in front of 75,000 screaming fans. It’s an amazing shot.” Philip Kaufman’s adaptation of Tom Wolfe’s nonfiction bestseller The Right Stuff (AC Nov. ’83) offered Deschanel the chance to try his hand at an epic canvas. “The movie tries to get to what ‘the right stuff ’ means and who has it,” he says. “There are two perspectives: Chuck Yeager’s and the astronauts’. It’s two different eras but the same idea. Yeager lives in a simpler world, whereas the astronauts live in a world of hype and bravado. But after the astronauts get squeezed through the hype and come out the other end, they survive with the right stuff, too.” Asked about one of the film’s most famous images — the shot that shows the astronauts walking down a hallway — Deschanel remarks, “I think those images only have meaning within the larger context of the whole film. You have to earn the right to say, Top: Deschanel checks Robert Redford’s light during filming of The Natural as the actor chats with director Barry Levinson. Right: Levinson and Deschanel line up a shot. blew it up to 35mm and it still looked ‘too good.’ We ended up making prints of the 16mm material and then striking negatives from the prints to give it more of the gritty, contrasty look we wanted.” The experience was valuable, “and I think a lot of the movie is cool, but I’m afraid it became a series of mechanical devices that overtook the story.” While seeking his next cinematography opportunity, Deschanel was approached by Hal Ashby about shooting Being There. The two had met when Deschanel was still at USC, planning a documentary about film editors that never came to fruition; 76 January 2010 Ashby had been a successful editor before moving on to directing. Ashby took a chance on Deschanel despite the fact that neither of his two previous features had opened yet. Being There, which stars Peter Sellers as a simpleminded gardener who is mistaken for a brilliant political philosopher, “is probably the film most influenced by my relationship with Gordon Willis,” says Deschanel. “The way I lit the film and our use of tableau-style shots were all influenced by my internship with Gordy.” Soon thereafter, Deschanel made his feature-directing debut with The Escape Artist (1982), shot by American Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - January 2010

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