American Cinematographer - March 2009 - 60

A Very Active Member Right: Mankofsky poses at the ocean’s edge with a “maneating dolphin” during production of the Warner Bros. comedy One Crazy Summer (1986) in Nantucket. The film was Mankofsky’s second gig with director and gifted animator Savage Steve Holland, following their collaboration on the hit comedy Better Off Dead. Below: The cinematographer, who can’t swim, climbed into the prop dolphin to grab a POV shot through its mouth. starts to slow down, I’ll go and do it myself.” When time came for the Ewok sequel, Mankofsky shot first unit for directors Jim and Ken Wheat. Actor Wilford Brimley didn’t get along with the directing duo, so scenes featuring Brimley were directed by production designer and future director Joe Johnston. “I would quietly go over to Wilford and ask him to move his hat a bit so I could see his eyes, and he’d say, ‘Oh, sure,’” recalls Mankofsky. “If the Wheats had asked that, he would have thrown them out.” Over the next 10 years, Mankofsky shot numerous TV movies, including Fatal Judgment (1988), A Very Brady Christmas (1988) and The Heidi Chronicles (1995). He earned Emmy nominations for Polly (1989); Love, Lies and Murder (1991); and Afterburn (1992). He won an ASC Award for Love, Lies and Murder and notched additional nominations from the Society for Davy Crockett: Rainbow in the Thunder (1989) and Trade Winds (1994). In 1991, Mankofsky reunited with the Muppets to shoot a special- venue film in 3-D, a new format for him. On MuppetVision 3-D, which still plays at Disney theme parks today, Mankofsky was the creative cinematographer while Peter Anderson, ASC served as the technical cameraman. “Peter wanted to shoot tests every day, but the producer came in and said, ‘Just shoot, and if it doesn‘t turn out, then that can be considered the test,’” Mankofsky says. “We only had to reshoot one day out of the whole schedule, and that was because the cameras went out of sync.” Mankofsky remembers the massive amount of light needed for the shoot: “On a big outdoor set where Miss Piggy is fishing, I had 100 coops that each held six 1,000watt bulbs just to get the fill-light level where we wanted it. For keylight, I had an 18K, and for backlight, I had a Xenon. It got so hot up in the permanents that we had to stop shooting; it overpowered the air-conditioner! I needed 1,600 footcandles and had no idea how to get that, but after turning on all those coops, I put my meter up, and it read 1,600 footcandles exactly. Whew!” When Mankofsky started down his cinematography path, he had two goals: to win an Academy Award and to join the ASC. The goal he has met has turned out to be the most rewarding, he says. A former member of the Society’s Board of Governors, he serves as the Society’s secretary and chairs several committees, including the Heritage Award Committee, the Constitution and Bylaws Committee and the Newsletter Committee. Recently, he was the curator of an exhibit of ASC members’ still photography. “I don’t know why I do all those things!” he laughs. “When I was in the service, they told me to never volunteer for anything. But I’ve never been one to just sit around the house.” I 60 March 2009

American Cinematographer - March 2009

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