American Cinematographer - April 2021 - 67

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER ASCMAG.COM

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FEIL FAMILY.

In Memoriam
Gerald Feil, ASC (1933-2021)

Feil's big break into
narrative production
came with theater
director Peter Brook's
harrowing screen
adaptation of Lord of
the Flies.

Gerald Feil, ASC, who was known
for helping to create " direct cinema " and for contributing camerawork to the 1963 feature Lord of
the Flies, died Feb. 9 at the age
of 87.
Born in New York City on May
1, 1933, Feil earned a B.A. in
theater arts from Antioch College
in Ohio, where he and another
student founded, constructed
and programmed the campus
radio station, which later became
an NPR affiliate. As a student,
he served as lighting designer
for four summer seasons of the
Antioch Shakespeare Festival
and for the Cincinnati Symphony
Orchestra. He became a principal
stringer for the NBC regional
station WLWD (now WDTN) in
Dayton after it carried his filmed
coverage of a devastating tornado. After college, he returned
to New York, where he designed
the lighting for several Broadway
musical and dramatic productions until being drafted into the
U.S. Army. Assigned to the Army
Pictorial Center in Queens, N.Y.,

Feil worked as an apprentice on
large-scale, Hollywood-style
studio productions and complex
shoots in distant locations.
After his discharge, Feil joined
the new " cinéma vérité " group
of Drew Associates, which was
formed by pioneering documentarians Robert Drew, Richard Leacock, D.A. Pennebaker and Albert
Maysles. As technical director for
the filmmakers, Feil worked with
Leacock and Pennebaker on the
design of a radical new technology; this resulted in lightweight,
autonomous, self-contained
camera systems, which incorporated wireless sync, ergonomic
handheld design and high-quality
zoom optics. Their observational approach became known as
" direct cinema. " One result of this
collaboration was the innovative
documentary Adventures on the
New Frontier (1961), a candid cinematic portrait of then-presidential candidate John F. Kennedy.
Such off-the-cuff shooting with
sync sound was cutting-edge at
the time.

Feil's big break into narrative
production came with theater
director Peter Brook's harrowing
screen adaptation of Lord of
the Flies, as he wanted to apply
the direct-cinema approach to
the project, which had minimal
scripting and was shot entirely
on location (and in sequence)
in Puerto Rico with non-actor
children. Brought aboard as an
associate producer, Feil worked
closely with director of photography Tom Hollyman, photographed
significant portions of the picture
as a secondary cinematographer,
and also worked in the editing
room with Brook. His subsequent
projects included the features
He Knows You're Alone, Savage
Dawn, Silent Madness and the
Rolling Stones concert film Let's
Spend the Night Together (directed by Hal Ashby).
Having heavily researched 3D
camera technology for a Mike
Nichols feature project that fell
through, Feil was able to apply
what he'd learned to the Paramount feature Friday the 13th
Part III, for which he helped refine
the " Arrivision " 3D camera system
and aided in designing specialized
lighting and framing techniques
to best exploit the stereoscopic
presentation.
Starting in 1993, Feil served
as a faculty member in the film
department of New York University's Tisch School of the Arts.
He received the Excellence in
Teaching Award in 1994 and the
Distinguished Service Award in
1996.
Feil was invited to join the ASC
as an active member in 1998,
and was personally recommended by Society members Haskell
Wexler, Richard Shore and Caleb
Deschanel.
He is survived by his wife, Hila,
and daughter, Anna.

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American Cinematographer - April 2021

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