American Cinematographer - October 2014 - 62

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Persistence of Vision
you want to use, you can use it.
I mention this: I don't care for
blue and I don't care for too many
primaries, because there is so much
color built into the structure of motion
pictures; because it's very hard to control
it as it's picked, if you go into monotone.
It seems like there is nothing there, and
it hits the screen and there is a lot there.
But, I don't know how anyone
else feels, I sort of like that earth tone -
black and browns and things like that,
generally speaking.
Tavoularis: All three of us have
agreed to that ... And, also, the nature
of this film being a masculine film, with
gangsters, and it's like - not a colorful
film. And, besides that, I just have a
personal preference for staying away
from bright colors.
Coppola: I have always, even for
other films, always believed in a muted
color.

To ensure a
smooth
succession for
his son, Vito
Corleone
(Marlon Brando)
shares all the
wisdom he's
accumulated
after decades
as the mob's
top boss.

should be -
Tavoularis:
Just
like
I
mentioned; if somebody in 1989 wants
to make a '68 film, they would look at
Midnight Cowboy and Easy Rider and
have zooms and a socio-political
content in their film. And I think that
would be a valid thing.
Willis: I tend to lean [on] my
own feelings, and it's a very fine line. As
I mentioned to you, I tend to lean
toward the tableau.
Coppola: That's a very strong
element of it.
Willis: A great deal. As a matter
of fact, if you looked over films that are
so-called contemporary films, you'd find
there are no zooms. But tableau is a very
strong form of statement, even used
relative to cuts.
Coppola: But it's very right for
this material, because this is classic
drama in a way, and the tableau - from
the first time you mentioned that, I have
62

October 2014

been thinking from that point of view
in terms of the staging.
A period color scheme
Willis: Let me ask one question.
The color coordination for the movie,
let's talk about that for a minute,
because this is the beginning, and we
can carry it through.
When you sort of think of 1945,
everything especially related to films,
and everybody always relates it to a
black-and-white period in everybody's
mind. But we are not doing that. We are
doing a color movie, right?
Now, my feeling is that [we
should give] thought to every counterpoint, or the position of the scenes, New
York, Sicily, and whatever. But I don't
know how anybody else feels, but I,
generally, feel that I work, myself, as
often to get the color in a movie down
to where it's at a minimum, so to speak.
So that, when you have something that
American Cinematographer

More on color
Willis: Well, I have an idea and I
have to shoot some material to show you
two guys. I almost did it in one film.
There is a difference between
America, what we are shooting here and
what we shoot in Sicily. There is a
difference there. But I am going to run
some tests and I think it will work very
nicely.
I want to shoot all of the New
York material. It's a chocolate color.
What happens is, it's brownish, chocolate. When you put it across, it doesn't
really destroy the color; but what
happens is, in things like blues and
browns and things, it tends to make it
dirty. It tends to cut through. So when
you go to Sicily, they increase a little bit.
They played with them in the lab
one night.
Coppola: It came out so unusual.
Willis: And, you see, I like to
keep laboratories out of our business as
much as possible, unless there is somebody really special. Because I like to just
tie everybody in so that when they start
to go through the other things, they
couldn't do a damned thing with it. If
you fight to eliminate this and eliminate
American Cinematographer - October 2014

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