American Cinematographer - September 1968 - 36

With more films than
ever being photographed
in actual locations,
the time has come to
reappraise equipment
and techniques, with an
eye toward more creative,
more efficient and more
economical production

Director of Photography Andrew Laszlo, ASC, (in white shirt) supervises filming of hand-held camera scene
in actual New York apartment stairway location for "YOU'RE A BIG BOY NOW."

RECENT TRENDS IN
LOCATION LIGHTING
By

ANDREW

LASZLO,

ASC

Motion picture photography has
come a long way since the days of
the hand-cranked camera. Lately the
technique
of cinematography has
veered off the straight avenue which it
has so masterfully followed over the
years of experimentation, development
and achievement. Though this avenue
is still followed faithfully, as it should
be, the deviation is indeed a sharp
turn, which seems to be taking us back
in the direction followed by the early
moviemakers. These early moviemakers
would be envious of us for the won¬
derful new facilities we now have.
Better cameras, lenses, faster films
(both black-and-white and color), and,
of course, lighting equipment.
Perhaps it would be interesting to
briefly recap the events in cinematog¬
raphy from its start to the present. I
can't help remembering what a pioneer
cameraman once told me while rem¬
iniscing about his early days in the
film industry. His lens, he said, had
three stops on it. One was about F/5.6
for overcast, one about F/8 for sun¬

666

shine and one which had no F value,
was called "Florida." While this may
sound odd, I believe it accurately de¬
scribes what these early film-makers
were up against. Of course, their lot
improved when the big exodus to Cali¬
fornia eliminated two of these three
F-stops and the one which until then
had been called "Florida" became
"California" while the overcast F-stop
became a thing of the past.
Perhaps, as an intermarriage of the
theatre and movies, film-makers found
some obvious advantages in working
in a studio, even though at times it
was a definite disadvantage to have
to keep turning these outdoor stages
on casters in the direction of the set¬
ting sun. As there is nothing really
impossible in the motion picture busi¬
ness, the "artificial" sun was soon in¬
vented and put to good use, much to
the delight, or dismay as the case may
be, of our burly "Stage turners." The
improvement was such that, in some
cases, the artificial sun has proved to
be far more reliable than the real

one. For one thing, it holds its color
temperature even at six in the after¬
noon. It doesn't move, but can be
moved more readily than our stage
on casters could. So now we had ar¬
rived at the point where we could
illuminate stages of all sizes within a
studio and almost convincingly photo¬
graph exterior scenes under the studio
roof without worrying about clouds,
rain or nightfall.
It is indeed ironic that just as we
have arrived at these perfect and ideal
conditions, suddenly the trend seems to
be forcing us again to move out of
the studio into real locations-day and
night, winter or summer, exterior or
interior. In a way this is a curious fate,
an ironic twist of circumstances and
while, after some careful analysis, we
could, I am sure, come up with the
reasons why this change in trend is
taking place, I feel that these reasons
are really not as important as the one
single fact that this situation exists
and, like it or not, we must live with it.
I must say that I personally like it.

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER, SEPTEMBER 1968

American Cinematographer - September 1968

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