American Cinematographer - May 1988 - 63

periodically, wearing increasingly

a

colorful and dramatic costumes,

veteran of 25

only to be studiously ignored by

tures. "Richard and I have worked

director Bernard L. Kowalski.

together before and know each oth¬
er's likes," she said. "He wants light
makeup: no pancake, nothing
heavy or drippy - the clean make¬
up look, so men look like men and
women look like
girls."

In the center of this swirl

of

activity every day and night was
energetic, sportily-dressed man
whose duty it was to put on film the
an

wishes of the director, the ambience
of the location and the art of the

performers. For Richard Glouner,
ASC, the director of photography,
Beekman's Place provided a tough
but interesting assignment.
"I

five

and

was

weeks

seven

Glouner

-

on

the show for

two weeks

weeks

of

shooting,"

after

noted

of prep

the

wrap.

"Scoey Mitchlll, the executive pro¬
ducer as well as the leading player,
and Don Boyle, the supervising
producer, hired me. It was the hard¬
est production I've been on in 32
years in the business. It took too
long to get it done, because there
was not
enough pre-planning, but
we all rode it out
very well.
"We averaged anywhere
from 16 to 20 or 22 hours a day As a
consequence my entire camera
crew had a couple of days off be¬
of illness. I

cause

was

too dumb to

get sick so I didn't miss a day. It was
really an endurance test. After a
while

doing the leading
lady's close-ups at four or five in the
morning, which is totally wrong.
We should do her close-ups at four
in the afternoon because people's
faces fall when they get tired. It's
we

were

long shooting day, and she is a
years of motion pic¬

"We lit two

city blocks

it looked like about

-

a

half mile. It's

one

of

the

biggest shots
they've done in TV in
years..
When

composing the im¬

ages, Glouner allowed for the fact
that the picture was being made for
both television and theatrical
"We

use.

protected Academy and full
apertures, so throughout the whole
thing we gave them a clean, square
picture area," he revealed. "We
worked in a square aperture be¬
cause it
gave us two media to work
with. They can go to 1.85 or full
aperture if they want to in Europe
and it's protected for television here.
They hope to get a TV series out of
it. It should be a good show, be¬
cause it's an
interesting piece about

interesting people doing interesting
things.
"Scoey and Don wrote it.
Scoey is chief of staff of a hospital.
His wife has a heart attack, wipes
out her Mercedes and is placed in
the trauma center, where she dies.
Now

Scoey decides to leave the hos¬
pital and set up a clinic in the poor
part of town, a depressed neighbor¬
hood that he grew up in. He wants
to give back what he got from life.
People come in with everything.
There's a little girl who's 13 and
pregnant and is an addict. We have
a
guy who's electrocuted when his
bulldozer hits a 220 line. One night
Scoey's car is stripped. It's life. And
there are flashy cars, elitist groups,
a lot of real
working stiffs, and the
poor - the really poor."
To photograph the varied
locations and action of such
demanded

a

story

large complement of
equipment. "Our cameras were Ara

riflex BL4s and BL3s, a 2C, a Bell
and Howell Eyemo, and we used

speed cameras several times in one
night for a car crash," Glouner dis¬
closed. "We used the Eyemo as a
remote

camera

-

in the

sense

that

nobody

the
just
set the stop and turned it on and got
away from it. We also had an un¬
manned speed camera. We used
Gil Casper's insert cars, the same
car

was operating it - in
crash. In other words, we

also difficult because the actors and
the

crew

people aren't thinking

well."

Of course, movies are sel¬
dom made under ideal conditions,
and the cinematographer must
know what to do about it. "When

shooting the ladies I used a Mitchell
B

filter, and if it

was

five in the

morning I also used a net,"
Glouner explained. "I'd raise the
camera, because that gets rid of
sagging chins, and get a fan and
blow

some

air in their faces to let

them wake up a

little bit. Marci, the

makeup artist, would come in and
put some drops in their eyes to
clear the red out."

Glouner maps out

Marci Anderson is
and vivacious, even near

pretty
the end of

of

<

producerstar Scoey Mitchlll.
scene

May 1988

American

Cinematographer

61
American Cinematographer - May 1988

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 1988
