American Cinematographer - November 1988 - 77

Not Since Casanova-Feature Debut
by Brett Thompson
Not Since Casanova is a comedy-fantasy
about the Casanova Syndrome, also known
as the Peter Pan Complex. It tells the story of

of the

Following is Thompsons account
making of the film:
The script for Not Since Ca¬

a young man who has prolonged his child¬
hood fantasies of eternal youth Into his adult
life. Unable to make any commitments in his

sanova

called for several dream sequences,

love life, he drifts from girlfriend to girlfriend.
He finally meets the right woman, and goes

also scenes of the hero's childhood, some of
which were later shot on Super 8 and blown

through the painful

35mm.
Unfortunately, exploitation films
have become the required entrance for
young filmmakers into the feature film mar¬
ket. We knew that our story would not fit

process

of coming to

terms with himself.

The film is the first feature film
for both director Brett

Thompson and his

director of photography Andreas Kossak.
Director Brett Thompson is a graduate of the
California Institute of the Arts, which he
attended on a Walt Disney Scholarship. After
his graduation he worked for Robert Wise
and the Overseas Filmgroup. He was the
director of the Olympic Film Festivals in Los

Angeles and Lake Placid.
German-born cinematographer
Andreas Kossak graduated in

1985 from USC

School of Cinema and Television. His teach¬
ers in cinematography included Ralph Woolsey, ASC,

and Gene Polito, ASC. He also shot

commercials, industrials, music videos, and
short feature in North Carolina for
television.

a

public

and

sequence in which all the girlfriends
become animated characters. There were
a

up to

into the

narrow

frames of commercial

genres. We tried to stay clear of all influ¬
ences that would steer us in those direc¬
tions. As a result we raised all the money
and

kept full control. The trade-off was that

we

had to do everything inexpensively.
With our training and experi¬

ence, we

knew we could multiply the appar¬

ent value of our film many times. Thus we
went out to shoot a feature in 35mm color

and widescreen. We had

an

Arriflex BL3

with Zeiss

high speed lenses, and
our sound was recorded digitally on half¬
inch video tape. Our lighting equipment
camera

consisted of two Arriflex location

November 1988

kits, three reflectors, and

couple of

a

C-Stands. There were no resources for tests
or dailies. It just had to work.
Before we started, we examined
how very low budget films were put togeth¬
er. We found that many films compromise

image quality because they imitate higher
budget films. As a result, their limitations
show up even more. To avoid this mistake,
we tried to keep things smaller, but maintain
quality. Making our limited resources go a
long way became the first priority in our
planning. Locations were selected to accom¬
modate the use of existing light. The sched¬
ule was arranged to shoot at the optimal
time for lighting. In this respect the judg¬
ment of the cinematographer became very
important in the planning stages.
The use of existing light became
the basis for the lighting strategy. We tried
not to approach a location with pre¬
visualized images and force them onto the
location. Instead, we had to work the other
way

around and remain

open to

location would offer us. Then
follow our instincts and make
out of it.

Technically,

lighting
American

we

Cinematographer

what the

we

would

something

wanted to keep

75
American Cinematographer - November 1988

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