American Cinematographer - October 1989 - 72

focused

directly on the couch to
stripe of daylight across the
foreground. Another 2K with a salmoncolored gel was bounced off a white card
to simulate the subtle warm glow of a 75
watt practical on camera left.
Elmes requested that the back
walls be painted mauve, a color that he
likes because "it's very rich, and, in a
way, soothing". Two 5Ks outside the
window created a dappled imprint on the
back wall, modulated by the folds of a
diaphanous curtain. The effect is of re¬
flected sunlight from a bright object out¬
was

create a hot

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side. Two 2 Ks bounced off a low white
card outside the window evened out the
"hot" curtain. The back corner was left
dark.

Elmes' comments
dued

on

lighting: "It's definitely

a

this sub¬

day inte¬

rior, but it has

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a sense of drama to it. It's
chance to see some shadows, and not
have to explain everything visually. We
let the back corner of the room and the

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shadows on the side of their faces go
kind of dark. That's what appealed to me:
to take a day interior and still not explain

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everything fully."
One of the themes that Elmes
addressed for the workshop was the

importance of the ratio of key light to fill
light. A 2K was bounced off of white
cards tilted above the camera to provide
fill light for the subjects in the fore¬
ground. Elmes wanted to show the stu¬
dents "how the amount of fill light affects
the dramatic impact of the scene." The
workshop footage was shot with two
different key to fill ratios: 5:1 and 10:1
Technically, Elmes explains
that "the fill light is a way to compensate
for the film stock's inability to see as
wide a contrast range as I do with my
eye." He stresses the importance of plac¬
ing a "very soft fill, right behind the
camera" to add light uniformly to the
scene, without creating shadows. By
varying the key to fill ratio, the cinema¬
tographer can then "control the amount
of detail that the film sees." Elmes adds
that negative flashing provides "another

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Key to fill ratios are integral to
cinematographic approach. When
preparing for a feature, he shoots a range
of key to fill ratios with the film emul¬
Elmes'

sions he will work with. "I do this test to

figure out what the laboratory will de¬
liver. Every lab develops the film slightly
differently. It's a subtle thing, but I've
American Cinematographer - October 1989

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