American Cinematographer - May 1990 - 46

The Guardian
Terror in the Forest
by Ric Gentry
Trees sway

in the forest and hiss
through the wind-whipped night
as if the twisted branches were
full of serpents. Each of the trees

air

seems

sentient, menacing and

thoroughly alive. A baby in the
of a young woman reaches
out to them. A correspondence
has been established by the
woman, garbed in nursemaid's
white, to protect the child so that
a later
promise will be realized.
This is the setting for The
arms

Guardian in a Valencia, California
forest preserve on a hot, dry eve¬

ning in early September. The di¬
rector is William

Friedkin, and

it's his first

foray into the horror
genre since The Exorcist 18 years
ago. Beside him, observing the
movements

Alonzo has eight 1200
on each of two Con¬
dor cranes with spot globes di¬

we're

recting the illumination into the
forest at oblique angles. One of

nothing soft at all. It's an appro¬
priate way to tell this story, a very
bold way, because the story itself

watt HMIs

the Condors is elevated

feet up, above
and behind the
Panavision Gold

other 20 1200 watt HMIs are po¬
sitioned on stands at ground

of

level, shooting
cuts of

ometry of light

Alonzo, ASC. His
an

beauty.
"Noth¬

Cinematographer

placid domestic setting is grad¬

ual, at first almost unnoticeable,
if

fleeting recollections of
enigmatic dream.
"The

Guardian

an

has

a

mythological, classical premise,"
Friedkin comments. "It's like

something out of the Brothers
Grimm, where the child's life is in

great color contrasts, the

color was actually rather muted,
but the lighting hit on surfaces
and penetrated depths. It was
almost a black and white kind of

working together for the first
time since the early '60s, when
they made documentaries for

were no

lighting.
"That's kind of what

define it."

American

as

his work. There

you can

fabulous creatures, sorcery, nec¬
romancy and a dark forest where
trees feed off the living. But the
intrusions of these chimeras upon

hours to prepare.
"When

a
very strange
kind of lighting to

re¬

marks. "It's not
the look of moon¬

themselves and create

couple
struggle with their mysteri¬
ous, live-in nanny for the posses¬
sion of their recently born child.
Something of a modern fable, The
Guardian is richly inhabited with

jeopardy, only in a contemporary
setting. It's all shot very realisti¬
cally at first, so the unusual
events begin with the realism of
a
documentary. It's kind of like
reading 'Hansel and Gretel' -
but finding it in a newspaper."

ing's traditional
about the light

ments the drama with visuals

Based on
the novel by Dan

who

a

showed me a
wonderful book
of paintings by
New York artist
Fichel. There was

askew, disturbing

light. It's not source light. It's not
an enchanted forest. It's
light
from bizarre angles that aug¬

photography

imposed upon
Nature took five

Billy and I first got
together," Alonzo
later explains, "he

lighting through

44

light into

the trees. This ge¬

tographer John A.

feeling. I don't think

Director of

backlights into the forest. An¬

veteran cinema¬

that justify

is bold."

Joe Wizan, Producer
William Friedkin, director

the tree is a little lower, about 40
feet up, throwing a pattern of

Jenny Seagrove and the
baby swaddled in
pastel blue and
green bunting, is

here," Alonzo

50

a
Greenberg, and
John Alonzo, ASC
humanlike artifi¬
adapted to the
cial tree toward
screen
by Steven
which the actress and her theat¬
Volk and then extended by
rical ward are moving. The other
Friedkin, The Guardian is the story
Condor behind and to the right of
of a young Los Angeles
camera,

actress

the trees has

facing

some

doing here. As you can see,
there's a lot of contrast in the light
and it's all hard light. There's

May 1990

Alonzo and Friedkin

are

producer David Wolper. "We
together," Alonzo

work well
American Cinematographer - May 1990

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