American Cinematographer - May 1990 - 49

the floor and the furniture while
the scene played. It gave it a very

interesting effect. But it was all
challenging because there
was no definite plan, no rules to
follow and much of it thought out
just as we were doing it. It also
very

made it kind of fun, too."
Alonzo's exposure range

considerably enhanced
throughout The Guardian with

was

two

new

stocks,

Eastman Kodak film

one

of which is the ASA

500 5296.

"We had a very hard
getting enough of it at the
beginning of the production,"
Alonzo says. "But the 96 restores
the tremendous underexposure
time

latitude we lost when the 94 was
introduced. In Eastman's efforts
to make a finer grained film they
took away the underexposure
latitude. I said, 'This is no longer

high speed film, if by high
speed we understand that you
can shoot in low
light levels.'
"But the 96 is extremely
sensitive and terrific for night
photography," he goes on. "It
picks up almost any ambient
light that you throw in. You can
just do much more subtle lighting
a

with that stock. I've rated the 96
at 1000

(ASA) at times, to

really

put it on the edge, especially
when

you're using a lot of fog or

smoke, to make a very thin veil of

light, and it works terrifically.
"I've also tried the 96 for

day interiors
The actor

can

very successfully.
feel as if he's in an

ordinarily lit environment be¬
cause
you can use a few small
units rather than a couple of lOKs
staring at him. The advantage of
the 5245 is that there's no (ND) 85
filter required," Alonzo says, "so
it's

point, however. It's just that he
prepares so well that he has the
flexibility to deviate, to go on a
different tangent, to work with
the location

numbers?"
The camera is situated
some 75
yards away from the
action. The lens is a Panavision
scene

Primo 150mm.

shot

single storyboard
as drawn. It did give us a starting
one

Novaflex

640mm. "Those are ancient,
German made," he says. "They're
a

for an extreme telephoto look.
Still photographers used them for

sporting events and nature pho¬
tography. I had them adapted to
the Panavision

One
that

never

rare

telephotos on hand, a 400mm and

processing (at Technicolor) for

"everything's straight."
"Billy had a lot of things
storyboarded," Alonzo says,
studying the field where Friedkin
is conferring with actors, "but we

Among others,

Alonzo has two

They're

The Guardian. "No," he says,

he finds it and

improvise very freely. I mean,
Billy can tell you the numbers of
every scene we're doing. How
many directors remember the

very pure exposure."
Alonzo did not use any
filtration over the lens or special
a

as

them

on

camera

years ago.

very sharp.We used
this picture when we

really wanted to stack the image.
reason

I like Panavision is

they have the maximum
variety of lenses available. I like
the design of the camera but it's
the inventory of lenses that really
appeals to me. The Primos are
sharp, extraordinary, especially
the Primo zoom. They're the best
lenses around today.

May 1990

"We had a special 8mm
fisheye for the POV of the child.
We had

a 10mm for a POV of the
wolves in the film. The image sort
of wraps around as you're run¬

Hospital scene
Lowell beside
incubator as

Seagrove lurks in
background.

ning out of the house and into the
forest with that lens. Now, he

may not use these images. They
were not in the
script. Nothing in
the script read, 'POV of baby' or
'POV of wolves.' He does these

things

as he goes along - mak¬
a movie for him is a very
immediate thing, a very present

ing

tense

experience."
Though the actors are
virtually in the center of the field,
the 250mm lens compresses them
up against a backdrop of arbors.
"The omnipresent forest,"
Alonzo comments. The shot is

completed in two takes. Only one
is printed. "That's more than
usual," Alonzo adds. "It's usually
one take and
print. That's it."
Awhile later, for shots of
the thieves pursuing Carmilla
and the child in to the forest,
Alonzo describes how he uses
mirrors to add fill light to Jenny

Seagrove. "There's

unlit side
light
"Normally I might
an

to her that I want to throw

on," he says.

do that with a regular shinyboard
reflector. But at this position

American

Cinematographer

with

47
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