American Cinematographer - August 1990 - 50

r

SINGLE FRAME MOTORS '
& INTERVALOMETERS
*CRYSTAL SPEEDS

-

1/16 SEC. TO OVER 8 MIN. TIME

EXPOSURE (8,194 POSSIBLE).
*INTERVALS FROM 1 FPS TO 60 HRS.
*

Fortunately the American Jazz
was also making a re¬
cording there. They were miked
differently and we were able to
use their
recording.

Orchestra

*12 TO 24 VDC POWER

BURST FEATURE 1 TO 15 FRAMES PER PULSE.

*LED FRAME COUNTER

"That

*FOREWARD/REVERSE OPERATIONS.

was a case

where

concert band with

stepping over."

was one

just three

of the first

we

talked about."

In his

capacity as presi¬
dent of the IDA, Engle has a good
position from which to examine
the general health of nonfiction
filmmaking. Not surprisingly, he
sees a
bright future for documen¬
taries.

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"We have seen over the
last few years a rising interest in
nonfiction programming. Many

people are doing terrific work
these days in nonfiction. There's
a lot of stylistic crossover these
days and for the most part, it's
good. (Some of these pseudo¬

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bit," he says.
"Also, there's been a tre¬
mendous resurgence
in

were:

The Thin Blue Line,

Dear America: Letters Home From

Vietnam, Imagine: John Lennon,
and that says something. All
those films are very stylish films,
very rich visually and aurally. The
Thin Blue Line mixed many theat¬

rical

techniques

dolly shots,
crane shots, and very stylized
cinematography - cinematic
techniques for a very real sub¬
-

ject."
On the

subject of re-crea¬

tions: "All re-creations

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keep all the

One secret to staying on
right side of those lines, ac¬
cording to Engle, is in the editing
how the re-creation integrates
the

-

with the rest of the material. "I

don't think anyone

has cut a
documentary quite like we did on
the Roosevelt show. I'm very

proud of it and I thought that,
especially for the time, it was very
original. The idea was that if you
were being pulled
through it on
the narrative level, you wouldn't
mind that you were seeing a col¬
lage of material - you wouldn't
resent that juxtaposition of archi¬
val footage and re-creation.
Some people do philosophi¬
cally resent that. But there were
reasons

terial

for the re-creations. Ma¬
available for many

was

when you

them

A/B/C Roll Time Code Editing,
ULTIMATE, DVE, ADO, SEG, SNG*,
3D Computer Graphics & Animation.

re-creation and what

ting shaken up a bit. That's what
I try to do - shake the form up a

ARRI

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was a

not. I tried to

portions of Roosevelt's life, but
there were also great gaps that

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was

documentaries and bad re-crea¬
tions are inexcusable.) Non-fic¬
tion is full of creative energy
these days, and the form is get¬

of interest
documentary in theaters. At
one point, about a year ago, there
were seven documentaries play¬
ing in first run theaters in Los
Angeles at one time. Among

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thought was a legiti¬
There is never any
confusion or ambiguity about
mate way.

lines clear, and go right up to the
edge of what can be done without

shoot that
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in what I

that had worked well on the
Roosevelt show - recording a

things we shot, and the audio
philosophy wasn't really thought
through and tested. It became
one of those dangers of the quick
AATON

suspect than they

I used re-creations for the
Roosevelt show, but I used them

what

mikes. It

ARRI 16S&M
ARRI 16SR
ARRI 35IIC
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more

were.

thought we knew what we
were
doing. We used a technique

we

SINGLE FRAME SYSTEMS FOR:

little

August 1990

are now a

had to be fleshed out.
"I think good

cinema is
integrate all of the ele¬
ments: image, sound, narrative,
and performance elements.
When all of those things are su¬
perbly orchestrated, it's like a
beautiful Benny Carter arrange¬
ment. One instrument carries the

load for

a

while, and another

instrument

picks up and carries
that's the way a good piece
of film should work. The creative
on

-

interplay of all these different
aspects sweeps you away. That to
me is when film becomes
magic
-

becomes cinema.
"When it's there, it's so

exciting, and it catches you from
deep inside, rather than solely
from your emotions or your intel¬
ligence. Your involvement with
the film is pulled from some other
point within in you. It's easy to
talk about in theory, but tough to
create," understates Engle.
▲
American Cinematographer - August 1990

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