American Cinematographer - November 1990 - 50

used Eastman EXR color negative
film 5245 to record most daylight
exteriors. Zsigmond rated the
5296 film for exposure indexes

ranging from 400 (Kodak recom¬
mends E.I. 500) to 1000, depend¬
ing on the lighting situation and
the look he wanted. He exposed
the 5245 EXR film at E.I. of 50 in

daylight.
"It's

a

remarkably sharp

film," Zsigmond says. "There's
virtually no apparent grain. It's
like
dow than

looking through a win¬
watching a movie. That
was a
big help in creating the
sense of
reality we wanted."
more

However, it's the mind
and eye of the filmmaker that
determines the ultimate quality of

images on the screen. When
Zsigmond was shooting in the
rain outside the

courthouse, it

supposed to be a gloomy
morning, and he wanted to reflect
that mood on film. So, he exposed
the tungsten-balanced EXR 5296
film in daylight without using a
color correcting filter on the cam¬
was

Above: Court¬
with
Saul Rubinek,

room scene

Hanks, Kevin

lens. That maximized infor¬
mation recorded on the film's
blue record. It was exactly the
look he wanted.
era

Dunn and Mor¬

Freeman.
Right: Hanks
gan

takes sword to
Willis
room

on

court¬

"You have to decide
what is best for the movie," he

steps.

"We have a tremendous
palette that we can draw on with
says.

modern films. We have to use all
of it from the darkest black to the

purest white. It's like composing
music. You should

use both the
loudest and softest tones, as well
as the mid-tones."

near

half dozen weather balloons up
the ceiling. Then, he used a
dozen 2500w HMI spots on the

ond and third stories.
The balloons

ground to bounce light off the

nearly transparent tethers, which
made it easy to pull them aside

on

white surfaces of the balloons. It
has the appearance of daylight

when he wanted to show the

pouring through a huge skylight.

so

That's a technique he
invented when he was shooting
The River, with Mark Rydell, circa
1983. Zsigmond also used the
balloons to bounce sidelight into
open corridors
the walls of the

48

are

American

winding around
lobby on the sec¬

Cinematographer

audience the

skylights in the roof,
they knew where the light was
coming from. On low angle shots
looking up, Zsigmond simply lit
the

ceiling from ground level.
He used Eastman EXR

color negative film 5296 to photo¬
graph interiors, night exteriors
and some daylight exteriors. He

November 1990

It's a question of know¬
ing what to do, not just how to do
it. DePalma and Sylbert planned
to use a bright glowing surrealis¬
tic light inside the car in the scene
where the student gets run down.
Zsigmond had a hard time justi¬
fying where the light was coming
from. They were driving through
a

slum, where the level of ambi¬

ent

light was much lower than car

scenes on

Park Avenue. It would

have looked like the

turned

light

was

inside the car.
Because Sherman and
Maria were scared, and not likely
on

to draw attention to

themselves,
American Cinematographer - November 1990

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