American Cinematographer - November 1990 - 63

The Director &
this

complex relationship? If ev¬
combination is atypical, the
only solution is to examine each
combination separately and hope
ery

for the best.
In the

of

Glory, the
director-cinematographer pairing
was especially unusual. Edward
Zwick, a young, innovative direc¬
case

tor acclaimed for his work in tele¬

vision

(thirtysomething), met up
with Freddie Francis, BSC a ven¬
erable cinematographer whose
imposing credit list dates from
before Zwick's time. (See

accom¬

panying article.) Their collabora¬
tion yielded a critically praised
film nominated for five Academy
Awards, including Best Cinema¬
tography.
Francis brings extensive
directorial experience to his work
behind the lens; Zwick's apprecia¬
tion for the art of the cinematog¬
rapher is strong.
"You can always tell

"To

Cinematographer

begin with, I looked

at almost all of Freddie's films

as

"We read many accounts
of the battle, and we studied the

cinematographer," Zwick says.
"He was in the forefront of the socalled realistic cinematographers

photographs a lot," he continues.

of the late fifties and early sixties.
That movement went along with
the Angry Young Man school of

possible for the

a

play writing in England - a kind
of gritty look which had come
about to serve that. As a result,
Freddie was accustomed to work¬

ing at low light levels and doing
a lot of available light
cinematog¬
raphy at a time when most people
weren't. He was very much on the
cutting edge, and he was cele¬
brated for it, and also severely
challenged on the basis of it."
The next step is to deter¬
mine a general approach, a visual
aesthetic appropriate to the film.
To establish common ground and
frame of reference, Zwick and
Francis looked at hundreds of

"At the time of the Civil War, the
silver plate process was making it

camera to come

out of the studio for the first time.
we had abundant research
materials. We asked ourselves,
'What would Matthew Brady's

So

photographs have looked like if
he had had color film and all these
tools?' We decided early on to
avoid cliched devices like sepia or
desaturation. We wanted it to be
real and vivid and yet have the

period look."
Zwick's research took
him into the field as well. A Civil
War re-enactment at Gettysburg
with 12,000 participants provided
a DeMille-sized
opportunity to

get a sense of scale.
"It

a

was an

opportunity to

a man
very involved in the se¬
lection and composition of shots
and lenses. This is not to suggest

movie), you would have an un¬

ask ourselves 'What do these tac¬
tics look like? How many guys do
we need to fill a frame of this size
or this size?' and 'How
many
would we need to give the illu¬
sion of this scale?' You can never
film 12,000 guys, unless you're

limited amount to time to choose
the circumstances, to achieve

Peace," he chuckles. "But later we

that

exactly the desired look. When
you're dealing with a budget that
is as compressed as this was, you

those directors who seem to evi¬
dence a control of the film lan¬
guage and those who don't," says
Zwick. "I think those who do are
to

they are in any way auto¬
they are also smart, they
will be partaking deeply of the
experience of someone as gifted
as Freddie. Where you put the
cratic. If

and which lens you
choose is what it's all about.
That's what gives the impact to
camera

period photographs.
"The look of the film and
how one achieves it is difficult to
describe. If this were a perfect
world (or if this were a $40 million

have to be flexible and try to cre¬
ate from the time and money you
have," says Zwick.

doing the Russian War And
could

figure out how this could be
a compressed way, to
give the dramatic effect. We were
out there for three days, wearing
Union uniforms and carrying film
cans. It was 100
degrees with 99%
redone, in

the shot,

particularly in some¬
thing like Glory, where more is
revealed in the image than in the
word."

Glory is the Civil War
story of the first black regiment to
be allowed into battle

against the
loyalties and big¬
otries are played out against the
larger canvas of war. Much of the
story is told through image - in

South. Personal

Opposite page:
Zwick wanted
the battalion to

fact, the last two reels of the film

be the seventh

contain

only a few snippets of
specific dialogue. Crucial to
wordless storytelling of this sort
is that director-cinematographer

principal char¬

understanding - an understand¬
ing Zwick prepared for from the

of dust and dirt

acter. Left: Great

taken

care was

in every
-

even

detail
the type

kicked up

by ex¬

plosives

was
considered.

beginning.

November 1990

American

Cinematographer

59
American Cinematographer - November 1990

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