American Cinematographer - November 1990 - 66

extraordinarily violent, but much
more violent to the
eye, really,
than it

was

to create. The confu¬

sion combines with the kinetic

partook of, and I think that al¬
though we wanted to subvert

and chaos, but often what the

them

doing is, relatively
speaking, not all that violent,"
explains Zwick.
are

The

scenes were

filmed

Jekyll Island, a nature conser¬
vatory off the coast of Georgia. To
on

control the

D.P.

change.

screaming.

Wrong gels

on truck.
Need flourescent
correction.

Now!

lighting over such a
huge area, Francis brought in two
Musco lights. The delicate ecol¬
ogy of the conservatory pre¬
vented trucking the lights in close.
"The Musco lights were hundreds
of yards away, but we found that
they were just strong enough to
give us a base level of exposure
that would be the black from
which we'd work. I may be wrong
on

this, but think the entire

Barbizon.
Rosco and Lee "to

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scene

shot with the Musco

lights
giving a base exposure and the
effects. The effects literally light
the scene. It so completely
changes from any one moment to
the next, which is one reason why
was

SOLUTION

it's somehow dramatic."

To convey the swirling
confusion of battle, the tool of
choice would seem to be the ver¬
satile Steadicam. Zwick and

Francis, however, eschewed the
Steadicam, for the most part. "I
think

we

had

only

one

day of

Steadicam, when they were run¬

ning along the ramparts," recalls
Zwick. "We had a live Shotmaker
that looks like Steadicam. But

:

we felt that the Stead¬
this modern device - it
feels modern. Unless you have

generally
The

source

with the

answers

BARBIZON

icam

was

exactly the right operator, it tends
to 'make nice.' I think it takes
some

of the violence out of the

images. The gyro feel, that slightly
floaty thing, I think we wouldn't
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There were certain conventions of
1940s and 1950s film that Glory

light to give the illusion of horror
actors

Location

quotient of the word 'glory.'

a little, we wanted to honor
them also," he says thoughtfully.
"And I think if we had given it

anything like a handheld or verite
feel, it would have really pulled
you out in some way."
In the end, a successful
collaboration seems to be the cul¬
mination of a million small deci¬
sions. All the cliches are true -

communication, flexibility, unity
of vision, the ability to compro¬
mise. What

are the
keys to a good
director-cinematographer rela¬
tionship? Zwick answers this

way:
"I'm only interested in
working with a cinematographer
whose prime interest is telling the
story best. I think someone who,
in some single-minded way, is
only interested in the pristine
perfection of every image, will
often be working at cross pur¬
poses with me. The cinematogra¬
pher must know when we can
sacrifice certain things for more

dramatic value, or the value of the

performance, or the time de¬
mands of the day. He has to be
flexible with what are considered
to be his concerns, and I must be
with mine.
"You hear a lot of stories
about battles being waged be¬
tween the speed of this and the
demand for that, and I think as
often as not it's as much about a

willingness to concede your indi¬
vidual agenda for the sake of the
film as a whole," says Zwick. "If
there's a particular lighting style
or camera move that is
making it
impossible for an actor to really
act, to find his true moment, then

have wanted.
The
aversion
to
"niceness" didn't mean that

it's the wrong

Zwick and Francis wanted to be

raphy has to know that. Those

grounded in a cinema verite or
documentary feeling, either. The

who

film's

ending reaches for

an

elu¬

sive transcendence - the cultural

myth Zwick speaks of
as

what he refers to

TELEX: 226 000 ETLXUR BARBIZON

November 1990

as

- as well
"the ironic

camera

lighting style

or

movement. I have to

know that; the director of photog¬
are

sensitive understand in

a

hurry. Simply put, I just think it's
about communication, and a very
early commitment to make the
same

movie."

A
American Cinematographer - November 1990

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 1990
