American Cinematographer - February 1993 - 64

Chain of Desire, a feature starring
Malcolm McDowell, traveled

Schreiber used HMIs, and for
rooms without windows, she used

around the world

tungsten. "It was a challenge," she

on

the Second

Amnesty International tour, and

admits. "I needed

continues to shoot music

level than people are used to today,
with the advent of fast film stock,
because the HD camera was a tube
camera. I imagine it was a little bit
like working in television in the
1950s."
The HD technology had

videos,

including clips for Billy Joel and
Aretha Franklin. "I

lighting

come

from

a

background,"

Schreiber, "and I

use

says
nature to in¬

me. I'm constantly shooting
stills in my spare time. I think to
some extent that shooting docu¬
mentaries has fueled my own

spire

work, in terms of learning to use
available light. Yet some of what I
do is incredibly stylized. I allow the

project I'm working on to dictate
the lighting style. In other words, I
have one style for each project."
When Schreiber shot Route 66: The
Road West in HD, she spent much
of the trip from Chicago to L.A. on
the hood of a moving car, where the
mobile unit was mounted - risky
business for the director of photog¬

raphy as well as the fragile HD tube
camera.

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we don't

62

^0 sell

ematography, and Schreiber was
no
exception. " Visions of Light was
one of the most interesting films
done on cinema," she en¬
thuses. "I think it's wonderful that
directors of photography are finally
ever

getting their due, and it makes me
proud to be a member of this pro¬
fession."
to be

ogy

higher light

impact not only in terms of

how Visions was shot, but in how it

regarded by the older cinema¬
tographers, who were not familiar
with the new system. "Many of
was

them had not seen HD before,"
Schreiber recalls. "They were
amazed by how much detail it has."
Schreiber is looking forward to fur¬
ther progress as the system ma¬
tures: "I can't wait to work with the

chip cameras, which need less
light and are more portable. But I
still think that the most exciting
application of HD in the future will
be in the area of special effects be¬
cause
you can see what you're go¬
ing to get immediately, instead of
waiting for the optical house. I also
think film will always be around."
new

The transfer process neces¬
sitated

a

HD in

an

trip to Japan's NHK and
Sony facilities. Once the necessary
film clips were accumulated, the
35mm footage was converted to
online session under the

supervision of Mikael Salomon,
Schreiber was also pleased

working in HD. "The technol¬
is constantly improving," she

notes. She wanted to be able to
blend the HD segments with 35mm
film clips that would be inserted

during the edit. "That in itself was
a problem, since HD is incredibly
'present' and electronic in contrast
to the texture

of film. HD has

a

video likeness that is very
and would really stand out

sharp
when
put next to film." She tried to allow
a filmic
quality by going somewhat
against its inherent sharpness by
using soft yet directional light and
very light ProMist filters. She also
used very little depth of field,
which threw the background out of
focus to make it appear more like
film.

bogen

we

Any cameraperson would
be thrilled to shoot a tribute to cin¬

some

a

For indoor

ASC and director/editor Arnold
Glassman. "We did a live real-time
telecine conversion from 35mm to

HD," says Samuels, "and when we
had a final cut, we conformed it

during
kyo."

an

on-line session in To¬

A one-inch HD master of
the 35mm conversion was created,

along with an HD master, at NHK's
Tokyo facility, where an audio
track was also mixed. Interview
material shot on HD was then
transferred to 35mm at a Tokyobased Sony facility. This newly
transferred material returned to

Hollywood, where it was edited
with the original 35mm material
and the audio track for the HD
master. The producers emerged
with two masters: a 35mm master

with

combining 35mm with HD, and an

light coming in through windows,

HD master which contained 35mm

anything

wouldn't buy ourselves.

February 1993

scenes
American Cinematographer - February 1993

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