American Cinematographer - March 1993 - 27

FOCUS ON CINEMATOGRAPHERS

FLYING FEATHERS,
BLOOD AND GUTS

CHILEAN DIRECTOR LOVES STROBE LIGHTS

When
directorfinale
Tony toScott
spectacular
his wanted
feature a

tt

film, "True Romance," DP Jeffrey L.
Kimball, A.S.C., knew this was an
assignment for Unilux. Kimball describes
"Romance," which will be released by
Warner Brothers this summer, as "a rock

to

and roll adventure."

Slater, who

becomes

romantically involved with a
call girl played by Patricia Arquette.
Slater persuades her to leave the
business and helps her pack her
suitcase. They are soon shocked to learn
case

suitcase of

a

lA/hen ^
»

w

comes

lighting, I'm

a

strong believer in

simplicity," says
Kocking, an
award-winning

Leo

director and

The film stars Christian

that her

FOR HIGH IMPACT IMAGES

and the cocaine-filled

drug dealer have been

switched.

cinematographer
from
Chile.

Santiago,

Kocking

thinks there is
much

emphasis on the number of
lights. "Whether tungsten or strobe, I've

commercial with

been able to achieve incredible results

is

too

using just a few lights," he says.
When reminded that the creative

continued on page 27

philosophy of "less is more" originated
with Bauhaus architects in Berlin during
the 1930's, Kocking laughs and says that
while he was born in Santiago, he is of
German descent and is fluent in

German,

Spanish and English.
One of the "few lights" that Kocking
considers indispensable, especially for
commercials, is a Unilux strobe.
Kocking's first experience with Unilux
last year when he was planning a
commercial for Cristal beer of Chile.
came

Kocking had seen some intriguing highintensity product shots and decided to
find out how they were filmed. His
research led him to Unilux.

Kocking says he has been making
commercials for 18 years, but that a
commercial he made for Pilsen beer of
Peru is his favorite because it
Patricia Arquette

and Christian Slater star in 'True
Romance," a rock and roll adventure directed by
Tony Scott

opened his

eyes to new creative possibilities of
strobe lighting. Kocking shot the

a

360 fps high-speed

and three Unilux strobes.

Kocking
lights that
his production company, Kocking Ramos
Films, now has three Unilux units. "I film
camera

a

so

enthusiastic about strobe

lot of commercials

difficult it is to make

so

I know how

impression on a
person's memory in just 30 seconds. I
decided to experiment by conducting
some tests comparing strobes to conven¬
tional lights. I also varied camera

speeds," Kocking
"The results

an

says.

phenomenal. I can't
explain it technically, but the tests show
very clearly that an image shot with a
strobe light remains with a viewer far
longer than an image shot with conven¬
tional lighting. In fact, I learned that
strobe lighting is a far more important
variable than camera speed in creating
high-impact images," Kocking explains.
Continuing on the theme of dramatic
impact, Kocking believes that commer¬
cials are the most demanding form of
film art because they are so brief. "You
must pay great attention to detail and do
things much more carefully in a commerwere

continued on page 28
American Cinematographer - March 1993

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