American Cinematographer - August 1993 - 33

Universal series Crime and Punish¬
ment. "I got a call from [co-pro-

ducerl D.J. Caruso, and I think I

probably got over to their office
before the phone had hung up,"
Wagner says with a wry smile.
The assignment did have
one
interesting twist: because the
production was shot within the ju¬
risdiction of British Columbia,

Wagner found himself forced to
adapt to the "English system" of
cinematography, which meant a
somewhat different hierarchical

arrangement on the set. "The En¬
glish system, as I understand it, is
lot more about the camera opera¬
setting up the shot while the
lighting cameraman works out the
a

tor

lighting," Wagner explains. "Un¬
der this system, you lose control
over how
light falls within a par¬
ticular composition. Light is so
much a part of what makes up com¬
position that I found it difficult to
make all of those elements collec¬

tively complete. I personally don't
think an artist can disengage from
that portion of the image. It doesn't
work that way in still photography,
it doesn't work that way in paint¬
ing, and I don't see how it can work
in motion picture photography. I
also believe that this system slows
down the process of creating each
setup because the director is re¬
quired to discuss the setup with
two different people who might not
always have the same perceptions.
Under the system I'm more famil¬
iar with, the composition and the
lighting occur at the same time, so
there's less risk of communication

failures. Though this experience
was a difficult
learning curve for
me,

it

was

made much easier be¬

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American Cinematographer - August 1993

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