American Cinematographer - February 1995 - 39

Fiona discovers
the ramshackle

cottage
a

-

and

surprise

within. Wexler

occasionally
used neutral

grads to bring
down the skies
when nature
was

less than

cooperative.

Art with whom

His

name

John has worked.

is Gene

Zippo. He timed

Matewan and Roan Inish

-

a

very

creative person.

The timer is an es¬
sential person in the chain of our
work, and I know they're not spo¬
ken of very much. I value their in¬
put as creative people.
Your dailies

were

done at

Technicolor in London?
Wexler: Yes. We had

some

problems with the film - we
were
seeing flecks of white on
the print and it was driving us
nuts. Technicolor

said, "Don't

about it, we'll take it out and
reprint it," but we wanted to know
worry

what the hell it

was.

It

was

appear¬

ing in both cameras. Apparently
the lab talked to Kodak and they
couldn't determine what it

was.

Kodak and Technicolor eventually
determined what the problem was
a combination of the
relatively
new 93 stock and the drying/

-

cleaning mechanism they used at
Technicolor. It's

a

brush

system,

and it allowed little flecks to
off the sprocket holes on the
What
sive to

me

was

about it

most
was

come

film.
impres¬

that both

bottom of it. It

was

interesting to

watch these two

big companies try¬
ing to find the source of the prob¬
lem. It was sort of like Rolls-Royce
you know, if you have a prob¬
lem with your Rolls-Royce, and
you call up, no matter where you
are Rolls-Royce will come and fix it
for you - and then deny that there
was ever any problem. (Laughs.)
What makes you decide
to operate on a shot?

-

Wexler: I did less of my

camera-hogging on this film. Scott
Sakamoto is my operator and he's
excellent. We've been together a
long time. When I take over a cam¬
era to
operate it's because I have to
see. When there are close-ups I
generally operate, simply because
I just have to see it through the lens
at that time, mostly for the lighting.
On the framing we have video as¬
sist and I

can

double-check that.

And Scott's ideas about
are

framing

excellent. I think that's

one

of

the

advantages of working with
people you've worked with before.
The assistant I worked with, Paul

Englefield,

a
worked with

British
on

guy, I had
the Imax film

Technicolor and Kodak immedi¬

[Rolling Stones At The Max], and he

ately sent representatives to

was a

location
a

half

-

trip

from London, a
-

us on

day and
to try to get to the

very

good focus puller,

very

careful, cautious and meticulous.
He's

one

February 1995

of these guys

that

-

I

don't

if the tide is

coming in
going to be covered
up in the blackness - he would do
his proper thing.
Did you work under the
care

and the sun's

British

crew

system?

Wexler: All of the

crew

except for Scott were either Irish or
British, and they work in a very
different style than we do. We
know about how the operator nor¬

mally works more closely with the
director. But there were times that
their system was frustrating. If the
camera's
to

move

on a

tripod and you want

it five

or

six feet over, the

grips take charge, and they pull out
all the cables, all the connections to
the video assist, and the batteries,
and take the camera off the tripod,
move the tripod over six feet, and
then put it all back together. It was

driving

me and Scotty nuts - it's
overtly inefficient.
A couple of times when
the tide was coming in rapidly,
Scotty would grab the camera, put
so

on his shoulder, set it down, level
it, and shoot. The first couple of

it

times

we

did

that, they really were

insulted. We had

a

little

and hammered it out, but

meeting
they felt

that Scott

picking up the camera
moving it was a slap in the
face. They were just trying to help.

and

American

Cinematographer

37
American Cinematographer - February 1995

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