American Cinematographer - March 1995 - 59

has to feel
so

it

ance

can

if it's

seeing enough
imagine the rest. To bal¬
as

for what is not lit, it's

okay

some areas brighter than
normal, especially on the edges of
the frame."
For this sequence, filmed
at about one in the morning,
Macat shot a quick test with
Eastman Kodak's EXR 5298 500to

light

speed film, which had not yet
come

onto the market. "I don't

like to shoot wide open with shal¬
low depth of field," he says, "be¬
cause it's very difficult for any
film in those circumstances to

bite into the shadows and retain
rich blacks. But I was stuck in a
situation where we were going to
be shooting this huge night exte¬
rior at T2. I wanted to hold rich
blacks right through release

printing. I decided not to open up
all the way. Since 98 is a finergrain film, it enabled us to push
the latitude

a

bit. We

were

shoot¬

movie like this needed
movement

camera

aggressive
to keep the

audience engaged."
Macat started planning
his camera choreography by

thinking about the places where
the camera shouldn't move. He
defined those moments by break¬

ing down the script. The rest of
the time, the camera was flowing,
setting up the moments when he
and Mayfield wanted the audi¬
ence to
stop and listen, or simply
to watch.

In a quiet scene designed
give a glimpse into Santa's
soul, Kringle sits alone on the
edge of a bed next to a window in
an

arrangement similar to a black

& white
two

portrait. Macat used just
lights placed outside the

the shadows."
Most of the rest of the
time in New York was spent on

audience to a still-life of our ac¬
tor. It was a very strong visual
and very sad. It seemed right to

establishing shots. Mayfield and
Macat agreed that it was impor¬
tant to open the film with believ¬

slowly pull back for

those 1940s films. As cameramen,
have to use logic to justify

we

those circumstances that

are

be¬

yond our control. If we didn't, we
would probably just become very
frustrated and miserable.
"I

spent a lot of time

Avenger

window of the white room, and
removed all of the bounce light
from the interior by surrounding
the actor with a light-absorbing
black material. "Normally, the

light would be bouncing around

daylight. "It had an interesting
look," he says, "as if it was shot
on a
soundstage - almost like

SWIVEL PRODUCTS

to

ing at stops T2.5 and T2.3. We
were
shooting in the dark, and
the lens wasn't wide open, but
the film was still seeing details in

able locations, and for most of
those four days they were racing
the clock to get in as much as pos¬
sible. One day, they lost the light
while shooting a scene in the
middle of Central Park West, so
Macat lit the scene to emulate

Avenger

a

white

"but
we

room

like that," he says,

by lighting very selectively,

focused the attention of the

a great mu¬
sical cue. That's one of my favor¬
ite shots in the film.
"I watched how the ac¬
tors blocked scenes, and it really
tells you where to put the camera.
When you think about it, the trick
is to watch the actors," he says.
"That tells you if you have to be

wider,

BABY ROLLER STANDS

Avenger
11

be able to see some¬
thing important at a certain mo¬

fit

or

ment. I think

!■

good director,
input, will let the actors
find out where they need to go to
play the scene so it works. The
biggest mistake we can all make
is to try to implement pre-set
a

with his

ideas before

having rehearsed

and worked out
tors."

scenes

with

ac¬

%

on,

Shooting Kringle headof

JUNIOR ROLLER STANDS

film," Macat says. "Not a lot of
time goes

by without something
happening. Performances obvi¬

eyelight reminiscent of classic

ously drive this story, but from
our
perspective we have to keep
it visually interesting. I thought a

times,

Fora free full line color
brochure, see your authorized
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thinking about the pacing of the

Macat used little "pings"

1940s

photography. At other
on

Mayfield's strong
he shot

recommendation,

Attenborough's close-ups tighter

March 1995

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57
American Cinematographer - March 1995

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