23.5.09

Guillermo Navarro: Swing-Shift Lenses

From American Cinematographer, Fly Girl by Andrew O. Thompson (January 1998)

The cinematographer made frequent use of Clairmont's Swing-Shift lens system, as he had on his previous project, the offbeat super-hero adventure Spawn. He found this to be particularly useful for shooting in-car conversations which required that the faces of two characters be in focus, and for lending dramatic tension to certain scenes by bringing together or pulling apart the actor's faces.

"In one sequence, Jackie is in court being arraigned on charges of cocaine possession. One shot includes both the judge behind his podium and Jackie back in the gallery seats, and we brought the shot together at the moment when he is deciding her fate. We had to swing the lenses drastically, because it's a very severe shot-- a close-to-the-lens profile of her, and the judge way back in focus."

- Guillermo Navarro, ASC

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