From American Cinematographer, This Old House by David E. Williams (August 1999)
"Jan and I were both against frosting the glass, because then the room would feel like the inside of a giant ping-pong ball," Lindenlaub details. The glass panels in the Greenhouse were therefore painted and then scraped to look dirty yet transparent, allowing the camera to see just beyond them.
I read, discuss, and discover new things about cinematography everyday. Most of it, I consider incredibly interesting. Everyday I will share one of those things, maybe more if I have time.
5.8.09
Karl Walter Lindenlaub: Lighting Stages
From American Cinematographer, This Old House by David E. Williams (August 1999)
"I generally try to light stages to look like locations, but because time was such an issue on this film, having all of those lights burning was a bit of a trap sometimes. At certain points I got nervous, and when that happens, a cinematographer will start to play it too safe and maybe overlight things. In retrospect, I wish I’d had five extra minutes on each shot to stand back, study the lighting and figure out how to make it look more natural. Nature never looks overlit; movies do. I think the film turned out well, but everyone always wants to do better. Hopefully, it will also be believable and scary for the audience we’ll see!"
- Karl Walter Lindedlaub, ASC, BVK
"I generally try to light stages to look like locations, but because time was such an issue on this film, having all of those lights burning was a bit of a trap sometimes. At certain points I got nervous, and when that happens, a cinematographer will start to play it too safe and maybe overlight things. In retrospect, I wish I’d had five extra minutes on each shot to stand back, study the lighting and figure out how to make it look more natural. Nature never looks overlit; movies do. I think the film turned out well, but everyone always wants to do better. Hopefully, it will also be believable and scary for the audience we’ll see!"
- Karl Walter Lindedlaub, ASC, BVK
3.8.09
Karl Walter Lindenlaub: Adapting for New Film Stocks
From American Cinematographer, This Old House by David E. Williams (August 1999)
Dailies and prints for The Haunting were handled by Technicolor, and like some other cinematographers who have now used Vision negative and print stocks in combination, Lindenlaub found that their increased contrast compelled him to rethink his lighting methods.
"The 79 is more contrasty than [EXR] 5298 was—with the newer stock, the blacks fill up and grain disappears, but latitude disappears as well. To my surprise, the Vision print stocks became the only option for release prints after April [of this year]. Between that factor and our dark sets, I had to reevaluate all of my lighting ratios, especially for moonlight effects—and those were methods that I had been using for 20 years! For moonlight, I would normally go two stops under on the faces, and the backlight would be the moonlight at key. On this film, though, two stops under was almost too dark, because everything just under that would drop to black. With 98, you would have had a stop or so left, and you’d get some shadow detail, but that’s not the case now unless you use more fill. The amount of fill determines the look of the movie much more than any other factor, but on this picture I was adding a lot more fill than my eye was used to seeing, which meant that I had to depend on my meter much more. My exposures had to be precise as well, because the 79 doesn’t handle under- or overexposure very well—it gets too milky. Grain isn’t a problem, but milky blacks look wrong to me."
Asked if using other stocks were an option, Lindenlaub replies,
"No, we needed the speed because of our big sets, but because we were using so much smoke in the film, the grain in 5298 would be too apparent. Before this, I’d used the Vision 5277 320T, which has much lower contrast, but I overexposed it to get good blacks. I liked it because it took the contrast out of faces and was more flattering, but it was too slow. I also looked at Vision 800T 5289, but I wasn’t too happy with the grain. The 89 would be a great stock for a gritty big-city thriller, but not for The Haunting .
I know that some people’s use of lab processes like ENR to get better blacks prompted Kodak to add contrast to their stocks, but not everybody wants it. If I ever wanted more contrast, I could do it with my lighting. Now, lighting for 79—in combination with the Vision print stocks— is like lighting 5247 or 45 in the studio, and it will take time to get used to that. Of course, the blacks we got with 79 were great for the atmosphere of our film, since it’s a dark movie."
- Karl Winston Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
Karl Walter Lindenlaub: Vista Vision & Nikon Lenses
From American Cinematographer, This Old House by David E. Williams (August 1999)
"My main concern about using VistaVision was that we had to use Nikon lenses, which I wasn’t happy about. Unfortunately, tests were already done and the decision to use them had already been made, so there was no choice. Personally, I don’t see the point of going to the trouble of shooting in VistaVision if you’re going to use a consumer-grade Nikon lens. The lens calibration was a joke. The difference between a T2 and a T2.8 on these lenses is very unspecific when compared to what you get with motion picture lenses, which are very accurate. There is a VistaVision system that is set up for Leica lenses, and I would have preferred that; however, the resulting footage does look great. You can’t tell the difference between the original VistaVision footage and the digitized and then filmed-out reduction prints, so our effects shots can be successfully intercut with our standard footage. The effects work looks great partially because Phil Tippett not only has technical ability, but also a strong artistic sensibility."
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
Note from RPO:
The decision to use Nikon lenses and his inability to change the circumstance (in my opinion) was most likely because Lindenlaub had taken over production from Caleb Deschanel, ASC after the first week of production.
"My main concern about using VistaVision was that we had to use Nikon lenses, which I wasn’t happy about. Unfortunately, tests were already done and the decision to use them had already been made, so there was no choice. Personally, I don’t see the point of going to the trouble of shooting in VistaVision if you’re going to use a consumer-grade Nikon lens. The lens calibration was a joke. The difference between a T2 and a T2.8 on these lenses is very unspecific when compared to what you get with motion picture lenses, which are very accurate. There is a VistaVision system that is set up for Leica lenses, and I would have preferred that; however, the resulting footage does look great. You can’t tell the difference between the original VistaVision footage and the digitized and then filmed-out reduction prints, so our effects shots can be successfully intercut with our standard footage. The effects work looks great partially because Phil Tippett not only has technical ability, but also a strong artistic sensibility."
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
Note from RPO:
The decision to use Nikon lenses and his inability to change the circumstance (in my opinion) was most likely because Lindenlaub had taken over production from Caleb Deschanel, ASC after the first week of production.
Karl Walter Lindenlaub: Curved Walls
From American Cinematographer, This Old House by David E. Williams (August 1999)
"One of the most unusual aspects of all of our sets was that every room was circular, usually octagonal, which created some tough lighting situations. I first experienced that type of thing when I lit the Oval Office scenes for Independence Day . It’s hard to cut things properly because the light falls differently on curved wall surfaces."
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
"One of the most unusual aspects of all of our sets was that every room was circular, usually octagonal, which created some tough lighting situations. I first experienced that type of thing when I lit the Oval Office scenes for Independence Day . It’s hard to cut things properly because the light falls differently on curved wall surfaces."
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
Karl Walter Lindenlaub: Speed & Pre-Rigging
From American Cinematographer, This Old House by David E. Williams (August 1999)
"My general lighting approach for the entire film was to be relatively soft on the front of the faces, and then use backlight to give things shape and direction. That method helped quite a bit, given what we were doing with the camera. It would have been interesting to try more dramatic techniques with the lighting— using higher, more frontal lighting and cutting more—but we didn’t have the time to do it. Jan wanted between 18 and 20 setups a day, with one camera, while constantly switching between Steadicam, cranes, normal 35mm cameras on dollies, and VistaVision for effects work. With that many setups, we had about 20 minutes to light each shot, so we ended up doing much more pre-rigging than I normally would."
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
"My general lighting approach for the entire film was to be relatively soft on the front of the faces, and then use backlight to give things shape and direction. That method helped quite a bit, given what we were doing with the camera. It would have been interesting to try more dramatic techniques with the lighting— using higher, more frontal lighting and cutting more—but we didn’t have the time to do it. Jan wanted between 18 and 20 setups a day, with one camera, while constantly switching between Steadicam, cranes, normal 35mm cameras on dollies, and VistaVision for effects work. With that many setups, we had about 20 minutes to light each shot, so we ended up doing much more pre-rigging than I normally would."
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
Karl Walter Lindenlaub: Motivating a Bird's-Eye-View
From American Cinematographer, This Old House by David E. Williams (August 1999)
After a few takes, the crew quickly reset and a Lenny Arm 2 Plus mounted with a Hothead II was wheeled into position. While the lighting was adjusted, a new shot was blocked out: a bird’s-eye view beginning at about 40’ that swooped down through a cluster of practical chandeliers into a close-up on actress Lili Taylor, isolating her from the others. This would represent the film’s second distinct POV, that of Hill House and the twisted soul of Hugh Crain.
"This is the first film I’ve done in which such high-angle shots are used to good effect. Other directors have suggested them, but there was never a reason to do such shots, because they can actually take the audience out of the story by being so subjective. In this case, Hill House is a major character, and it watches the other characters very closely as they get lost in its maze of rooms. Cutting to that second point of view helps remind the audience that there is danger always looming over everything. These shots were generally done with a crane and a wide lens, usually a 35mm, which distorted things correctly and emphasized camera movement if there was any."
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
After a few takes, the crew quickly reset and a Lenny Arm 2 Plus mounted with a Hothead II was wheeled into position. While the lighting was adjusted, a new shot was blocked out: a bird’s-eye view beginning at about 40’ that swooped down through a cluster of practical chandeliers into a close-up on actress Lili Taylor, isolating her from the others. This would represent the film’s second distinct POV, that of Hill House and the twisted soul of Hugh Crain.
"This is the first film I’ve done in which such high-angle shots are used to good effect. Other directors have suggested them, but there was never a reason to do such shots, because they can actually take the audience out of the story by being so subjective. In this case, Hill House is a major character, and it watches the other characters very closely as they get lost in its maze of rooms. Cutting to that second point of view helps remind the audience that there is danger always looming over everything. These shots were generally done with a crane and a wide lens, usually a 35mm, which distorted things correctly and emphasized camera movement if there was any."
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
Karl Walter Lindenlaub: Emotional Lighting Contrast
From American Cinematographer, This Old House by David E. Williams (August 1999)
Shadows and darkness were definitely going to be key components in the film’s visual plan, but strong daylight sources were also important in order to create emotional contrast in certain scenes.
"We didn’t want the audience to feel as if they had been sucked into two hours of darkness. Psychologically, people don’t like to be in the dark, and 120 minutes of darkness can become depressing to watch. Also, the impact of any extreme lighting effect will wear off after a certain point. For example, if an entire film is shot with green-tinted lighting, the effect may seem imposing at first, but the eye will adapt, and after a while the audience won’t even see the green anymore. The same thing happens with light and dark. If there is no alternation between light and dark, there is no relief, so the dramatic tension of being in the dark is gone."
Shadows and darkness were definitely going to be key components in the film’s visual plan, but strong daylight sources were also important in order to create emotional contrast in certain scenes.
"We didn’t want the audience to feel as if they had been sucked into two hours of darkness. Psychologically, people don’t like to be in the dark, and 120 minutes of darkness can become depressing to watch. Also, the impact of any extreme lighting effect will wear off after a certain point. For example, if an entire film is shot with green-tinted lighting, the effect may seem imposing at first, but the eye will adapt, and after a while the audience won’t even see the green anymore. The same thing happens with light and dark. If there is no alternation between light and dark, there is no relief, so the dramatic tension of being in the dark is gone."
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
2.8.09
Karl Walter Lindenlaub: Deeeep DoF
From American Cinematographer, This Old House by David E. Williams (August 1999)
The filmmakers did draw inspiration from another ghostly classic of the same era: The Innocents (1961), which was shot by Freddie Francis, BSC.
"It was beautifully photographed in black-and-white anamorphic, and has amazing depth of field. They lit everything very hard, shooting at T11, so they didn’t often have to use diopters. We couldn’t do that today, because of the way we use soft light. I later spoke to Freddie Francis’s operator on that film, Ronnie Taylor [BSC], who was our B-camera operator when we shot our exteriors in England. He explained how Freddie had used graduated filters on both sides of the frame to keep the walls dark, and how the actors even wore sunglasses between takes"
- Karl Walter Lindenlaub, ASC, BVK
Ellen Kuras: 'Bob Richardson' Hard Light
From American Cinematographer, Psycho Killer by Andrew O. Thompson (June 1999)
Another technique carried over from Lee’s prior movies is the use of hot, overhead sources that envelop actors in halos of glowing light (a style popularized by Robert Richardson, ASC). Used in counterpoint to the cross-processed reversal’s unusual tonalities, these "auras" often signify the comfort of a familiar environment. In Marie’s Salon, for instance, a narrow spot Par can was used to provide a flattering accent amid the space’s warm, egg-cream-like haze. The technique is particularly apparent during a raunchy sex scene involving Vinny and hairstylist Gloria (Bebe Neuwirth); during the duo’s tryst, hot light traces the contours of the beautician’s milky skin, lending literal meaning to the phrase "sexual afterglow."...
..."That ’Bob Richardson hard light’—downlight from overhead that’s four to five stops overexposed—is something that Spike called for specifically. Because it’s non-motivated, there were times when I wouldn’t even have thought to put it in. Spike likes to use these particular hotspots to punctuate a dramatic effect. There’s definitely an emotional impact as a person walks through this very hot light, burns out and loses detail. Theoretically, one might not be able to explain it. When I was studying in France, I took a lot of classes about the ’theory’ and ’meaning’ of the image, but one can’t always provide a theoretical basis for everything."
- Ellen Kuras, ASC
Another technique carried over from Lee’s prior movies is the use of hot, overhead sources that envelop actors in halos of glowing light (a style popularized by Robert Richardson, ASC). Used in counterpoint to the cross-processed reversal’s unusual tonalities, these "auras" often signify the comfort of a familiar environment. In Marie’s Salon, for instance, a narrow spot Par can was used to provide a flattering accent amid the space’s warm, egg-cream-like haze. The technique is particularly apparent during a raunchy sex scene involving Vinny and hairstylist Gloria (Bebe Neuwirth); during the duo’s tryst, hot light traces the contours of the beautician’s milky skin, lending literal meaning to the phrase "sexual afterglow."...
..."That ’Bob Richardson hard light’—downlight from overhead that’s four to five stops overexposed—is something that Spike called for specifically. Because it’s non-motivated, there were times when I wouldn’t even have thought to put it in. Spike likes to use these particular hotspots to punctuate a dramatic effect. There’s definitely an emotional impact as a person walks through this very hot light, burns out and loses detail. Theoretically, one might not be able to explain it. When I was studying in France, I took a lot of classes about the ’theory’ and ’meaning’ of the image, but one can’t always provide a theoretical basis for everything."
- Ellen Kuras, ASC
Ellen Kuras: Kodak 5017
From American Cinematographer, Psycho Killer by Andrew O. Thompson (June 1999)
For all intents and purposes, 5017 is a still photographers’ stock; the emulsion therefore had to be reperforated so that it could be run through Kuras’s Arriflex cameras. In order to do this work, Kodak required a month’s worth of advance notice, along with a minimum order of 14,000’.
"I really like what Malik Sayeed did with 5017 in He Got Game—he’s a very innovative cinematographer. There was one beautifully shot scene where some guys dressed in fluorescent orange and yellow came into a green room and threw a pair of red dice on the floor. The colors were supersaturated and had a lot of black in the shadow areas. I was struck by the way the colors were rendered, particularly the greens... 5017 is a stock to be reckoned with. The shadow areas will go very black unless there is enough fill. Without the ability to hide big lights in a small location, 5017 is a struggle because of the extreme contrast and slow ASA, especially for night exteriors. We tried to use it effectively, as in the scene where Vinny and Dionna are dancing in the Virgo Club. We used [strobing] Lightning Strikes units as our keys, along with some backlights and a couple of hard sidelights. A few years ago, I did something similar on a music video for the band Lush with director Mark Pellington, but I was using 5245, which is a very slow [50 ASA] stock. I just put in a few effects lights and then used the Lightning Strikes units to reveal what was in the shadow areas."
- Ellen Kuras, ASC
Ellen Kuras: Filtration & Lighitng for Hot NYC 70's Summer
From American Cinematographer, Psycho Killer by Andrew O. Thompson (June 1999)
Much of The Summer of Sam transpires during the sweltering summer of 1977. As a result, Lee wanted the imagery to indicate the intense heat of a New York city summer—which, as any resident of the Big Apple knows, is marked by a muggy, humidity-filled atmosphere. As a visual guide, Lee asked Kuras to view his 1989 film Do the Right Thing (photographed by Ernest Dickerson, ASC). Kuras also watched Natural Born Killers and two versions of the Jack the Ripper story as a primer on serial-killer films. After conducting several tests on emulsions and exposures, Kuras opted to use antique suede filters in front of the lens during day shooting. This tactic lent the colors a more monochromatic look, as well as a period Seventies feel.
"Spike wanted a ’hot’ look, so I tried to give him as many hard backlight and sidelight edges as possible. Those [highlights] had to hug the edge of the frame. I also advised the grips not to dull down the cars or do wetdowns so that the kicks, highlights and glares would play as much as possible, and so the streets would have a blown-out look. While we were shooting, the weather changed quite a bit from hour to hour—in the morning we would have sunshine, and in the afternoon it would cloud over and sometimes rain. Trying to keep consistency throughout a scene was difficult without a lot of available room to put lights or Condors out of shot. We were often on a dead-end street, and we sometimes were backed up right to its end."
- Ellen Kuras, ASC
To convey the sense of humidity and atmosphere at night, Kuras employed pre-exposure flashing. During preproduction, she experimented with filters and a Lightflex, but found the effect somewhat confining.
"The Lightflex gave a haze to the film that was very similar to New York’s hot, humid nights, during which the blacks aren’t really quite black. However, we would have faced the problem of double reflections from headlights playing off the filters in front of the lens. We often had cars driving straight at camera, so I would have had a lot of double lights going through frame. We sandwiched filters as much as we could, and used a tilting matte box, but we just couldn’t avoid the reflections in certain situations because the camera was moving so much. Flashing was a viable way to achieve the same effect while keeping the image clear of double reflections."
- Ellen Kuras, ASC
Much of The Summer of Sam transpires during the sweltering summer of 1977. As a result, Lee wanted the imagery to indicate the intense heat of a New York city summer—which, as any resident of the Big Apple knows, is marked by a muggy, humidity-filled atmosphere. As a visual guide, Lee asked Kuras to view his 1989 film Do the Right Thing (photographed by Ernest Dickerson, ASC). Kuras also watched Natural Born Killers and two versions of the Jack the Ripper story as a primer on serial-killer films. After conducting several tests on emulsions and exposures, Kuras opted to use antique suede filters in front of the lens during day shooting. This tactic lent the colors a more monochromatic look, as well as a period Seventies feel.
"Spike wanted a ’hot’ look, so I tried to give him as many hard backlight and sidelight edges as possible. Those [highlights] had to hug the edge of the frame. I also advised the grips not to dull down the cars or do wetdowns so that the kicks, highlights and glares would play as much as possible, and so the streets would have a blown-out look. While we were shooting, the weather changed quite a bit from hour to hour—in the morning we would have sunshine, and in the afternoon it would cloud over and sometimes rain. Trying to keep consistency throughout a scene was difficult without a lot of available room to put lights or Condors out of shot. We were often on a dead-end street, and we sometimes were backed up right to its end."
- Ellen Kuras, ASC
To convey the sense of humidity and atmosphere at night, Kuras employed pre-exposure flashing. During preproduction, she experimented with filters and a Lightflex, but found the effect somewhat confining.
"The Lightflex gave a haze to the film that was very similar to New York’s hot, humid nights, during which the blacks aren’t really quite black. However, we would have faced the problem of double reflections from headlights playing off the filters in front of the lens. We often had cars driving straight at camera, so I would have had a lot of double lights going through frame. We sandwiched filters as much as we could, and used a tilting matte box, but we just couldn’t avoid the reflections in certain situations because the camera was moving so much. Flashing was a viable way to achieve the same effect while keeping the image clear of double reflections."
- Ellen Kuras, ASC
Ellen Kuras: On Projected Dailies
From American Cinematographer, Psycho Killer by Andrew O. Thompson (June 1999)
"Today, it’s a luxury for cinematographers to see projected dailies. I really respect Spike’s dedication to projected dailies. He knows it’s important for the director of photography, assistant cameraman and production designer to see what’s really happening on film. Film-to-tape dailies can be inconsistent and inaccurate. The person operating the film-to-tape machine could make a change that affects the way you light the film: if the blacks become a little bit crushed, you might think that you don’t have enough exposure in the shadow areas and you might start adding more fill, even if there is a grey scale or Macbeth chart at the head of the roll. That’s especially true with reversal—it could be rendered very differently on video than on a print stock."
- Ellen Kuras, ASC
"Today, it’s a luxury for cinematographers to see projected dailies. I really respect Spike’s dedication to projected dailies. He knows it’s important for the director of photography, assistant cameraman and production designer to see what’s really happening on film. Film-to-tape dailies can be inconsistent and inaccurate. The person operating the film-to-tape machine could make a change that affects the way you light the film: if the blacks become a little bit crushed, you might think that you don’t have enough exposure in the shadow areas and you might start adding more fill, even if there is a grey scale or Macbeth chart at the head of the roll. That’s especially true with reversal—it could be rendered very differently on video than on a print stock."
- Ellen Kuras, ASC
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