Vittorio Storaro: Color and Meaning

From American Cinematographer, Master of Light and Motion interview by Bob Fisher (June 1998)

"Color is part of the language we speak with film. We use colors to articulate different feelings and moods. It is just like using light and darkness to symbolize the conflict between life and death. I believe the meanings of different colors are universal, but people in different cultures can interpret them in different ways. In the opening scene, the camera is motionless and there is an absence of color, which is black. During Bulworth's first campaign stop in Los Angeles, he visits a church in a black community, where the main color in costumes and props is red, a symbol of birth and life. From the church, he goes to a meeting with some Hollywood film producers in a private home. It is a rich setting, where he raises money. Orange symbolizes that feeling of comfort. When he visits an after-hours club, we used yellow, cyan and magenta, the opposites of the three primary colors [red, green and blue] that symbolize daylight. In this scene, Bulworth is considering his subconscious feelings.

The next day, he goes to the Beverly Wilshire Hotel, where he tells people in his own party what he is thinking. It is the first time he speaks honestly about his feelings in front of the members of his party; they don't expect a politician to tell them exactly what he is thinking. The color yellow symbolizes that he consciously knows what he is doing. During a television debate, we used green to signify knowledge, because it is the first time he reveals his feeling in public. Later, one of his campaign workers brings him to her grandmother's house, where he feels safe, believing that the assassin won't find him there. We used blue to signify freedom. Next, he meets a drug dealer, who explains why he uses children to sell drugs. Indigo symbolizes material power. We don't use white in this film until he completes his journey and is a whole person.

...Each color has a specific wavelength of energy, which we perceive the same way that we feel vibrations. Even if they aren't consciously aware of it, the audience can feel a difference between high and low wavelengths of energy. They are reacting to that feeling in addition to what they see on the screen."

- Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC

Janusz Kaminski: Technicolor's ENR Process

From American Cinematographer, Breaking Slavery's Chains by Stephen Pizzello (January 1998)

"When I'm doing a normal movie-- without ENR-- I typically try to add a bit more contrast, especially when I'm lighting faces. I want one side to be light, the other side to be darker, and so on. I always end up flagging the excess light to create some contrast because of the latitude of the film. While doing tests with ENR on Amistad, I learned very quickly that the process allows you to dispense with a lot of the grip equipment, because extra contrast is inherent to the ENR process. We could simply put a frontal light at a certain angle, without using flags."

- Janusz Kaminski

"We did have to adjust for that a bit. I'd ask Janusz about [flagging] certain setups, and he'd say, 'Don't worry, the ENR will take care of it.' The ENR really absorbs light in some areas that you'd normally want to control."

- Jim Kwiatkowski, Key Grip for Janusz on Amistad

"I'd find out what would happen if, for instance, I put a black net filter behind the lens, added smoke and ENR to the mix, and then lit flatly. We got to the point where we were trying to create the most implistic and idiotic lighting possible, where you just put a bounce card in front of someone's face and aim a light into it. That's as flat as you can get! We were dealing with a lot of contrast right there-- the light is reflected from a black face, and it just falls off. But that didn't create any problems for us, even when we were putting someone as pale as Matthew McConaughey next to Djimon. Djimon's magical face is truly black, but he reflects light beautifully; that compensated for Matthew's skin tone. If I had them in a two-shot, I'd maybe put the light closer to Djimon. My hat is off to Kodak in that regard; these days, the emulsions are so sophisticated, and have so much latitude, that you don't have to do very much to accommodate the tonal differences. For all of these reasons, we started doing very simple lighting tests with very easy lighting; there were no tricks."

- Janusz Kaminski