Constantine Makris: Changing the Light as Actors Move

From American Cinematographer, Legal Eagle by Eric Rudolph (October 1998)

What are Makris's secrets?

"I use dimmers and cross-fading more often. We also walk lights, with electricians doing things like dipping under the frame-line to move a handheld light to the actor's new position. I read an interview with Allen Daviau [ASC] in American Cinematographer where he said, 'I don't know how to do things without walking lights or moving nets and flags as the characters move.' That comment really stuck with me and has greatly influenced how I light now, along with the revelations that came from directing. The dance between the actors and the camera is one of the most interesting facets of this show — in addition to the fact that the writing, acting and directing are so good...

...If we can just use a board to bounce the light back to their faces, we will, but often we end up using a Griffolyn — anything from a 4' by 4' to a 12' by 12' — and hit it with a nine-light, from which we'll add or subtract light as the actors move closer and farther away. It's another example of how you can dramatically change the lighting during a scene. We'll bring down a single in front of some of the nine-light's bulbs as the actors get closer to the Griffolyn. We've found that you can change the lighting during a scene a great deal. As long as you have a moving camera and moving actors, the changes are invisible."

- Constantine Makris, ASC

John Lindley: Shooting Color and B&W

From American Cinematographer, Black-and-White in Color by Bob Fisher (November 1998)

Lindley made several accommodations to shooting color film for conversion to black-and-white. He used hard light to get crisp separations in scenes with monochrome characters. He also used a dimmer control board for lighting transitions when a black-and-white person left an area and a color character moved in.

"The black-and-white characters would be hard-lit, even though they were occupying the same space where we had soft light on a color character. Almost every light was wired to a dimmer board. The operator watched a monitor with a live video feed from the tap on the camera. We did a lot of cues on the fly as people moved around sets.

Your eye naturally goes to color in a black-and-white world. If you pick up a newspaper that has one color photograph and a bunch of other black-and-white ones, everybody looks at the color one first. It's human nature."

- John Lindley, ASC

He further explains that the same dynamic applies when there are color and black-and-white characters in the same shot.

"That was great if [the black-and-white person] was the character Gary wanted to highlight. But if it was a two-shot and he wanted to feature both characters, I sometimes adjusted the composition to give the black-and-white person a little more prominence."

- John Lindley, ASC

Vittorio Storaro: Dimmers & Limitless Possibilities

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

"You can do whatever you can imagine. In The Last Emperor, there is a long, dramatic scene in a conference room. The actors are seated around a table, and no one is moving. We used the dimmer to create the impression that time was passing and the sun outside of a window was setting. The dimmer board can also save time between setups. The gaffer, control board operator and I would arrive, and everything would be ready for us. The early dimmer consoles were made for the live theater and television. We designed a new dimmer board for Tango. DeSisti Lighting [in Italy] made it for our use."

- Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC

Vittorio Storaro: 220v, Dimmers, & Speed

From American Cinematographer, Storaro and Bulworth by Garrett Brown (June 1998)

The use of 220 volts for all lighting reduces the diameter of copper needed for the cable runs, and the dimmers yield a great savings of time and energy-- fewer trips up ladders to throw in scrims, less heat on the set and longer life for globes and gels. Plus, everybody is visibly energized when the lights go up, and can relax when they go down. It's a great change from the timeless, perpetually-lit studio sets that are so enervating after the 20th hour.

Is Vittorio fast? I think so. With the right pre-rig, the system can be very speedy. I asked if being fast was important to him. Vittorio said,

"No. I understand that it can be very useful for the assistant director to know how long it will take if an actor needs to be called, or if they want to break for lunch—you have to tell them a number. But the process of changing from one shot to the other is very fast, so you can tell any number and everyone will be happy. Anyway you will wait for the weather, for the director, for something. I don't care if they tell me I'm the fastest or the slowest. Hollywood, to me, exaggerates everything."

- Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC

Vittorio Storaro: Non-Incandescent & Single Source Lighting

From American Cinematographer, Storaro and Bulworth by Garrett Brown (June 1998)

Vittorio doesn't use HMI's and tries to avoid fluorescents- he doesn't like the color spectrum of either, and they aren't dimmable. He never erects forests of flags and nets and teasers.

"He will cut, and he likes large blacks and large silks, but if the light comes through the window, then he plays the whole scene around where that light comes from. He'll add a little fill , a little silver board to pick up the eyes. It's amazing-- as if the world stood still when that perfect light came. And that's how he does the close-up, without relighting, unlike a lot of other cameramen who would turn off and start over."

- Gary Tandrow, Gaffer for Vittorio on Bulworth

Vittorio Storaro: Lighting Technique

From American Cinematographer, Storaro and Bulworth by Garrett Brown (June 1998)

Storaro's technique is comprehensive and quite different from the usual practices in the U.S. He uses what he calls "puntiform" or point-source lights and "multiform" broad sources, but seldom anything in between. He describes the former as "so tiny, or so far away, that it makes a strong separation between light and shadow, so no area is in penumbra." His broad-source lights consist of the same fixtures, but placed closer, and usually fronted with diffusion. "I was searching for a dialogue between two specific forces—one gives me very specific shadows and the other doesn't give any shadows at all." For what he calls "sculpting" with light, he rides these separate sources on the dimmer board.

- Quotes by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC

Frederick Elmes: Firelight

From American Cinematographer, A Less-Than Civil War by Douglas Bankston (November 1999)

"Gaffer Jonathan Lumley and I tested some flicker-box systems to create 'fire-light.' In most of the campfire scenes, we would use 2k lamps with some gel on them, sometimes down on the dimmers a little bit to warm them up even more. With diffusion, it would make a source that was four by eight feet. I could put it 15 or 20 feet away, and it would give me the quality of light I wanted. Also, because the source was big, it would give me the flickering I wanted. It was just a matter of moving it around so that it worked on the actors' faces most effectively-- in addition to having some sort of real flames and smoke in the foreground to make it convincing. It also helped to have six other fires going on in the distance; they could be lighting five people in one spot, a tree in another and two tents nearby. That would give me control over the background."

-Frederick Elmes, ASC