Oliver Wood: Flashlights and Sparks

From ICG Magazine, Watership Down by Pauline Rogers (May 2000)

As the American sailors make the perilous voyage home, the captured U-boat gets rocked by explosive depth charges, which knock out its power source and plunge its innards into darkness. Here, the cinematographer did his best to exploit the limited throw of a portable, practical source. "We faced the challenge of lighting so the audience could see, but not so that we interfered with the reality of the situation. So we lit the rest of the picture with flashlights," declares Wood. "It became a progression of lights breaking down as the sub got more and more water inside-- that made the shots darker and darker. For a while, we could use 'sparks'-- created by special effects-- to illuminate some of the shots. We would cue the lights or sparks by punctuation in the dialogue.

Dante Spinotti: Practicals & Burnouts

From American Cinematographer, True Luminaries by Eric Rudolph (June 1998)

Rather than screening film noir classics for visual inspiration, Hanson and Spinotti pored over the work of swiss-born still photographer Robert Frank. They were particularly intrigued by Frank's 1958 book The Americans, a collection of gritty, startling black-and-white photographs documenting American life during the mid-Fifties... The director and cinematographer agreed that Robert Frank's influence resonates in almost every aspect of the film's look, from lighting and camera angles to the selection of locations. Spinotti was particularly fascinated by the photographer's inclusion of "practical" lights in his photographs, noting,

"I told the production designer, 'You will love this film, because what you select as practicals will be our major sources of light.' In fact, practicals were quite often our key lights on this film."

- Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC

Was Spinotti concerned about the problem of practical key lights "burning out" on screen?

"No. In fact, I wish I could have burned them out a bit more, because I like that look. As you look at Frank's photographs, you see there is often a halo around the lights. These halos are one of the things people are often struck by in his work. I think that 'burn-outs' and halos worked for us as well in L.A. Confidential, enhancing the period and mood."

- Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC

Claudio Miranda: 'Budget Busters'

From American Cinematographer, Anarchy in the U.S.A. by Christopher Probst (November 1999)

"We lit a lot of Lou's basement with what we called 'Budget Busters'. They were basically small, clamp-on aluminum work lamps that you can get from Home Depot for $2. We had the art department age them down and make them ugly; then we'd just throw one of them up to create a glow in the background, which really added a lot of dimension and texture. We put those all over the place in the film, using standard 60-watt household lightbulbs, and Jeff absolutely loved them."

- Claudio Miranda, gaffer for Cronenweth on Fight Club

Jeff Cronenweth: Bringing Out Texture on Walls

From American Cinematographer, Anarchy in the U.S.A. by Christopher Probst (November 1999)

"Also, when we'd place a practical, we'd then use an additional concealed raking-source to bring the wall's texture out and create some contrast with highlights and shadows. The type of instrument we used for this really depended on the situation, and how broad we needed to be with the light, but we mainly used standard tungsten units that we softened with some 216 or 250."

- Jeff Cronenweth, ASC

Conrad Hall: Approach, Source Lighting, Practicals & Roomtone

"Source lighting is something that the inventors of cinema brought forth as a technique, and it's a good starting point when you're telling a story, but that doesn't mean you have to follow it. If I have an interior daylight scene, I usually struggle to use one light coming in through a window. Inside, I use smaller units and practical lights, and I also figure out how to take light away and create the little separations that provide depth. I can use practical lamps a lot as lighting sources, but will often add to that with additional 'movie' lights. However, you have to make sure that the additional lights you're using on an actor are not also lighting the practical. Finally, I add the proper amount of fill light, which I call room tone, to give the blacks the right tonality. Light bounces off of every surface in a room-- the walls, the floor, the furnature-- and that's what room tone is. I usually hit a white card above the set or directly on the ceiling so that it doesn't cast shadows on the walls. If you were to turn off all the other lights, you'd barely see anything, but everything would still be visible. There's no directionality to it. Room tone is very improtant, and you can use varying amounts of it depending on the speed of your film."

-Conrad Hall, ASC