From American Cinematographer, A Less-Than Civil War by Douglas Bankston (November 1999)
The tight confines of the woods, however, required a different technique.
"We'd try to find locations that had a pathway nearby, so we could build a dolly track and just push the camera along really fast for a short run. If you're clever, you can shoot one scene off one side of the dolly, and then turn the camera around and do the same dolly move while shooting in the opposite direction, because you have great woods on the other side as well."
-Frederick Elmes, ASC
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.
Showing posts with label woodside. Show all posts
Showing posts with label woodside. Show all posts
12.5.09
Oliver Stapleton: Trees on Film
From American Cinematographer, Enchanted Forest by Chris Pizzello (May 1999)
"One of the first things we discovered was that Lucianna Arrighi, our production designer, couldn't afford to build the woodland from scratch. Instead, Lucianna had real trees brought into Soundstage 5. It's cheaper to do it that way, but it's also a nightmare, because the leaves can fall off or change from being glossy, watery things to dead, horrid crispy things. After looking at tests, we decided to paint all of our branches, leaves, and trees. The trunks of the trees in particular were very dull and boring in tests. The green and brown colors of trees in woodlands really absorb light, so they tend to look dead on film. I think just about every cinematographer has been caught shooting dead forest at night. It's a very tricky photographic thing, because when you look at it by eye, you think, 'That looks all bright and nice!' Then you photograph it, and it barely shows up on film.
One of the reasons Michael wanted to make this film was that he didn't think any of the previous movie versions of the play were any good. But I thought the 1935 film was kind of interesting from a photographic standpoint. An operator friend of mine, Chris Lombardi, faxed me a magazine article in which Hal Mohr talked quite extensively about tricks they had used in the film. They put sparkles and diamonds all over the leaves and trunks. Photographically it's very subtle but quite effectivel the audience is not going to come out of theater saying, 'Gosh, what were they doing with those trees?' The highlights we added made the light and environment much more substantial and magical, which is what you're trying to do with A Midsummer Night's Dream."
- Oliver Stapleton, BSC
"One of the first things we discovered was that Lucianna Arrighi, our production designer, couldn't afford to build the woodland from scratch. Instead, Lucianna had real trees brought into Soundstage 5. It's cheaper to do it that way, but it's also a nightmare, because the leaves can fall off or change from being glossy, watery things to dead, horrid crispy things. After looking at tests, we decided to paint all of our branches, leaves, and trees. The trunks of the trees in particular were very dull and boring in tests. The green and brown colors of trees in woodlands really absorb light, so they tend to look dead on film. I think just about every cinematographer has been caught shooting dead forest at night. It's a very tricky photographic thing, because when you look at it by eye, you think, 'That looks all bright and nice!' Then you photograph it, and it barely shows up on film.
One of the reasons Michael wanted to make this film was that he didn't think any of the previous movie versions of the play were any good. But I thought the 1935 film was kind of interesting from a photographic standpoint. An operator friend of mine, Chris Lombardi, faxed me a magazine article in which Hal Mohr talked quite extensively about tricks they had used in the film. They put sparkles and diamonds all over the leaves and trunks. Photographically it's very subtle but quite effectivel the audience is not going to come out of theater saying, 'Gosh, what were they doing with those trees?' The highlights we added made the light and environment much more substantial and magical, which is what you're trying to do with A Midsummer Night's Dream."
- Oliver Stapleton, BSC
10.5.09
Conrad Hall: Over Cast Weather on "A Civil Action"
Randy Woodside was Conrad Hall's gaffer on A Civil Action.
When we did have the good fortune to get some overcast weather, we'd often underexpose the faces and expose more toward the sky, which created some modeling on the faces. I love that technique, because it really provides a more downcast feel. The brow-line shadows the actors' eyes and there's a shadow under their chins. You get more definition in the faces that way. We also used some negative fill to take light away from one side to provide some shape. We were trying to provide a bit of contrast to every shot in a situation that didn't really lend itself to it. On wide shots, we obviously did what we could with the lens aperture, but when we got into coverage, we began shaping the faces by taking light away. When we did add light, we added it in very subtle, naturalistic way to help get rid of some of the toplight. If you don't do it subtly, things start to get out of balance with everything else in the background."
-Randy Woodside
When we did have the good fortune to get some overcast weather, we'd often underexpose the faces and expose more toward the sky, which created some modeling on the faces. I love that technique, because it really provides a more downcast feel. The brow-line shadows the actors' eyes and there's a shadow under their chins. You get more definition in the faces that way. We also used some negative fill to take light away from one side to provide some shape. We were trying to provide a bit of contrast to every shot in a situation that didn't really lend itself to it. On wide shots, we obviously did what we could with the lens aperture, but when we got into coverage, we began shaping the faces by taking light away. When we did add light, we added it in very subtle, naturalistic way to help get rid of some of the toplight. If you don't do it subtly, things start to get out of balance with everything else in the background."
-Randy Woodside
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