Cinematographer Notes

Last night I attended the official cast and crew screening of Sneakers & Soul at the Visual Arts theater on w23rd.  I was stunned approaching the theater and seeing the crowd that had gathered.  In total they filled up about 280 seats.  I ended up in the far right back corner.  Not the best seat in the house but considering I had the very best seat on set behind the camera, I wasn’t too upset.

First, the opening credits, All I can say is WOW!  It was like it’s own movie.  All animated and very cool.  Completely sets the tone for the picture as does the song they chose.  In fact nearly all the music choices were flawless.  Personally, I felt the song that plays after the bridge scene was modulated a little too high.  Good song but it was just a little too loud and I wanted that moment to be a bit quieter.

The movie started and from the very first shot, I knew we were in good shape.  I hadn’t seen the HVX200 (w new achromat glass)/Letus  35mm adaptor Nikon combination in 1080i ever.  Drawing with Chalk and most things I’ve shot so far have all be 720p and while 720 has always looked good.  The camera does a fantastic job of upscaling to 1080.  I would certainly recommend to anyone that they shoot in 1080i 24pA mode.  If the cards and storage are not a problem.  It’s only interlaced untill you bring it into FCP and do the pulldown automatically.  Then it’s 24p 1080p.  But WOW.   Overall, it was super sharp.  There were only 2 wide shots that didn’t quite have the sharpness I wanted but in general it was fantastic.  I also had never seen footage from my Sigma 24-70 zoom lens and even that looked fantastic.  I have to say though that the best lenses were the Nikon 50 and 85mm.  Both of those blew me away with clarity and sharpness.  It really is true about the new achromat glass with the Letus. If you bought an original 1st generation, make sure you replace the glass with the new achromat as it’s significantly sharper.  I’ve seen plenty of 35mm adaptor films before but it’s never looked this good.

But now for my review of this film. This was the first time I was able to really get into the story and concentrate on what was happening.  Seeing it with an audience is totally different from watching it in the editing room and it’s really the only time I get to enjoy the films without thinking about my work on the film.  I was blown away by how natural the performances were, by how well written the dialogue was and how everything just flowed together with the editing.  Sneakers is fantastic for a film, but for a first film, it’s incredible.  If this is ignored by the major film festivals I will officially hang up my meter.  I had no idea it was going to be this good.  I mean, I had a great time on set and while we were shooting it was fun and all but it’s difficult to gauge a final product when you’re in the middle of production.  The film is touching and funny and quirky and offbeat but above all, it has soul.  It’s got a theme that the film itself embodies 100 percent.

Even though I of course read the scripts of the films I’m shooting, I often have no idea what we’re doing and where it’s going while we’re shooting.   My initial readings of the scripts are just to determine a lighting package and to see how many locations and how much time it will take to shoot.  I don’t read anything creatively till I see locations, headshots and talk extensively with the director.  This is so that when I do sit down to visualize the script, I’m imagining the directors vision of the script.  Not my own.

Sneakers is the 12th feature film I’ve shot.  The first few films I worked on as a DP, I used to walk onto set with a lot of ideas and notions in my head from my own interpretation of the script.  I found that my ideas and the way I visualized things didn’t always match with the reality of the locations.  Sometimes it was completely at odds with the directors vision.  I would then have a hard time letting go of my preconcieved notions of how the film should look.  I’d get confused about the setups and placement between what I wanted and what the director wanted and it lead to me not really being able to work organically and efficiently.

For my more recent features, I found that when I began to put aside the script and instead concentrate on the locations and the actors and really listen to the director, I was far better at using what was in front of me and around me.  My approach on Sneakers and Soul was to listen to Jon and take cues from him.  He had ideas for where the camera should go 90 percent of the time.  I’d watch a blocking rehearsal, walk around with a viewfinder and then we’d figure out our coverage from there.  But it was always Jon’s vision and the locations that would determine my approach with lenses and lighting.  This was also very similar to how Todd and I worked on Drawing With Chalk.   This is why, in my opinion these two films look as good as they do.   The other critical factor is that both of these films had budgets and schedules that respected the filmmaking process.  We averaged about 2-3 pages a day as opposed to 6-7 which is more typical for a no budget.  When you have four 6 day weeks, it’s far easier to make a real movie which is why so many no budget films, don’t look like actual movies.  They just schedule too much in too short a time span.

Above all though, I was working with very talented directors who had a cinematic vision, could communicate that well, and also understood what I was doing with the lighting and why.   I was trusted 100 percent.  I know that it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon and that both of these films were really amazing and unique experiences.  I’m just glad to have been a part of them.