American Cinematographer - January 2007 - 90

A Movie Buffs Moment
tions. "I

was

before E. T.,
I

am as a

an

unknown person

I know how fortunate
result of that film," he says.
so

He revisited the

picture for its 20thanniversary theatrical re-release in
2002, and found the original nega¬
tive and accompanying archival
interpositive in pristine condition at
Universal. "The experience was a tes¬
tament to the archival quality of
motion-picture film," he notes.
After
collaborating with
Spielberg again on the Twilight Zone:
The Movie fantasy segment "Kick
the Can" and George Miller's rip¬

Pulitzer

War thriller The Falcon and the

Prize-winning book that has
widely read and greatly appre¬
ciated, everyone is just waiting to see
what you will do with it," Daviau told

Snowman.

AC. "And it

roaring horror entry "Nightmare at
20,000 Feet," Daviau stepped into
reality-based drama with the Cold

After

reteaming
with
Spielberg on an episode of the series
Amazing Stories ("Ghost Train")
and shooting second unit on
Indiana Jones and the Temple of
Doom, the duo tackled a high-pro¬
file project that would endure heavy
scrutiny throughout its production,
The Color Purple (AC Feb. '86).
"When you make a movie from a

been

to

was an enormous

story

tell. The

the

photography had to serve
clarity of the storytelling first,

and also delineate these characters

you're going to live with for over 30
years." Alice Walker's tale is told in
the form of "letters

by

to

God" written

naive, long-suffering African-

a

American

(played by
Whoopi Goldberg), and the film
maintains this very human view¬
point throughout.
woman

Daviau found

On

location

great

Carolina,

Daviau,

detail

into the interiors built

inspiration
shooting
Empire of the

while

Sun

on

in

location

Shanghai,

China. The most

impressive
scenes

shot

there include an
invasion
sequence in
which a

desperate
crowd of

thousands

separates young
Jim

(Christian

Bale, below)
from his

parents.

in

North

production
designer Michael Riva and Spielberg
analyzed every angle of their practi¬
cal locations, nearby roads and adja¬
cent buildings; the same attention to
went

back in Los Angeles, includ¬
rural "juke joint." Daviau
recalls, "Half the juke joint was a
screened-porch area. We had a lot of
space, and there were slots in the roof
to allow beams of light to come in. So
we had the motivation of the setting
sun
pouring through one end of the
place, while the other was dark as
night and lit only by oil lanterns."
onstage

ing

a

Because the lanterns had to

serve as

practical, gaffer Norm Harris "gimmicked" the prop fixtures. His elec¬
trician built gadget lights - dim¬
mer-controlled, high-intensity halo¬
gen globes - that would fit onto the
back of them opposite the camera,
allowing the lamps to burn with a
visible real flame inside.
In order to

fully read the
expressions of the all-black cast, the
filmmakers decided that "set interi¬
ors

and set decorations should all be

darker than normal," says Daviau.
"It's easier to deal with dark faces

against a midtone or darker back¬
ground than it is against a light back¬
ground The lighting of the faces can
be much

more

subtle and naturalis¬

tic. It's the face that

you're trying to
keep in the foreground, so you don't
88

January 2007
American Cinematographer - January 2007

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