American Cinematographer - July 2007 - 47

then living in Vienna, saw footage and spoke up for the film, gaining it the funds to finish. He told Zeitlinger he liked the film’s handheld cinematography. “I responded by saying it would be so fine to make a film with him,” recalls Zeitlinger. “Three years later, Werner phoned me and said, ‘Hey, I have a job for you.’” Over their next few collaborations, Zeitlinger learned Herzog’s method, whereby the director, often with a hand on the cinematographer, dictates the shot by whispering in his ear. Herzog had used cinematographer Thomas Mauch on a number of films, including the jungle adventures Aguirre: The Wrath of God and Fitzcarraldo, and Jorg Schmidt-Reitwein on statelier fare such as Heart of Glass and Nosferatu. (“Sometimes there have been difficult choices to make,” the director told his Herzog on Herzog chronicler Paul Cronin, “about which of these fine cameramen to work with on particular films. Thomas Mauch is the cameraman I go to when I need something more physical … Schmidt-Reirtwein has a very good feeling for darkness and threatening shadows and gloom, in part, I suspect, because just after the Berlin Wall went up he was caught smuggling his girlfriend out of the East and was placed into solitary confinement for several months.”) Herzog, whose collaborations with Zeitlinger include Grizzly Man (see AC Aug. ’05) and Invincible, makes it clear that he requires very game directors of photography. The first thing he says about Zeitlinger is, “He’s a man of enormous physique. He used to be a hockey player for one of the best teams in the world.” With some amusement, Zeitlinger elaborates, “It was a children’s league in Prague. [Making that claim] is very important for Werner, and he does it at any possible situation. One interviewer who spoke to him about Invincible complimented my cinematography, and Werner said, ‘Yes, he’s very good. He used to be an ice-hockey player.’” Having decided that upclose handheld shots — many made with a 14mm lens — would dominate their work on Rescue Dawn, Herzog and Zeitlinger went into the shoot with one crucial influence in mind. The cinematographer explains, “One of the favorite 14mm-lens movies is Soy Cuba [I Am Cuba], a movie from the ’60s that was a propaganda movie for the Russians, against the Americans. Although we used other lenses on Rescue Dawn, notably a 35mm and a 25mm, we even used the 14mm with a handheld camera for special moments. With that lens, when you make just a very small movement the frame changes totally. My favorite scene we used it for comes just after the escape, when Dieter and the other escapees reunite in the forest. Gene [Jeremy Davies] and Dieter are having a discussion about their shoes, and just a slight movement of 20 centimeters to camera left brings Jeremy very close in frame. He acted it very well, [using] ‘the [Klaus] Kinski spiral,’ as Werner might call it; he turned toward the camera, even when he was talking with Christian, who was almost behind him. It’s not only a very good scenic moment, with the landscape behind them, but also an optic and acting moment working simultaneously to show the characters in a tense situation.” Zeitlinger’s responsibilities were substantial, thanks to Herzog, Söllner and Zeitlinger prepare another take in the camp. “Erik has worked with me on many Herzog movies,” Zeitlinger says of his 1st AC. “When we’re looking down into a deep abyss and Herzog says, ‘Peter, I will hold you onto your belt when you turn the camera down over the edge,’ Erik takes out his harness and mountaineer rope and says, ‘Werner, I will secure Peter. He’s the one who gave me the job, not you.’ Erik is the one who cut a path for me through the jungle on this shoot. He had a machete in one hand and the focus wheel in the other.” American Cinematographer 47

American Cinematographer - July 2007

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