American Cinematographer - July 2008 - 12

Right: Laszlo Kovacs, ASC, shown on location with writer-director Klaudia Kovacs as the two filmed interviews for the documentary. Below: Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC confers with Kovacs. 12 July 2008 Photos by George Adams (top) and Peter Sorel, courtesy of Klaudia Kovacs. duced Klaudia to Laszlo Kovacs, who stepped into the breach. Both cinematographers also agreed to larger roles as executive producers on the project. “Laszlo and Vilmos and I were on a journey together,” says Klaudia. In addition to providing insight, the veteran cinematographers helped to give the project credibility, she adds. They introduced her to people at Panavision in Los Angeles, who selected her for the company’s New Filmmaker Program, which provided free camera gear. She got additional support from Sparks, Ltd., a rental house in Hungary partially owned by Zsigmond. They also introduced her to people at Technicolor, which provided postproduction support, including the digital intermediate (DI). The filmmakers researched and gathered footage and still photographs from archives in the United States, Hungary and Russia. Joseph Miko, another cinematographer who filmed in Hungary during the uprising, arranged to have the Hungarian National Film Archive provide his footage at no charge. (Miko died in May 2008 at the age of 87.) Scenes of the uprising came in a range of formats, including Betacam, DigiBeta and VHS; that material was color-corrected and up-rezzed to 16x9 high-definition video in the DI. The filmmakers are currently seeking funding to make a 35mm print. The archival material is intercut with footage from about 30 interviews, which were done in the U.S., Hungary, Russia and Italy. In discussing the right look for the interviews, Laszlo and Klaudia watched the drama Reds, shot by Vittorio Storaro, ASC, AIC, and the documentary The Fog of War, shot by Peter Donahue and Robert Chappell (AC March ’04). According to Adams, they agreed that the subject called for a strong, dramatic look. “Laszlo chose black backgrounds for the interviews,” says Adams. “He wanted the audience totally focused on the person talking. He lit half of the subject’s face and left the other half in shadows, and he used an eyelight to make intimate contact with the audience.” Interviews were shot with a Panavised Sony HDW-F900, mostly with an 8-72mm T1.9 Primo Digital zoom lens. When Laszlo’s failing health made his participation impossible, his assistant, Zoltan Honti, stepped up to cinematographer. “I’d ask myself what Laszlo would have done with each person,” he says. “Then I’d put a face partially in shadows and put a sparkle in the eyes.” Zsigmond says Torn from the Flag carries an important message: “People were incredibly brave during the uprising, and that shouldn’t be forgotten.” Klaudia recalls, “Laszlo was very proud of his contribution to this movie; he often said, ‘I owe it to my country. Generations have grown up with little or no knowledge of the Hungarian Revolution, and we have an obligation to tell them what it was like.’ “Many people told me I’d never make this film,” she continues, “but Laszlo never questioned whether I could. For that, I’m very grateful to him.” Torn from the Flag was given its world premiere at AFI Fest 2007. It has since screened at a number of other festivals, including one in Tiburon, Calif., where it won the Golden Reel Award for Best Cinematography. I

American Cinematographer - July 2008

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