American Cinematographer - May 1984 - 58

then was black & white. So
when you go back to color you
know it is another emotional
schism. When that happens to
see

Rusty-James

you

realize that it's an

emotional schism for him as well.
Here is somebody at the brink. In¬
stead of having the actor foam at
the mouth and rend his clothes,
the color symbolism hopefully
puts that across. This whole
is an experiment. There are

thing
three

aspects to this picture. There's a
little bit of expressionism in it, a
little bit of surrealism and some

hyper-realism in it. The best of it
and the

worst

of it all mixed

together.
system

What effect has the video
that Francis developed for

One From the Heart had

on

the

production of Rumble Fish?
me to
era

It has made it easier for
communicate with the cam¬

because I can be a lot
specific. I can correct him in
middle of a shot. Normally I

operator

more

the

would have seen it until it
late. It helps me have a lot
more control. It helps Francis and
I communicate better when we
can both see what is
happening at
the same time. Both of us have a
little picture we can point to. We
can make a
change and both look
it over instead of having to frame
the shot and step off the dolly for
the other person to see it. Video
has been a terrific help and a good
never

Francis Ford

Coppola
directs a night for
night scene in the
freight loading yard.

give

you a

light

source

element in

area Qf darkness that has no
character on its own. Makes you

an

jmagjne that beyond the tattoo
parlors and bars there is a whole
world that you've never seen
before.

fight¬

ing fish really look like that; very
picture is a
key to letting you know that the
Motorcycle Boy is getting near the
edge. Its the first time that RustyJames really gets worried when he
vivid. The color in the

How were the scenes
done that had composite black and
white and color, like the pet shop
interior with the brothers looking
at the colored fish?

sees

through all the
planning permutations you could
think of. After going around and
around with all kinds-of incredibly
complicated ideas, we ended up
shooting the brothers talking in

this color transition and it's in and
it's out.
So the color appears in

We

went

black and white and then pro¬
jected that footage on a rear pro¬
jection screen. We put the fish
tank in front of it, dropped in the

tropical fish and shot it all with
color film. Ultimately, it was the
simplest thing to do.

56

The colors of those Siamese

this and the color in the shot

signals that as well. The same thing
happens to him when his brother
is killed by Patterson. You have
the flashing red lights, you have

thing

to

Yes. It's in very
tions of the picture. It's

small sec¬
used as a
visual pen stroke to communicate
an emotional feeling.
You are saying that the
color is showing that they are los¬
ing control whereas most people
would think that the color would

represent

reality.

Yes, but remember the
dialogue and what Motorcycle
Boy says. To him, normality means
that everything is in black &

American

May 1984

white. He could remember that he

color at one time, but after
their mother left them all he could
saw

have.
What is Francis'

working
relationship with his directors of
photography?

just those two instances?

Does that mean that the
release prints have those color
stock sequences spliced in? As they
did in the early black & white mu¬
sicals with their color finales?
That's correct. And we
had a hard time matching them up.

Cinematographer

was too

I'm

sure

go to
to

What Francis does, and
he did with Vittorio, is to

the wall. So both of

the wall the best

we

us went

could. He's

supportive, always good at
you on. Francis is the
kind of person who lets you go as
far as you can go and if you get in

very

cheering

trouble he will drag you back from
the brink, but never puts any re¬
strictions on you. He does a kind
of creative pyramiding that is very

exciting to be a part of. He's very
good at drawing the very best out
of everybody he works with. Being
a great verbal communicator is
also

one

of his

strengths.

■
American Cinematographer - May 1984

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