American Cinematographer - June 1984 - 58

Murdoch (Dwight Schultz) has ac¬
tually been up in an airplane was
for the filming of the pilot. "We

Trar»slaV'°n

mounted

a camera on an

old dou¬

ble-winged Jenny and got shots of
him in the cockpit with the real
pilot in the front cockpit. After
that, everything that you have seen
of interiors of him flying has been

film

terms
ronrp'ded bv

done process.
"I get two

vCe°meCa.'s°n

one

on

top
that

camera

so

one

tilts left and

English translated into

right, and the other tilts

SPANISH *FRENCH-GERMAN

down. And we just keep tilting.
When they want the plane to go
into a nose dive 1 tilt the camera so
that it looks that way. The whole

ITALIAN

*

JAPANESE

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Miscellaneous

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Time,

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Olympic
with crews from all over

and

TV puts some special de¬
the DP. Every week he

gets a new director to work with.
"For the most part directors di¬

$6.00

them before the show

$ 4.00

$1.50

INDIVIDUAL

like, 'Hi. I

AVAILABLE

footage yesterday. I like it

cause we are

saw

to: Double 'C' Publishing Co.
Verdugo Ave., Burbank, CA 91502

PLEASE RESERVE: Set of FIVE
Italian
NAME

.

.

.

.

.

French
Japanese
.

.

.

.

German

.

.

OR

...

.

.

.

.

(Print)

of

your
very

day, it's

a

question of 'Can

you do
straight
fanny for him.

this?' If the guy is a
But

I

can't

my

tolerate

incom¬

petence."
Each new director brings
with him a new script. Usually he
has had a week or so to study it, a

luxury Six rarely has. "I see the
script for the first time the day be¬
fore we start shooting it. To be

ADDRESS.
CITY

I enclose check/lnternational

Money Order

for$

checks, etc., payable to:

DOUBLE 'C'

some

much. We're going to get along
fine.' I walk away. Then on Mon¬

shooter, I'll bust

Spanish

be¬

VOLUMES

Send coupon
120 East

starts

always so busy with
whatever we are working on. If we
do meet usually it is something

Postage & Handling

tion.

television that

on

strangle feature produc¬

Still, there

obvious sim¬

are

ilarities in method and equipment,
and technique and artistry are vital
parts of both
izes that there

endeavors. Six real¬
are

members of his

profession that see TV work
being something less than fea¬

own
as

work: somehow television is

on

$25.00

*

constraints

would

mands

$4.00

ea

compare

shooting for television and shoot¬
ing a feature. The feel is totally
different; timing is different. There

like

$1.00

'Exclusive of

be

yours.' "

S 7.50

M7

to

to

will be

$ 2.50

In California ADD 6V2 % Sales Tax

warned about."
It is difficult

all,

(SURFACE)
(AIRMAIL)

if there is any¬

see

copter and do what} Well, sir, I
always let the director make one
guest shot per show and this one

(AIRMAIL)

OVERSEAS(SURFACE)

and

thinks of himself as an artist, too.
"First of all I think of my¬
self as a human being; second of

USA

OVERSEAS

scenes

thing in there that I need

sometimes the directors get car¬
ried away. 'Excuse me sir, but you
want who to hang out of the heli¬

USA

EACH

those

Six doesn't believe that. He knows
he is a top technician, but he

They are professionals and
they know 1 am a professional and
that my crew is professional. I very
rarely get to meet them or talk to

SET

go

thing is shot in front of blue screen
and used with background plates.
"We do wind up shoot¬
ing a lot out of helicopters and

rect.

POSTAGE & HANDLING

All

up

shooting the next
home that night and read

day. I

are

rocker heads,
of the other, for the

we'll be

scenes

honest, there have been times
script. But
every night before we go home we

when I haven't read the

get a

call sheet that tells

Publishing Co.

DON'T DELAY-MAIL TODAY!
June 1984

us

which

ture

just

not as

"artistic"

as someone

an

to use

ing. I

on

feature.

who makes

tainment. I consider

nician, but

as a

enter¬

myself a tech¬

the other hand I feel

artist. When I decide how

light, in a sense I am paint¬
painting the picture I en¬

am

vision

on

that screen."

Nevertheless, the lack of
time can be frustrating - and not
just for television cameramen. Six
tells of the director who

was

dis¬

gusted by the fact that the quality
of his work was always equated
with the number of pages he shot
per day. Reportedly, he said
"Okay, you want 4 pages shot to¬
day? I'll give you four pages!" He
tore the pages out of his
script,
threw them on the ground and had
the cameraman photograph them.
The work of Six's team,
like that of their fictional counter¬

is hard, sometimes frustrat¬
ing, and routinely unnoticed
within the industry. But the results
are undeniably
entertaining. Given
the limitations, it is amazing that
parts,

the A-Team makes it out over the
microwaves every week. On the
other hand, this isn't just any TV
show and it isn't just any TV cam¬
era crew. This is the A-Team, and
as

Six says,

comes

"I love it when a plan
together."
(Music up and out)
■
American Cinematographer - June 1984

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - June 1984
