American Cinematographer - March 1985 - 52

in "The New

Eddie, Eva and

in the interior

Willie

World" were the result of working
with "rinky-dink" 8mm lights
which annoyed Di'Cillo to the

on

in Florida.

the beach

scenes

point of forcing him to throw
them out half-way through the
break-neck two day shoot. Using
the last light left, he threw one
bright line of light, coming from
an irrational light source, out over
the set. To Jarmusch's satisfaction,
Di'Cillo was able to create the
look which was followed through¬
out the film.

Using

an

Arriflex-BL,

Di'Cillo found two lenses, an 18
and a 25, a fascinating exercise,

I like

things to hap¬
pen accidentally. The composition
continually rearranges itself within
one

no cuts.

frame.
"The last

day we were in
Cleveland, Jim wanted to shoot
the lake. He thought it would be
great. The sun was out and the
fact that there was snow on the
lake was to be part of the joke. No
sooner did we get there and set up,
but a snow squall came in off the
lake. There we were shooting in
the middle of a blizzard. It has the
effect of looking into a ball of cot¬
ton-a total void."

Sometimes, according to
admission, Di'Cillo's inex¬

yet his first priority is to what is in
front of the lens. "I like to pene¬
trate with the camera, to penetrate
what is really happening. I look

his

not for composi¬
tion but for the life within the
frame. That life is either within the

sulted on the Florida shoot due to
the fact Di'Cillo was minus a

through the lens

50

with

objects

or

due

my

to

the actors. I think this is
training

as an actor.

own

perience threw

a cog in the wheel
production. Problems, which
were later corrected in opticals, re¬

of

ground glass with TV demarca¬
tions. He began framing for 1.85.
The ordered

"But working with two
lenses was exciting because most
of the shots had to sustain them¬
selves after two or three minutes

and

American

March 1985

Cinematographer

an

packed

glass

never

arrived

hour before the
up,

Jarmusch

formed that the mike
frame.

was

crew

was in¬
in every

Sound

problems also
plagued Stranger. London, who
had dropped out of NYU to pur¬
sue a career in political documen¬
taries, found the sound of the first
part very different from the last
segment. "Jim and 1 were very
concerned because not only was
the sound different technically,
but the character of Eddie was so
much more evolved in the second
half. He's so silent in the begin¬

ning. Jim kept asking
the

same

me,

'Is this

Eddie?' "
"The sound recordist

(Drew Kunin) had

a

hard time be¬

the shots were so wide and
he didn't have a boom person and
had to go it alone. The dailies
would arrive with Drew's apolo¬
cause

gies. Plus, the sub-zero weather in
Cleveland made things very
difficult."
To correct these prob¬

lems, London and Jarmusch
worked feverishly covering them
with tome and redubbing in an at¬
tempt to send a completed film to
the Cannes review. Editing difficul¬
ties were compounded by the low
budget which prevailed.
American Cinematographer - March 1985

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