American Cinematographer - August 1985 - 91

commodate

adapt to

performer's

strengths.
"You still

he
up

story,"
explained. "Then very often he runs
against the other actors, people in

the scene with him. There's the concept
of trying to do a film with a lot of cuts,
but also keep the characters on screen
in the same shot at the same time. And
how do you do that and still give this

his close-ups? That's one of the
things I'm warring with right now. I'd
guy

rather

the

see

actor

close, but if I do

that, we've got to do a close shot of the
other

actor

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into the

run

and then we're back into

conventional

cutting."
By utilizing the Louma crane,
Friedkin hopes to achieve the maximum
effect of dramatic close-ups without
sacrificing fluidity of camera movement.
"We're trying to combine
both. I frankly haven't solved that prob¬
lem at this stage of the game. That's
what keeps me awake nights now. To
get this actor effectively into close-up
and still keep the movement of the rest
of the film. That's what I'd like to see
the Louma do, because I've got a feel¬

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ing the Louma can be close on him and
still move with him and so do montage
within the frame, and not overburden
the cinematographer and the crew with
painstaking logistics.
"See,

did

shot yester¬

day that I thought overburdened Robbie
and the grip crew and the focus opera¬
tor. We stayed on it longer than we had
on any shot. I just wanted to see if it
would work. There were any number of
conventional ways to make the shot

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that would have been better for the
actors."

Friedkin had
dailies of the shot.

not

"The editor tells

yet seen the
me it

looks

good," he said. "My hunch is that it
will look very good technically and that I
should have done it in close-up," he
laughed. "To be very honest with you, I
think that's the way it is. But it's al¬
ways a gamble. Every shot is a gamble.
It's where you put the odds. It's like
roulette, because every movie is one
set-up at a time. Each set-up has its
own dynamic. It's a gamble I must say
I've lost

new

idea for carrying

few times."
It was pointed out that
Friedkin had won a few times, too.
a

"Yeah, but when you win it's
luck." he chuckled. "When you lose,
it's

usually pre-planning."

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American Cinematographer - August 1985

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