American Cinematographer - August 1986 - 75

John C. Flynn, III: "I first used the
high-speed film during the production of "Hill
Street Blues." After extensive testing, Flinn decided
to rate 5294 at El 800 for that program. "At that El,
it gives me deeper action, and deeper feeling, with a
pinch more depth in the blacks [than 5293]."
Typical squad room scenes had
pools of light and shadow
10 footcandles one
place, 20 another, 50 someplace else, and four or five
in other spots. "The film holds it all. You can see the
feelings on the screen. It looks real."
Charles Correll, ASC : "This pic¬
ture [''Star Trek III: The Search for Spock"] is
being made entirely on stages at Paramount
You
start from nothing, and every single set has to be lit in
new

...

believable vein."

No matter bow many

pictures

you

make, you never really know bow you
did until you see

sponds
things you
.

bow tbe public re¬
and then there are always
think of that you would

add "

want to

six footcandles

The whole thing worked sensa¬
tionally for us. The blacks retained their crispness,
and the people looked wonderful
we did it with
smaller units [lights], keeping the set cooler and sav¬
ing a lot of money."
Walsh offered an interesting obser¬
vation: "'Unfaithfully Yours' was a remake of a satir¬
ical comedy first produced in black-and-white in
1948. In one scene, there is a romantic candlelight

particularly tough scene was the
bridge set with at least a six-foot spread be¬
tween foreground and background. Correll wanted
to keep his key light down to 25 to 50 footcandles.
"We needed that for reality. If we put more than 50
footcandles on that set, the image would start to go
limp. Also, the lower the key light, the more comfort¬
able we keep the set for the cast."
In these circumstances, Correll
rated 5294 for an El of 1250, which included a onestop "push" at the lab. "I was astonished when I
looked at the dailies
There are
The depth of field is crisp."
Victor Kemper,
.

color shifts.

ASC : "I used
shoot the last scene in "Mr.
Mom"
the blacks were so black, and it only re¬
quired a small touch of fill in the shadows
With
10 footcandles of key light, I could easily work at
feet of

10,000

5294 to

Kemper's next picture was "Cloak
and Dagger." He reported, "There are scenes where
the key light is five footcandles with one footcandle
of fill
Anytime you have less equipment to deal
...

with,

have more time to be creative. Art in cin¬
ematography comes from subtracting, not adding
light."
David Walsh: "I used 50,000 feet
of 5294 during the production of 'Unfaithfully
Yours.' Most of this film was exposed in a nightclub
scene
it was a large set with many tables and a lot
of people. In an effort to keep it as realistic as possi¬
ble, we used the table lamps as illumination on the
people. Our light levels were in the range of four to
you

...

page:

Don

dinner at the Russian Tea Room, in New York. The
black-and-white film had an El of 50. "You needed
400

footcandles for

shoot the
40

same scene at

T-4
the

Now, we can
T-stop in color with

exposure.
same

footcandles
Making Film Look Better

on TV
An investment of years of

research
paid a big dividend in 1984 when Eastman color LC
print film 5380/7380 was introduced. Current TV
systems literally can't see all of the details in shadow
and highlight areas on today's high resolution emulsi¬
ons. The result was that the most subtle imagery cre¬
ated by talented cinematographers never made it to
the TV screen.

and

highlight

By reducing contrast in shadow
the new print film allowed TV

areas,

and replicate

many

of the finer details.

By the end of 1984, the vast majority of evening
prime-time film shows on the ABC, NBC and CBS
television networks were using the low-contrast film
as a

video interface.
Video

Postproduction Makes an Impact
By mid-decade there were more
than 300 advanced production telecines in use in the
United States at film labs as well as video postproduc¬
tion facilities. Almost all of the film

television is now transferred
of these devices.

seen

video tape

U.S.

with

one

Richard Edlund, ASC, the

Magic Continues
Starting with "Star Wars," a new
breed of special visual effects artists staked a claim in
Hollywood, and they brought their own brand of
magic. One of the prominent members of this new
cast

of characters is Richard Edlund.
Edlund was born in Fargo,

North
in the Los Angeles area where
he learned the basics of photography as a teenager.
Edlund learned about high-speed photography in the
U.S. Navy before enrolling in the USC School of Cin¬
ema in 1961. Two years later, he got a job with Joe
Westheimer, ASC, who operates a special effects stu¬
dio in Hollywood.
In 1975, John Dykstra recruited
Edlund for the team George Lucas was building to
produce "Star Wars." "I remember the first time that
I read 'trust in the force' in the script and tried to
Dakota, but he

T-2.8."

Opposite
Peterman

...

systems to see

circular

....

visualize how

grew up

make audiences

see

that."

During the next decade, Edlund
earned four Oscars for his part in creating visual ef¬
fects for "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back,"
41a

American Cinematographer - August 1986

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