American Cinematographer - August 1986 - 78

shot his first

feature, "When a Stranger Calls." His
Academy Award nomination for "Flashdance" came
ten years later. More recent films include "Splash"
and "Cocoon."
Caleb Deschanel, ASC, was born in

Philadelphia and spent his teen years in Maryland. He
took a filmmaking course during his junior year at
college. That led him to the Department of Cinema at
USC in 1967.

Within a year, Deschanel was
shooting educational films. When he was up for an
AFI fellowship, Deschanel opted to work with Gor¬
don Willis, ASC. When that plan didn't work, he
financed his own apprenticeship with Willis.
Some 10 years after arriving in Cal¬

ifornia, he shot "Black Stallion" which won the Los
Angeles film critics award for cinematography. Next,
he filmed "Being There," which earned similar ac¬
claim from the New York film critics.
Deschanel received Oscar nomina¬
tions for "The Right Stuff" in 1983 and "The Natu¬
ral" in 1984.
Other

Cinematographers Shine in the 1980s
Other cinematographers who
their first Oscar nominations during the first

earned
half of the 1980s

include Ralf Bode, ASC; Michael

Chapman; James Crabe, ASC; Ghislain Cloquet,
Miroslav

Ondricek, Chris Menges, BSC; Ernest Day,
BSC; Alex Thomson, BSC; Jost Vacano, BVK; Gor¬
don Willis, ASC; John Seale, ASC; David Watkin;
Takao Saito; Masaharu Ueda and Asakazu Nakai.
T-Grain Emulsion and Other Advances

Early in the 1980s, Kodak Re¬
search Laboratories reported on advances in
emulsion technology that make it feasible to provide

speed, a greater degree of sharpness, and a finer
grain structure.
An early dividend was T-Grain
emulsion, which showed a change in the traditional
design of the silver halide crystal to a flatter, tabular
shape. The T-Grain crystal can absorb more light making the film "faster." A flat, tabular-shaped crys¬
tal also makes it possible for film emulsion designers
to create thinner layers, a characteristic that can im¬
prove sharpness since there is less dispersion of light.
more

Peterman worked in

episodic tele¬

"We did 30 to 40 setups a day,
and half of them were handheld.") before moving on
vision
to

("Lassie"

commercials

as a

director of

"In those

and shoot film for

photography.
days you could go

week, and it would be

out

com¬

pressed into a 60 second spot." While you shot a high
ratio of film, every frame was an integral part of a
sophisticated message. "You lit and shot those com¬
mercials much the same way you would do fashion
photography. We used
mm

lot of soft light and

1000

lenses."

1985, Kodak announced three

films incorporating T-Grain crystal and other new
emulsion technology. Eastman color high speed nega¬
tive film 7292 is a 16mm emulsion with an El of 320
in tungsten light and 200 in daylight with a correcting
filter. It replaced 7294. The new 16mm film features

improved sharpness and grain characteristics. It is a
low-light-sensitive 16mm companion for Eastman
color negative film 7291.
An improved version of Eastman
color intermediate film

In 1974,

he shot the pilot and early
episodes for "The Night Stalker." Four years later, he

44a

Three New Films Enter the Scene

5243/7243 featured

American Cinematographer - August 1986

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - August 1986