American Cinematographer - April 1989 - 88

by meter. It's
personal."
not

a matter

of taste, and it's

Goldblatt selected the bridal
shot for the seminar to show "how you can

incorporate diffusion into a close-up without
using any filters on the camera. Generally, I
don't

filters, because other

camera

use

techniques seem to be less intrusive. There
need to make Jessica look younger
than she is, so we devised this form of
was a

an aged mirror." Goldblatt
smoke machine to diffuse the

close-up through

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can use

that you can never see it, but it's there, and it
did help her look beautiful."
Goldblatt used the same emul¬
sion and lens in the workshop footage that
he used in the original scene. He selected
Eastman Kodak 5295 because of its sensi¬

\

veloped by concentrating on art. I'm not
repeating the old cliche that people should
go to art galleries and pick up from the old
masters. It's what looks good to you. It's
personal, and a matter of constant practice,
of looking at where the shadows are placed
in other people's work and in still photo¬
graphs. The screens are rich with examples
of extraordinary work. I'm just in awe of

Another lesson Goldblatt

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the laboratory. Positive
job for the lab.
Goldblatt explains that "nega¬
tive flashing overcomes the shadows. It
seems to work very well with '95 because
it's a contrasty emulsion, so the slight
degradation of the blacks doesn't seem to
be detrimental to the overall image. It

flashing is

makes
IN TERNA TtONA L

Goldblatt hastened to add that
"if the

as snappy as the Primo, these are all small
things. It's not that the image is out of focus,
it's just a lessening. I don't want to intrude
between the audience and the image. It's
really important for people to be involved,
and to be unaware of what is going on
technically. It's just a matter of standing back
from the image, and letting the image work,
rather than the cinematographer saying
'look how fancy I am,"' Goldblatt says.

a Panavision 85mm Z
series lens because it is a little softer than.
the Primo lenses he used in other scenes.
Thus the overall diffusion of the

blue. He shot with

impart to the students was how
to use flashing to soften the skin tones in
the diffuse image. "I've been experimenting
on the last couple of projects with positive
and negative flashing, and they have totally
different characteristics." Flashing is the
process of exposing negative film or positive
print stock to a measured amount of light.
Negative flashing can be done during pro¬

crews

highlights and no effect on the darker areas.
a positive flash you're actually adding
density where it doesn't exist, and the
highlights become less hot." Goldblatt ex¬
plained that the inter-positive of Everybody's
All American was flashed. "It really helped
to reduce the contrast build-up that occurs
on bulk release prints."
With

image was achieved by combining a set of
subtle modulations. "The veil, the mirror, a
little bit of smoke, the use of a lens that isn't

tivity in all the color layers, including the

wanted to

and the best

difference, but it has a definite effect on the

image looks bad to begin with,
flashing won't help", and he cautioned stu¬
dents on the dangers of a technical ap¬
proach to cinematography. "The most
important thing is to have an idea of what
you want. You have to start with your
sensibility and your taste. The parameters
by which you light are not technical. If so
and so puts his highlights at these values,
you can't put your highlights there, and have
it look good. You can't start with the tech¬
nique and end up with the picture. It just
doesn't work in reverse. The main thing is to
develop visual taste."

underwater

u/w

a tool to be used with
smoke with control, so

blatt asked De Luxe laboratory to provide a
10% flash of the positive workprint. "Posi¬
tive flashing seems to smooth the skin tones
a little bit. I'm not talking about a major

April 1989

footage, Gold-

For Goldblatt, "taste can be de¬

of the work, I'm not blase about it at
all. If you see great work, it's an inspiration,
it's something to achieve, to fight for."
some

Goldblatt concluded that

"being
cinematographer is a fight between physi¬
cal reality and the look; a fusion of art,
politics and science... and everything isn't
necessarily working together. It's a matter of
having a viewpoint and a passion for certain
values and looks. It's in life. If you have a
bland point of view, then you're going to
a

have a bland life and do bland work. You
inform your viewpoint by experiencing it, by

being sensitive to life and to images. If
you've got a great eye, and science, strength
and control, then you can do wonderful
things. That's when everything works to¬
gether."
A
American Cinematographer - April 1989

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - April 1989
