American Cinematographer - June 1989 - 35

of

schemes, had to make downtown

fine talents in the palm of

Vancouver double for New York

child in the cast, Del Ruth lost
one tool that could have facili¬
tated his task: elaborate camera

City, and

come up with a variety
of ways to light and shoot the

movement.

apartment set where Alley and

dy in Big Talk springs from the
baby's point of view, the camera

659, Herb Allard,
many

a

tough busi¬

who held the

nessman

careers

his hand.
"You

would

have

thought by reading the letter I
was James
Wong Howe," laughs
Del Ruth.

"And

he

was

so

working out theatrical lighting

associates

spend more than 50%
of the film. For Del Ruth, who

amazed by the bravado of it that
he summoned me to his office
and decided to try me out." Del
Ruth's first credit was with the
Howard Anderson effects com¬

helped make the single-set expo¬
sition of The Breakfast Club a hit
and Martin Short's Cross My Heart

pany on the Rock Hudson war
vehicle Tobruk.
Del Ruth's subsequent
work as Conrad Hall's assistant

gether

cameraman

an

artistic if not commercial

cess,

suc¬

the challenge wasn't alto¬

new. But with the
inclusion of an 18-month old

"Since

had to be

a

lot of the

come¬

subservient to its

moods," he says. "Moreso, at that
age the baby tended to be dis¬
tracted by anything, so we didn't
have the flexibility of big camera
moves."
Del Ruth gave the apart¬
ment set a sense of variety

Opposite page: Del
employed a

(their first collabora¬

Ruth

tion was Butch Cassidy and the
Sundance Kid) led him away from
the traditional school of Holly¬

theatrical, "old Hol¬

lywood" style to
light the sets and
cast of Big Talk.

wood cinematographic thought;
Del Ruth is one of many people
who believes Hall was the most
adventurous visual artist on the
cinema scene in the late '60's.

Shown here is
tress Kirstie

Left: A walk in the

park for Alley and
her lover George
Segal becomes a
big production for

"Conrad was, among
other things, the first to employ
the long lens combined with soft

Del Ruth and his
crew.

lighting and very strong backlight
with diffusion - the results of
which were about as far removed

Below: John

Travolta, in the

warmly-lit apart¬
ment, holds the

from the traditional Hollywood
look as you could imagine. I'd

young actor whose
moods influenced

anything like it, and
naturally he became my strongest
never seen

camera

blocking

and movement.

influence."
In '79 Universal offered
to make Del Ruth a director of

photography in exchange for
camera
operating duties on sever¬
al TV shows. Del Ruth quickly
graduated to shooting movies of
the week, and today expresses
gratitude for being able to move
freely between the worlds of TV
and features.
"I like the

TV

discipline of

you have to come up with
alternative ways of achieving a
-

shot, and oftentimes the alterna¬
tives

are

plan

you

better than the

original
had in mind."
The medium budget Big
Talk, which represents the first

time Del Ruth has worked
cation in Vancouver,

ac¬

Alley.

on lo¬
combines

the

discipline of TV with creative
lighting and shooting techniques
harking back to Conrad Hall. Del
Ruth and his crew, in addition to

June 1989

American

Cinematographer

33
American Cinematographer - June 1989

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