American Cinematographer - January 1990 - 34

if a guy just got beat up he
shouldn't look like he just

make it with the

stepped out of a Brooks Brothers
commercial, but the light should
fall in the right place and look
right for the particular scene. If it

if they had some direct line to

needs to be dramatic, it should
fall where it casts a dramatic
shadow to camera. If the story
calls for an actress to look

nar.

younger (and
of them who

many footcandles do you usually
have on the faces of your sub¬

course,

England (at center,
with eyepiece) and
(left)
discussing a shot.
director Takacs

filmmaking wasn't fun, who
would want to do it? It's too
much to go through otherwise."
1

j,

.

£

for the
techniques of the early masters is
apparent in his style. "I was born
40 years late," he chuckles. "I'm
fascinated by the work on those
great Technicolor shows - Gone
England

s respect

With the Wind, Meet Me in St. Louis
think about the various color

-

temperatures they were working
with there, and the slow film

speed. I had a cameraman tell me
time that he didn't like to
shoot with more than 20
footcandles because he felt he
couldn't get the sensitivity or the
shades of darkness he wanted. I
was amazed! Forty years ago
one

they were using films with ASA
6 and lighting with 1200
footcandles, and somehow they
managed to get nice romantic
bedroom scenes. It's all related to
contrast - the relationships are
what matters, not which end of
the scale you're on.
"The difference is that
their pictures still look sharp even
to this day, with lenses that were

technically about 35% of what we
have today. It bothers me that
you see a picture projected 80 feet
wide and 40 feet high, and often
you have depth of field where a
guy's eyes are sharp but his ears
aren't. To me that just empha¬

or

the
gods that I didn't have. My first
day we were at Greystone, with
George Folsey teaching the semi¬
I was scared to death, and I
felt like my technical knowledge
was a little weak. Some smart
aleck says, 'Mr. Folsey, how

jects?' George said, 'See this Spec¬
tra here? I hold it in front of their

faces, and it says T 4. So I shoot
at T 4.1 don't know how many
footcandles it is.' One of the most

for

important lessons George ever
taught me was that although you

instance, if you have an actress
who is worried about her looks,
and another in the same scene
who can't hit her marks. You're

you also have to be able to put
aside the book learning and just

with difficult situations

-

trying to light precisely, and
here's this other kid going all
over, missing marks and moving
out of the lights. Sometimes you
have to be

a

teacher

as

well

as a

cinematographer."
England takes his cue
from nature when lighting sets
and backgrounds. "Of course,
every cameraman worth his salt
goes to the museums - these
painters had mastered light and
paint. But another thing that
George Folsey always told me -
no matter what scene
you're
doing, look at it and ask yourself,
'what kind of lighting effect can I
put in this scene?' Even if it's just
a lamp in the background, the
side of a face a little brighter or a
'glow' on the wall. You'll thank
yourself for it. Because that's
what nature does. Any time you

must know that technical

stuff,

simply look.
"George also introduced
me

to

a

device that I find very

helpful in certain situations - he
called it

a

'looker'. It

was

just

a

rectangular piece of cardboard,
with a box of the particular aspect
ratio cut into it. When you look at
the scene through it, the extrane¬
ous light is cut off. You can exam¬
ine the relationships and light
levels in the scene the way they
will be photographed. I used to
wonder why the old cameramen
wore
eyeshades. Then it dawned
on me. It
keeps the extraneous
light from becoming a distrac¬
tion. The looker does the

same

thing.
ness

"Of course, in any busi¬
there are people who are

walk into a room, if it has any
windows at all, there's a lighting

geniuses. People like Edison in
science, Einstein in physics -
these people do have direct lines
to the gods. They have
something
that maybe all the rest of us mor¬

effect of some description. So
when I go into different locations

I

in my

daily living, I'll look
around and say, 'hey, that's a nice
natural cut,' and I'll try to file it
away so when I'm on the set I can
try to emulate it."

tals don't. So I like to think that if

just work hard at my career,
listen to the cinematographers
whom I respect, and try to make
each film a little better by learn¬

ing something each time around,

study at AFI. "I had been doing
some cinematography back

eventually I'll be a good, re¬
spected cinematographer."
England feels that 7,
Madman may be a good step in
that direction. "One of the things

people should look right. Of

home, but I didn't know if I could

that's difficult about these small

American

January 1990

sizes the

artificiality of the

cam¬

era.

"I still believe in

glamour

photography," he continues.
"When I say glamour I mean that

32

I don't know many
are
trying to look
older), you light her correctly.
Actors and actresses who really
know what cinematography can
do want to be helped.
"A good director of pho¬
tography should be able to work

'big boys'

not," he recalls. "I came out to see

Cinematographer

As

England

a

young cameraman,
came to Hollywood to
American Cinematographer - January 1990

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