American Cinematographer - March 1990 - 12

by David Heuring
Here in the "Heart of

Holly¬

wood," American Cinematogra¬

r-

03

(D
p3

pher shares its Orange Drive of¬
fices with its publisher and par¬
ent organization, the American
Society of Cinematographers. On
a
daily basis, we receive phone
calls, letters, FAX messages, and
personal visits from people with
questions, usually (but not al¬
ways) about some facet of the
film industry.
They range in complex¬
ity from the innocent grade
schooler wondering "How do
they make Roger Rabbit's ears
move?" to the seasoned profes¬
sional trying to solve a dizzying
technical puzzle. There are in¬
quiries about cameras, film stock,
filters, and lighting, about special
effects, acting, directing, produc¬
ing and editing. Then there was
the guy who wanted to know if
the magazine would finance his
film.

p

%

(Please,

no

letters

-

we

don't do that.)
We do our best to answer
or refer these
questions, and often

encourage the uninitiated to dis¬
cover the wonders of their local

library. Unfortunately, no
amount of scholarly research can
properly answer the question
most frequently asked: "How do
I get into the film industry?"

O

In this

column, however,
we
hope to limit the questions to
the field of cinematography. We
will do our best to track down

from the members of the
ASC and their expert profes¬
sional associates. A couple ques¬
tions to get things started:
answers

B'

5800°Kelvin. Nowadays it seems
that everybody has standardized
5500° Kelvin. What brought
about this change? Who deter¬
mines the standards? Has some
committee decided that 5500°
looks better than 5800°or does it
have to do with an actual change
in daylight characteristics?
on

Would it possibly

have anything

to do with the UCLA studies

which show that an increase of air

pollution distinctly lowers the
prevailing color temperature of
daylight?

A# Color
describestemperature
visual aspect
of
*

color

a

the value

given for sun¬
light is 5400°Kelvin. This is speci¬
fied as average summer sunlight
at noon in Washington, D.C.
Daylight is a combination of
sunlight plus skylight and, while
always higher than sunlight
alone, will vary depending on
sun
angle, the condition of the
sky, the amount of clouds, haze,
dust particles, etc. Photographic
daylight has been standardized at
-

5500° Kelvin. This is an average
of what photographers encounter
in

typical daylight photographic

situations. It also matches the
color temperature of the high

intensity sun arc.
The group that was
formed to ensure effective, effi¬
cient and compatible study of the

technology of color is the InterSociety Color Council. This or¬
ganization, more than 45 years
old, represents 20 societies from
a
diversity of disciplines, includ¬
ing SMPTE, the Illuminating

Engineering Society and Optical

Q# Regarding
the ratedof
daylight
in 1966, daylight,
I
*

color temperature

as

-

remember,

10

March 1990

was

always rated at

Society of America. All share

a

specific need to ques¬
tion the technical aspects of color.
common

Continued

on

the next page
American Cinematographer - March 1990

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 1990
