American Cinematographer - November 1991 - 32

200-foot exterior tracking

Getting in Dutch:

scene, a

Steven Hill

shot follows Dean and Kidman

(center) and

as

absorb the

they stroll down a long sidewalk in
Onondaga.
Technically, there were

criminal wisdom

several obstacles to

first-time star
Loren Dean

of Hoffman's
Dutch Schultz.

overcome

during the shot, including the 22°
F temperature outside. Almendros
felt that

some

of the storefronts

along the sidewalk should have
light emanating from within. "Each
window should present a minia¬
ture cyclorama
of the past," he
says. The shops
were lit mainly
using 100-watt

script, but when we saw it, Benton

who knows

and I said, 'Wonderful. We have to
use it.'" Benton felt the movie the¬
ater should be the only bright and
colorful thing in the provincial

20 drafts of "Don Quixote"
we read the one we know

idea that mov¬
"represented
glamor in the middle of grey life
the only dream that was within
the reach of the common people.
The wardrobe and background
colors were also muted, adding to
town, stressing the
ies, at the time,
...

today,

painters. We know now,
through the X-ray method, that
many famous paintings have dif¬
ferent versions and retouches un¬
derneath. If you have the time and
the budget, I think it shows in the
Almen¬
dros' diary re¬
serves its
high¬
est

praise for
Hoff¬

Dustin
man:

"With

Billy
Bathgate I had
the opportunity

front-lit

by a Flintrucks
Zip light (baby
Soft
Light),

to work with

the world,
Dustin Hoffman.
Dustin is more
than a simple ac¬
in

dolly and pulled
along beside the
camera dolly.

tor

actors

him
this monochromatic effect, con¬

trasting with the colorful

of
the marquee and the whole facade
of the movie palace."
Asked if he

For the two-shot, the cam¬

was placed in the road
beside the sidewalk. Then tracks
were relaid and the camera was

placed in the middle of the side¬
walk for the single shots, to be used
for crosscutting, and closeups on
the actors' hands.
After
several
walk¬

throughs there was a distinct
problem with the actors' breath
showing up, a glitch that effectively
killed the impression of a spring¬
time night. To diminish the prob¬
lem, the backlight had to be
brought down. Further camouflage
was written into the script: Billy
cracked ice in his mouth, while
Drew smoked.
Additional natural light
from

a

completely restored

art deco movie theater in town.

that Benton

ever

requests

re-shoot a
scene to capture a certain light,
Almendros says he prefers to be
flexible, leaving room for sponta¬
neous discovery. "You know, you
can use what
you have. Sometime
the light is miraculously there. To¬
day, the reflection in the window
was
perfectly balanced. Just the
right amount of reflection. Maybe
if I had planned it it would not have
worked

so

delay

neons

or

well."

Once into
Benton shoots

a

production,

lot of film for

maximum coverage, even if he
plans all along to use one continu¬
ous shot. "This is the common
thing
in America because the price of film
is of no consequence in terms of the

budget," Almendros
it is somehow

says.

"I think

"There was no movie theater in the

legitimate. If you
look at other art forms, for instance,

American

November 1991

Cinematographer

on a

set he

catalyzer.
Not only the other

prove on

dolly

-

is like a

Striving to im¬

available-light night
shots photographed early in his
career, Almendros took advantage
of the full range of the new 500
speed Kodak film.

one

of the finest actors

mounted on a
Matthews
Cricket RS 2+2

30

were

before

master

Billy and Drew

came

maybe there

while

bulbs,

era

.

before Cervantes decided 'Okay,
that's it.' And the same is true of the

incandescent

were

..

around
to be

seem

uplifted but the whole crew falls into the
spell of that enormously creative and
demanding man with a thousand ideas
every minute.
"The casting of the other
characters, the young girl and the
young man, had to be done in rela¬
tionship with him. Extensive testing
took place with different actors audi¬
tioning for the parts next to Dustin. We
did the tests in New York City, in a
small studio against a neutral back¬
ground, first dark grey, second lighter
grey. We used the basic three lights:
key, fill, back. We killed one of the three
at turns, to get certain effects on hair
or check
photogenics against hard or
soft lighting. Often I only had the key
light on. A zoom on the camera allowed
me to
get closer shots on the actors
without cutting.
out of

Although casting is a bit
cinematographer's job

the

description, nothing is of little im¬
portance to Almendros if at some
time it will appear

in front of his
American Cinematographer - November 1991

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