American Cinematographer - November 1992 - 32

quite beautiful. In Egypt, we
didn't have much. I had reflectors

were

(shiny boards) and HMI Par lights;
light I had there was

the brightest
a 4K."

Budget limitations pre¬
production from trans¬
porting any lighting units from the
vented the

U.S., but allowed Dickerson to use
more of
Egypt7s natural light. "I just
manipulated the available light,"
he recalls. "The light was very
warm and
hazy. There were a lot of
clouds, so we had a very soft, scat¬
tered light. Sometimes the sun
would try to come through and the
light would have a little direction¬
ality to it.

"The dust in the air created
a

sandy color, and the pollution,

which was very heavy, also helped
scatter the

light along with the hu¬
midity in the air," he adds. "I also
used a light Harrison & Harrison
make

there is

Above: The

to

production's
impeccable

reflectivity in their skin."
Dickerson also

attention to

period details
and wardrobe is
evident in this

shot, which
resembles

sure

uses com¬

highlights.

position to remain photographi¬
cally true to the full range of skin
tones and
can

newspaper

accurately
render
Malcolm's

colors in African-Ameri¬
darker-skinned

It's

actors. "With

increasing
fascination with
the Muslim

religion, the
filmmakers

to the window."

The cinematographer also

trekked to Cairo,

of

Egypt and

sought to exploit the full

Mecca itself.

his stocks (5245 for exteriors, 5297
for daylight interiors, and 5296 for

range

night exteriors) to capture the color
gradations and tones of the actors.
"I really like the 45 quite a bit," he
says. "I tried to use that as much as
possible for exteriors."
Dickerson is a strong be¬
liever in "trying to get it in the pho¬
tography," adding that "I like to see
in dailies, as much as possible, what
the final film is going to look like. I
tend to do very little fooling around
with the film in the

answer

print

stage. I like to see it happening; I
if my

effects are work¬
ing. Anything that has to do with
color I do in the principal photog¬
want to

American

see

Cinematographer

[a

tech¬

nique] I picked
up from my still
photography
days. The filters

actors, you may stage the scene so
that the actor is closer to the key

light and getting a little bit more
light. For instance, for a scene with
a
light-skinned person and a
darker-skinned person talking by a
window, I'll stage the scene so that
the darker-skinned person is closer

I

used polarizing
filters as well.

a

photograph.
Right: In order to

30

diffusion be¬
cause I wanted
a soft
glow on

some

are

standard

equipment for
me; they give
me more

raphy. I try to give the lab as little
as
possible to do." Dickerson pro¬

control."

vides the lab with

ative

a

neutral grey

scale every day to show what his
neutral light is. To establish his grey

scale, he always keeps one light set
a color
temperature of 3200 de¬

at

grees

Kelvin.

This control of light and
color proved difficult when the pro¬
duction moved to Egypt. Many of

the resources the production had
become accustomed to weren't

readily available. "Egypt was com¬
plex because they didn't have a
wide range of equipment,"
Dickerson says.

"We were told that

they had 12Ks and other equip¬
ment, but they didn't. In the States,
actually
used the new 18K lights. I had two
in my principal package and they
we were

spoiled

November 1992

-

we

color

Control, especially cre¬
control, was an important is¬
this film. The

production
plagued by all kinds of finan¬
cial pressures that threatened not
only Lee's directorial authority, but
the completion of the film itself.
These pressures utimately led Lee
and his producers to seek addi¬
tional financing from AfricanAmerican celebrities like Bill Cosby
and Oprah Winfrey. Despite the fis¬
cal wrangling, the original vision of
the film was preserved.
Finance was not the only
sue on

was

force with which the filmmakers
had to contend; at one point, reli¬

gious beliefs compelled Dickerson
to craft the film's look by proxy.
Malcolm's sacred

Mecca

was a

trip (or "hajj") to
major turning point in
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