American Cinematographer - June 1993 - 107

by Brooke Comer

heyday of the '60s, Mayor John Lind¬
dubbed New York "Fun City" to attract
production. Where did all the fun go? Prob¬
ably to Hollywood or Las Vegas, to a wax
museum or a cryonics lab to wait it out 'til

The series will

fun is back in fashion. But hard work never
went out of style here, not even temporarily
like bellbottoms. If hard work is your

the

thing, New York is your town - a city that
never sleeps for people who don't have time
to. Today Mayor Dinkins and Film Com¬
missioner Richard Brick tout savings and
city government cooperation to attract pro¬
ductions. And it's working. Six Degrees of
Separation, the quintessential New York
film that evolved from the quintessential
New York stage, is busy shooting around
town. The project, directed by Fred
Schepisi and starring Brooke Hayward,
Stockard Channing, Will (Fresh

proud to host Homicide: Life on the Street,
the NBC-TV series exec-produced by Barry
Levinson (Academy Award-winning direc¬
tor of Rain Man) and Tom Fontana (Emmywinning producer of St. Elsewhere) for Bal¬

In the

say

Prince) Smith, Donald Sutherland and
Mary Beth Hurt, would have gone to
Toronto if not for Schepisi's New York loy¬
alty and Commissioner Brick's hard work.
Other features-about-town include Barbra
Streisand's The Mirror Has Two Faces,
Alan Pakula's The Pelican Brief, and Ron
Howard's The Paper. * New York City

Cinephiles gathered at the Museum of the
Moving Image in April to pay homage to
a legendary cinematographer at the
Haskell Wexler Retrospective. Wexler,
whose work ushered in

a new sense

authenticity to Hollywood moviemaking
with Oscar-winners like Who's Afraid of

Virginia Woolf?, is still a master of the craft,
having become the first active cinematog¬
rapher to win the ASC's Lifetime Achieve¬
ment Award. The retrospective, which in¬
cluded his 1963 breakthrough hit America,
America, included a special seminar where
he discussed his lighting and photography
techniques. * The Museum of Televi¬
sion and Radio begins a seventeen-week
series this June, featuring a gallery exhibit
and screenings highlighting the creative
achievements and imagination behind the
TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.

explore themes and plots
developed over the program's six years on
the air, including topics such as the use of
allegory in examining moral and social is¬
sues,

and

common

ideas addressed in both

original Star Trek senes and in The Next
Generation. * NYC isn't the only produc¬

tion hotbed

the East Coast. Baltimore is

timore Pictures in association with Reeves

M««ers"

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Technique
i

pe(i«iEK",sCine

of P

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Masters »,lig

Entertainment. Homicide follows a Balti¬
homicide squad in action. But it's not

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typical cop show, where a shapely
young prostitute is found strangled in the
bathtub, choked by her own rhinestonestudded G-string. Homicide is dialoguedriven. "We've finished the first five epi¬
sodes and haven't heard a gunshot yet,"
says Sync Sound principal Bill Marino of
the gritty, one-hour drama. Marino should
know; Homicide tapped Sync Sound to
tackle the series' dialogue and sound ef¬
fects editing, ADR and Foley recording and
mixing. "We've been working with Tom and
Barry as well as coordinating producer Lori
Mozilo to establish an identity for the
show," Marino explains. The goal: to treat
TV sound with the artistic integrity usually
reserved for feature films. "The challenge
is to create a mood through subtle back¬
ground sounds," says Sync's senior editor
Pam Bartella, "without overshadowing
the dialogue." The series is shot documen¬
tary-style in 16mm with handheld Aatons.
"Because we're shooting documentary
style," says Mozilo, "we wanted a docu¬
mentary-style sound. Sync Sound had to

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Sync editors including

Bartella, John Bowen, Ray Palagy and

Tony Pipitone use separate AMS
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June 1993

105

American Cinematographer - June 1993

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