American Cinematographer - July 1994 - 48

bona fide film lovers. The influ¬
ences visible in Suture include
Hitchcock's psychological ro¬

Spellbound; mid-'60s
paranoid thrillers such as Ed¬
ward Dmytryk's Mirage, John
mance

Frankenheimer's Seconds and
Hitchcock's North by Northwest;
and such Japanese thrillers as
Akira Kurosawa's High and Low,
Hiroshi

shooting Suture, Gardiner has
taken the reins as director of pho¬
tography on the action-oriented
TV show Viper.
Explaining the seem¬
ingly incongruous mix of titles on
his resume, Gardiner says, "I'd
describe myself as an art aficio¬
nado and an action junkie. That's
why, in one year, I can shoot both

and
Yoshitaro
Nomura's To¬

picture."

When asked to explain
the film's central conceit
the
-

white/black casting of the
"brothers"
Gardiner says that
the tactic was adopted as both a
-

design element and
comment

on

a symbolic
the nature of iden¬
are very

Japanese films. From a photo¬
graphic perspective, of course,
you can't have anything worse
than Dennis Haysbert in a white

In order to

bring these in¬
spirations to¬
gether in a

suit! The look of the film has been

referred to

seamless way,
the directors

as

film noir, but it's

really not. Three-quarters of the
film is a layering of white on

sought a cin¬
ematographer
spirit. Enter Greg

Gardiner, whose background in¬
cludes both obscure indy projects
and big-budget thrill-films.
While pursuing a Fine Arts

degree at UC Irvine, Gardiner
found a mentor in renowned
black filmmaker Carlton Moss,
who had made his mark working
on the
Why We Fight series and
black orientation films during
World War II. Moss encouraged
Gardiner to shoot his own 16mm

film, and then gave his young

charge work

as an assistant on
educational short films about Af¬
rican-American subjects.
After graduating from
UC Irvine in 1976, Gardiner
worked on several projects with
New York-based avant-garde
filmmaker Jon Jost, and then

spent 10 years working as a best
boy and gaffer (during that span,
he toiled on five Roger Corman
pictures, as well as Repo Man,
Walker, To Live and Die in L.A. and
Paris, Texas, among others). After

Above:

Cinematog¬
rapher Gardiner
homes in on Clay's
bloodied features,
as an EMT (played

by co-director Scott
McGehee) and a
doctor wheel their

patient to the
operating room.
Right: Co-director
David Siegel
coaches Haysbert.

Viper and Su¬
ture. I've al¬

ways been mo¬
tivated by genres,

stories and vi¬

white; the images are evenly lit,
they're not flat. Black & white

suals, and I love cinematography.

but

For

needs to be treated

example, The Piano blew me
away; it was just a total creation.
But

on

the other hand, I think Le¬

thal

Weapon is a brilliant film and
piece of visual filmmaking. Suture, of course, is an
art film, influenced by filmmak¬
ers like Kurosawa and
heavy on
the visual style."
That style - a juxtapositioning of flowing camera
a

wonderful

movements and

stark,

severe

are

so

that you

really lighting everything in

the frame, except what you want
to have go black. You have to

bring the tonalities out. This film
is really lit across the frame, with
elements depicted constantly in
their tonality. Really, Suture is the
opposite of film noir, except for its
climax, which has a similar sort of
[noir] richness. I stretched the
entire scale, but we were working

working through a difficult tran¬
sition period from gaffing to cam¬
era, Gardiner eventually landed a
job as second-unit cinematogra¬
pher on the television show The

compositions that incorporate
postmodern architecture and
the spare, open landscapes of

towards

Phoenix - earned Gardiner the
Best Cinematography prize at

achieve their widescreen compo¬

Flash, and later assumed the first-

this
val.

when

unit chair for six

the show

46

es¬

of black & white widescreen was
based upon the style of Sixties

kyo Bay.

kindred

the

"In

visual style is the heart of

tity. "Scott and David

Another

a

sence,

strong visual filmmakers, and the
casting was another aspect of the
film's look," he says. "The choice

Teshigahara's
The Face of

with

the film itself," he says.

American

was

episodes before

cancelled. Since

Cinematographer

year's Sundance Film Festi¬
"Honoring Suture for its cin¬

ematography

July 1994

was an

honor for

glowing whites."
The filmmakers consid¬

ered

shooting in anamorphic to

sitions, but settled
their

on

Super 35

they had trouble getting
hands on anamorphic

equipment. "Panavision did

us
American Cinematographer - July 1994

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