American Cinematographer - October 1995 - 86

the loading room at MGM Studios,
where he went on to work for ten

Running Man). If there was a prolif¬
eration of straight dramatic mate¬

years under Fred Koenekamp,
ASC. Arnold became a director of

rial available for feature films then
I would be at the head of the line

tried to do

photography on the television se¬
ries Kung Fu in 1974, and has since

with

was

a

hundred other directors of

photography. But I find shows like

shot

more

than 300 hours of televi¬

ER, The X-Files and the show I'm

sion

programming, including such

shooting right now, Jag - which is
about the military legal system -
to be very compelling material. A
wide variety of subjects can be

movies and mini-series

as

Blood and

Orchids, Blind Faith, Bloodlines: Mur¬
der in the

Family and Message from

touched within

'Nam.

an hour's show."
Asked about the often

"I

try to go into each show
open-minded and try not to dupli¬
cate what I've done in the past,"
says Arnold. "But with television's
demands of speed and cost, you

virtual

micro-schedule, Del
relates, "I enjoy doing 25-40
setups a day as opposed to 12. I

on a

Ruth

rounding fellows."
Reveals Del Ruth, "What I

visually with the picture

to start out with

a

cold, almost

semi-documentary quality for the
opening and then emotionally, as
Bob gets to the point where his in¬
surance is
being denied, go toward
a warm sunset
feeling. Then at the
end of the film, when Tom is giving
a transfusion of blood to a
visibly
weakened and emaciated Bob in

an

empty classroom, we went into a
very deep, full sunset. It was a poi¬
gnant moment because the class¬
room is
empty and Bob has essen¬

have to

move fast." Over the
of his 20-plus years as a di¬
rector of photography, Arnold
notes a shift from stage work to

find features in

course

quite tedious in that aspect because

tially been abandoned by the medi¬
cal community. So there's nothing

there's

to look forward to but death."

shooting almost exclusively at
practical locations; he hasn't shot
on a stage in over three years.
"[With practical interiors,] I try to
use source
lighting through the
windows. If it's night I use the
practicals as the motivating source.
I always try to get a top-back light
on the hair to separate the actors
from the background, because
we're usually not working on a
stage. It used to be that you'd have
a
couple of stages that were always
your sets, but now - especially

Essentially, you have the time, so
why not take it? But it's not always

with two-hour movies and mini¬

time allotted and within the

series

all of the sets

practical.
That aspect makes it more difficult
because you can't control the light¬
ing as well."
-

are

Thomas Del Ruth, ASC

My Brother's Keeper
After winning two ASC
Awards this year for his work on
the heralded series ER and earning
a

prior nomination for the pilot of

The X-Files, Thomas Del Ruth's

long association with television has
made him

a

fond believer in the

medium.

some cases

to be

an awful lot of wasted effort
that goes on behind the camera.

dedicated toward the fulfillment of
the task at hand
the making of
the film - but more toward the
-

personal aspect of individuals
themselves. In television you
don't have these elements. Egos
are

certainly in evidence

television

on some

shows, but it is to most

extent minor and

tempered.
Everyone's focus and direction
are dedicated to the final
product:
getting the show done within the
budget's restraints."
My Brother's Keeper of¬
fered Del Ruth a chance to explore
many complex layers of human
emotional drama and integrate
those subtleties into his rendering
of the film. "My Brother's Keeper is
about Tom and Bob Bradley, two
teachers who lived

Coast,

one

on

the East

of whom contracted

AIDS and

ultimately died of the
opposed to what tragi¬
cally happens to many AIDS vic¬
tims, Bob was totally accepted by
disease. As

his students, as well as the sur¬

"I find television

terrific

rounding community, which ral¬

medium," he concurs. "For me, my

lied to his aid to fund an experi¬
mental bone-marrow injection pro¬

a

personality requires constant

pace
and motion... and I don't find that
to be the case in feature films. The

cess.

subject material I'm offered in tele¬

utilized

vision is also

nied coverage

more

compelling than

doing youth comedies
had done

a

number of

which I
(Fandango,

-

The

84

blitzkrieg pace of shooting a series

support he receives from his sur¬

On the

of the

eve

As actor John Lithgow
portrayed both of the twin broth¬
ers, Del Ruth had to juggle tricky
lighting and motion-control shots
into a tight shooting schedule.
"The technical aspects of the pic¬
ture were very intriguing,
espe¬
cially when we had a two-shot of
people walking at us. We would do
one side of the matte
being very
-

careful that the
two
-

claiming that [the
experimental and

by the actors
light¬
established, would light

ing, once
both the A and B mattes simulta¬

neously. We'd tie the lights off so
that there was no possibility of
movement, so once the scene was
recorded on the A side, the actor
could change costumes and go to
the B side without the ambiance, as
well as the shadows, invading one
or another."
Del Ruth remembers,
"Years ago television movies
used to be mostly the 'disease of
the week.' But they have gotten

away

from being medical-ori¬

ented ailment films to become
more emotional
storytelling
along the lines of a tragedy

within one's life."
Robert

operation,

legal loophole and de¬

between the

not invaded

then shoot the other. The

however, his insurance company
a

was

seam

nee

Primes, ASC

My Antonia
A past ASC Award nomi¬
for the pilot for Reasonable

Doubts, Robert Primes, ASC finds

was
withheld the treatment which

himself readily at home in the fre¬
netic world of hectic television pro¬

have saved his
poignant story of

process]

Breakfast Club, Look Who's Talk¬
ing and its sequel, and The Mighty

may or may not

duction schedules and relentless

life. It's

budgeteering. Primes began his

Ducks) - or action/adventure (The

Bob's decline and the

American

October 1995

Cinematographer

a

rather

increasing

career

in San Francisco

as a

direc-
American Cinematographer - October 1995

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