American Cinematographer - November 1995 - 59

ing the course of the story. So when

story with reactions and faces. So

I discussed Assassins with

you also have to be more careful
with the lighting - you have these

Dick, he

said, That is exactly what we will
be doing here. From the outside
this is an action movie, but it's

basically a story about people.'
Sylvester Stallone is known for
doing macho roles without much
talk, but Assassins goes back to the

highly-paid actors and they want
to look good - but you also can't
be boring. That's why I didn't use
the usual soft-lighting techniques
that are so prominent today - fol¬
lowing people around with Chi¬

films from his earlier career, like

nese

Rocky.
"Assassins is also different
from Stallone's films like The Spe¬
cialist or Demolition Man, where

they just blow

up five things in
five minutes. The action revolves
around the characters instead of
the other way around, and there's
a lot of
interplay between them.
Stallone and Antonio Banderas
have

a

lot of

scenes

in most action

together, while

movies, characters

don't have time for that.
too

They're

busy."
Yet the characters in As¬

sassins

busy too, as a tired-ofkilling veteran hit-man (Stallone) is
targeted by an up-and-comer
(Banderas, recently seen in Des¬
perado) bent on terminating the
top gun - his only means of ca¬
reer

are

advancement. Added to this

lanterns. It's an easy way to
do it, but I also think it's lazy and
dull. Donner and I wanted some¬

thing different, to really light it like
classic Hollywood film and get
an
exaggerated, but realistic, sense
of light. Stanley Cortez [ASC], for
example, was a brilliant master of
lighting black-and-white film in an
intriguing yet realistic way. But we
a

popular, and pictures
becoming more bland.
With the great stocks and lenses we
have today we can make things
more realistic, but the
artistry is
gone. We forgot it while trying to
are

create

physical stuff, but
nothing like Assassins. The nicest
thing about this film, though, was
was some

that Dick and I wanted to make

a

very stylized movie, because it gets
to the point where one action
movie

begins to look like another.

We wanted to almost make

an ar¬

tistic film within this genre.

And
form
a
style for this movie with Dick. I
always light in color as if I were
lighting black-and-white, which is
for that reason, it was easy to

how I learned back at school in

Hungary. Lighting is the most im¬
portant thing on any film; it is the
difference in

something that could

be considered artistic. So
on

Assassins

that

was

to go

our

idea

further with

approach.
"Action directors gener¬

ally use a lot of close-ups to tell the

a

film noir look in color.

"But you have to be care¬
ful when you do a stylized movie
to make sure you are being artistic

like

There

Avenger

boring. So on Assassins, we wanted
to go back to that classic style; to

as

last one I did was Deliverance, but
that was more of a character study.

more

still

be real, which audiences think is

tracted to kill

witting his adversary.
"This was really a new ex¬
perience for me, to shoot an action
film," Zsigmond enthuses. "The

SWIVEL PRODUCTS

lost that tradition when color films
became

deadly dynamic is a young woman
Stallone's character had been con¬
(Julianne Moore), but
who unexpectedly aids him in out¬

Avenger

opposed to just using gimmicks,
they often do in rock videos.
Unfortunately, some movie people
think audiences just love this kind
of style and they will want you to
use

it in

tion,

a

BABY ROLLER STANDS

movie. I hate that!"

Continuing another tradi¬
Zsigmond again employed

Panavision

cameras (Gils and a
Panastar) for the Assassins shoot.

Avenger

But
a

one
piece of his package made
special impression: "This new

Primo zoom, the 11:1 24-275mm, is
a

great lens," he notes. "It's a T2.8

and

as sharp as anything. You
hardly have to change lenses
through a picture because it gives
you such a variety of lengths." And
because Zsigmond exposes at
maximum aperture, the 11:1 of¬
fered extra flexibility, especially
when more stops would have to be
pulled for high-speed photogra¬
phy. "I like the freedom a zoom
lens gives me, and it ultimately
saves time.
Unfortunately, some
people are prejudiced against them
because of how they were abused
when they were first introduced.
And to actually zoom within a shot
is fine if you are using it for an ar-

November 1995

JUNIOR ROLLER STANDS

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55
American Cinematographer - November 1995

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