American Cinematographer - February 1996 - 39

Remembers

thought at first it would be diffi¬

director-cinematographer.
Ridley Scott later asked Johnson to

cult, because he's

direct and shoot the second-unit

might

sequences for his Columbus ad¬
venture, 1492: Conquest of Paradise.
The director subsequently brought

he do that?'" Laughing,
Scott adds, "But he never did that
once, which I was very grateful

commercials and how they should
be made."
After gaining experience

Johnson in to shoot his planned vi¬

for!"

rus-thriller The Hot Zone, based
on the best-selling book, but the

working for the Scott brothers
on
many commercials, Johnson

project disintegrated before a script
could be finalized. The cinematog¬
rapher recalls, "Ridley came to me
directly after that and said, 'Do you
want to have a go at another one?'

Contemplating this learn¬
ing process, Johnson says, "I've
basically been brought up in the
'School of Scotts.' So in a way it's
not very difficult to photograph for
Ridley because I know what he
likes, and I like the same things -
although shooting features is quite

Johnson, "I

first met

Ridley and his brother
Tony in the 1960s while working as
commercial house in
London for Derek Vanlint. Ridley

a

trainee at

had

a

changed the whole look of

served

as a camera

assistant to

Frank

Tidy on Ridley's first fea¬
ture, The Duellists, and later to

as a

Stephen Goldblatt, ASC on Tony's
big-screen debut, The Hunger. The
latter gig provided him with the
opportunity "to photograph some
second-unit stuff Tony wanted.
The next think I knew, I was light¬
ing and photographing commer¬

I

cials."

is

After many other com¬
mercial and feature projects,

Johnson was convinced to join the
Scotts' production company, RSA,

said, 'Yeah, sure.' That's when

White

Squall came up, so I read the
script and came aboard."
Says Scott, "Hugh's done
lot of feature films as an assistant,
been a well-known commercial di¬
rector now for almost 10 years and

this,

say,

a

director and

'Why doesn't she do

or

different from commercial work.
You're
and

a

really dealing with actors
story."
Scott submits, "I never

a

getting close to directing his first
feature. I think he figured, quite
wisely, that [shooting White Squall]
was a
good way to get right in it
and look over my shoulder. I

thought I'd go back and do another
story after 1492 because that
was a pain in the ass. Then the
script [for Wute Squall] came float¬
ing past and we picked it up. It
was the
strength of the story that
brought us back to revisit the sea.

February 1996

American

sea

Cinematographer

The

ship goes
Whipped
into a whitecap
fury by the 600
m.p.h. winds
produced by the
down.

effects

department's jet
engines, the
film's storm
was primarily
staged at a tank
facility on the

island of Malta.
Jokes Scott,
"I've never
worked out to

this

day why

when you
switch it on, the

jet engine
doesn't just
take off and

disappear over
the horizon!"

37
American Cinematographer - February 1996

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