American Cinematographer - February 1996 - 64

merit

was

those
new

small, and because in
the

couple gets a
baby," he adds. "When they
scenes

moved to the second
let the

light

go

apartment, I

cooler; it is

a

bigger

apartment and there were a lot
more

practical lights. Also it was a

matter of emotional

child
there

was

no

choice,

as

the

longer small and

was more

tension in the

re¬

lationship between the husband
and wife." The final shot of the
Weintraub family together, after
the rifts have been healed, has the
warm look once
again.
Warm colors are a signa¬
ture of the Allen-Di Palma partner¬

ship. "Woody and I don't like cold,
bluish light, " Di Palma said. "Since
our first film
together, Hannah and
Her

Sisters, we've used

a

quarter or

half 85

gel on the main light on ev¬
ery shot, even indoors. When I
first read the script for Hannah, I
immediately felt that the predomi¬
nant feeling of New York is au¬
tumn. When I told Woody this
he laughed and said, 'Carlo, that is
very much my opinion.' Ever since
then we really haven't used many
HMIs outside, except occasionally
a 4K. Every time we use an EIMI
outside we cover it with 216 frost
and a quarter or half 85 gel, in ad¬
dition to using the mandatory 85
filter on the lens. I like this combi¬
nation for the feeling of autumn it

warm light. It reminds
of Rome in the winter; a few
times at that time of year in Rome
there is bright sunshine, but then at

Di Palma says.

shooting complex camera moves in

hours

the residence of Sorvino's charac¬

"For four or five
was very lucky, but
the theater was constructed so that

ning to shoot in different parts of
the theater during different times
of day; I knew where the light
would be the best in the morning
and the afternoon. I had to follow

moves.

the

always keep the shades drawn on
the windows in the living room,
and if it was okay to not see the

had shot

which the chorus kibitzes comi¬

cally about the characters' family
follies, are intercut throughout the
film. The challenge was amelio¬
rated somewhat by Di Palma's fa¬
miliarity with the quality of the

plan¬

Di Palma

compensated for
the natural backlight by placing a
bank of 4K HMIs far away from
the actors, at the very top of the
theater. He covered them with

a

double thickness of diffusion to
avoid

overwhelming the backlight
creating shadows. In a few
scenes where the backlighting was
intense, the HMIs were brought
or

down to the floor of the theater and
used with

heavy diffusion.

Real New York interiors, a
feature on most Allen pictures, are
a

constant

"We treat
same as

if

challenge for Di Palma.
an

interior location the

we were

"On the film

in

a

studio," he

we are

working

have been shooting for
several weeks in a large apartment.
In a studio, one has complete flex¬
ibility to change the light coming in
from the windows, and to change
now, we

the

backdrops. On location I [also]
everything; in this apart¬

control
ment

we

enclosed the real win¬

dows and

changed backdrops and
lights for many effects, simulating
different times of day, seasons and
weather."
Di Palma visits each loca¬
tion twice before

window in the
not

shooting;

once

we

could

bedroom, because

having to

worry so much
about the windows made our
work easier."

Offering her
view

on

own point of
the situation, Sorvino

adds, "I liked shooting in a real
place because you can go and sort
of talk to

yourself in character. The
problem was that it was very small,
being a real New York apartment.
The sound people were occupy¬
ing the bedroom, and we did my
makeup in the bathroom. As a re¬
sult, there

was no real space to go
and chill out between scenes."
While Di Palma spends a

lot of time

on location
controlling
light, he will often leave some
incidental location lighting in the
frame as-is; Mighty Aphrodite fea¬

the

tures several such scenes. When
Allen and Sorvino spend time to¬

gether after their initial comic
meeting, they are seated in a res¬
taurant, bathed in Di Palma's

light in front of a wall
celebrity
publicity photos (symbolizing the
old-time Runyonesque milieu of
warm

crowded with framed

Allen's character, who writes for

a

New

Yorker-type magazine). In the
background, the interior of the
dingy kitchen is visible as workers,
bathed in green overhead fluores¬
cent light, prepare the food. This
scene
effectively evokes the differ¬

with Allen to determine its suitabil¬

ences

ity, and then again with his gaffer
to assess lighting needs. "We have
a very good collaboration with
[longtime Allen art director] Santo
Loquasto, which makes shooting

comfortable, established world
and Sorvino's harsher, less secure

on

location

a

lot easier. And at the

locations, Woody always asks,
'Carlo, is this okay for you?'"
The combination of

a

at that time

light in the region. "The light there
of year is wonderful,"

cramped apartment and a tall ac¬
tress made for a tight squeeze in

American

February 1996

Cinematographer

I also asked him if

it still would have been beautiful!"

says.

Abraham (as the chorus leader)
were also on hand. These scenes, in

spent

light very carefully there, and
work closely with the choreogra¬
pher. I wanted to shoot at night
with candlelight, as I had done on
a
documentary there, but Woody
explained that it would not cut in
well throughout the picture. I think

on

Sicily, shooting scenes involving
a
spunky Greek chorus. Allen,
Bonham Carter and F. Murray

lot of films in the area,

a

and I know it very well, so I
a lot of time
preparing and

ater, the Teatro Greco in Taormina,

62

stage is backlit all day long. I

me

light turns brown and
yellowish and it is beautiful. When
I paint those scenes I am always
carefully mixing colors, brown and
yellow, to create the feeling of the
winter sunset light in Rome."
One of the bigger location
challenges of Mighty Aphrodite was
working outdoors in a Greek the¬

day I

ter. "A good deal of the action in
Aphrodite takes place in her small
apartment," Di Palma notes. "The
camera moves were
complicated
for such a small space, and Mira
Sorvino's height complicated
things further. I asked Santo
Loquasto to arrange the furniture
in the apartment to facilitate my

the

gives, the

sunset the

a

between Allen's character's

lifestyle.
Di Palma says

he has al¬

used uncorrected light
sources in his films,
long before it
became a popular trend in features,
ways

TV dramas and even situation
comedies. "All my life, I normally
have not corrected incidental in¬
or fluorescent
lights,

candescent
American Cinematographer - February 1996

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