American Cinematographer - June 1996 - 90

1?

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put actors on the sides, the

photograph such features as Romeo
is Bleeding and The Crow. He says

ematographers should contribute
to the whole process of filmmak¬
ing," he asserts. "In this country,
very often a cameraman is hired
because he lights fast, knows how
to light women and is basically a
technical solver of problems. But I

that he has used each

believe there's

sharpness falls off."
Wolski's career began pri¬
marily with music videos and com¬
mercials before he moved

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bluescreen work on The Crow, and
I used Kino Flo's incredible tubes
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green-spiked, high-output
greenscreen tubes, representing
the light coming off imaging moni¬
tors, while the room's ambient

light was created by blue-spiked,
high-output bluescreen tubes.
That's why there's such incredible
color separation. At one point we
actually wanted to use a bigger
source and tried to find a
gel to
match the blue tubes. Claudio went

through

many gels and combina¬
gels trying get the same
look, but the high-output blue
tubes are designed to light bluescreens, so there's nothing more
blue; there just isn't a gel to match
it. Also, when you put a blue gel on
a
light, you lose tons of stop. And
interestingly, the tubes always ap¬
peared much brighter on film, even
though you didn't read much ex¬
posure-wise on the set.
"Basically, we kept all of
the glow-light a stop and a half to
two stops under. That's how we
got such radiant color. It was very
misleading. I would talk with
Tony and he'd ask, 'Is this bright
enough?' and I'd tell him, 'Don't
worry! It's going to be.' Then we'd
tions of

look at dailies and he'd be floored.
I think light meters are set up for a
white spectrum of light, so when

I

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Cinematographer Lu Yue was born
and raised in the Tianjin province
of the People's Republic of China,
and, like many of his generation,
toiled as a farmworker in the sub¬
urbs of Peking during his youth.
When the Beijing Film Academy

reopened in 1978 (after more than
decade of dormancy enforced by

a

the Cultural Revolution), Lu was a
member of its incoming class.

Though accepted into the cinema¬
tography department, Lu had lim¬
ited photographic experience; his
body of work consisted of some 36
pictures snapped on a borrowed
camera. In fact, at the time, Lu
could have counted the number of

movies he'd

brightly, it always turns out to be

"My training as a film¬
passion for motion
pictures dates back to my student
years," the cameraman says.
Among his film school colleagues
was
Zhang Yimou, the future di¬

the saturation. I find that underex¬

posing

a

color gives

you

much

stronger saturation."
work

on

Wolski followed up his
Crimson Tide by shooting

The Fan for

one

seen on

the

fingers of

hand.

maker and my

rector of the acclaimed

films Red

Tony Scott (due out this
summer) and continuing his career

Sorghum, Ju Dou and Raise the Red

in commercials. "I believe that cin¬

friendship, and worked together

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Lu Yue

you get into colors they get con¬
fused. If you try to light the colors
too washed out and doesn't have

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June 1996

Lantern. The two formed

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fast
American Cinematographer - June 1996

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