American Cinematographer - January 1997 - 84

Right: The

of

exterior of

(without time code, which the cin¬

Monticello.

ematographers generally find to be
unnecessary on their historical

Notes
cameraman

films)

Allen Moore,
"I've shot all
over

7

never

seen

anyplace

more

conducive

older Aaton LTRs

-

used almost exclu¬

were

sively. Allen Moore owns an Aaton

the world

and have

cameras

LTR, and shoots with his

own

Angenieux 12-120mm T2.1 and 9.557mm T1.8

lenses,

as

well

as a

Nikkor 200mm

to creating
striking
images."
Bottom right:

55mm

macro.

telephoto and
Squires owns an

Aaton 54 LTR;

lenses,

a

he uses two zoom
Cooke 9-50mm T2.5 and

Director Ken

the Zeiss 10-100 T2.0 for the bulk of

Burns takes

his work. He also made extensive

five.

Opposite:
Tape House
vice president

of the Zeiss

SuperSpeeds, spe¬
cifically the 9mm and 25mm T1,3's,

use

well

as

III

Squires' favored long lens is his

displays the

firm's

A true

the state-of-the-art film-to-video
transfer of Thomas Jefferson], we're

documentary

pur¬

on

ist, Burns has shot all of his films in

able to get more out of our shad¬
ows than we could have 10 years

the standard 16mm format. The
director has never seriously enter¬
tained the idea of switching to

ago,

35mm,

following the ratings,
ancillary success
of his various projects. Squires ex¬
plains, "We work either com¬
pletely alone or with very small
crews
often just an assistant. We
are
light on our feet and work fast,

with less grain."
Due

to

the

amount of available

minimal

light, and the

Squires did a fair amount of
undercranking to gain another stop
or

-

unusual for us to
6 frames per second,

two. "It's not

shoot at 12

or

and 35mm would slow
Another factor is that

allowing the slower shutter speed
to put more light on the film,"
notes Moore.

Kodak's 7248

was

success,

the

it has been

on

most Burns'

films.

The director favors 7248 for its fine

grain and because he finds that
the 100 ASA tungsten stock has a
warmer

look than other stocks.

Lighting calculations
were
compli¬
cated by the fact that the interiors
are shielded from UV damage by
gels that cover all of its windows.
"The gels are like an ND 9 with a
slight orange cast, like an 85 gel,"
says Moore. "We needed the direct
sunlight the gels were there to stop,
because we were mostly shooting
48. We opened the windows when¬
within Monticello

could, and had the coop¬
so that,
occasionally, we were able to take

ever we

during most of the shoot.

tors

Notes Moore, "We shot most
exteriors at dawn or dusk,

the

of our
when

crucial be¬

light, the gels were not all perfectly
flat against the windows, and
could have distorted the images."
Since Monticello is an ac¬

tive tourist location, Moore

American

Cinematographer

and

or

Christmas, I think, and we were
rarely allowed to stop traffic. If we

of archival material. As in Burns'
other films, a great deal of Thomas

were

there at sunrise when the

sun

hitting the eastern face of the
house, we knew it was too early for

was

could do what

the

was

look like 16mm used to look 10
20 years

warmer,

needed to. Of course, the quality of
dawn and dusk light is widely ac¬

"in addition to blocking our

facilities, it is

quite possible to make 16mm look
like 35mm. Of course, if you're
sloppy, and always use the fastest
stock, then your footage is going to

because Ken
likes warm light. Also, Monticello
is open to tourists every day but

light is

tourists, and

gels off." This

down.

he still has to live within

film and transfer
were forced to work
around the constant influx of visi¬

Squires

eration of the caretakers

cause,

us

despite Ken's

budgets. Plus, we have found that
there is just no need to go to 35mm;
we would
gain little in image qual¬
ity. By shooting carefully and tak¬
ing advantage of today's best gear,

primary stock on Thomas Jefferson,
as

even

home video and

absence of actors, Moore and

82

a

Canon 300mm T2.8.

new

Spirit DataCine
control bay.

as

12mm and 16mm.

John Dowdell

we

we

knowledged; it gives pleasing color
saturation, longer shadows and a
more

interesting contrast range,
image."

which enhances the
Burns'

tech

minimalist, low-

approach extends to his choice

January 1997

ago."
This less-is-more ap¬

proach also extends to the filming

Jefferson is spent panning across
maps, etchings, paintings and old
still photographs. Offers Squires,
"The beauty of how we shoot ar¬
chival material is its utter simplic¬
ity. It started with Brooklyn Bridge,
when we had access to the original
architectural drawings, which
were frail and
quite valuable. We,
of course,

thought, 'We'll put them
Oxberry animation stand.'
Well, archivists understandably do
on an
American Cinematographer - January 1997

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 1997
