American Cinematographer - September 1997 - 24

200W SE PAR/
LANTERN

End, The Twerps), a graduate of Prague's
respected FAMU film school whose deli¬
cate use of light and tone seemed perfect
for the project. "I reacted on an emotional
level to Miro's work," says Berkman. "I
found it subtle and evocative of painters
I admire, such as [the 15th century Span¬
ish artist] Velazquez. It also didn't hurt
that he spoke English."
Berkman found that almost all
the

equipment he needed could be ob¬

tained from Barrandorv Studios, a mas¬
sive studio just outside of Prague which
offered sets, props, costumes, stages,
and equipment rentals. The filmmakers
shot Room 703 with an Arri BL-3 outfit¬
ted with a set of Zeiss prime lenses. "The
Arri was chosen partly for economic rea¬

and partly because of its compact
configuration," says Berkman. "The film
magazine's placement allowed us to
shoot handheld in tight spaces, such as
sons,

the interior of a taxi cab."
Berkman also made the key
decision to rent a Steadicam from Czech

TV, rather than trying to use a dolly. The

457 MAGNUM

director explains, "The Steadicam
seemed more appropriate because of the
nature of the streets, with all their
cobblestones and uneven surfaces; it
also freed the camera and helped create
a sense of seamlessness which mirrors
the character's point of view as he's

walking through all these spaces."
Berkman incorporated nearly
30 different locations in Room 103, and
used his scouting trips to have one-onone conferences with Gabor. "Through
the process of working together and rov¬
ing through the city," says Berkman, "we
came to an understanding of what we
were looking for - namely, a very raw

style with bold lights and darks, and
strong, graphic compositions."
One of the duo's prime visual
influences was Russian photographer
Alexander Rodchenko, whose work is
filled with extreme angles. "I also cre¬
ated

scenes

to work with the locations I

discovered," the director continues. "For

example, while scouting the hotel loca¬

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tion that opens and closes the film, I
found a phenomenal bathroom at the
Hotel Europa." He exploited the bath¬

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tional shot:

room

his

for

room

an

attention-grabbing transi¬

as

the main character leaves

to visit the restroom,

occupied by the hotel
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nude chambermaid."This

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22

he finds it
and a

manager

September 1997

and sets up a feeling of tension and in¬
timidation that will follow the character

through the city," Berkman submits.
Production took place with a
very small crew over four days, during
Berkman's final week in Prague. "We
had about 170 setups," he recounts.
"That's about twice as many shots as you
would normally have for a nine-minute
film, but I wanted a quick editorial style
that would create the sensation of being
lost in a labyrinth."
Exteriors were shot solely with
Prague's typically overcast light - a
nice bit of cinematographic luck.
Berkman eschewed lighting and grip
equipment in order to maintain a quick
shooting pace and easy mobility. Al¬
though he had permits for all of his loca¬
tions, the director found that filming early
in the morning avoided the potential
hassles of crowded streets and too much
commotion from locals.
The opening sequence-which
Berkman shot with cameraman Tim
Glass after returning to Los Angeles -
uses a voice-over and a series of extreme

close-ups to explain why the frustrated
Prague. These
close-ups were also shot with an Arri BL3 (borrowed from cinematographer
Guillermo Navarro) through a 100mm
macro lens lent to Berkman by Otto
Nemenz. The lens nicely captures a short
focal plane, leaving the rest of the shots
in blurred obscurity: a pen scratching let¬
ters onto paper is rendered huge on the
screen, while an equally immense beetle
scuttles past a pair of spectacles.
Using mostly short ends do¬

writer finds himself in

nated from music video director Tarsem,
Berkman shot the film on Kodak color

negative stock: 5293 for exteriors and
5298 for interiors. "Even though the film
was always intended to be black-andwhite, I shot on the color negative which
had been given to me. In video, it is quite
simple to transfer the film without color
and create a convincing black-and-white
quality, but for film festivals, I needed to
have a 35mm print. I did some initial
tests on various print stocks at Cinema
Research Corporation, and I was knocked
out by 5269, a high-contrast print stock
used for titles and optical shots. Since it
is a pan stock, it didn't add grain to the
image, and although the stock provided
the

high-contrast quality I like, it still
enough detail in the mid¬
range. I found that the print had an actual
maintained
American Cinematographer - September 1997

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