American Cinematographer - November 1998 - 36

Glitter Gulch
"You wouldn't
want me

trousers to

down,

fall

now

would

you?"

Curt Wild

(Ewan

McGregor)
confronts the
crowd just prior
to

losing the

leathers and

"getting his ya
ya's out."
Alberti, who
had

never

photographed

a
rock concert

before the
Velvet
Goldmine

shoot, prepared
for the show

by
studying
footage of
Seventies

concerts and

consulting with
lighting
designer
Suzanne Sasic.

with

lighting designer named

a

Suzanne Sasic,

who's worked with

Nirvana and Beck. I went to

York

a

Beck

the Roseland club in New

concert at

City, and I really liked what she

did with colors.
"I

tried

approach the
[in the film] not only as

concerts

concerts, but as

to

dramatic scenes, each

moving the story along in a narrative
or dramatic way. For instance, there's
a scene in which [Slade's onstage alter
ego] Maxwell Demon goes over and
starts playing Curt Wild's guitar with
his teeth. That's a really sexy scene, so
I used colors that I find sensual. I

started the

gels

-

reds

-

like

move

and

him with
then

with very

acidic
greens, yellows, and edges of
concert

a

as

Brian started his cat¬

toward Curt, I followed
Lee 118

enters a

deep purple. He

pool of Lee 106 bright

orange and starts to play Curt's guitar
with his teeth. At the 'Death of Glit¬
ter' concert, which symbolizes the
end of an era, I used very pale-green

and

pale-blue colors, with edges of
colors? They just
felt right. I once went to see a talk by

lavender. Why these

34 November 1998

Vittorio Storaro

[ASC, AIC] where a
group of young-by-experience cine¬
matographers were all trying to ask
him, 'Which gel, which filter?' And
Vittorio just started talking about

are

the

become available

the

moon,

sun,

the conscious

and the unconscious! The message

I

very saturated and have very low
light transmission."
Alberti opted to use Kodak's
EXR 5298 for most of the film.

"Vision

500T

felt 98 had

a

[5279]

had just

the time, but I
look that was closer to
at

got from that was to learn your tech¬

the stocks used in the Seventies," she

nique but don't let it be the driving
force. Instead, trust your intuition

explains. "I used 93 quite a bit as well

and instincts."

scenes,

Many of the Velvet Goldmine
concert scenes

venerable

shot

were

at

London's

it, it

was

because it's

a

bit intimidating

big space!" Alberti
I used
rigging
grid, and lighting trees and
a

exclaims. "For stage lighting
standard rock 'n' roll concert
-

a

truss,

computer board. Each song had its
color scheme and I played the

own

board almost like
ment.

For

a

musical instru¬

the Seventies

I used traditional

concert

lights like
Par cans, augmented with a couple of
5Ks, because some of the gels I was
using - like the purple Lee 180 -
scenes,

camera

In

desire

some

newsreel

which I shot with my Aaton
in regular 16mm and later

blew up to

and

spacious Brixton
Academy, the site of countless rock
shows over the years. "When I first
saw

for exteriors and

35mm."
keeping with Haynes's

to contrast

his view of the

vibrancy of the Seventies with the
blandness of the subsequent decade,
Alberti approached the Eighties
concert scenes

in

a

much

more

sober

style. "For the Tommy Stone concert
in the Eighties, I used a couple of
CyberLights, which give

you

thin

of light that can cross and caress
and sweep across the stage and audi¬
rays

Those

lights really came along
Eighties. Todd stressed that the
Tommy Stone musical figure had to
be much more corporate and cold -
he has lost his passion, sensuality and
ence.

in the
American Cinematographer - November 1998

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