American Cinematographer - November 1998 - 96

be

slave to the

equipment. The tech¬
nology is not that important, because it's
changing all the time. What's important
is the ability to adapt. When the Arriflex
was invented, it was revolutionary. It
was a studio camera you could hold on
your shoulder, and it inspired neorealism
a

and the French New Wave."
In the

case

of the Esthero video,

director Harder wanted to utilize novel
Un Chien Esthero

by Stephanie Argy
Each year, MTV designates a
of "Breakthrough Videos,"

handful

singling them out for technical or visual
innovations. Recently honored in this
category was Esthero's "Heaven Sent,"
helmed by Phil Harder and photographed
by Chris Soos, a longstanding collabora¬
tor of director Floria Sigismondi (see AC
Aug. '98). The video for this Canadian act
features drawings by comic book artist
Jon J. Muth, which serve as the back¬

A

quality
over

painterly
was laid

the surreal

images in
"Heaven Sent"
-

mimicking
the feel of

"optical
printer" effects
with high-end
digital post
techniques.

grounds for high-contrast live-action
elements. Blended together in Flame,
Hal, Henry and Paintbox, the different
layers take on a new look that the direc¬
tor and cinematographer hoped would
be reminiscent of old-fashioned footage.
Remarks Soos, "We were mimicking
[Luis Bunuel's] Un Chien Andalou."
To accommodate the postproduc¬
tion processes, and to achieve a highcontrast portraiture, Soos had to sculpt
his images to be as flat and 2-D as possi¬
ble. "It's like every cinematographer's
nightmare," he says. "It's a worst-case
scenario to be asked to light something
as flat as possible with no dimension."
"I think he

Prior to "Heaven Sent," Harder

and Soos had

never

the director

was

worked

together, but
impressed with the

cameraman's reel. "You could tell he

going out on a limb with his cine¬
matography and really pushing it,"

was

recalls Harder.

Soos became accustomed to

experimenting while shooting music
after his graduation from
Toronto's Ryerson Polytechnic Institute in
1993. "I pretty much
jumped straight into shoot¬
ing," he recalls. While
Soos respects the disci¬
pline of those who spend
years working their way up
through the camera depart¬
videos

ment, he didn't want to
wait

a

decade

or

more

before he could create his

imagery. "You lose the
spirit of filmmaking while you're in your
twenties," he says. "You have to draw
from that energy, and the film community
own

has to understand that."
He

opines that younger filmmak¬
shaped by modern tech¬
nology's ability to allow for instant view¬
ing of one's work. "I'm a huge fan of
ers

have been

intrigued by the
limitations," notes director Harder, also a

what computers can do these
don't feel the machine anymore

cinematographer who recently shot
Snow, a feature entry in the recent

instantaneous," says Soos, whose home
contains

Toronto International Film Festival.

around Adobe

94 November 1998

was

technology to re-create the ambiance of
old-style optical printing. He told the
artists that they could use any and all
tricks and toys, as long as the video
appeared as if were made prior to 1962.
The live-action part of the video
was shot over two days on a Toronto
soundstage. The backdrop was a white
cyclorama that formed a virtual environ¬
ment against which the performers could
be photographed. Also on stage were
the few bits of set dressing that the

a

days. I
- it's

digital darkroom devised
Photoshop. "But one can't

performers had to touch
window and

some

colored black

-

a

door,

a

curtains, all of which

they would show
the CG environment. "It
cheesy while we were
doing it, like an early-Eighties video,"

were

so

up better in
looked really

cracks Harder.
Soos created the flat lighting with
an

overhead 401 x40' silk, lit with DeSisti

2.5/4K HMI Goya lights. "Those units are
traditionally used for lighting large areas
of eyes, because they have an extremely
broad, even spread," he says. "Most

VMABIFnidipawulemcnosiotrh.sc.,

Hardoce-Fuurfltesy
Phot s
American Cinematographer - November 1998

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