American Cinematographer - June 1999 - 146

dynamic frames that carry the story,
especially in the music video and
commercial market," he says. On the
Mellencamp video, he had to be
comfortable not making each frame
action-packed, knowing that each would
be one small piece of a larger puzzle.
"An out-of-focus streetlight in the back¬
ground, which on its own would render
very little sense of place and purpose,
became a cohesive proscenium when
combined with all of the other pieces,"
he says. "It's an interesting challenge to
be forced to look deeper for your motiva¬
tion of a frame, because the techniques
one might employ to create a striking
image would actually detract from the
ultimate goal."
Just

as

Stockton had to make

each individual frame much

simpler than
ordinarily might, he also used a simple
shooting style, rather than the extreme
stylization that might have been appro¬
priate on another type of project. "A lot
of the photography [was intended] to not
he

draw attention to itself," he says.
In the middle of the song
short musical break, which

is a
Duffy used to

divide the video into two halves, the first
shot

during the day, the second at night.

result, Stockton used two different
stocks for the 16mm cameras, and two

As

a

others for his

Super 8 units. "The primary
photography for the daytime portion was
done with Kodak 7246 [Vision 250],
which is a very impressive emulsion,"
says Stockton. "We used the 200T 7274
Vision stock in the principal cameras for
the night sequence."
For the Super 8 footage, Longenecker used Pro-8 45 negative stock
(which is re-manufactured from Kodak
EXR 5245

by Super8 Sound in Burbank,
California) for the day sequences, and
Pro-8 93 (made from EXR 5293) for the
night work. Though they also shot one
roll of reversal Kodachrome 40,

though

Longenecker reports that for productions
with a tight deadline, Kodachrome is
problematic to use because many labs
have stopped processing it for environ¬
mental reasons, and it has to be sent

away for developing. (The Pro-8
stocks were processed at

Sounds in-house lab

facility.)

negative
Super8

The

project's filtration and light¬

ing

were fairly straightforward as well.
Stockton says he simply used a polarizer
to

deepen the sky, and neutral-density
a shallow depth of field.

filters to create
"The filtration
attention to

was

intended not to draw

style, but to capture a
good clean negative," he explains. "The
lighting style for the night sequence -
basically Kino Flo footlights hidden by
snowdrifts
motivated
an

a

-

allowed

us

pools of lights,

to create

as

low,

opposed to

overall source, to create a moodier

feeling. That style also allowed us to
light a master shot and move in for cover
shots with very little change from band
member to band member."
In the end, of course, the

images
together during the editing
process. Stockton says he was amazed
by Duffy's ability to arrange the footage

all

came

that

had

been

shot: "I

was

very

impressed with Robert's skill at previsu¬
alizing how this mosaic would come
together, and how it would expand and
contract in its scope as he assembled it.
It

was

clear to

me

that it

was

put

together by chance or accident - the
final result was exactly what he had
described in the beginning."
Stockton affirms that though the
video seems casually put together, the
construction was not random or haphaz¬
ard. "It's remarkably constructed," he
says, adding that even apparently trivial
details, such as the flashing "Don't
Walk" signs, are all carefully combined
to create a complete impression.
"When I watch the video, I feel that I'm
on that streetcorner with John

there

and the band.

"One of the most rewarding
things about being a cinematographer
these days is the limitless palette that
we have at our disposal," says Stockton.
"It's a very fertile time creatively,
because the sky is the limit. The audi¬
ence has become open to anything,
which offers artists in this medium a

boundless

opportunity to look within

ourselves. It's

really an exciting time to
explore the craft of filmmaking, and it's
nice to work with

Robert, who

are

people like John and
trying to push those

boundaries themselves."
American Cinematographer - June 1999

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