American Cinematographer - November 1999 - 79

colors, because it is McNeils home
and also because I wanted it

to

with

intercutting scenes set
in a hospital," says Bagdonas. "I used
very little fill, lighting through the
windows and letting [the actors]
work the room. I put yellow and
straw gels on the basement windows
the opposite of what you would
normally put there - and blew
contrast

-

them out."
For

which

the

cuts

funeral

sequence,

back and forth with

McNeil's other childhood memories,

Bagdonas shot in color and overex¬
posed by a stop. "The highlights were
almost four stops over," he says. "I
incorporated a filter I hadn't used in
a
long time - a regular fog filter,
numbers 1 and 2.1 actually went up
to

number 3 at

ized

one

time, after I real¬

could go a little further."
Bagdonas also used overexpo¬
sure, changes from color to blackand-white and fog filters to enhance
we

the

drama

of other

childhood

"It

was a very

memory sequences.

dramatic
man.

episode,"

says the camera¬
"The material in the practical

locations

off

nicely by the
other storylines taking place back at
the hospital. That helped give us a
sense of place."
Another recent episode of
Chicago Hope, shot in HDTV, was
covered in AC April '99.
was

set

he

"It varies

according to the
and the locations,
as well as the seasons. I try to attack
every episode by working from the
script itself - how it's written, the
meaning that comes out of it, what it
is that I'm trying to accomplish in
terms of the visual impact. Not all
episodes need to be attacked visually.
notes.

nature

On

of the script

of them, I need to be

some

passive - to stand back and let
everything happen on its own, and
do subtle things to make it look
pretty and flowing. With other
scripts, I'll read them and say, 'Wow,
this has some opportunities for a
very graphic photographic experi¬
ence,' and we can help the story along
in that mode."

The second half of a two-part
installment, "Gypsy Eyes" follows
JAG
protagonist
Navy
Lt.
Commander Harmon "Harm" Rabb,
Jr. (David James Elliott) as he

"Gypsy Eyes"
Hugo Cortina's second Emmy
nomination for the CBS series JAG

recognized his work on the episode
"Gypsy Eyes," which earned him his
first ASC Award nomination earlier
this year

(see AC May '99). The
episode featured extensive location
shooting and allowed the cinematog¬
rapher a broad palette.
Cortina

episode with
on

a

approaches each
new eye. "Depending

the narrative, I'll

tion, the lighting

change the filtra¬
and the contrast,"

16

FOR A SERIES

Emmy-

nominated
directors of

photography

Bagdonas, ASC
Chicago Hope

attended the
annual Kodak

"Home Is Where the Heartache Is"

celebratory

James

dinner held

on

September 27

Hugo Cortina

at the Bistro

JAG

Gardens
restaurant in
Studio City,
California. Each
nominee
received a
Kodak Vision

"Gypsy Eyes"
*

Robert Primes, ASC

Felicity
"Todd

Mulcahy, Part II"

Award,

presented by
Brian Spruill,

Bill Roe

the vice

TheX-Files

president and
general
manager of
Eastman Kodak

Dennis Smith

Company. From
left, standing:
Bob Perrin (The

The Practice

"Happily Ever After"

Farm: Inside

Angola Prison),

previous
episodes, it was revealed that Rabb's
father is missing in action. Rabb's

OUTSTANDING

Dennis Smith

CINEMATOGRAPHY

(The Practice),

FOR A MINISERIES

search takes him

OR MOVIE OF THE WEEK

Morgan (Home
Improvement),

searches for his father. In

to

Russia, which

Cortina a cue for his visual
design. "I tried to enhance the blacks
and make the look as cold as possi¬
ble," he says. "I shot the exteriors

Donald A.

Samuel

gave

without

an

filter, and I used

85

a

Vi

Tiffen white ProMist. To enhance the

Henriques (The

John Alonzo, ASC

Farm: Inside

Lansky
*

Robbie

Greenberg, ASC

Winchell

being cold
and dark, we used a lot of negative fill

crashes a
hijacked Russian MIG fighter into a
dense forest. Subsequent sequences
were photographed over the course
of several 18-hour days at woody
locations near the top of Mount
Wilson in the Angeles Forest near
Los Angeles. "We had some big night
exteriors up there," Cortina recalls. "I
silhouetted the

moonlight
Pars with

used

a

-

actors

with

a

lot of

Michael D. O'Shea, ASC
The '60s, "Night 2"
Roland "Ozzie" Smith
Dr.

Movie

were

(Avalanche: The
White Death).
Seated, from

Bruce Surtees

Dash and Lilly

left: Roland
"Ozzie" Smith

(Dr. Quinn
Medicine
Woman: The
*

Denotes Winner

Movie), Robert
Primes, ASC
(Felicity), John

Vi Plus Green - and

positioned

on

Knapp (of
Kodak), Richard
Chisolm

A. Alonzo

campfire to light their faces.

The 4Ks

(JAG), James

Mazza and Tim

Quinn, Medicine Woman: The

uncorrected 4K HMI

some

Angola Prison),
Brian Spruill,
Hugo Cortina
Bagdonas, ASC
(Chicago Hope),
Judith Doherty
(Kodak), Bill
Roe (The XFiles), Michael
Zakula, Kathy

idea of the environment

the actors' faces go dark."
Rabb eventually

Hugo Cortina

Opposite page:
Thirteen of the

CINEMATOGRAPHY

"The Unnatural"

in order to make the shadow side of

JAG

OUTSTANDING

(Lanskg), and
Michael

the

O'Shea, ASC
(The '60s).

ground, uplighting the trees and
backlighting smoke coming from
American

Cinematographer 77
American Cinematographer - November 1999

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 1999
