American Cinematographer - November 1999 - 99

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The

singer Coko performs her tune "Sunshine" in the tropical paradise of Hawaii,
photographed in anamorphic on reversal film by cameraman Aaron Schneider.

shooting on reversal stock forces a
cinematographer to think back¬
wards. With negative stocks, he
points out, most cinematographers
overexpose slightly to get a thicker
negative and more saturated blacks.
"All cinematographers are used to
cheating on the side of overexpo¬
sure," he says, noting that with rever¬
sal stock, the opposite is true. "You
actually underexpose a half stop if
you want to saturate blacks."
Schneider says that the other
difference in working with reversal is
the way it enhances contrast.
"Reversal glorifies the high-contrast
look," he offers. "It's the 'homemovie' look
contrast

-

there's

between the

a

lot of

to

die without

shoot

Apart).

(AB&Mfiaronds
Smoke
of

contrast.

When you

cloudy day or a low-contrast
day on negative, you have a lot of
information on the negative to go
into, so you can expand the contrast.
Reversal's view of the light is very
narrow, so if all it's getting is
midtones, that's all you're going to
have on the reversal print. It's kind of
hard to push that."
As a result, shooting in Hawaii
was problematic because the weather
often turned from bright and sunny
a

to overcast

in

a

matter

it

"The

mentioned
first

really crazy," agrees Grant.
quality of light was flat, which

was

to Grant

that I'd shot my

feature, Kiss the Girls,

anamorphic [see AC Sept. '97],
well

in
as

commercial for Bell

recent

as a

Atlantic," Schneider recalls. "I told
him I loved the format, and he liked
the idea of using

it."
landing in Hawaii,
Schneider called Denny Clairmont at
Clairmont Camera in Los Angeles to
assemble a package comprised of an
Arri-35 III and Hawk anamorphic
After

lenses, the

series used to shoot

same

Star Wars:

Episode I - The Phantom
Menace (see AC Sept. '99, p. 66, for
details on this lens system).
Schneider felt that "Sunshine"
offered the
him

perfect opportunity for
the Hawk lenses. "A

to test out

has

cameraman

with what's
that he
cameras

to

acquaint himself

there," he says, noting

out

usually relies

on Panavision
and lenses. "In the spirit of

experimentation, you throw aside
used to and learn from it.
"The Hawks performed very
well, and are reasonably compact,"
what you're

lenses

were

a

bit

larger than

Panavision's E-series, but in the ball¬

park of Primos.
Schneider

anamorphic

advises

lenses

that

have

to

the

that there's
more

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limitations, which have led
development of a certain cine¬

matographic language

about 50 percent of the time."
To lend the video even

For

common

phic projects. "You'll always notice

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some

I' didn't really work for us. The song is
we

& Charger

adds Schneider, who notes that the

of seconds.

"Our biggest obstacle was the weather
-

style, Schneider and Grant shot it
anamorphic lenses. "I'd

with

sunlight and

the shadow. But the stock also tends

Battery Pack/Charger

a

bit

more

on anamor¬
headroom in

anamorphic movies," he points out,

www.chapman - leonard.com
95
American Cinematographer - November 1999

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