American Cinematographer - December 1999 - 147

behavior of emulsion, lenses and the

properties of light."
After graduating in 1988, Schnei¬
der shot a low-budget straight-to-video
picture, sidestepping the usual steady
rise through the camera ranks. He then
honed his craft

artists

as

on

music videos for such

Blues Traveler, House of Pain,

Ice Cube and Dr. Dre, and on commer¬
cials for such clients as Mercedes, Nike,

Toyota and Sega.
His work caught the attention of
director Charles Haid, who was prepar¬

ing a pilot for producer Steven Bochco
entitled Murder One. Schneider was
hired and

subsequently photographed
episodes. That series led to

the initial 10

consecutive ASC Awards in 1996 (for the

episode "Chapter Four,"

see

AC May '96)

Rock 'n' Roll

Lighting Demo
special dinner meeting held at
the ASC Clubhouse on September 27
(organized by Program Chairman Robert
Primes, ASC) offered an up-close look at
an array of computer-controlled theatri¬
cal luminaires, during which the Society's
main meeting room was bathed in
intense beams of colored light.
Hanging from an aluminum
framework installed in the Clubhouse by
West Coast Theatrical were a variety of
fixtures from various companies: Martin,
Coemar, High End Systems, VariLite, Icon
Light and Sound Design. Running
through a 1,000-channel Icon lighting
desk, the lamps were put through their
paces and described by presenter Christ¬
ian Hibbard and his team from Design
Lighting Group, a Van Nuys, Californiabased company that specializes in rent¬
ing and prepping such gear.
Presenting a clip from his upcom¬
ing film The Flintstones 2: Viva Rock
Vegas, director of photography Jamie
Anderson spoke about the flexibility that

Opposite page:
William Fraker,
ASC takes the

A

podium during
the Lifetime

Achievement
Award
announcement.

This page, far
left: New ASC
member Aaron
Schneider. Near
left: Views of
the ASC
Clubhouse after
it was rigged
for the

September 27
dinner meeting.
The demo was

presented by
Christian
Hibbard of
West Coast

Theatrical

(bottom photo,
with
cameraman

Jamie

Anderson).

theatrical fixtures offer when used in
traditional

bDWEiapmlhveomyt.dsng

bdSKKWcoihnpmnryemgiodyetahrt;;l

bTpohoytry
Fraker

filmmaking situations. The
he showed (via a Barco video
projector) involved a "prehistoric" night¬
club performance featuring many intri¬
cate lighting cues, and Anderson
explained that the remote-controlled
lamps allowed him to quickly reset for
multiple takes and carefully tweak color
sequence

and in 1997 (for

May '97),

as

"Chapter Nine," see AC
well as an Emmy nomina¬

tion. The courtroom drama featured

a

predominantly sidelit through
large windows. The center window
provided a soft crosslight in line with the
actors, while a a lower intensity light
was aimed through the first window in
front of them. "You can't just put a light
through a window. Light is more complex
than that," Schneider noted in the May
courtroom

three

temperatures.
Also

hand

Paul

1997 with the suspense thriller Kiss the
Girls (AC Sept. '97), followed by a televi¬

Sangster
Lighting, a Los Angeles-based
firm that specializes in projection
systems commonly used for outdoor
advertising. Their 4K, 6K and 12K HMIbased systems can be used to enlarge
images (generally sourced from 4x5
transparencies or 35mm slides) to cover
as much as 10,000 square feet (generally
on the sides of buildings). Sangster

sion

demonstrated his firm's work with

'97 issue of AC.
After Murder One, Schneider

stepped into the feature film

arena

pilot for C-16: FBI and the feature

Simon Birch. He teamed with Haid
on

in

the retro-comedic TV series

Faro (AC Oct. '98).

again
Buddy

on

was

of Future

short video

a

presentation.
expressed its gratitude

presentation, including Kevin Stolpe and
Hollywood Rentals, Inc., who supplied
the generators that powered the entire
mega-watt show.
■

The ASC
to all of the

participants involved in this
American

Cinematographer 143
American Cinematographer - December 1999

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