American Cinematographer - December 1999 - 22

The filmmakers shot from

February
directly
overhead from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. "The
direct sunlight was harsh - it was so
hot and humid that makeup melted, and
the actors were constantly changing
through June, and the

sun was

their wardrobe," he laments.
Deschanel tried to avoid

shooting
directly overhead,
but some sets were still being built when
production began. That gave the
company less flexibility, and also caused
delays that required the rescheduling of
exteriors with the

some

sun

shots.

Deschanel and Tennant

agreed

that the the story and settings of Anna
and the King required a sense of

sweeping

and they decided early
anamorphic. It
wasn't an automatic decision, though,
because Deschanel had to light huge
areas that were mainly motivated by
lamps and candlelight. He needed
sufficient exposure to pull stops of T3.5
and 4 for realistic depth of field.
For Message in a Bottle,
on

Above: Anna
takes a
nocturnal stroll

though the
palace
grounds. The

moonlit

color of the
film's

nighttime

scenes were

determined by
the dominant
sources

(generally
moonlight or
fire), resulting
in either cool
blues or warm
tones

(left).

how much

would

goes out
with the

character, but the camerawork is

planning you do, everything
the window when you're faced
reality of shooting scenes with
hundreds of extras, elephants and other
the

never

says

that Foster

story's central
characters are strong-willed and
intelligent, and each has powerful ideas
about the way life should be lived. The
functionaries of the king (not to mention
Mongkut himself) cannot understand
how any outsider, let alone a woman,
would dare defy their ruler's authority.
This standoff sets the stage for a classic

captures the essence of Leonowens's
strong and defiant personality in her

conflict between Western and Eastern

no

ideals.

By design, the story plays through
Leonowens's eyes, revealing her feelings
about the injustices she perceives amidst
the

grandeur. However, the king also

teaches his instructor

some

lessons.

"Westerners tend to think that everyone
shares our values, but that isn't true,"
Deschanel says. "When Siamese people
approached their king during the 1860s,
they crawled and bowed. That's

unthinkable to Westerners, but it
everyday life for them."
Deschanel thinks the
the main characters

was

was

casting of

brilliant. "Chow

Yun-Fat is incredibly handsome and has
such a wonderful presence that it didn't

take much to

present him as the
character in the book," he offers. "We
chose

20 December 1999

of his

invisible to the audience."
Deschanel

of

power

exaggerated, and hopefully it will be

animals."
Both

emphasize the

angles and compositions that

body language, facial expressions and
eyes. "You can see the relationship and
affection developing between the two
central characters, even though they are
always surrounded by many people," he
states.

Shooting Anna and the King was
in the tropical park for
Deschanel, partially because Malaysia is
about four degrees south of the equator.
walk

scope,

to shoot in 35mm

Deschanel had tested and matched the

imaging characteristics of 90 E-series
anamorphic lenses, from which
he selected seven. Panavision agreed to
provide the same set of lenses (generally
ranging from 50 to 180mm) for Anna and
the King, thus eliminating any potential
variance in color and quality. The E-series
lenses are not quite as sharp as newer
Primo lenses, but they provided the
cinematographer with the look he
Panaflex
American Cinematographer - December 1999

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