American Cinematographer - December 1999 - 50

Galloping Ghost
that would enhance the feel of
scene,

Lubezki
modified his
softbox

strategy while

shooting the
film's climactic
sequence,

which

occurs
a

at

stylized

windmill whose

design was
inspired by a
in Alfred
Hitchcock's

scene

1940

espionage
Foreign
Correspondent.
thriller

"We lit the
with one

scene

longer
softbox placed
to the side [of
the windmill]

source, a

rather than
overhead. The

windmill

was so

tall that if I had

used a toplight,
the highest part
of the structure
would have
been four stops

brighter than
the bottom."

ized that I

going to use this soft
toplight for the 'exterior' scenes shot
in the soundstages, I wanted the real
village to look exactly like those
stagebound sets," Lubezki says. "The
big fear that Tim and I had was that
our

was

real exterior locations would

suddenly have another look that was
too

naturalistic. The trick

was

to

strike the proper

balance between
pictorialism and realism. The cranes
we used helped me a lot, because it
was almost like bringing the stage
ceiling to a location. In the finished
film, you can't really tell if the movie's
exterior
tion

or

scenes were

in

on

loca¬

soundstage; it all matches

a

very well.
"In

done

funny way, using the
cheaper than lighting the
sets any other way," he attests. "When
you rig immense softlights up on
cranes, you can move them really
quickly. Each rig has only one light,
and you can put it anywhere you
a

cranes was

want,

which allowed

us to

do

more

setups per day. We also didn't have to
use

all

much
-

supplemental lighting at

almost

none,

Sometimes from the
add

a

in

fact.

ground we'd

bit of fill

actors' eyes

light just to see the
and so forth. Any extra

lights we used on the ground were
always aimed through diffusion
grids. By the time the light reached
46 December 1999

the

subjects, it was simply a 20' by 20'
grid of light, so it almost didn't
matter whether we were using lOKs
or Mini-Brutes. A cinematography
purist might not agree with that
statement, but once you put the light
through so many layers, it really
doesn't

to

make it

tion that wasn't consistent with the

'source' in the

scene,

doing that - cinematogra¬
phers may notice it, but I don't think
audiences will."
Prior to the

you're using. I would basically tell the
crew which stop I wanted, and John
Higgins would pick a light and use it
to fill a 20' by 20' frame."
Lubezki extended his softlight
approach to the film's interior sets.
He used tungsten fixtures, most of
which were were aimed through
several layers of diffusion. The cine¬
matographer then used an array of
flags to keep light off the set walls,
were

he did

often wild. He adds that

always adhere to cine¬
matography's general rule of moti¬
sources.

of the

light was motivated, but Sleepy

Hollow is
didn't

not

want

"In A Little Princess, all
a

realistic movie, and I

it to be like

a

typical

movie, where if you have a candle,
the light is coming strictly from the
candle. My approach was to position
a

light

so you

couldn't tell where the

light was coming from, while creat¬
ing an atmosphere that was correct
for the
weren't
times

scene.

The Hammer films

always perfectly lit; some¬
they would just create lighting

shoot, Lubezki and
on

a

number of

other

important visual issues. The
agreed that shooting in the 1.85:1
format would better approximate the
look they were after, which the cine¬
matographer describes as being simi¬
duo

lar

"a series of illustrations from

to

classic book." Widescreen

a

anamor-

phic

was ruled out, since both film¬
makers agreed that the wider format

"immediately looks more contempo¬
rary and less classical."
The

not

vated

but I didn't

mind

Burton consulted

which

a

scary or

mysterious. I took the liberty of light¬
ing from wherever I wanted, almost
to the point where the light was
sometimes coming from the wrong
side of the frame. For example, the
candle might be on the left with the
lighting coming from the right. My
approach to close-ups was basically
to use one light in what I considered
to be the best position possible -
even
though that position might not
be what other cinematographers
would consider to be 'good lighting.'
I would generally use light aimed
through 20' by 20's or 12' by 12's; I
used full-grid diffusion through
most of the picture, often in combi¬
nation with a half-grid. Sometimes
the light was a bit low, or in a posi¬

what kind of fixture

matter

more

shoot

chose

cameraman

with

Panavision

to

cameras

equipped with Primo lenses. He used
no filtration save for neutral-density,
and kept the number of lens changes
to a

minimum. "We didn't

of lenses to

use a

Lubezki confirms. "The 40mm

was

long lens; sometimes, when
just couldn't get the shots that
our

wanted with the 40mm,

50mm, and

once

we
we

used the
or twice the 75mm.
we

In

general, though, the 40mm
our
longest lens and the 21mm
our

lot

shoot the movie,"

widest. The 27mm

was

was
was
our
American Cinematographer - December 1999

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