American Cinematographer - December 1999 - 79

Opposite page:
Forces of evil
test the fabric

of faith in Lost
Souls. The film
marks the
directorial
debut of Janusz

Kaminski, ASC,
who entrusted
the picture's

photography to
cameraman

Mauro Fiore. "I

definitely took
some
on

chances

Lost

Souls,"

says Kaminski.
"We did lots of

jump-cuts in
the editing,
and the
camerawork is

brave. The
angles are
interesting and
very

Mauro's

lighting is

very
bold. I was very
interested in

telling the
story non¬

verbally. I find

visual

for some people, but one should then

directors, and surrounded himself

medium, but my general under¬

perhaps take some extension courses

with

an

standing of film was that there was a
director, a story and a star. All of the
other jobs - such as production
designer, cinematographer and
composer - were unspoken profes¬

crew.

This

the great workshops that the AFI
conducts. It's important to get that
kind of exposure, because movie¬

has formed

making is not a skill that you're born
with
you have to learn it. You can
learn certain aspects of filmmaking
by working on sets, but I think you'll
miss the film theory and history,
which helps you understand why
things are done a certain way. Once
you understand the rules and tradi¬

Jim Kwiatkowski, first assistant Steve

storytelling

sions to

me.

through

In 1983,

a

when I decided

film school at Columbia
College in Chicago, I thought I was
going to direct, because what else was
to

go to

there
more

to

do? However,

once

about what it took

I learned

to

make

a

movie, I fell in love with the camera."
That

formative

at UCLA or

USC,

or

attend

one

of

-

when he faced the realities of helm¬

tions, you can go you own way.
"If I hadn't gone to film
school, the process of directing Lost

ing a major studio picture. "I recently

Souls would have been much

read

difficult. I had studied

experience
proved instrumental to Kaminski

an

article in which someone was

saying that you don't really have to go
to

film school

to

make movies,"

Kaminski relates. "That person also
said that Citizen Kane was boring. In

screenwriting,
production design, editing and
directing. I cut film, created sound
and did the mixing, so those
processes were familiar. In fact, I was

my

shocked

understand and learn the

sional process
school."

opinion, it is necessary to get a
formal film education in order to
art

of

moviemaking. Going to film school
might be impossible

for four years

more

As

at

a

how similar the

profes¬
is to what I'd done in

director of

photography,
gifted

Kaminski has worked with

from
crew

enthusiastic and talented

tight

of craftsmen
strong family bond
picture to picture. Many of his
members
such as key grip
group

a

-

Meizler and electrician Marek
-

have worked

on

Bojsza
nearly all of

Kaminski's films. "One of the greatest
talents

directors have is

movies that are
able to tell the

story in a non¬
verbal way are
more

interesting than
movies that

are

pure dialogue.
I felt that this

film needed [to

employ] certain
visual

metaphors
without

beating the

hiring
the right people," he observes. "They
surround themselves with the right
people and then allow them to do

audience over
the head with
them." This

their best work. I think Steven

courtroom

some

Spielberg is brilliant in that way."
In that regard, Kaminski didn't
hesitate to hire longtime friend and
crew

collaborator Mauro Fiore

as

his

director of

photography on Lost
moving to Los Angeles
together in late 1980s, Fiore and
Kaminski worked on low-budget
film projects produced by Roger
Souls. After

Corman. At the time,

Kaminski

was

working as a gaffer and Fiore as a key
grip, and the duo shared an apart¬
ment where they spent countless
American

page:
scene

A brief
in

a

interior
allowed Fiore
to create

Gothic shafts of

light, but the
filmmakers

generally took
pains to avoid
the cliches of

the genre.

fact, this
was

(In

scene

eventually

cut from the

film.)

Cinematographer 75
American Cinematographer - December 1999

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