American Cinematographer - December 1999 - 84

The Devil Made Flesh
Fiore sets up a
shot of Father

(John
Hurt) as the
priest recovers
Lareaux

from

part

of the

experience,"
"We

Fiore says.

weren't

approaching
the shots from
a voyeuristic
perspective. We

tried
as

as

film

was
-

close

to

create

a

confrontation
with evil. "We
wanted to
make the
camera a

This

much

possible to
involve
ourselves

very

much

a

wider-angle

27mm, 21mm. I tried to stay
the actors, but not enough to

distortion in the

images."

Adds Fiore, "We chose Primo
lenses because

considering
optical step that we were eventu¬
ally going to go through. Primo
lenses aren't something that Janusz
or I normally use. We usually use Zseries lenses because they have a
slightly softer look. Additionally,
we were

the

most

of the film was shot with

a

Dior

Needle Park [both shot

by Adam

Holender, ASC] and The French
Connection [Owen Roizman, ASC],

adding

they feel

offset that with

real, and they're very
really
control the environment, and things
just happen that you may not like,
such as people looking into the lens
or a car passing in front of the
camera
things that are unpre¬
very

much handheld. You can't

-

dictable and add
of

a

tremendous

sense

reality. I wanted to make this film
so the idea of using a lot of

feel real,

stocking stretched on 4" by 5" frames

handheld

in front of the lenses. We found that

appropriate and gave the film more
urgency. The movie takes place in the

the

added

bit of

painterly
quality to the images. The lines aren't
nets

a

a

cameras

seemed

very

fall and winter, and that automati¬

little kicker, if there

a

dark side

to

was a

character's face, we'd

a

bright background
play off of the chiaroscuro,
rather than adding anything to the
a

and

that would make it feel like

scene

a

'movie shot.' In the

day scenes, the
generally a stop brighter
than our shooting stop, while the fill
side was two or more stops under. We
wanted to feel the brightness of the
daylight on the faces. On most of the
day work, we used a lot of negative
fill, rather than creating our own
source and
backlight. We simply
hung huge 50' by 50' blacks from
faces

were

Condors."

subjectively
with the
camera,

look for this film. Instead of

orous a

Once the New York

which

scenes

completed, the remainder of
place in Los Angeles,
where production designer Garreth

were

often

placed us
closer to the
actors with
wide lenses."

the shoot took
Stover

(Instinct, Phenomenon) had

constructed several

key sets on stages
Sony Pictures in Culver City,

at

California. "Most of the interiors
lit with tungsten

lamps," Fiore
explains. "We were mainly working
with big, soft sources including

were

several Dinos bounced off muslin to

big wall of light. Obviously,
gets bigger, it gets even
A lot of our lighting instru¬

create a
as

the

source

softer.

consisted of either homemade

ments

fixtures
so

sharp, and the image diffuses in a
that the overall picture has an

sense

almost 'brushwork' feel. It makes the

highlights really glow and takes the
edge off the sharpness of the Primos.
We also tried to stay within the T2.8
to T4.0 range

because

we

end up

for most of the film

knew

going to
optical [blowup to
we were

doing an
an anamorphic release print], and we
didn't want anything to fall off."
The

production began with

several weeks of location

photogra¬
phy in and around New York City. "I
wanted the film to capture some

that

specific New York style,"

of

says

Kaminski. "When you look at films
photographed in New York, such as
Midnight Cowboy, The Panic in
80 December 1999

cally dictates a certain light quality.
Everything is fairly played-down in
terms of the rainy, overcast feel. It's a
bit gritty without being overly styl¬
ized. I wanted the film to be very pale
white and pale blue, without too
much color, and I didn't want any
hard light. I wanted soft light, but
with

some

mood and

contrast

faces. There is very

in the

little direct

or

a

standard

Mole-

Richardson

9-light. We brought
things back to more basic traditional
units, and made
We

soffboxes.

our own

deliberately stayed away from
lights and the "shafts of light"

Xenon

look, which we felt had been over¬
done. Also, we always put practical
on

the

tried

sets as

to

much

as

possible and

include them in the frame.

We worked

a

lot with the

in that

art

depart¬
on the

sunlight in the movie."

ment

"We were resisting hard,
contrasty sources," Fiore details.
"Instead, we often worked with big
soft sources that we underexposed,
rather than putting hard light on

night exteriors, we'd have them

people's faces. Also,
thumb

we

had

was

backlight. We felt that

one
to

rule of

never

was too

add

glam¬

install

regard. Even

lamppost and other practical
lights outside to create a motivation
a

in the frame, rather than just adding
light to the scene."
A key set seen at the beginning

of the film is
Father

a

mental ward where

Lareaux

and

Larkin
American Cinematographer - December 1999

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