American Cinematographer - January 2000 - 19

shots when the

sky is at its best. Of
also try to plan well." To
avoid overexposure, graduated ND filters
were used whenever the sky was
prominent in the frame.
In one scene involving the
graveyard burial of an orphan, a
tremendously colorful, cloudy sky in the
background serves to heighten the
course, you

intense
Director of

photography
Oliver

Stapleton (in
cap) squares up
a scene on

the

set with actor

Tobey Maguire
(seated and
Director Lasse

Hallstrom

(second from
left).

Stapleton opted instead to shoot in
Super 35.
Working in a widescreen format,
even with spherical optics, caused a
subtle, positive difference in the
atmosphere on-set. "Psychologically,
everyone is happier when you're
shooting in widescreen, except maybe
the
producer!" muses Stapleton.
"Among the camera crew, there's always
the feeling of 'Now we're talking
cinema!' With 1.85, you're usually
thinking, 'This is more like TV -
domestic drama, people endlessly
talking,' and it is not about photography
at all. If you have a cinematic script,
there's always the temptation to shoot in
widescreen."
Hallstrom notes that he and the
film's

producer, Richard Gladstein, have
long been fans of the widescreen
format's "big movie" feel. The softspoken director admits, however, that he
was initially "reluctant to go against
Oliver's preference for 1.85, because I
respect his work so much."
Nevertheless, the widescreen
format works

perfectly for The Cider
House Rules. Stapleton thinks this
success may have something to do with
the large number of people who are often
16

January 2000

onscreen at one

time; Hallstrom believes

it is because of the

spectacular New
"Each shot just seemed
to have the right proportions," Hallstrom
recalls, summing up the issue.
England

scenery.

Since the film

was a

Miramax

production, Stapleton knew that the
release prints would be made on the
less-costly Fuji F-CP 3519 print stock. He
therefore decided to stick with Fuji
throughout the production, using the
firm's Super F 250T 8551 and 250D 8561
production stocks. The cinematographer
shot with his personal Moviecam
Compact camera and a rented set of
Cooke S4 lenses. "I adjusted my
shooting to work with the Fuji release
stock, which I thought was just fine,"
Stapleton says.
One of the most notable visual

aspects of The Cider House Rules is the

beauty of the outdoor skies, which are
appropriately spectacular in some
scenes and subtly evocative in others.
According to Stapleton, capturing such
photogenic skies requires a combination
of planning, flexibility and luck. "If the
director and assistant director

are on

your side, you can adjust what you shoot
first according to the weather," he points
out. "That way, you can

do your wide

mood.

"I

had

asked

the

production designer to set up the
graveyard so that we would be shooting
into the sunset," Stapleton recalls. "We
got lucky, because the clouds were very
interesting late in the day. That is about
all you can do - plan things out and
then turn up and hope to be intelligent
about the weather. If you're lucky, it will
play into your hands."
In one key case, the weather
perfectly suited the drama, but not the
production. During a scene in which
Homer Wells and Candy Kendall (Theron)
confront a crisis in their precarious
relationship, the duo are shown sitting
on a loosely-moored dock near the
Kendall family lobstering business,
where they are enveloped in pale gray,
foggy light. "The weather was wonderful
for that sad scene, visually ideal,"
Stapleton notes. "In real life, it was cold
and damp and horrid."
To

further

accentuate

the

characters'

insecurity, Stapleton placed

the

in

camera

one

of the small boats and

deliberately circled the actors to reveal
both

their

situation

and

their

surroundings. "The concept really came
from the notion of two people cast
adrift, because at that point in the
movie, they are a bit lost and unsure of
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