American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 146

the lens, a look he finds

particularly
amazing in Super 35. "Depending on the
job. I'll almost always use some sort of
softening effect," he submits, noting that
this technique compensates for the
extreme sharpness of today's stocks and
lenses. "It's a little more pleasing to have
a net or black ProMist [on the lens]."

combination of direct

bounced off of

This book examines the art

until the moment when the

and craft of

car.

motion-picture

photography through
a

veteran

professional

cinematographer's personal
experiences on five

"We go to

slow motion to punctuate

x 6' silk. "It
spot's strong,
graphic look helps. If it was a regular,
cheery, happy shot, you'd notice a lot

light aimed through

Rutkowski

shot the

spot on

that stock all the time because it

each selected to illustrate

for the

options," he main¬
that using a slower
stock can sometimes get a cinematogra¬
pher into trouble; for example, the
reduced shutter angle, polarizer, and high
frame rate he used on this spot could
take away five stops very quickly.
Even in September, the Puerto
Rican location was very hot and sunny,
but by the end of the long shooting day
Rutkowski had to light the exterior shots
of the commercial's lead character. "Any
shot of him outside involved some light¬
ing," says Rutkowski, who used various
HMI Pars, either aimed through some
sort of diffusion or positioned as far
away as 20 yards so that the light essen¬
tially became a fill.

photographer.

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Comfort: The Warriors:
First Blood: Streets of Fire;

Innerspace

The most difficult shot, however,

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6

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144

one of a dog wearing a
neck brace. The animal had to be entirely

might have been
:

www.cinematographer.com

a

6'

more."
After

processed,

a

negative
was
bleach-bypass positive was
the

struck then transferred to video on a

Spirit Datacine at DuArt. "I love the look
of positive, I really do," says Rutkowski.
"I think there's
blacks

are

a

real difference. The

richer. It's

more

of

a

film and

richer,

more

contrasty and tangible feel." He

adds

less of

a

TV look. There's

a

from a positive also focuses
the look more quickly because there is
less latitude in the colors: "Negative
that working

print, though many
people often transfer from a low-contrast
print. If there's too much contrast in the
print, he explains, it can be impossible to
get a nice, smooth gray scale. However,
for the Suzuki ad, he chose to go with the
normal-contrast print to get the deep
blacks he wanted. "Nothing's really black

sound effect as the guy

use

challenges

81 beadboard, and

then you hear the
twists his neck."

Kodak's Vision 200T 5274 film stock. "I

particular series

x

tends to wander more."

offers the greatest
tains. He points out

of

the

41

that moment," says Gerard. "Everything
slows down until the car leaves, and

major motion pictures,

a

man sees

a

worked," he says. "The

He also tweaked the shutter

angle and frame rate, commenting, "We
skinnied the shutter up a bit." In general,
he kept the shutter between 90 and 144
degrees. He did quite a bit of overcrank¬
ing, too. "Very little was shot at 24
frames per second," he reveals.
Gerard explains that he wanted
the pace of the commercial to build,
starting slowly and then speeding up

daylight with a
lighting, light

the shot, he had to fake

lit, and it also turned out to be a unex¬

pectedly difficult subject. "Without my
knowing it, they'd cast a jet-black
Labrador," Rutkowski says with a sigh.
"Naturally, once the light was basically
gone, it was time to shoot the close-up of
a black dog in a white neck brace." To get

In this case, Rutkowski used a
normal-contrast

on a

low-con," he says.

Although Rutkowski has shot
number of music videos and

a

commer¬

cials, he has spent much of his career
focusing on features. The cinematogra¬
pher has photographed The Last Word on
Paradise for actor/director Ethan Hawke,
and also the surrealistic Kill

By Inches,
garnered attention for its striking
look at this year's Los Angeles Film

which

Festival.
This

background has given
insight into the
differences between shooting for
features and commercials. One impor¬
tant distinction, he says, is simply the
way shots are conceived. While a shot in
a feature might go on for minutes, a shot
in a commercial generally lasts about
Rutkowski valuable

three seconds at most. "You have to put
the punch in the shot right away," he

conceding that some cinematogra¬
phers are probably more adept at this
than others. "I think some people who
work mainly in commercials know how
says,
American Cinematographer - September 2000

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