American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 79

Lance Acord
"In any

III TV I

type of filmmaking, the materials you

work with, the camera in your hand, and the
medium that camera uses
film

-

-

motion-picture

ultimately affect the way you create

images. It's like the difference between playing

guitar and playing a sampled guitar sound on
sampler. The music you create will be shaped
by that choice. Whatever the advances in digital video, the reality is
a

a

that you are

working with a different set of tools, and the images you
it's good or
that one is better than the other. It's just the reality. But

create will look different because of that. That's not to say

bad,

or

there's

an

element of

magic in the photographic process, and
always be more interesting to me."

because of that, film will

Being John Malkovich, Buffalo 66, Recycler and numerous music videos

Pierre Gill, esc
"The

technology is there for a reason: to help
great films. I look forward to working
with a mix of media in which the strengths of
each medium are exploited. Soon you'll be able
to affordably scan entire films into the computer.
I believe that at that point, the film negative will
be even more important than it is now. We will
have the quality and softness of film with the rapidity and flexibility of
us

make

Dante

Spinotti, ASC, Aic

"Moviemaking is about understanding the lan¬
guage of your film. It starts when somebody
writes the first word in the script, and it goes
through millions of decisions that have to be
made from that moment until you screen it for
audiences. An important part of this language
is the way you shoot the movie. But it is only a
part. It's important to develop the language of the movie you're film¬
ing, because the lighting and the rest come as a consequence. I
want to go into the human values revealed in an event and visually
represent that. So every minute of detail is important - the shape
of a pair of glasses, the color of a tie, all are fundamental. Once you
understand the rest of the language, then you know how you are
going to light it. It's not about being pretty, technically perfect, or
simply recording images."
Wonder

Boys, The Insider, L.A. Confidential, Heat

the

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digital world. The important thing is to keep the same quality of
filmmaking and to get into future technology without destroying
everything that has been built up over the years by all of these talent¬
ed cinematographers. The film stocks continue to improve. With
movies, you have to move people, and film helps accomplish that.
The technology is not just for fixing."
The Art of War, The Secret Adventures of Jules Verne, Souvenirs intimes,
Joan of Arc

Richard Crudo, ASC
"Historically, cinematographers have always
been the authors and

guardians of the filmed
image. We also have been the first to embrace
and encourage technological advancement.
This will continue as long as there is some form
of motion picture, but as we move into the
future we must be more vigilant than ever with
our input and governance over progress. We simply cannot allow it to
reach the screen at the cost of losing the undeniable magic inherent
to the photochemical process. To do so would be similar to having the
world at our disposal and gaining nothing - or more likely, putting
wheels on skis. Regardless of how things evolve, there are two
factors that will never be negated by man or technology: our taste
and our experience. When those are combined in service of the
creative control and capture of light on an emulsion, the possibilities
for cinema are endless. And that, indeed, is why we exist at all."
Outside Providence, American Pie, Music From Another Room, American
Buffalo, Federal Hill
American Cinematographer - September 2000

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