American Cinematographer - September 2000 - 87

Jon Shear
"I love

stretching the boundaries of the comfort

for myself and for audiences. As director
and co-writer of Urbania, I wanted the audi¬
zone,

to feel connected to the

ence

story and its lead

character, Charlie, even as the film went to
some

unusual places. Urbania plays with struc¬

ture, color and sound to let the audience expe¬
rience most
of

a

vividly Charlie's skewed sense of the world in the wake

traumatic loss. Production

was an

exercise in low-tech filmmak¬

ing. We used a 20-year-old camera with Super 16 film. Its highly sat¬
urated colors and grain structure were a perfect match for the film's
blend of hyper-real emotions in a slightly surreal environment.
"We then tested new waters with groundbreaking postproduc¬
tion techniques. Urbania was the first film to convert completely from
film to a digital format (for color-timing, opticals and to blow up from
16mm to 35mm without a generational loss) without cutting its origi¬
nal negative. I should thank writer/director Gary Ross, because I got
the idea from an article I read in American Cinematographer about
how he used many of these techniques during the making of
Pleasantville. We created

a

150-minute film with

some

1,500 cuts

and no

splices. I think the moral is that there are many different
paths to the future; there is no 'right' one. You have to trust your
instincts, build a strong team around you and throw caution to the

wind.

Taking risks creates an energy that passes from the film to the
lives."

audience and, we hope, into their
Urbania

premiered at 2000 Sundance Film Festival.

Thom Mount
President
Producer's Guild of America
"When I

young studio executive and
producer in this business, I was incredibly
was a

privileged at Universal to work with some of the
most talented cinematographers working: Billy
Fraker, Connie Hall, Ozzie Morris, Laszlo Kovacs, David Watkin, Vilmos

Zsigmond and John Alonzo, just to name a few. As I got to know
cinematographers, I came to understand that their role is very
different from what I had imagined. I thought they were there to
photograph the movie. But these remarkable people have a different
calling. They have some common threads. First, they are all consum¬
mate technicians. They are also eminently adaptable. But the third
and most important common thread is that great cinematographers
are storytellers.
"They share that ability to sympathize, and enhance all
aspects of the narrative. That is the rarest talent of all. What they do
is simply the backbone of cinema. It's the axis around which our
involvement in the story, our emotional commitment, turns. That value
is a greater value than any technology. The whole host of technological
wonders is perplexing and astonishing, but it cannot hold a candle, or
a footcandle if you will, to the power of the cinematographer."

these

Bill McDonald
UCLA Vice Chair for Production

Department of Film and Television
"At UCLA, we want to
basic

lay a foundation in the

concepts of visual storyteling. We teach

cinematography students that whatever
recording medium you're using, you are
framing through a lens, which means you're selectively framing the
world. The idea is to consider what the audience sees, how they see
it and when

they see it. The question when a new technology arrives
is: Will it help me tell the story? The film vs. video argument tries to
turn everything to black or white. It's either this or it's that. You know
what? It's all the same, because the principles of exposure apply no
matter what you're laying it down on. As Woody Omens says, the
speed of light doesn't change. As long as you have light, the question
is: 'How are you going to manipulate it?"'

Tom

Dey

"Movies at their best

are about making the world a smaller place.
They're about the shared experience of storytelling that occurs when

bunch of

strangers sit in a dark room and go on a journey together.
storytellers, we share a responsibility, no matter what piece of
equipment is in our hands, to help people learn how to live better and

a

As

provoke them to think, feel and care about the world around them. As
director, I am always trying to work toward the implied message that
people of different races and cultures ultimately have more in common

a

than not. That is the message
choose to tell my

Shanghai Noon

story."

that must transcend whatever medium I
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