American Cinematographer - November 2000 - 32

and Steadicam shots, as
Panaflex for B-camera work.

Right:
Cinematographer
Nancy Schreiber,

Despite the rather cramped

ASC sets up a

shot on location
in the woods
near

Donovan's

workspace,

Schreiber wanted to be able to shoot it
with a moving camera, so key grip

Baltimore,

Schreiber confers
with director Joe

Crowell built

high

Berlinger. The
two began
collaborating on
projects about 15
years ago, and
Berlinger says

and

of the

platform about 6'
long to facilitate
shots. "Unfortunately, many
steel

a

64'

Technocrane

crane moves were

abbreviated

or

eliminated

during the final edit,"
Schreiber says. The cinematographer
used Primo primes and Primo (11:1 and
4:1) zooms throughout the shoot, noting,

Schreiber was his
first choice when

signed

of

confines

Maryland. Below:

he

well as a

on to

"There is

direct Book of
Shadows.

film

ground. Its floor was made of metal grat¬
ing, so we could underlight from below
and create delineated shadows, and we
could also light downstairs shots from

above, creating striped patterns on
faces."

extensive Steadicam work in the woods

(courtesy of operator Ross Judd) as well
as the warehouse (courtesy of Scott
Sakamoto). Berlinger asked Schreiber
and the cast to watch his three favorite

The

ceiling in the work space was
so low that Schreiber asked production
designer Vince Perranio to incorporate
funky, rust-colored track lighting into his
plan, and the crew used its own bulbs to
create strong enough illumination. The
rest of the building's ceilings were
incredibly high, and gaffer Kemp used a
range of tungsten lights to illuminate the
area, including Source 4 Lekos, Peppers,
Dedo lights, and large and small MoleRichardson Fresnels. He also used Par
cans

Schreiber confirms that the film features

in the

building's long hallways.
According to Berlinger, an active

camera

is the cornerstone of his visual

strategy for Book of Shadows, and

thrillers

Hosemary's Baby, The
Shining and Jacob's Ladder- and he
says that the "very active and very
steady camera" in The Shining was the
primary influence on Book of Shadows'
camerawork. In keeping with that plan,
-

Schreiber
Millennium

chose
as

the

Panavision

her A-camera because of

its easy

definite shift in the look of the

a

the story progresses, with more
handheld work toward the end."
as

Quite unlike its

predecessor, Book
photographed almost
35mm color film - Kodak

of Shadows

was

entirely on
Vision 500T 5279, Vision 250D 5246 for
day interiors and late-afternoon exteri¬
ors, and EXR 5248 for day exteriors.
Schreiber says her camera assistants
were

"wonderful" Baltimore technicians,

headed
most

by 1 st AC Boots Shelton. "In fact,

of the

Homicide

crew

were

alumni of

John Waters's

or

Levinson's films," she notes.
terrific."

Barry
"They were
or

conversion to Steadicam and its
ramping capabilities. Her B-camera in

Although video footage (ostensi¬
bly shot by Donovan) is a small compo¬

the woods

nent

was an

Aaton 35, which was

used for handheld and Steadicam work;
once the production moved indoors,

however, the Aaton "was
for

a

bit too noisy

dialogue," according to Schreiber,

so

she used the Millennium for handheld

of

the

film,

Schreiber

was

particularly concerned about the best
it. "For a time, we considered
using Mini DV. But I had shot [the
German television production] Breathe

way create

In, Breathe Out for director Beth B on
Mini DV, and while it looked great in
good light, I was not impressed with how
it handled
once

it

low-light work, especially

was

transferred to film," she

recalls. "I also went to Sundance to take
a

look at what had

recently been shot on

small-format video and blown up. I finally
tested DigiBeta, Mini DV, DV Cam and
Beta SP -
old tube

as

well

as

Pixelvision and

an

DigiBeta was the clean¬
est-looking video I tested, without being
as pristine as high-definition.
"DigiBeta performed much better
camera.

other small-format video
which is what you'd expect
because the camera costs a lot more,"

than

the

cameras,

she continues. "After
30 November 2000

sending the test to
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