American Cinematographer - December 2000 - 106

The Reel Deal

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Shooting for Realism
With Allen Daviau, ASC
& Sacha Viemy

Shooting for Drama
Robby Miiller, NSC, BVK

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& Peter

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Shooting for Fantasy
With Sacha Vierny & Denis

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Lighting Dances With Wolves
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Shooting for Black-and-white
With Allen Daviau 6c Denis Lenoir

Lighting Dead Poets Society
With John Seale, ASC, ACS
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Comparative Workshop
With Donald McAlpine, ASC, ACS
A

be the kind of mainstream work that

& Denis Lenoir, AFC

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Daviau recalls, "A person from
production company called me and
asked, 'Do you have a spot that has a
couple walking through the woods
talking at sunset with a camera dolly¬
ing through the trees with them?' I
told him I had a spot with a red¬
headed girl walking through the
woods at sunset with a camera dolly¬
ing through the trees with her as she
talked to camera. He paused, then
said, 'Not a couple, though?' You will
run
into
things that absurd.
Sometimes people are looking for
something so exact that it's impossi¬
ble to [plan for it in advance]."
Schneider argues that ulti¬
mately, catering one's reel to the
marketplace may not best serve a
cinematographer's goals. "I could put
together a reel that would probably
get me tons more work, but it would
a

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only pays our bills," he says. "I could
put that reel together and end up
shooting Cornflakes to my heart's
content. But you have to temper the
kind of work you want to do with
your sanity. A reel is not so much a
sales tool, but more about showing
people the kind of cinematographer
you are. When I put reels together, I
always think, 'If I were showing this
to

a

filmmaker

or

a

fellow cine¬

matographer, what would I be most
proud to show?' You have to decide
whether you're targeting where you
want to go with your career, or
whether you're just plain looking for
work.
"I liken
canoe

in the

a career

to

rapids with

being in a
a paddle,"

Schneider concludes. "The river is

going to take you where you're going
go - you don't have control over
the current - but you do have a
to

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paddle and you can kind of steer
yourself. The frustration comes
when you try to engineer your path.
As you get older and more experi¬
enced, you realize that the path
defines itself. You just have to stay in
the game."
■
American Cinematographer - December 2000

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 2000
