American Cinematographer - December 2000 - 16

This book examines the art
and craft of

motion-picture

photography through
veteran professional

a

cinematographer's personal
major motion pictures,
each selected to illustrate

particular series

of

challenges

for the

Quay brothers; Flashing Lights,
(Super 35 to scope) directed by Anders
Thomas Jensen; Honolulu Baby,
directed by Maurizio Niketti (Super 35
to scope), and Wilfred, directed by

role has been nonexistent

Peter Kershaw.

when all

As

for

quality, comparisons
digital and optical routes
have been done eight times by different
cinematographers and laboratories and
included all formats (Super 16, 35 and
Super 35, both normal aspect and
scope). In all cases, the print off the
digitally derived negative has been
judged superior by far to the optical
route in terms of resolution, especially
when a format change is involved (like a
Super 16 "blow up" and anamorphic
squeeze).
between the

experiences on five

a

the

photographer.

CONTENTS: Southern

Kris

Kolodziejski, CEO
Digital Film Lab, Copenhagen

-

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

Bob Fisher responds: Thank you
for your comments. In my article, I
referred to a number of feature-length

Innerspace

films that went through a digital-inter¬
mediate process and were theatrically
distributed. I selected examples I was
aware

ISBN 024080399X
6

x

:

240pp

:

9.25 In.: 12 color photos :

of because I had written about

them; I would be interested to hear
about the

projects to which you
reasonably certain that
substantially more than 60 percent of
Pleasantville was digitized for look
more

refer. Also, I am

39 b/w photos : 6 line
illustrations:

creation.

Softcover: June 2000

:

US$34.95
14

www.cinematographer.com

When I wrote that 0 Brother,
a landmark film, I

Where Art Thou? is

referring to the fact that the technol¬
used as an extension of cine¬
matography by the cinematographer. In
too many cases, the cinematographer's
was

ogy was

or

diminished

parts of his films have been
digitized. By contrast, the Coens assigned
that job to Roger Deakins, and this was
or

the first I'd heard of a cinematographer
being given that responsibility.
The comments about 2K image
quality were made by Deakins, who said
this is a subjective issue that depends on
the project and the cinematographer.
Clearly, he has earned the right to state
an opinion on this issue.

0 Brother, Are We Bummed...
Some of you may have
that the opening photo in our

noticed
October
spread on the Coen brothers' film 0
Brother, Where Art Thou? (page 36) is
marred by a pair of electronic lines that
were apparently generated during the
magazines pre-press scanning phase.
With apologies to the Coens (whose
films we really admire), cinematographer
Roger Deakins, ASC, BSC (a good friend
to the magazine), unit photographer
Melissa Sue Gordon (who always shoots
great photos), and our publicity pals at
Disney (who give us nothing but beautiful
slides), we hereby present a pristine
version of the photo for your perusal. ■
American Cinematographer - December 2000

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