American Cinematographer - December 2000 - 80

Elusive Tunes
Rather than

with

a

lot of

enhancing the
camera

songs

movements or

fancy filmic devices, however, they
opted for simplicity. "We focused on
the faces of the singers, and simply let
the faces and the music speak for

outside
one

an

old woman's cabin, and

in which

Lily and her school¬

Carroll), where

a

combined with

one

teacher sister, Elna (Jane Adams),
clean up after a fire has destroyed

This silk

their home.

"It

While

shooting day exteriors,

20'

like

although

20' silk

out

12'.

about 20 feet.

extension of the

an

was

x

began at the cabin's

cover

roof and extended
was

x

that was 12'

couldn't

you

roof,

it

see

on

themselves," confirms Chediak.

the filmmakers relied almost exclu¬

camera," says Chediak. "The great

Songcatcher was photographed
tight 28-day schedule in August
of 1999. Everything was filmed on
location
in
the
Blue
Ridge

sively on natural light. Perhaps more
than any other piece of equipment,
Chediak
depended upon his

advantage of that tactic was that [the
surrounding greenery] absorbed
light, so we didn't feel that much

on a

sunPATH,

a

computer program

Mountains of North Carolina. Given

developed

the

David Parrish that forecasts the

regions rough terrain, Chediak
to shoot the project with two
Moviecam Compacts. "We had to
carry all of the equipment by hand,"
he says. "The Compact is light and
decided

works well under harsh conditions."

by

cinematographer
exact

point where the sun will be at a given
on a
given day. The sun's posi¬
tion affected almost every shot in
Songcatcher, and Chediak says that a
lot of preproduction time was spent
time

difference between the characters
who
that

were
was

under the silk and the

area

in direct sun."

The

sun

occasionally proved

strong that it had to be toned

so

down. At the cabin of another char¬
acter, a

20'

20' black solid

x

was

placed on top of the silk. If more light
needed, the solid could be pulled
out of the way; if less light was
needed, it was pulled up. "The sun
there can be really harsh on skin

was

Quinn and
Greenwald take
a short break
on location in
the Blue Ridge
Mountains of
North Carolina.

tones," notes Quirk, who had worked
another film in the

few
help
squinting, and you're constantly
fighting the contrast. The women's
on

region

a

months earlier. "Actors can't

costumes

included

brimmed hats that

those

were

in 1907,

and for

riors

laid bleached muslin

grass

we

some

wide-

fashionable

wide day exte¬

for them to walk

on

the

across, so

the

would bounce up and fill in the
area underneath the hats. That tech¬
sun

A Steadicam

one

employed for
day (to photograph a barn

dance), and

an

for

of

was

Arriflex 3-C was used

Lily running through
the forest, fleeing a mythical panther.
"We got the Arri strictly for that
scene," notes Chediak. "It's very small
and light, and it takes a 200-foot
magazine." A normal array of Zeiss
Superspeed lenses rounded out the
camera
package.
a scene

Chediak estimates

that

90

would have

also worked with Chediak

we

a scene

Boiler

bad;

experienced normal storms here

and there, but in terms of

nique creates a much more flattering
light by decreasing the contrast."
Day interiors, such as a scene
of Elna and her lover sitting at their
respective desks, also made use of the
muslin, which was then stretched out
on

the floor. Illumination

Xenon

was

sometimes

can't tell what's coming at
you from over the mountain. The
constant, unpredictable shifts from

direct. The

cult

cover

to

hard

maintain

sun

made it diffi¬

consistency within
play it safe, we shot under
silks where possible."
An example of this occurred at
a cabin belonging to an old moun¬
tain woman named Viney (Pat
to

To

came

from

outside the window; sometimes

and

sun

clouds you

scenes.

5293. These instances include

on

Room. "The weather wasn't too

instances he found the

printing stock to be a bit too
contrasty, so he switched to EXR

be made.

"Maintaining the consistency
image was a big challenge,"
acknowledges gaffer Joe Quirk, who

cloud

conjunction

to

of the

percent of the film was shot on
Kodak Vision 500T 5279, but in a few
between that stock and the Vision

78 December 2000

mapping out when certain shots

a 4K
bounced off a mirror, and

HMI Par

played
light streaming through

an

was

the window bounced off the muslin,

providing a soft underglow rather
than hitting the actors with a direct
light.
While

the

North

Carolina

landscape

was predominantly green,
Greenwald wanted to bring out

subtle differences in the color in
order to suggest a

variety of loca-
American Cinematographer - December 2000

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