American Cinematographer - October 2001 - 38

A

Ripping Yam
However,
with

a

on

this film I first worked

storyboard artist in Prague,

and then had Peter
us

about what

was

come

in to advise

realistic."

Deming recalls that "Albert
fairly specific about his ideas.
The storyboarding process allowed
us to
get to know each other's taste,
backed by a volume of reference
was

stills. From that, Albert and I had a

pretty good sense of what styles we
liked. We also determined that we
would try to use the whole
do

some

extreme

frame and
framing for

dramatic

purposes."
he and his brother
are longtime fans of the 2.35:1
widescreen ratio. "Many of our
Albert says

favorite movies

and

we

are

in widescreen,

like the feel of it," he relates.

"We like the

cropped headroom and
ability to play with sides of the
frame. Interestingly, on From Hell we
were actually able to use the wider
frame to make the compositions
seem more claustrophobic. In the
tight alleyways, you can feel that
narrow space much more."
Having shot Dead Presidents in
the Super 35 format, the duo
planned to follow suit on From Hell.
Deming, however, felt the project
would be better served by anamorphic's larger negative area and direct
contact printing, which doesn't
require the optical blowup that Super
35 does. "The Hugheses saw the film
in widescreen from the very begin¬
ning," Deming says. "I've worked
with both anamorphic and Super 35,
and I feel that the image quality in
anamorphic is much better. The
format is a bit limiting in terms of
your lens choices, especially when
you get into the faster lenses, and I
think that took some getting used to
the

Moody,
atmospheric
visuals abound
as

"Saucy Jack"
spreads panic
(and bodies)
around
Victorian-era
London. "We
took

a

lot of

inspiration from
David Lean's
Oliver Twist,"
notes co-director
Albert Hughes.
"The textures of
the walls in that
movie are

amazing. I loved
the way the
walls glistened
with moisture,
used a lot
of that in From

mainly an economic decision,"
Deming notes. "It's very hard to find
large sections of London that are still
of that period, and Prague still has
many cobblestone streets and older
architecture intact. However, produc¬
tion designer Martin Childs felt that
the exteriors of the buildings in
Prague didn't really fit [late 19th-

was

century London], so we built a
Whitechapel set in a field just outside
of the city, and we shot 98 percent of
our exteriors there. The set was quite
large - about three blocks by two
blocks of facades with many little
alleyways - and even though we had
to

so we

Hell." This
murder
was

misty
eerily

pair of small
(fitted

Chimeras

with cloth

eggcrates to

keep the soft
light from
spilling on the
rest of

the dark

set) and

some

controlled

edge

lighting.

34 October 2001

a

lot

Prague than it would

have elsewhere.

scene

illuminated with
a

build it from scratch, it cost

less to build in

"However, Prague was great

on working
They have also estab¬
system of checks and
that allows them to give

tion, while Allen focuses
with the
lished

actors.

a

balances

feedback

each

to

other.

When

preparing for a project, Albert says he
and Allen "go through a list of
movies and print frames we like for
their composition, color, production
design, the way an actor looks in the
frame
basically some element that
-

sticks out to

us

-

and create several

different reference books."
To prepare

for From Hell, he

adds, "we watched every Jack the
Ripper movie out there. All of them
were pretty corny, but each had some
element that was cool. We wanted to
take all of the best ideas from those
movies and put

them into our film. I

for many of the interiors it offered in
and around the city," he adds. "The

tried to get Peter to watch all of them,
but he was like, 'Okay, I watched two

city has obviously been around a
long time and was never bombed
during the wars, so there are a lot of
amazing, beautiful interiors."
Whenever they make a film,
the Hughes brothers tend to divvy up

of these and

they're horrible! Do I
all of them?'
"I then normally work with
the cinematographer and a story¬
board artist with an overhead projec¬
really need to

see

tor," Albert continues. "I draw out my

for Albert, who's more accustomed

using flat lenses in Super 35."
"Anamorphic threw me off a
little," Albert acknowledges. "In addi¬
tion to getting used to the different

to

projector and
artist sketch

lens sizes, there were other limita¬

many

then have the storyboard

tions. The lenses

to

it out and do

cleaner version later.

affected the feel of the Steadicam, and

the directorial duties. Albert handles

of the technical aspects related
camera movement and composi¬

ideas

on

the overhead

a

are

heavier, which
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