American Cinematographer - March 2004 - 30

Hurwitz. "It looks fine from off stage, but
if you're on stage, the effect creates very

Bassist Harold
Robinson
appears lost in
his work. "I'd

bright white music and very bright tops
of heads, and all of the musicians' eyes

been backstage
with an

look sepulchral. We kept calling it 'the
city of the dead.'"
Instead, Hurwitz and lighting
designer Alan Adelman created a huge
rig that hung in the middle of the concert
hall, tunneling light at the orchestra from
a 45-degree angle. The rig itself was like

orchestra, and
there is

a sense

of real

excitement,"
says

director

Daniel Anker. "I
wanted this

documentary to
capture that."

an

oversized Chimera that used

a

40x20'

bank of

lights diffused with half grid
was framed at right angles by
a solid black rectangle. "It was a big
window of light, like a skylight," says the
cinematographer. "We poured 12 MaxiBrutes through it. It was a huge single
source but had a little more directionality
than you'd get with a north light."
The orchestra ran through its
pieces several times: once for Hurwitz,
who was on foot or riding a doorway
dolly on pathways carved through the
orchestra; again for multiple cameras
operated by Hurwitz, David Smith and
Juan Barrera (additional filming was
done by Anker, Don Lenzer and John
cloth. This

mimic the look of various film stocks.

Hurwitz found

point on the scale "that
didn't have the punchy, NTSC magentas
a

and blue. We muted them. At the

time,

allowed the

same

respond
to very intense colors. So the center of
response tended to be more muted and
film-like, but it allowed for true primary
colors to ring." Next came adjustments
to Enhancement. "We brought the detail
down quite a bit but played with it so the
edging would be softer in certain areas,
but not mushy." Third was the gamma
we

camera to

and black level. "I did not crush my
blacks overwhelmingly, [and] I didn't put

curve

one

well suited to his film roots. "One

time, I thought the airline had lost those
lenses

shuttle

flight from
Washington, D.C., to New York, and I
was just stricken with fear."
on

a

These tools enabled Hurwitz to go
on Music From the Inside

with the flow

Out and enhance the film's

core

concept.

"We're

mushy filters

talking about living a life of
music, and music is about nothing if not

was

interrelatedness," he states. "So the

on my lens. For one thing, I
in situations where there could be a

is

Costello); and

a

shots filmed with

few times more for
a 30' Technocrane, a

piece of equipment that delighted
Hurwitz to no end. Typically, cranes on
concert films move only up and down,
but the Technocrane also telescopes in

creating a series of interrela¬
tionships: between musician and instru¬
ment, finger and string, ensemble and
conductor. I'm working at the highest
level of my sensitivity to the music. I'm
kind of dancing - not with my body, but
with the frame. It's a very different kind

wonderful

pride and joy," he says. "I found a proto¬
type of the [9x5.2] lens; it was a hybrid

of dance, but it has the elements of

operator Bill Akerlund and his team with

film/video lens that did not have the
video box on the side, so it didn't have

counts of the

light striking the lens in all kinds of ways,
which makes flares. Also, the quality of
the filter changes as you zoom."
Controlling the zoom was a criti¬
cal element in Hurwitz's technique. He
relied

on

9x5.2mm

his

own

zoom

the motorized

Canon 20x8mm and

lenses. "These

zoom

are

my

control. That made

happy." As he explains, "If
you've got a human body with a motor¬
ized zoom, you're working at cross¬
purposes.
This device has the
me

very

smoothness of
'breathe' like

a

a motor, but I want it to
human being. I've worked

for 25 years to make my movements as
smooth and cohesive as possible. At the
same
can

26 March 2004

adapted manual zoom that uses a fluid
dampener on the lens, "but it's a hand
zoom stick. It's wonderful." He adapted a
grip from an Aaton camera, so the whole
apparatus is "a kind of a hybrid between
a film and video way of operating," and

time, I want

a zoom

control that I

make part of this."
Hurwitz employed a

specially

camera

dance because it's connected to the

music, the dynamics. When

it, you feel wonderful."
Many scenes in the documentary
were carefully lit, none more so than the
full orchestra rehearsal. Anker managed
to gather the players in their new concert
hall for an entire day, during which they
played several classical pieces over and
over for the cameras. Once again, the
you get

filmmakers threw out the rulebook.

Normally, orchestras are lit from high up,
with the light coming straight down. "It's
the equivalent of Hi-hats in the ceiling, or
the odd stage Leko way high up," says

and out. "I'd
on a

never

used

classical-music

a

Technocrane

documentary, and I

got to move it into and around the musi¬
cians," says Hurwitz. "That was a

joy." He credits Technocrane

making the experience a good one. "The
- quick, skillful and

guys were great
deliberate."

But the best part

of Hurwitz's
experience was his full immersion in the
orchestra. "This incredible music

was

being played all around me, and I was
embedded in the most gorgeous sound,"
he marvels. "Let me tell you, no other
sound comes close to being as impres¬
sive as a great symphony orchestra. I got
a

chance to show the world the

Philadelphia Orchestra through my eyes.
no greater honor than that."

There's
American Cinematographer - March 2004

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