American Cinematographer - December 2006 - 86

Opposite: At

an

amateur talent

competition in
Detroit, guest of
honor James
"Thunder"

Early

(Eddie Murphy)
tries out

some

backup
singers. The
new

Dreamettes. This
page

(from left):

Effie (Jennifer

Hudson), Deena
(Beyonce
Knowles) and
Lorrell (Anika
Noni Rose)
check out the

competition
backstage.

break, and Curtis Taylor Jr. (Jamie
Foxx), their ambitious manager. By

very

the time the story

ends, in Los
Angeles in the late 1970s, the
women's lives have been radically
altered by the group's fame and the
choices they made in order to

time

achieve it.

path to Hollywood

courtesy

we met on a

No two
careers

are

small movie

and I

was eager

get those kinds of
so I

to

reels in the television world,
decided

go back and start shoot¬
ing spec spots." After several success¬
to

ful collaborations with commercials

cinematographers'

alike, but Schliessler's

director Robert

Logevall,

others, Schliessler shot

a

among

spot

for

director Antoine Fuqua, who soon
offered him the feature Bait (2000).

name,

Baden-Baden, Germany, he immi¬

Dreamgirls was directed and written
for the screen by Bill Condon
(Kinsey, Gods and Monsters).
Director of photography Tobias A.
Schliessler was immediately attract¬
ed to the project when he read
Condon's script, though he was
unfamiliar with the stage produc¬
tion. "The story, the period, the

grated to British Columbia with his
family at the age of 21 to attend film
school at Simon Fraser University.
After graduating, he began shooting

"So my theory eventually worked
out!" Schliessler notes with a laugh.

Based

Phot s

-

several years ago -
to work with him."

and it's hard

more
circuitous than most. A native of

musical

PDriecaotmuwreofsk.

different projects. Plus, I've
[Condon] for a long

known Bill

of

on

the hit

the

Broadway

same

human element and the music

together formed an incredible feast
for
a
cinematographer," says
Schliessler. "I had recently finished
Friday Night Lights [2004], a drama
about high-school football, and
going from that to a musical was
such a huge leap. Every cinematog¬
rapher's dream is to be able to do

was a

bit

Despite the occasional fea¬
ture,

and

such

as

The Rundown (2003)

Friday Night Lights, Schliessler

documentaries, music videos and

continues to devote most of his time

independent films in Canada, and
projects
migrated north in the late 1980s, he
was
among the first local cine¬
matographers to reap the benefits.
"After a few years," he recalls, "I'd
reached a point where I couldn't
really go any further, and I noticed a
lot of commercial cinematogra¬
phers were getting breaks with their

to

when American television

commercial directors after

two or

three years, moving on to big
movies. Their reels looked great,

commercials, filming 30-40 per
"Thanks to commercials, I can

year.

afford

to

wait

a

bit for the movies I

really want to do," he

says. "That
Dreamgirls,
because seven months passed
between when I read the script and
when I got the job. I was very excit¬
ed to get that call!"

worked

out

well

on

Schliessler's excitement

car¬

ried him

through a lean 61-day
Angeles that involved
stage work at L.A. Center Studios
shoot in Los

American

Cinematographer 77
American Cinematographer - December 2006

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