Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder

Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,


Needs not the painted flourish of your praise:


Beauty is bought by judgement of the eye,


Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues…

[Loves Labor Lost] 1588, Shakespeare.

 Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder…thru the camera…by the audience.  All beholding a movie and hoping it provides an escape into adventure and beyond the tough realities of the day.  Or bring us closer to our own humanity.  That being said I want to say a few more things about the art of cinematography.  While some directors and cinematographers like to wing it, so to speak.  That is, to use the camera as a recording instrument and capture as much footage in a free and experimental way much like a documentary.  Others prefer the more traditional structure of planning and mapping out how to use the camera, lights, actors etc., as efficiently as possible in order to glean the performances necessary to tell a great story.  Not that one way is better. It all depends on the project and the vision behind it.  Stanley Kubrick was known for taking 100 takes of the same scene/set-up because he wanted to get it right.  It was incredibly frustrating for the actors involved.  I think Sydney Pollack in Eyes Wide Shut made some interesting comments about the way Kubrick worked --- being a director himself.  At the other end of the spectrum is Clint Eastwood with Million Dollar Baby who does maybe 2 or 3 takes at the most and then moves on.  Both movies are equally wonderful examples of exemplary filmmaking. In watching the unfolding production of A Rogue in Londinium, I have been privy to the mechanics of getting this huge undertaking in the can.  The director is very specific in her planning of scenes and such working with Patrick who is the cinematographer as well.  Since she is an accomplished artist herself she has utilized the storyboard in almost every scene.  The drawings themselves are little pieces of art and are incredibly helpful in communicating what she wants.  Patrick is then able to compose a beautiful frame based on the boards.  And if you look at some of the edited scenes and compare them to the sketches, the shots are almost verbatim.  Storyboarding, especially on costume dramas is a tool that helps to cut down on time.  While everyone is standing around in costumes (possibly a tad uncomfortable) under lights that are trying to recreate historic atmosphere it would be counterproductive to wander around trying to figure out where the camera goes and then where to place the lights so they look authentic.  The actors get testy and the crew gets cranky and then the whole morale of the thing can go into a nosedive.  Trying to resuscitate everyone can take twice as much energy.  And we are all trying to go green these days, aren’t we?  Even on a physical level.

Once on the set the Director frees up.  She is open to ideas from the DP as long as they match the thru-line of the scene.  Patrick comes up with ideas to combine shots while keeping the intention intact.  However, she gets a lot of flack from the producers about coverage. Now, I know she is trying to cover her butt.  Others think she is spending way too much time on scenes.  During a break I ask her how she tackles the issue. 

“Sometimes I know exactly what I want.  Other times I want to see what the actors bring to the scene.  The actors are the most important element since they are telling the story.  I want the performances to be as nuanced and truthful as possible and if it means I take the extra time and set-ups with the DP to get what I want then that’s what I am going to do.” She answers.

“The producers seem to give you a lot of crap about coverage.”  I say.

“I respect them.  I know that time is money.  But I also know that one cannot force a performance.  And although I try to cooperate with them a great deal they are not as versed in editing as other producers.  In that way, I hope that they trust what I am trying to do and that I will bring in a project that has quality even if it takes a little more time than we thought.” She replies.

“So when you have set-ups that record the same bit of dialogue it seems like you can’t make up your mind about what you want.  Is that true?”  I boldly ask.

“Sometimes.  But at other times I want to see if the actor surprises me.”  She says.  “If I am surprised and moved and inspired by a performance then the whole thing is worth it.”

“Don’t you think that you’re coddling the actors a little?”  Again, another bold question.  She’s going to hate me by the end of this interview.

“I will do whatever I can to make an actor feel safe and relaxed enough to give me the performance I want.” She says.

“Isn’t that the actors job, though?”

“Maybe.  Have you ever tried acting?  I’m not talking about the high school play.  This kind of work is really taxing because it is usually shot out of sequence.  So you have to find those emotions at the drop of a hat.  Then you have to match that to what you may have done a week ago…again and again, take after take.  It’s hard work.”  She says.  Touché…The one thing I can vouch for is that she and the AD scheduled scenes that never went beyond twelve hours on any given day. 

The current scene under the lens is with Judy (playing Catherine).  She has just come offstage from playing Gertrude in Hamlet.  Victoria and Charles greet her in her dressing room at which point Charles asks Catherine if she knows of some poor artist willing to paint Victoria’s likeness.  Socially conscious Victoria would rather offer the money to an unknown painter rather than contribute to the hubris of having a John Singer Sargent in her living room.  Since Catherine and Richard are friends ‘with benefits’ she recommends Richard for the job.  Victoria has no idea that she will be meeting the mysterious man in the street from several nights before.

I watch as the grips set up the dolly for one of the scenes later.  I ask the DP what makes him choose a dolly move over a static shot or a jib shot. 

“The scene is intimate.  Two people are having a conversation.  A slow dolly move in makes the audience member feel as if they are leaning into the conversation.  They are an active, intimate part of the scene without knowing it.”  He says. 

We break for lunch and Thom and Eddie are unknowingly enacting the odd couple yet again. 

Felix:  You know I pick Oscar up and I tell him I’ve got a lot on my mind and I really want to be of help to the director so I’m going over things silently as I drive and what does he do?  He starts talking.

Oscar:  You spend way too much time alone, Felix.

Felix:  That does not mean you can just gab away when I specifically ask you to be quiet.

Oscar:  I’m just being friendly.

Felix:  You just talk because you can’t help it.

Oscar:  You don’t want me to talk to you?

Felix:  Yes. When I ask you not to---and especially if I am in the scene. I want to go over my lines but I can’t if you’re just chatting in my ear about nothing.

Oscar:  Coffee is important, Felix.

Felix:  Not when I have to do a scene!!!

Oscar:  Well you should’ve done your preparation before picking me up.

Felix:  I have to leave now because I’m going to hit you.

Rebecca is in stitches and Judy can’t contain herself with laughter.  This, my friends, is the sideshow…Dolly in.   It may even be richer than the one we’re filming.

“It’s certainly funnier!”  Judy exclaims.

Whit walks in wearing a full beard and jeans.  His eyes are dark and menacing.  He looks incredibly creepy today.  Everyone picks up on it.  In a scene later that day he frightens Catherine.  He has arrived with the appropriate energy. 

The next set-up is when Richard finally visits Catherine after her performance and they share a glass of absinthe.  Richard has been scarce and distracted.  During his absence  Catherine has found out that Victoria has a thing for him and they are spending quite a bit of time together.  Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. I won’t give the scene away but Catherine begins a hateful dance of seduction ending in Richard on the street with what looks like blood on his clothes and hands. She is screaming murder at the top of her lungs.  It is one of the most provocative scenes I’ve ever witnessed and I hope it makes it into the final cut.

 

 

 

I Spy with my Little Eye

Cinematography is a language unto itself.  Yet we all understand it on a subconscious level.  And some of us cinephiles understand it on a conscious level – aware (most of the time) of why the cinematographer chose to shoot a scene a particular way.   There are certain images that are symbolic and archetypal that crosses cultures and socioeconomic divides.  If the movie is a recording of a dream or even a dream made real then images are the original language.  The first attempt at cinematography can be traced back to the world's first motion picture film, Roundhay Garden Scene. It was a sequence directed by Louis Le Prince, French inventor and showman, on October 14 1888 in the garden at Oakwood Grange in Roundhay, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.   (The Ripper murders were happening at this same time.) This groundbreaking event happened seven years before the Lumière Brothers' Sortie de l'usine Lumière à Lyon made the first paid exhibition on December 28, 1895 at Le Grand Café, in Paris, France.  The year is important and relevant to the historic accuracy of the story, A Rogue in Londinium.  It begins in 1888 and Jules Whitby has a prototype of this very same camera.  He is collecting moving images of street life in the East End of London.  He is also being paid by a wealthy doctor to collect images of Richard Rhys and then, later in the story, images of Victoria Thornton in order to show at the World’s Fair.  More about that later.

The cinematographer is the painter, if you will, of the canvas that is the screen.  This professional utilizes light and composition in order to convey the story.  In some cases movement helps to make the story come to life.  Vilmos Zsigmond, one of the most amazing cinematographers in the field---shooting such films as Heaven’s Gate, The Deer Hunter, Deliverance, McCabe & Mrs. Miller and Close Encounters of the Third Kind among others (most recently The Black Dahlia) is an example of how the look of a film can be just as compelling as the story itself.  If you have ever treated yourself to the brilliance of an Ingmar Bergman film you will be aware of Sven Nykvist’s work: Persona, Fanny & Alexander, Cries and Whispers and the Phillip Kaufman film, The Unbearable Lightness of Being.  One of the most common mistakes for beginning filmmakers is to flood the set with light sort of like a soap opera that immediately flattens the plane. Controlling light helps create depth of field and that is what our stereoscopic eyes do for us every second. The use of shadow to sculpt the actor or object in the frame is where the skill lies.  Isolated illumination makes for dramatic statement or tension or plain old fear.  It increases the emotional factor since we humans see things in real light and shadow.  I watch Patrick Sullivan as he moves lights and adjusts the camera preparing for the days scene(s).  Working with an Arri Light kit --- 2/350s and 2 inkies along with a Lowell 450 to highlight parts of the set, he creates pools of light that the actors move in and out of creating an intimate atmosphere. Another important factor in lighting a set is where the light source within the scene is located.  If the source were a simple candle then flooding the set with light would contradict the onscreen source.   Today the scenes are being shot in Richard Rhys’ art studio in the East End of London.  The dominant color on the set is red so the incandescent light creates an amber candlelight type glow.  Oil lamps and sconces are all part of the dressing.

Whit arrives early on set and helps move a few lights to kill time.  Unfortunately he pulled a muscle in his back and is lying prone on the floor trying to catch his breath.  Judy Krause has just come from make-up looking fantastic.  Rebecca Damon is reviewing her script in the kitchen when Whit wanders in bent over looking for aspirin or some kind of relief. 

“Oh my God, what’s wrong?” She says trying to help him.

“What did you do?  I told you not to move stuff.”  Thom adds.

“Can you straighten up?” Ed asks as he prepares a bagel for Whit who turns it down.

“I’m not sure I can simulate ‘making love’ if I’m on top”.  Whit replies.

“Okay, come on.  I have something that will help. Let’s find the director.”  Thom says and he leads Whit through the set and disappears.

“Are we going to lose a day?”  Rebecca asks.

“Not if I have anything to do with it.  Look, I can be on top --- that way he’s on his back through the scene.”  Judy suggests.

“That could work.”  Rebecca concurs.

A plan is in the making.  When I return to the set I find Whit already laid out on the bed in his Victorian pajama bottoms and a dress vest.  The director is talking to Pat as he tweaks lights. I can hear her tell him that she wants the entrance through the carriage doors flooded with light.  Rebecca is dressed in an ivory day dress and tea hat.  She will be in a kind of silhouette when she enters looking innocent and perhaps naïve.  Richard’s lair is in shadow and outfitted in red damask wallpaper bedcovers, rugs, etc.  She will be entering his hell.  They break out the 650 Arri lights and bluish daylight gels to simulate the sun streaming into the adjoining room.

 I look over at Whit and I can tell by his pupils that he found something stronger than aspirin to relieve the pain. 

“Okay, go ahead and mount.” The director says and Judy carefully places herself on top of him. 

“Am I hurting you?”  Judy asks concerned.

“Nothing can hurt me now so go to town.”  He replies.

In a prior scene Catherine refuses to pay Richard for the portrait until it is finished.  She further withholds the purse until he ‘performs’.  Backed into a corner and desperate to get the cash, he plays her game.  Unbeknownst to him, though, she had found a note he had written to Victoria weeks ago but never sent.  At the top of the scene Catherine is trying to get Richard aroused one more time before ordering up some food and drink checking the time for her calculated, malignant adventure.  At that moment Victoria walks in holding the unsent note.  It is a Dangerous Liaison kind of scene.  The look on Victoria’s face is of utter betrayal and astonishment.  Richard, undone, can provide no explanation that would excuse or even remotely redeem him.  In a moment she is gone but not before handing over the note.  Enraged, Richard realizes that Catherine set them both up claiming she didn’t want her cousin to get hurt.  Richard begins to strangle and manhandle Catherine.  Shouting and threatening blows I am impressed with Whit as he rallies to the challenge.  If my back were out I’d have to call it a day but he is agile and strong and a top-notch professional recreating the scene take after take.  There is a brief recess as the grips set up the dolly and Pat  re-sets the camera and lights.  Whit is on his belly on the floor.  Judy is massaging his lower back trying to reduce the tension.  Rebecca is providing support.  “Whit, I think the AD said this is the last set-up for you so if you can just hang in there a little while.”  She goes and fetches some water and Motrin.  

“The Dolly shot is the top of the scene so all you have to do is just lay there…and say your lines, of course.”  The director explains.  Judy is in a red corset and bloomers drinking champagne in the pool of light on the bed.  She is stunning!  Richard is underneath, tired and over the whole game.  When the scene is done Whit is shot out and Thom graciously gets him home.  The next scene scheduled for the today takes place a day or two later.  Catherine is in her dressing room preparing for her afternoon performance when Victoria confronts her about her diabolical scheme.  Victoria can take comfort in the fact that Catherine has completely lost Richard.  In that single pivotal, silent moment Judy’s performance lets us know that Catherine was very much in love with him and that she is the architect of her own undoing.  Bravo!  It is one of those scenes that you want to rewind and watch again.  Subtle and profound.  And though she is a kind of villain she has a living, breathing heart that can break flooding her with humanity and reminding us all how we fall short of the ideal.