April Issue of American Cinematographer Arrives

Thanks to our sponsors, the digital edition of this issue is FREE at all — featuring A Wrinkle in Time, Isle of Dogs, Red Sparrow and 7 Days in Entebbe.

ASC Staff

American Cinematographer

Photographed by Tobias Schliessler, ASC, the big-screen adaptation of Madeleine L’Engle’s classic fantasy novel A Wrinkle in Time is featured on the cover of the new April issue of American Cinematographer, which is available to everyone FREE thanks to our advertisers.

“Director Ava DuVernay’s previous career directly influenced her decision to collaborate with Schliessler on the saga’s epic journey through space and time,” writes Stephen Pizzello in his editor's note. “‘I was a publicist for Dreamgirls [which Schliessler shot for director Bill Condon],’ she tells AC writer Michael Goldman ‘I watched Tobias on that set, and I thought, ‘He’s cool, he’s calm, he’s collected, he’s focused.’ And when I saw the film, I thought it was gorgeous.’”

Also featured in this issue is a comprehensive piece on the production of General Hospital, the longest-running soap opera still on the air. As AC photo editor Kelly Brinker notes in her article, GH has been airing on ABC since April 1, 1963, and recently broadcast its 14,000th episode in February. (An additional online component to this story has been curated as well.)

On stage and behind the scenes with General Hospital.

The April issue also includes coverage on:

• Wes Anderson’s canine stop-motion extravaganza Isle of Dogs, framed with painstaking care by Tristan Oliver:

• The seductive spy thriller Red Sparrow, shot by Jo Willems, ASC, SBC for director Francis Lawrence:

• The historical drama 7 Days in Entebbe, which reteamed Lula Carvalho, ASC, ABC with director José Padilha:

All of the issue’s feature stories offer sidebar spotlights on specific tools that proved invaluable for achieving each production’s visual style. Schliessler cites Arri’s Maxima gimbal rig; Oliver lauds Canon’s EOS-1D X DSLR camera; Melanie Mohr, one of three lighting directors working on General Hospital, praises Litepanels’ LED panels; Willems singles out LiteGear’s LiteMats fixtures; and Carvalho details why he used tungsten units to emulate daylight.

Further “enlightenment” can be found in Jay Holben’s monthly Shot Craft section, which offers a primer on LED fixtures, a lesson on lumens, a field guide to power consumption, and tips on using an incident light meter.

You can access our digital edition of this April issue right here. And we'd like to thank all of our sponsors for making this possible: