Russell Carpenter, ASC
TITANIC Q&A ArchivesFollowing are Russell Carpenter's responses to e-mail questions about his award-winning work as cinematographer of Titanic. RESPONSES JANUARY 3, 1998:
Dear Russ,
I loved your rays of sun coming into the ship's parlor in the morning scenes. Did you use 18K HMIs or Xenons to get those great beams? Recently I have had trouble [with setups like this] because of the type of atmosphere used. What did you use?
What did you use to get that great modeling softlight you used under the sun effect?
Congratulations!
— Jim Weisiger
Dear Jim,
The parlor scene I think you're referring to is the scene in which Rose (Kate Winslet) smokes while she and Molly Brown (Kathy Bates) listen to Bruce Ismay (Jonathan Hyde) explain how Titanic got her name.
For this scene, we used 20K tungsten units (through smoke) for our main lighting source. The layout of the room, with its windows running along one side, pretty much determined where I would key the scene from. We cut the 20Ks so they wouldn't overlap and used 3 or 4 units in order to hit the players and areas of the room so that the room seemed 'light filled.' I wanted a feeling of optimism to pervade the scene.
In addition, I used 7K Xenons from New Tek to spice up certain areas in the frame and get that 'hot morning sun' feel. We rigged the set with some space lights for fill but wound up turning most of those off because I wasn't getting the contrast I wanted, especially with the smoke levels being what they were.
As you noticed, "underneath" the strong key from the windows we softened the modeling as needed in one of two ways:
- When it seemed right, John Buckley, my gaffer, placed a KinoFlo Wall of Lite off to one side and we wrapped the light around Kate Winslet's face. Often, when lighting her, we used the Wall of Light and put 4'x4' diffusion (usually 216) about a foot in front of the light and about 3 feet from her face. Then the grips would have to get in there somehow and kill any spill that took things out of balance.
- Sometimes, when the 20Ks happened to be a good modeling source, we just softened them, letting some hard light bleed through underneath the diffusion.
Mirrors on this set, as with a lot of the Titanic sets, were a problem. It seemed we were constantly dealing with mirrors or windows as issues. One thing I personally like about this scene — something that brings the lighting to life and makes the room seem not so 'set-like,' was the 'living light' that we created by using the glass reflections of a turnstile door off to one side of the set. We pointed a 7K Xenon, located in an adjoining room, into the glass of the door and an unfortunate electrician had to rotate the door just so — getting the rotations correct in relation to the dialogue of the actors so the editor could cut the scene with some lighting continuity. The end result was that the reflections played out onto the set and over the players in the scene — giving the effect that people were entering and exiting the room.
— Russell Carpenter, ASC
Dear Russell,
First, I want to say that the cinematic qualities of Titanic are absolutely amazing, and the more I learn about how you achieved some of the shots, the more respect the crew of Titanic deserves for what they have given the world.
I am interested in cinematography as a career and my question has more to do with your career than the film itself. I would like to know where you studied and if you have any suggestions about places to study the art of filmmaking and cinematography. Thank you for giving me the most phenomenal visual experience I have ever had.
— Peter Kuling
Dear Peter,
Thank you for your interest in the movie and your generous comments.
I began my career in public broadcasting at a small station, KPBS, in San Diego, California. My major was English Literature, but I was earning my way through San Diego State by working for the on-campus TV station. The people there were terrific and let me explore 16mm shooting.
I made every possible mistake — I mean awful ones — but I gradually learned to shoot, edit, direct some, and write a little. From there I moved to another station in Orange County and learned some more, eventually hooking up with director Thom Eberhardt, and we made some dramatic educational pieces. This relationship led to our shooting an extremely low budget horror pic over the summer — which, surprisingly, was released. Based on that small success I moved up to Los Angeles...and starved.
My problem was that I was a terrible self-promoter and lacked confidence to boot. I had a horrible time calling production companies and asking for work and I didn't really have a reel. Over time — and I mean a lot of time — people that I had worked with in the documentary days introduced me to producers who were making low budget projects.
The first real break came with the film, Lady In White, directed by Frank LaLoggia. Frank was committed to making a beautiful picture on his limited budget and to this day it remains a favorite film with me.
My career has been far from meteoric, but marked by many quite fortunate occurrences. I can pass on one thing I learned along the path. There is an old adage, "It's not what you know, but who you know." I've found there is some truth to that, in this sense: of course, it's important that we refine our talents and practice our craft to the best of our abilities, but our relationships with every person we meet — and that's anyone on the crew, anyone at the labs, the directors and producers we work with — all these relationships are very important, because these eventually widen our sphere of influence.
Getting to where to study: everywhere, it's right under your nose. Study the work of your favorite cinematographers. Get the VHS going and meticulously study the work of artists you gravitate toward. Study your favorite photographers and painters. And, of course, do whatever you can to get on productions and shoot: build your reel. It's all you've got to show and it's what will get you your next filmmaking experience.
Get a still camera and load it with motion picture stock that you can purchase from places like RGB in Los Angeles. Shoot that and learn everything you can about exposure, filtration and taking chances. Keep that camera with you as much as you can, and shoot what is right under your nose — the light that happens continuously in our lives, and that is always right in front of us.
— Russell Carpenter, ASC