MARC RESHOVSKY - Winner
3rd Rock from the Sun, "Nightmare on Dick Street"
The "Nightmare on Dick Street" episode of 3rd Rock from the Sun was Marc Resho vsky's first foray into the realm of prime-time episodic television, and resulted in his first ASC Award nomination and win. The Los Angeles-raised cinematographer broke into the industry in the early 1980s while shooting documentaries. He later established a niche for himself in the music video arena, amassing a resumé that includes several hundred videos, as well as a score of live concerts. It was in this capacity that he met director Phil Joanou (who later helmed Rattle and Hum and Heaven's Prisoners), with whom he would later collaborate with on "Nightmare on Dick Street." (The duo recently collaborated once again on a music video for the band U2, detailed on page 80 of this issue.)
As most know, the 3rd Rock series stars John Lithgow and chronicles the lives of four oddball aliens in human guise who grow to enjoy life on Earth with hilarious results. The producers of the show wanted to end the season by pulling out all the stops and taking the show to a different level with the "Dick Street" installment. "This episode was expanded from the normal half-hour to a full hour," explains Reshovsky. "The premise was that for the first time, each of the characters starts to dream as a human. None of them have ever dreamed before, and they think they're having bizarre visions or hallucinations.
"Phil and I were brought in to do the four dreams," he continues. "We were given carte blanche to go any place we wanted to dramatically, visually and in storytelling style. And we did go as far as we could. It was some pretty bizarre stuff for prime-time network television! It was a lot of fun, because stylistically we got to create these four completely different styles. The result became this great hybrid of narrative storytelling and the gonzo approach of music videos, where you can do anything you want, but with the kind of care and high-end effects that you'd use on commercials. It was a wonderful combination of the best of all three worlds."
In devising the four different dreams, Joanou and Reshovsky wanted to harness the personalities of each character and create the most dynamic and outrageous dreams possible. "Phil took the attributes of each character and then designed, from scratch, the formats and stories that would happen in these dreams," the cinematographer says. "Then the writers came in to fill in the dialogue and made sure it was consistent with the characters. Being a cinephile, Phil took certain movie references and made them our point of departure in creating the dreams. John Lithgow's dream, for example, is a kind of Brazil-esque nightmare where he's caught in this stark futuristic world with a forced-perspective roof that goes up forever. A cage falls around him and he's then transported into this other room, where [co-star] Jane Curtin appears in a dominatrix outfit and proceeds to torture him while singing "Falling in Love Again" in the style of Marlene Dietrich. It's very absurd.
"I lit this dream to a very high-contrast, with generally cool tones and not too much saturation," Reshovsky continues. "At times I used pretty high overexposure and combined areas of very low-key lighting with very high-key scenes the sequence was very strong visually in terms of the contrast ranges. We also used a skip-bleach print for the telecine transfer to help increase the contrast and mute the colors.
"Sally an alien man trapped in a human woman's body has a dream that's a black-and-white homage to La Dolce Vita, in Italian with subtitles and the actual La Dolce Vita soundtrack. We shot it in a languid, classical black-and-white style. Her dream wasn't lit with hard light, but in a [soft yet crisp] Richard Avedon style.
"We'd talked about shooting with black-and-white stock, but there were a few elements that we needed to do with greenscreen. We wanted the black-and-white tones to be consistent, so rather than intercut color negative with black-and-white negative, we shot the segment in color and made a print. We then took the color out at the transfer stage.
"The character of Tommy is an alien trapped in a teenage boy's body," he continues. "He naturally has anxieties about school, so we had all kinds of references from South Pacific and The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. Tommy's dream was shot in a more straightforward fashion and then transferred from the negative.
"Finally, there was Harry's dream. His character is a happy-go-lucky goofball. He's not worried about anything, so his dream was a musical number in which he sings "Life's Been Good to Me So Far." Within this sequence, we did a two-minute crane shot like you'd see in a Vincent Minnelli musical, with 30 dancers and a 100' set and no cuts. We later created a sort of Technicolor look [in the transfer].
Added to Reshovsky and Joanou's visual feast was the network's idea to utilize 3-D imagery as a selling point. "We didn't let the 3-D aspect of the show overwhelm our visual approach," Reshovsky maintains. "We realized that most people in the audience weren't going to wear the special glasses, so we tried to make something that would be exciting visually and fun to watch, whether you were watching it in 3-D or not. However, we tried to design shots, when appropriate, that brought out the 3-D.
"The system we used didn't require any physical camera attachments or special lenses, but was dependent on staging and lens choices. Viewers were supposed to wear glasses that had an ND filter on one lens and a clear filter on the other. In effect, the brain perceives one image to be lagging slightly, which creates a sense of 3-D depth. But the effect only works while the camera is tracking in one direction. When you move from right to left it works, but it doesn't when you go left to right. The wider the lenses you use, the more accentuated the 3-D becomes, because it brings out the perspective that's already there. If you watch the episode closely, there are tons of right to left dollies, no left dollies, and lots of clockwise circular moves, which is again right to left. Those were the shots that were designed to bring the out 3-D effect."
JAMES BAGDONAS, ASC
Chicago Hope, "Hope Against Hope"
James Bagdonas, ASC has earned two ASC Award nominations for his efforts on the medical drama Chicago Hope: he was nominated in 1997 for the episode "Time to Kill" (see AC May/Oct. '97) and this year for "Hope Against Hope." Last year, Bagdonas also achieved the rare feat of a double Emmy nomination for "Time to Kill" and the MOW Hidden in America (AC Oct. '97). Additionally, Bagdonas earned an ASC Award nomination in 1989 for an episode of Hunter titled "Investment in Death" (AC May '90). He had served as that show's camera operator before being promoted to cinematographer.
After two seasons on Hunter, Bagdonas started shooting commercials, as well as the MOW Conagher and the feature American Heart, before returning to episodic television on Lois and Clark: The Adventures of Superman. He remained with Lois and Clark for three seasons until he was offered Chicago Hope. "This season is already quite a bit different than last year," says Bagdonas of his tour with the critically-lauded medical series. "We're taking the photography of the hospital a bit further by taking some dramatic license in creating day, night or evening looks and not worrying about matching the way one hallway will look from one episode to another. The producers give us the freedom to light scenes based on the truth of the moment [in the story] whatever works for that particular episode. So I think the thrust is of the show is opening up."
When Bagdonas joined the Chicago Hope team, he learned that the series had been rendered on Kodak's 5600 PrimeTime 640T telecine stock by director of photography Kenneth Zunder, ASC. After some initial tests, Bagdonas discovered the stock's versatility and incredible speed, and continued using the emulsion. He later switched to Kodak's improved 640T - now numbered 5620 - and reports that he is extremely satisfied with the results. "The new stock is absolutely head and shoulders above the original PrimeTime," says the cinematographer. "With the original PrimeTime, I always had to make some compromises in terms of contrast and sharpness. The new PrimeTime has much more contrast built into it. The highlights stay white when overexposed - like when you blow out a window - and don't go magenta. It basically looks like the Vision negative stocks."
Bagdonas explains that he had a difficult time selecting a single episode to represent his body work done on the series: "It was really tough, because we did a musical episode, one in black-and-white, and one that we shot entirely on location in Las Vegas. I picked 'Hope Against Hope' because it was the year-end finalé and I didn't necessarily have to match to or keep a particular continuity with any other episodes. There were also quite a few nighttime scenes in that episode, which created more lighting challenges and obstacles to overcome."
Featured in this installment of the series is a dramatic helicopter crash on the high-rise terrace of the hospital. "That was quite a challenge in itself," he expands. "We brought in a full-sized helicopter on our terrace set and shot it against our nighttime city backing. We had rain and lightning going as we crashed the helicopter while still staying within the confines of the space we had. We just tried to get as wide as we could without seeing past the backing or revealing the rain-bars."
BILLY DICKSON
Ally McBeal, "Silver Bells"
Cinematographer Billy Dickson earned his first ASC Award nomination with the "Silver Bells" episode of the popular comedy series Ally McBeal. Dickson started out in the industry as a loader and worked his way up through the ranks as a second AC, first AC and camera operator before becoming a director of photography in 1983. His first foray into television was the two-hour MOW Western Desperado IV: Badlands Justice. Dickson soon found himself shooting upwards of eight MOWs a year, compiling a list of credits that includes Frequent Flyer, A Promise to Carolyn, Fast Company, As Good As Dead, Labor of Love, Night Owl, Vestige of Honor, and Blind Need, as well as the pilots for Babylon 5 and Ally McBeal. He has also shot 10 episodes of the series The Big Easy, 13 episodes of Deadly Games, and the feature films Halloween VI and Edge of Honor.
Dickson was offered the pilot for Ally McBeal by director Jim Frawley, with whom he had worked on The Big Easy and the MOW Blind Need. "For Ally McBeal, we both wanted a lot of natural light because there are a lot of windows in the show's legal office sets," he notes. "We play things in very tight close-ups and use long lenses to throw the backgrounds out of focus as much as possible, because most of the information is about the actors' expressions and what they're saying."
While photographing a series week after week on the same sets, cinematographers often run the risk of becoming bored. "That was my biggest worry," Dickson confesses. "I had done so many TV movies that every four weeks I was used to doing a new project. When I took Ally McBeal, I knew that I was going to be on the same sets at least 100 times, so I always try to find new and fun ways to shoot things. I find different angles, mix up the lighting a bit and generally challenge myself in different situations. I love to try out new lighting fixtures, and I've gone through a whole slew of styles on the show in terms of diffusion materials and ways to key the actors from different directions to see how it affects their look. There's a definite temptation to stick with a particular lighting style for a character, because there is a schedule: I know that certain techniques work, and I know I can get those shots done in X amount of time when we're under the gun. I sometimes fall into that type of daily routine, but I also get into situations where I can tweak things or add something new.
"I often try to introduce as much 'unnatural' natural sunlight as I can," he adds. "I also try to place the actors into positions where it favors them visually and photographically. I put hot spots in places where the real sun would be if it came through a skylight, and that's where we'll place the action. I think that type of technique helps create the illusion for the audience that maybe the scene isn't taking place on a set, and that there really is some sunlight coming in."
Dickson photographs Ally McBeal on Fuji's tungsten-balanced F-500 8571 and uses very little diffusion on the lens, favoring a clean, crisp look while allowing the stock's smooth quality to soften the image. The cinematographer explains, "When we were discussing the show, Jim and I had just shot a MOW on Fuji and we talked about the look and the softness of it, as well as the color aspects. We definitely wanted the series to be a little more colorful, with warm tones, so we felt that the Fuji stock was the right choice."
ROBERT McLACHLAN, CSC
Millennium, "Thin White Line"
Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Robert McLachlan, CSC reminisces, "My father had brought us up with the philosophy that it didn't matter what you did when you grew up all that counted was that you enjoyed it. What I enjoyed doing as a kid was shooting photographs and making little films, so I thought, 'How can I make a living doing this?'"
While studying film at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Simon Frasier University, McLachlan funded his education by working at a local department store. "There was a grocery department where they used to make their peanut butter," recounts McLachlan. "It was a 100-year-old machine that they were going to get rid of, so I wrote a letter to the president of the company saying that if they gave me $1,000 I'd make a film about it. They gave me the money, I made my film, and it won first prize in the B.C. Student Film Festival in 1978. A vice president liked the film so much that he told me that he had a couple of other films he wanted to make, and asked me what I charged! I quoted him the going industrial film rate, which was about a $1,000 a minute, and started a company called Omnifilm, which is still one of the busiest and most successful companies in Vancouver. Together with my producer/partner Michael Checkick, I spent the next 10 years producing, directing, editing and shooting commercials, industrial films and documentaries."
McLachlan later joined IATSE as a camera operator and landed a job on the series Seahunt, which he soon found himself shooting. Since then, the first-time ASC Award nominee has photographed more than 250 episodes of various shows, including Strange Luck, The Commish, The Odyssey, MacGuyver, and now two seasons of episodes for the brooding Millennium. His telefilm credits include Murder at the Door, Abduction of Innocence, Other Women's Children and My Name is Kate, as well as the features Impolite and Abducted.
In addition to his ASC Award nomination, McLachlan recently earned a CSC Award for his work on Millennium.
The cinematographer was hired by producer Chris Carter to shoot the Millennium series while the pilot was still being photographed by Peter Wunstorf, CSC (see AC Oct. 1987). "The pilot was a great template," states McLachlan, "but pilots are one thing and a series is another. They had 18 days to shoot the pilot, while we are given eight days and maybe some second-unit time. I think that's where my documentary and episodic experience pays off. Of course, it helps to have a terrific crew, and a lot of my guys have been with me for years. They're a big reason why I like getting up and going to work in the morning.
"In terms of the other differences between the show and the pilot, I found that after first couple of episodes, the images were getting kind of mushy due to the heavy amount of color desaturation that we were doing in post at Encore Video. We were essentially creating monochromatic images, and if you're going to do that, you need to light the way you would for black-and-white. That wasn't always the case, but it was often the case. It was particularly the case with 'Thin White Line,' the nominated episode. What that means is that you're working much more with hard light and building up texture and density with light and shadow, rather than with color and tone.
"The art direction was superior on that particular episode," McLachlan adds. "I've never kept anything so dark. Nothing was above key. The brightest source was a flashlight, which maybe once or twice was above key, which I think was at a stop of T2.8. I was working exclusively with a spot meter — the way you would with black-and-white photography — and creating the depth and tones strictly with the density of the reflectance values of all of the layers. We were using lots of Fresnels, and outside the windows we were running 4K HMIs for moonlight, which gave us a very hard, intense light. We were using those to pick up a bit of the atmosphere from the fogger machine, and to catch the raindrops coming down."
McLachlan notes that the best-looking episodes of Millennium have all been helmed by directors with strong visions. He adds, "In the case of 'Thin White Line' it was Tom Wright, who's now doing just about every other episode. Tom started out by doing storyboards for Alfred Hitchcock; he understands preparation, and has a great eye. This episode was also significant in that we did more setups than we had ever done before over a single day. On one 13 1/2-hour day we did 80 setups, which ain't too bad!"
JONATHAN FREEMAN
Prince Street, "God Bless America"
Toronto-based cinematographer Jonathan Freeman earned his first ASC Award nomination with the series Prince Street, which was also nominated for a 1998 CSC Award. Freeman's other television credits include the series Three, The Spoken Art and Quand le Coeur attend, as well as the MOWs Promise the Moon (nominated for a 1997 CSC Award) and The Planet of Junior Brown. His features credits are Carver's Gate, Replikator, Deadly Wake and The Cusp. Freeman is currently shooting the pilot Future Sport for director Ernest Dickerson, ASC.
"I was hired onto Prince Street by the show's producers, Brooke Kennedy and Robert Nathan," Freeman explains. "They had created the pilot earlier that year; it was directed by Roger Spottiswoode and shot extremely well by Robert Elswit, BSC [who recently collaborated with each other on the latest James Bond feature, Tomorrow Never Dies]. The show's concept involves New York undercover cops and how the volatile situations they get themselves into can affect their lives and their families. So there's a lot of tension, and a feeling that they are always under surveillance. [In the pilot] the filmmakers used a lot of long lenses along multiple axes to give the impression that the characters were being observed from various positions throughout each scene. Francis Ford Coppola [and Bill Butler, ASC] incorporated that sense of tension in The Conversation, which we used as an inspiration for Prince Street. But in the pilot, they added to that a sense kinetic energy, which involved blocking the performances to move with the camera, while constantly obstructing the frame for a second or two with foreground elements, or certain actors blocking the camera's view of the other actors."
Freeman modeled his lighting for the series on Elswit's treatment in the pilot, which closely matched his own style. "The look included using a lot of practicals and key sources, as well as fluorescents," says the cinematographer. "We created pools of toplight in pools and areas which combined hot sources and shadows. We used the idea of visual obstruction and frustration in the lighting as well, not always allowing viewers to see what they want to see."
