Vincent shot Dr. Hugo for Lemmons, a short film orchestrated by Caldecot Chubb as a kind of sample work to prove that first time director Lemmons and first time cinematographer Vincent could carry a feature together. The shoot, made with donated equipment over a long weekend four years ago, was the beginning of what Vincent calls "an exceptional creative relationship." The director and cinematographer worked together so well that Lemmons insisted on keeping Amy attached to the project. At Lemmons' insistence, Chubb wrote Vincent into the contract with Trimark as a deal point, should financers balk at pairing up two first timers.
Vincent describes her preproduction with Lemmons as "some of the most thorough and extensive work I've ever done, because we had more time than money, so we put it to good use." There was time for extensive location scouting throughout the entire state of Louisiana, guided by native location scout Dana Hanby. "We needed a variety of unique and specific locations," says Vincent, "and Dana's amazing eye and knowledge of the area helped us find exactly what we were looking for. During the five week preproduction period, Vincent shot literally hundreds of stills in the Thibideaux, Covington, New Orleans and Placquemans Parish where the production would eventually shoot.
Pictures of old plantation homes along the bayou from photographer Clarence John Laughlin's book Ghosts Along the Mississippi gave Vincent a "huge source of inspiration," as did the work of Vander Zee, an African American portrait photographer who worked in the mid 1900's. Vincent also researched photo albums of old Creole families in The New Orleans Historical Collection, and photography galleries.
Even though Eve's Bayou marked Vincent's debut as director of photography, she credits the work experience she shared with many well-known cinematographers that helped her meet the challenge. Vincent came to cinematography while studying lighting as a theater arts major at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She moved to Los Angeles and began working her way up the ranks from loader to assistant to operator. She concentrated on feature films, and also worked on commercials, music videos and TV. Vincent got her real education on the set, assisting the likes of Bob Richardson, ASC, with whom she worked on Natural Born Killers, John Lindley on Father of the Bride; and Bill Pope on Fire in the Sky and Gridloc'd. "I was privileged to work with so many talented cameramen ," she notes, "and that's one thing I miss now as a director of photography."
Vincent used her camera of choice, a Panaflex Gold 2, noting that Panavision's Bob Harvey "has been very supportive of my career since I was an assistant." The package was simple, but gave her exactly what she needed. Harvey made the 11-to-1 zoom lens available for the scenes that it was needed: for the ending shot in the film, as the crane pulls away from the bayou, and for a scene when the ghosts of Aunt Mozelle's dead husbands show up in the mirror.
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