Of course, Scorsese has his own array of stylistic signatures, including the use of a moving camera on stationary actors, but he decided to tone down those techniques because of the intensely interior nature of the story. "I didn’t want to be distracting, especially in the scenes between Nic and Patricia," the director says. "Neither of them knows how to reach the other; Frank doesn’t even know how to talk to a woman. All he can think of to say to her is, ’Do you want to get some pizza?’ He’s reaching out, but how can he? He’s a complete, utter spiritual wreck all the way until the end, when he finally gains some perspective and says to Mary Burke, ’We’re all dying.’
"Something happens in that moment," Scorsese continues. "All along, he’s been trying to reach her, but due to his response to the incredible stresses of his job, he’s cut off from people, particularly women. He has a great need for forgiveness, but first he must forgive himself. When you’re dealing with that sort of material, you don’t want to move the camera; you leave it alone, especially if you’re filming in anamorphic widescreen."
Scorsese’s fondness for wide optics is highlighted in the aforementioned scene in which Pierce and his partner try to save the life of Mary Burke’s father. Wide shots taken low to the floor reveal the overall tableau of the ailing man, the medics, Mary and the other members of her family. These shots are dramatically cut against tight singles of Pierce performing his duties with great intensity. The wider shots were framed with a 35mm lens and the tighter shots with a 100mm; cutting between them visually emphasizes Pierce’s intense dedication by suggesting how completely he blocks out surrounding distractions.
Assessing this scene, Scorsese submits, "These guys come into a situation where the relatives are battling and everyone is going through hell. But watch what Nic and John [Goodman] do. They go in like soldiers, which is the only way to handle the situation. They say, ’Okay, how long ago did he stop breathing?’ Then it’s bang get him on the floor and rip open his shirt. They’ve got to get their routine going, and to concentrate, they cut out everything around them. As a filmmaker, I felt I should go right into their world."
Scorsese has always incorporated spectacular crane moves into his work, and Bringing Out the Dead is no exception. In one breathtaking shot, Cage’s ambulance speeds to the site of a drug-related double shooting. As the ambulance approaches the crime scene, the camera rides along, peering down from above the ambulance’s cab. When the ambulance stops, the camera continues moving, dropping dramatically to the ground to reveal the prostrate victim.
Richardson reveals that this shot, which was executed with a Pegasus crane, was originally longer than the version that appears in the final cut. The camera’s perspective actually started out low, 40 feet behind the ambulance. Timing the long crane move, which then rose atop the ambulance and wound up on the actor lying on the sidewalk, proved to be one of the trickier aspects of the shot.
While most of the film was shot on Kodak Vision 500T 5279, along with some Vision 200T 5274, many of the ambulance-mounted shots were captured on Kodak’s then-new Vision 800T 5289. "I think I only got about 5,000 feet of the 800T," Richardson says. "It was useful, though, especially when we were filming outside of the main midtown core. Downtown, the light levels at night get pretty low, and the faster stock helped us capture some of those streets. I was cautious with it, because I didn’t know what it would look like once it was finally onscreen, but it worked well for those shots."
In general, night exterior lighting was accomplished simply by using "the biggest instruments available," including diffused Dinos, Maxi-Brutes and 20Ks, either as overheads or in more conventional placements.
While the vast majority of the film takes place at night and indoors, there are a few daytime exteriors, all of which occur after Frank Pierce finally succeeds in quitting the job that is literally driving him mad. In keeping with the off-kilter nature of the tale and to maintain a cooler feel, these scenes were all filmed with tungsten stock (mostly Vision 200T) that was not corrected for daylight with lens filtration. "That was part of our attempt to avoid the reds and yellows," Richardson states. "Also, the scenes take place at dawn, when the light is cool." The cinematographer tried to film the exteriors in shade, constructing shelters when that was not possible. He also underexposed his shots (by about one stop below key) to lend the scenes a bit of a day-for-night look that was appropriate for an early-morning scene.
Richardson’s A-camera was a Platinum Panaflex. While Scorsese often favors the use of multiple cameras to pick up improvised dialogue, the filmmakers used that tactic less often on this picture. "Most of those dialogue opportunities were in the ambulance cab, and we had problems hiding one camera from the other," Richardson explains.
The story also dictated what Richardson describes as a relatively "low-tech approach" in general. "Bringing Out the Dead does not have the look of a big, digital studio film," he says. "It has a much rawer quality."
Some skillful digital work was utilized to great effect, however. Throughout the film, Pierce is haunted by the memory of Rose, a young woman whose life he was not able to save. Her phantom appears throughout the film, most chillingly toward the end of the story. As Pierce rides down the street, he passes a group of young women who are all about the same age and size. When the women turn around and glare at him accusingly, we realize that all of them wear Rose’s angry face.
Richardson compliments visual effect supervisor Michael Owens of Industrial Light & Magic for his fine work on the multifaceted shot. "Michael works very hard to approximate the lighting in the scenes he is manipulating, as do most good effects people," the cameraman says. "In this instance, Michael asked me to light the scene however I wanted, and he assured me that he would work his machinery to accommodate that light."
Given that freedom to work, Richardson raised the light level on the building behind the actors about 1 1/2 stops during the shot, using Dino lights on dimmers to heighten the scene’s hallucinatory nature. He elaborates, "When you have freedom in lighting such shots, you can create a much more seamless feel. If cinematographers don’t have the freedom to light digital shots as they would any others, you can see it onscreen. Michael really did a lovely job with that shot."
Scorsese concludes that the biggest challenge on the production did not stem from technical or artistic concerns, but from the difficulty of "staying sane at locations such as 11th Avenue and 54th Street" during 75 grueling nights of shooting. "That schedule was pretty rough, especially now that I’m older," the veteran director acknowledges. "Working the way we did for 75 nights does tend to alter your view of humanity and life. It creates an oppressive feeling, especially when it gets to be about four in the morning. As Joe Connelly says in his book, ’It is always four a.m., and it is crazy and dangerous and funny all at once.’"
