Alar Kivilo, CSC
Gotti
Alar Kivilo, CSC learned of his Emmy nomination while vacationing in Estonia, where he and his family spend every summer visiting his parents and in-laws. This is his second recognition for Gotti, which earned an ASC nomination last spring (see AC May '97). Kivilo was also nominated for an ASC Award in 1995 for the miniseries The Invaders (see AC May '96).
Gotti chronicles the rise and fall of Mafia don John Gotti, whose love of the public stage helped precipitate his downfall. "Gotti couldn't help himself; he just had to be in the limelight. He was the only mob boss to ever appear on the cover of Time magazine," says Kivilo. "It's not a good idea for a mob boss to be in the limelight."
The cinematographer continues, "The most challenging thing for me on any film is trying to find visual images that support the subtext of the story. On this show, director Robert Harmon and I came up with the idea of a moth being drawn to a flame." Whenever star Armand Assante appeared on screen, Kivilo would try to subliminally suggest that concept by including a light source in the frame with him. As Gotti became more and more famous, scenes became even brighter as a result of exploding flashbulbs and strong backlight generated by ever-present news cameras. "We always tried to have some kind of light source [motivating] the illumination," notes Kivilo. "Everything was drawn from the reality of the situation, which is how I like to work."
Whenever possible, Kivilo uses just one film stock on a picture. On Gotti, he selected Kodak's 5298. Addressing this methodology, he says, "It's really just to simplify the process so that I can put more thought into the conceptual aspects of filmmaking, rather than getting bogged down in technical matters." For similar reasons, he likes shooting at around T2.8 or 3.5; more open settings cause him to spend too much energy in trying to decide whether everything is in focus. "A 2.8 gives the focus puller a fighting chance," he maintains.
The cameraman's favorite images from the HBO movie are two virtually identical shots one early in the picture, the other at the end which together sum up the theme of the story. Early on, Gotti does a brief stint in prison. "He's a really natty dresser, and is concerned with his personal appearance," says Kivilo. "In the shot in question, he's getting ready to go to prison. He's standing at a mirror combing his hair, and we shot it through the crook of his arm. You see his face framed within his arm, and he looks almost glamorous, like a model in a men's magazine."
The very last image of the film is a repeat of that same shot, but this time the Mafia leader is looking into a prison mirror made of tin. "He is looking at himself and combing his hair, but his face is distorted by the tin and he has the look of a sad clown. Within those two shots, you see the whole progression of the movie."
— Jean Oppenheimer
Donald M. Morgan, ASC
Miss Evers' Boys
Donald M. Morgan, ASC is no stranger to award podiums. In addition to winning two Emmys (for 1990's Murder in Mississippi and 1993's Geronimo), he has earned three other Emmy nominations (1979's Elvis, 1992's Doublecrossed and 1996's Ruby Ridge: An American Tragedy), a record of four ASC Awards (Ruby Ridge, Geronimo, Murder in Mississippi and 1991's Dillinger) and two ACE Awards (for Doublecrossed and Geronimo).
In addition, Morgan has compiled extensive feature credits, including Starman, Christine, Used Cars and A Piece of the Action. In fact, Morgan was being considered for a feature when he was approached about doing HBO's Miss Evers' Boys. "When I read the script I just had to do it," he says, the passion still evident in his voice. "It was such a neat story, and I was very excited to be teamed up again with director Joe Sargent [the two had previously worked together on Freedom and Amber Waves]. There are stories you can do on TV that no one will touch as a feature, because it isn't 'profitable' meaningful stories that say something about the human condition. Companies like HBO and TNT put their money where their mouths are."
Miss Evers' Boys recounts the horrifying, true story of the so-called Tuskegee Experiment, in which the U.S. Government Public Health Service withheld treatment from a group of African-American men suffering from syphilis. The experiment began in 1932 and continued until 1972, when a press report brought it to public attention. The resulting outcry forced a halt to the study and prompted Senate hearings on the matter.
"Joe is a very visual director, and he wanted the film to have a sort of blown-out look, like the old black-and-white photographs he had of the time period," explains Morgan. "Not being able to go black-and-white for television, I talked to Don Henderson over at Kodak, and he suggested that I use Vision 320T as my main stock. I liked it because I found that it wasn't as contrasty as other films, and it really bites into the dark areas. With older stocks, when you light from only one side you have a half-lit face the other half is totally dark. Vision 320T allowed me to light that way but still see detail, such as the eye on the other side of the face."
The filmmakers wanted to evoke the feeling of the impoverished areas of the South, so Morgan utilized a Super Frost 2 filter and a tobacco filter, which gave a warm tint and produced the exact look the filmmakers envisioned. Few people had electricity in those poor areas; instead, they relied upon candles and oil lamps. Morgan used a lot of dimmers and flicker generators to simulate the light, as well as the glow from fireplaces. "Even in the hospital rooms, when doctors were examining patients, we tried to just have little pools of light so it didn't look real up-to-date," he says. "I think you can bend the look when you underlight things."
Morgan notes that he saw the feature Last Man Standing right before starting Miss Evers' Boys, and was impressed with fellow ASC member Lloyd Ahern II's penchant for shooting through old glass. "He did a great job, shooting a lot of stuff in cars and through windows. Giving credit where credit is due, I [followed his example] and did a lot of that as well."
— Jean Oppenheimer
Michael D. O'Shea, ASC
To Love, Honor and Deceive
"I was interested in this project from the beginning, because the director was Michael Watkins [ASC]," cinematographer Michael D. O'Shea, ASC says of To Love, Honor and Deceive, the first Movie of the Week he's had the opportunity to photograph. "He called me up, sent me a script and backed me up all the way through my interviews with the producers [Robert Greenwald Prods.]. Michael is a wonderful cameraman himself, and if you have any ounce of energy or talent, he's got an amazing way of pulling it out of you."
Shot in North Carolina, To Love, Honor and Deceive concerns a woman whose husband and son are supposedly lost at sea while boating. She later discovers that he had been an informant for the FBI and led a double life. "This was an intrigue picture, and Watkins had it laid out shot-for-shot to show how the story unfolded in his mind," O'Shea recalls. "He then told me what he wanted and got me really involved in the story."
Part of this process was involving the cameraman in the rehearsals and the production design. O'Shea comments, "There was terrific communications between us, which was especially helpful since I was using a North Carolina crew, which included key grip Bruno Pele and first assistant Erin Cooke. The exception was my gaffer, Jack Schlosser, who also understood what Michael wanted and was a great help."
To Love, Honor and Deceive was shot entirely on Kodak's 5293 and 98 stocks. "I love 93 for its color saturation. I and try to use it whenever I can, provided we have the light," O'Shea notes. "But for nights and big interiors, I use 98."
While working within the confines on an 18-day schedule to film 175 scenes entirely on location, O'Shea found the most difficult sequence to be a search-and-rescue operation set at night, which was filmed over just one evening. "After being told that her husband and son are missing, the heroine goes to the pier to see the remnants of their boat," the cameraman relates. "It was a big rain sequence with wind and lighting, and helicopters hovering over the pier."
Since the show's budget didn't allow for the use of real helicopters, the aircrafts' presence was suggested through the use of Xenon lamps on Condors, while multiple Ritter fans whipped up the tempest. O'Shea took advantage of his Panavision cameras' variable frame-rate function to shoot the sequence. "Michael had a specific way he wanted this scene shot, and that was to use three cameras, one filming at 6fps, one at 24 frames, and the last at 60 frames which he would intercut to create the feeling of the character in scene. When you transfer the 6fps footage in telecine at 6fps, you get that blurring effect, which is an interesting style.
"Michael also wanted a lot of white light in the scene, so we made those Xenons as hot as we could," O'Shea adds. "He felt that the overexposure really added to the emotion of the story and the scene. That was the hardest sequence on the shoot, but it was also my favorite. Michael insisted from the beginning that things should not look overlit, but this scene was actually quite expressionistic. Overall, he was looking for a naturalistic approach without a lot of colors, but this particular scene was very cold blue almost black-and-white at times because of the strong lighting."
Reflecting upon the project, O'Shea offers, "After we were done shooting this picture, I was beat, but I felt as if we had really done something. I try to give every show as much of a feature film quality as I can, but that's sometimes hard to do in the time you have. Fortunately, many of the producing teams working in television today come from a feature background, and they appreciate that type of approach and the effort to make things look better."
— David E. Williams
