For Escoffier, that meant focusing on faces and the almost imperceptible flickers of emotion which pass over them. "If you have three or four people sitting next to each other around a poker table, and they are always trying to trick one another, that is readable in their faces," he declares. "Poker is very much focused on people's eyes: where they look, where they don't look, what they avoid."
That is one reason the filmmakers decided to shoot in the 2.35:1 Super 35 format. "Super 35 has a very elegant way of focusing your attention on people's eyes," comments Escoffier. "If you shoot in Academy format [1.85:1], your attention is on the whole body of the person because you see the entire body." Another consideration was the desire to work with low light levels. Anamorphic wasn't an option. Therefore, the cinematographer elected to use Kodak Vision 500T 5279 for the entire film in order to ensure the same texture throughout.
Rounders' camera package consisted of two Panavision Platinums (one specially built to shoot at 48 fps) and a high-speed "Panavised" Arriflex 435, which was used during card games to capture subtle facial expressions and hand gestures. Escoffier utilized Primo lenses, and notes, "No other brand has the quality of those lenses. There is usually a big loss of clarity when you go from primes to a zoom, but not with the Primos. They are amazing in terms of how clear and bright they are, and the color rendition is excellent. No one can compete with that."
In formulating an overall look for the picture, Dahl, Escoffier and Pearson watched The Hustler, Searching for Bobby Fischer, House of Games, Midnight Cowboy and Little Odessa." Most people think of poker as a game of chance or luck, whereas [professional players] think of it as a game of skill," notes Dahl." They approach it almost the same way chess players do in their games. We watched Searching for Bobby Fischer [shot by Conrad Hall, ASC — see AC Feb. '94] as an example of how to portray the intensity of [a table-restricted] game and still keep it interesting for an audience."
Dahl and Escoffier agree that the film's intensity is generated primarily by the actors. For that reason, Escoffier considered rehearsals to be the most important part of the project's shooting days. "You see what happens during rehearsals," he says, "and that tells you how to design the sequence." With a laugh, he adds, "You can have a theory sometimes, but it's good to be modest about that."
