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Cinematographers Forum at Newport Beach Film Festival

Big Film, Little Film, there are no small films was the title of the Cinematographers Forum held at the Edwards Island Cinema 5, Fashion Island, Newport Beach during the 2004 Newport Beach International Film Festival.

The forum presented an exploration of the challenges facing the cinematographer in the service of telling the story. Whether shooting a small-budget or a major feature, a short, a music video, a commercial or a documentary; whether recording to film or digital; whether involved in an indie, a student or a studio project, the issues facing the cinematographer are similar. Panelists stressed how passion must be maintained no matter the size of the project, its budget (low- to high- to no-), the medium shot in (35mm, digital, 16mm or video), or the circumstances (favorable or sometimes unfavorable) that a cinematographer confronts from day to day.

Referring to clips from their work, the panelists discussed their experience with lighting, composition, mood and equipment as related to communicating with the director and crew, interacting with the actors and interpreting the script. Each of the participants shared experiences and wisdom to the full audience of filmmakers, students and the general public.

The panelists included:

László Kovács, ASC, (Easy Rider, Ghostbusters)
Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC, (Deerhunter, The Rose)
Ferne Pearlstein (Imelda, Sumo East &West)
Richard Crudo, ASC President (Federal Hill, American Pie)
Isidore Mankofsky, ASC, (Somewhere in Time, The Muppet Movie)
Fred Goodich, (Surviving Eden, The Affair, For Love of the Game 2nd Unit)
David Waldman, (Nostalgia, Nissan campaign)

Fred Goodich and Bob Fischer

Fred Goodich event chairman and program director introduced Bob Fisher, journalist & honorary member ASC who performed the duties of moderator. In addition to serving as event chairman, Fred showed a 2 1/2 minute commercial titled Lincoln Train he made for the Illinois Tourism Board. He showed this commercial to illustrate an example of story telling in TV advertising. Fred discussed the lighting he did for this beautiful scene of a carriage traveling down a country road with it's passengers on a trip to see the Lincoln Train.

Isidore Mankofsky

Isidore Mankofsky showed a scene from Somewhere in Time and discussed how he setup and composed the scene where Christopher Reeve is standing on the steps of the Grand Hotel looking at Jane Seymour on the grass below.

Laszlo Kovacks discussing the filming of Ghostbusters

Laszlo showed a short clip from Ghostbusters and then talked about the lighting for the scene. This was the scene where the street in front of a hotel in New York was cracking and the Ghost busters arrive and go to the roof of the building. Ghostbusters was shot in a studio in Hollywood. The inside of the studio was 60 feet high, so the lighting required lots of 10K units. The total amperage they were drawing was an amazing 60,000 amps. Other films had to move their shooting off site to allow the shooting of the film.

Vilmos Zsigmond and Bob Fisher discuss the making of The Rose

Vilmos showed a short scene from The Rose, beginning where a helicopter approaches a landing pad behind a stage and Janis Joplin (Bette Midler) staggers up the stairs looking like she was about to take her last breath, starts her performance and comes totally alive. This great sequence was captured in one shot with three cameras rolling. Vilmos made it sound easy, but after some prompting told us how much planning went into getting it right the first time. One of the biggest challenges was getting the audience to stay through all the time it took to do the preparations.

Ferne Pearlstein, Richard Crudo, and Laszlo Kovacks during the Q & A

Ferne showed scenes from her film Imelda and discussed the challenges she faced shooting Imelda Marcos at her palace in the Philipines. In particular, the lighting and capturing the vivid colors of her many outfits. The film Imelda is currently making the rounds of the festival circuit. The real Imelda is making the rounds of the world's shoe stores, as you'll see in this excellent documentary.

This was an excellent presentation followed by a lively Q & A. I'm looking forward to the Cinematographers Day presentation by Danti Spinotti, ASC that is tentatively scheduled for December 2004 in Palm Springs.