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THE FUNCTION OF THE CAMERA-MAN
CURT COURANT
Interviewed by Ernest Dyer
"In the first place," said Courant, "the word 'cameraman' is unfortunate. The suggestion it conveys is too limited, too technical 'Chief artistic collaborator,' were the phrase not so clumsy, would be less misleading. The cameraman collaborates with the director and the scenic designer and others so as to produce an artistic picture. At the same time he is the captain of a team of specialists. On this film, for example" — we had just come off the sets of The Iron Duke — "I am 'chief cameraman.' I have as assistants two 'first cameramen' and four 'assistant cameramen' — one first and one 'second' assistant to each camera. (We shoot everything through at least two cameras). Then there are all the studio electricians.
"You ask me how far the cameraman is creative. Well, what does good camera-work imply? Is it just to secure a clear, clean, rich picture — a 'good photo' in the Kodak sense of the word? This is only the basis. No, good camerawork is to give to each scene the atmosphere which the scenario of the particular film calls for. Each room, each set, each exterior has to reflect the mood which is suggested by a reading of the scene. If the mood of the scene is sad, then the camerawork must be in harmony and must invest the scene with just the right ambience. I read the scenario like an actor and then try to interpret it in terms of atmosphere. Sometimes perhaps the result may not be ' good ' photography in the Kodak sense, but that does not matter if it is the right camerawork artistically for that scene."
E. D.: "So we cannot evaluate any shot fairly apart from its sequence. That seems to me well illustrated by your own work in Ces Messieurs de la Sante where the lighting seems to change with the period, from the murky gas gloom of the little shop to the electric radiance of the modern store."
G. C: "In those early scenes I wanted to make you feel the dust. You do not want the screen always bright. Think of the paintings of Menzel and Rembrant, so dark that you have to go right up to them, yet perfect in mood. We cameramen are after the same things as the old painters. Instead of pigments and brushes we