Cinema Quarterly (1934 - 1935)

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E. D.: "But why shoot it in a studio? Why not go outside to begin with?" C. C. : "Good! Consider the scene. It is the afternoon of battle, between day and evening. There is a feeling of hopelessness on the part of the French. Ney makes his pathetic last stand. It calls for an atmosphere that is mellow and triste. What odds on finding that lighting when you wanted it in Nature ! What hopes of keeping it fixed, if need be, for two days ! Besides, there is the action to be lit, too. That may want lighting differently from the set. Different players need different lighting. I do not light Arliss as I light Veidt. We experimented and found the quality of character lighting which would give Arliss the rugged Wellington mask." E. D. : "So that you would light Arliss differently in two different films?" C. C. : "Quite. A young girl on the other hand would need soft lighting." E. D.: "To what extent can you modify the script once you are working upon it?" C. C. : "The camerman could always put a proposition to the director. Saville, though, works very close to script." E. D. : "To what extent are you limited on the floor?" C. C. : "Only by time. I have to have my lamps ready by the time the director is ready. Often perhaps I could go on trying still better lighting. But you cannot hold up a studio where hundreds of salaried players may be waiting." E. D. : "To what extent can you control the processing or indulge in the tricks of delayed development and so on, beloved by the amateur photographer?" C.C.: "Developing is mechanical, automatic, entirely uniform. The whole of a day's work, perhaps twenty set-ups — will be developed together in one strip. And the sound-track must have absolutely even development. (That is only one of the limitations imposed by sound). "It means that the cameraman in the studio is responsible for the balance of light and shade in the film shown on the screen. Day after day, through some 1,500 different set-ups, each with its slightly individual quality of lighting, he has to maintain a general level of light. All the time he has to have in mind the finished product on the screen. "You ask how he is a creative artist. Consider. A camera is a machine, a vehicle for the film; the lens is a piece of dead glass; a lamp is a lamp; the film itself is a chemical product; the projector is another machine, another vehicle. The man who can visualize a scene in terms of these dead things and from them create a work of living beauty, he is a creative artist. That is my 'cry.' 24