American cinematographer. (1951)

them make location scouting trips to¬ gether to San Francisco and later to New York to select theatre exteriors against which so much of the action takes place. On March 15th, with the script vir¬ tually completed and the most pressing production problems settled, the two flew to New York. There, using doubles for Bette Davis and Celeste Holm, they shot the exterior of the New York theatre which would tie in with the scenes to be shot later in the Curran Theatre in San Francisco. The exteriors of the “21 Club” and Eve’s Park Avenue apartment were also photographed as es¬ tablishing shots for interior scenes and for background plates for scenes to be shot later at the studio. To light these scenes, Krasner used portable Colortran lighting units, and the footage was latensified at time of processing to bring it up to full value. When shooting the night exteriors in front of the John Golden theatre, Kras¬ ner received unusual cooperation from New York City police. In one instance, when the company was shooting after midnight, an officer displaying knowl¬ edge of photography, suggested to Kras¬ ner: “You haven’t much depth in the background, here. How would you like to have those neon signs in the distance lighted up?” And when Krasner agreed, the officer dispatched another to the task of inducing store and cafe owners a block away to light up their signs. Because the story has a New York locale, it was necessary to find a theatre there whose lobby closely resembled in detail that of the Curran in San Fran¬ cisco where most of the picture’s vital shooting was to take place. The John Golden Theatre was selected, and here scenes and background plates were shot which later were to match up with simi¬ lar shots made in the Curran theatre lobby. Shooting at the Curran theatre began on April 11, as scheduled. The theatre echoed with activity as Krasner and his camera crew prepared it for shooting. Electricians were everywhere rigging lamps and laying cables, but long before this, Krasner, his gaffer and Mankiewicz had paid a visit to the theatre to scout the power source. It was desired to shoot scenes in the theatre without hav¬ ing to bring up from Hollywood a generator to supply power for illumina¬ tion. Krasner and his gaffer found the power lines running into the Curran in¬ adequate to supply the needed voltage, and it became necessary to find a means of getting additional current. Together they checked adjoining buildings and happily found they could bring addi¬ tional lines into the Curran from an adjoining theatre, but not before con¬ siderable time had been spent lifting manhole covers in the street and check¬ ing underground power cables, trans¬ former capacities, etc., to make sure that no power failure would result in the midst of shooting. The next important step was to lay a sturdy platform over a section of the theatre’s orchestra seats at stage level to provide unhampered working space for Krasner’s camera and the Junior Crane on which it was mounted. An interesting point is Mankiewicz’s preference for this crane as a camera mount, regardless of size of the sets. As a result, practically every scene in the picture — location shots as well as interiors — was shot with the MILTON KRASNER, A.S.C., who dirscted the photo¬ graphy of "All About Eve/' studies Marilyn Monroe for proper lighting, using a contrast viewing glass. camera mounted on a Junior Crane. All the necessary camera movements for the theatre interiors had been carefully planned and charted by Krasner and Mankiewicz when earlier they had scouted the location. Now as shooting began, it was merely a matter of re¬ ferring to these carefully laid plans and following them to the letter. Before shooting the important scenes in the lobby of the Curran, it was neces¬ sary to erect special scaffolding to hold the lights, a matter that presented no small problem because the crew was not permitted to drive nails into the lobby ( Conlitinued on Page 27) KRASNER'S careful attention to lighting detail, which characterizes the entire picture, is exemplified in this scene from "All About Eve. Throughout the scene the lighting is natural — no "arty" highlights or shadows. The illumination actually seems to come from the lights visible in the scene. ONE OF SEVERAL scenes in which background protection was employed. The New York street scene, shot earlier, served as background plate for rear-projection setup, while Anne Baxter and George Sanders walk on treadmill in foreground. January, 1951 American Cinematographer 11