American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1952)

SKYLIGHTS — eight of them — augmented by strong directional light¬ ing from arcs sifuafed above and to right of camera position, supplied major portion of illumination for this and other sets for MGM's "Julius Caesar," photographed by Joseph Rutfenberg, ASC, whose camera and crew are on parallel in background. til ulius Caesar,” which I recently completed photographI ing at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, marks the first time in Hollywood history perhaps that a feature pro¬ duction has been filmed almost entirely with overhead light. Phis black-and-white production, featuring Marlon Brando, James Mason, John Gielgud, Louis Calhern, Greer Garson and Deborah Kerr, is one of MGM’s top-budget pictures for 1952. From the standpoint of set lighting, it establishes a technical milestone. What made it possible to photograph ninety percent of this production with overhead light alone, was the recentlydeveloped Skylight, a “shadowless” set lighting unit de¬ veloped jointly by MGM’s executive director of photography John Arnold, ASC, and the Motion Picture Research Council, Inc. From the numerous tests conducted with the Skylight at MGM, it was found that its reflected incandescent light more closely approximates the quality of the north light favored by the portrait photographer. “Julius Caesar,” with its many huge exterior sets, was ideally suited to the type of lighting produced by Skylights augmented by other overhead units for directional light. In fact it might be said the production demanded it, inasmuch as almost all of the action takes place on outdoor sets, all of which were constructed indoors on MGM’s sound stages. Overhead Lighting For Overall Set Illumination New lighting technique achieves quality of real daylight. By JOSEPH RUTTENBERG, ASC CLOSEUP VIEW of new Skylight which provides soft, "shadowless" reflected light for motion picture set illumination. Skylight, which uses ten 1000-watt incandescent globes, was developed jointly by MGM's John Arnold, ASC, and the Motion Picture Research Council. Daylight consists of strong directional light from the sun plus the soft light reflected from the sky. For the first time, perhaps, this same light quality, having such realism that few can distinguish it from real daylight in the photographed result, has been achieved on a motion picture set. Whenever we shoot exterior sequences out-of-doors, the photographic light is provided almost entirely by the sun, and our task is simply to control the light in an effective manner. But when we move indoors to shoot, we are then confronted with the problem of lighting , and we must work with units of artificial illumination. Heretofore, any attempt to reproduce an effect of genuine daylight illumination indoors on the sound stage has not been altogether successful, although such efforts have been generally accepted. But the use of strong lights on the floor, even when diffused, simply cannot give the desired illusion of daylight. A multiplicity of light units on the floor throw a multitude of shadows which are almost impossible to con¬ ceal entirely. Moreover, floor lamps mean a troublesome web of cables on the floor, and this condition on the huge 528 American Cinematographer December, 1952