American cinematographer (Jan-Dec 1959)

this without jarring audience sensibili¬ ties, one may use a simple little trick such as having the players turn com¬ pletely around and look toward the rear of the set. Then the camera can cross the axis and make a complete reverse shot; hut the audience will not he confused because it now quite naturally expects to see the player’s faces. The audience becomes re¬ oriented and the sequence can con¬ tinue with the camera now on the side of the newly established axis. If the players had not turned, however, con¬ fusion would have arisen because the viewer would suddenly see them trans¬ posed and also he confronted with the opposite side of the set. It is permissible to cross the axis in a scene where the players walk directly away from the camera. The next scene may he a complete reverse — with the players now walking to¬ ward the camera. The movement of the players and the fact that the cam¬ era films their backs in one shot and their faces in the next is suffiicient to carry the audience’s viewpoint across the axis without confusion. People can, for instance, be shown with their backs to the camera walking toward a wait¬ ing airliner. The next shot can depict them as seen from the plane’s doorway as they approach and enter. On the other hand, an abrupt change in camera angle to, say, a very high angle, should be handled with discre¬ tion. If the camera is shifted to a very high angle, it should stay on the same side of the axis as that established at the end of the previous scene. If, on a direct cut. the camera is moved up high and reversed, the audience will be doubly confused because it will take a little time to become re-oriented and to figure out the viewpoint. Another method of crossing the ac¬ tion axis safely is to make a circular or lateral dolly shot as the scene progresses, so that the shift gradually takes place as the action is being photographed. A new axis is thus es¬ tablished and shooting can continue safely with the camera on the opposite side. The same effect can be accom¬ plished by having the players cross the axis in the course of filming the scene so that the camera must be panned to follow them. As they move around, the camera will reverse its angle to follow them and ultimately will be shooting in the opposite direc¬ tion. The camera, subject movement, or both may safely cross the action axis and reverse the angle without con¬ fusing the audience because the au¬ dience can see the change taking place on the screen. In conclusion, keep the action axis in mind at all times when shooting a scene, and never cross it unless the necessary precautions are taken. Like all rules, this one may be broken, too. but one must be certain before doing so that the resulting reverseangle taken in by the camera will not confuse the audience. ■ PHOTOGRAPHY SHARP, CLEAR Continued from Page 481 sharp, clear and incisive. In the hands of veteran Garmes, the Panavision 65 camera has rendered screen results that are distinctly different from any¬ thing seen before in ultra-wide-screen photography. One is brought sharply to attention as the first scene flashes on the screen with incredible clarity. Facial details have the crispy sharp¬ ness of a commercial photograph, and the remarkable depth of field which renders background vistas in clear detail gives a new dimension to the photography. “I always strive for extremely sharp focus in the pictures I photograph,” says Garmes. “I be¬ lieve in that.” Commenting further on the pho¬ tography of “The Big Fisherman,” Garmes said: “I used the Panavision lenses to the fullest extent I could on exterior shots, in order to get the maxi¬ mum sharpness of detail. Indoors, I aimed for similar results by utilizing all the light available to achieve it. I believe that more Brutes and other arc lamps were used to light this pic¬ ture than have ever been used before in a Hollywood production. “Some of the indoor sets were the largest and tallest ever built on a Hollywood sound stage. One set par¬ ticularly — that of the castle interior of Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee — extended right up to the rafters.” The entire production design of the picture — sets, costumes, props, etc. — is so colorful and full of splendor, that sharp photography was indeed vital to producing the visual and emo¬ tional res])onse it was intended to create. Sharp })hotography is the salient attribute of the Panavision 65 camera. This is basically a Mitchell 65 camera, which takes 65mm negative, and is modified with the improved Panavi¬ sion lenses that have created wide¬ spread interest in the industry. “Insofar as lighting goes, the Pana¬ vision system demands nothing more than is required for other wide-screen systems of color photography,” says Garmes. “We simply work with wider film. Focus is tougher because we use lenses of longer focal length than in 35mm photography. ^ here we’d nor¬ mally use a 15mm lens on a 35mm camera, it requires a 4-inch lens, which falls off critically in focus, to make a comparable shot with the Panavision 65 camera,” Garmes explained. “The Panavision lenses we used,” he continued, “were all brand new, incorporating Panavision’s latest ad¬ vances in design and optics. I used a 37mm lens practically all the time. This is equivalent to about an 18mm lens in 35mm photography. The 37mm doesn’t have much depth, either; it’s approximately a 40mm lens.” When the crab dolly was intro¬ duced in Hollywood several years ago, Garmes became its greatest booster and user. It is not surprising there¬ fore that he chose a crab dolly for his main mobile camera mount in filming “The Big Fisherman.” “Executing moving camera shots,” he explained, “were rather difficult for my operator because the camera we used was equipped with a finder designed to be used with an anamorphic lens. This created a trouble¬ some parallax problem when making follow-focus shots.” At the present time, Garmes said, this problem is being corrected with a newly-designed finder for use with cameras mounting Panavision lenses without the anamorphic attachment. “The Big Fisherman” is based on the book by the same title by the late novelist, Lloyd C. Douglas. Its basic theme is the story of Simon Peter and his times, of his transformation from a doubter and scoffer into a man of rock-bound faith, and his dedication to the teaching of the word of God as a disciple of Jesus. Integrated with this spiritual theme is a romantic story of ancient ven¬ geance. A young Arabian princess learns the father she has thought a great king is in reality a brutal tyrant who betrayed her mother and who has made her country suffer. Dress¬ ing as a boy, she sets out for Galilee to kill him. During the journey she encounters many hardships. Arriving 504 AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER