The Cine Technician (1939)

GO Mil-. (I N E -T H< II N I (' I AN June-Jul) . C937 nps. Let us imagine a quadrangle of white plaster and the sun shining. Mid and Long Shots When the set is lit, two sides could be bright and the third dark. It is lit very nicely and evenly — not one part brighter than another in the sun-lit parts. In the longshots this would look fine and natural ; one could even have — as we call them in studio talk — "jingle berries," or more usually, foreground pieces. In the long-shot we have light and shade, composition, and plenty of forethought. A long-shot is the result of plenty of work, and therefore should be as the cameraman wishes. Now here comes the snag — a mid-shot, a shot against the sun-lit wall or even against the shadow side wall. In both cases we have a shot with a back-ground that is flat and even and most uninteresting. You cannot put shadows there because of continuity of lighting — a very important point, as important as continuity of clothes. In my opinion, the mid-shot is the shot most used in motion pictures, and consequently the sets should be lit with this in mind. Therefore, I make on my walls false shadows — areas of brightness — areas of dazzling brilliance — bits of dead bla< k, all mingled and jostled together. Remember the white barn — it will be impossible to take mid-shots against that it it was of an even brilliance ; as it was, there was the maximum of contrast which broke up the background. I have an illustration in mind — compare Greta Garbo with the finest diamond in the world. That diamond looks very nice against a velvet background or against silk — but put that diamond in a fine setting — a crown — or in a nice ring upon a pretty linger and its looks are enormously enhanced. That is why Greta Garbo is always seen in the finest sets and photographed by the world's best cameramen. In fact, the jewel in the setting. You may think this highly irrevelant, but I cannot stress too much the importance of set lighting and that of the type that gives a threat variety ol background. It is permissible to let the long-shots go — they are only seen once— and concentrate on your mid-shot lighting. After all, the long-shot is mainly a question of composition—not lighting. Now to return to our farmyard. The actors are rehearsed, they know their lines ; they act to Mr. Lee's satisfaction and my operator has given them places to start from and come to. Now I come along and light the actors in their various positions. Reality and the Leading Lady Mere we arc up against a famous problem, reality versus the leading lady's face. in reality we should light from the same direction that the highlights on the set come from ; we can do that, of course, it we have a perfect face — it makes the job much easier. I am always prepared to discard reality lighting on artists, il necessary. Altei all, people go to cinema to see their favourite actress with her well known lace, not to see a lot of mathematically correct lighting. Will you please remember the white barn again. The lighting obviously came from high up on the right. Suppose two actors enter the picture and look left ; if you carry out the lighting as it should be the light should come from somewhere between 45° right of the camera and over the camera. At 45c it would make a bad shadow from the cheek upon the nose ; over the camera it would flatten them out. I would place the light so that it was directly above the spot where they were looking ; this would render the faces nearest to the camera dark, or, in other words, give roundness. Coming from the right at three-quarters back I would put a spot to outline the hair and back of the neck. This back light would be brighter than the face light and so carry out the illusion that the right-hand side is brightest after all. I will now give you a rule which is, as most rules are, a safety-first measure, which with very few exceptionwon't let you down. When photographing faces put the main face light as high as is possible over the direction in which the artist is looking. If the artist looks right or left the side near the camera will be dark — the face will be round. If the artist looks at the camera, place the light over the camera ; this will fill in those unpleasant rings under the eyes and at the same time give plenty of modelling from the nose and lip and cheek-bone shadow-. The height of the lamp is determined by two things : (a) the nose shadow which looks most unpleasant if it comes over the mouth when the artist is talking, and (b) the overhang of the eyebrows over the eyes. Eyes look very bad when half-shaded off. It is these prominent eyebrows that determine 75 per cent, of the height of the lamps. Whatever is the position of your main face light you must have, at the angle of reflection from that lamp, another lamp to fill up the shadows caused by that high lamp. If the high-light is 45 per cent, left, the other lamp must be at 45 per cent, low on the right. In a case like this I often put a lamp heavily silkscreened under the camera as a catch-light for the eyes. Working on this principle, my method is as follows : I light the sets, making the lighting as broken up as possible, then I turn out those lights and put on my main face light ; this I get to satisfaction as regards height, angle, etc. Then I measure the intensity of that light with a Weston foot-candle meter. I stand where the artist stood and the light falls on my meter. I have the lamp spotted or flooded until the instrument reads a predetermined figure. As I am a strong believer in "Gamma control." I always have one light of the same intensity. This light is normally the face light, and consequently my faces always render the same negative density. The differences in make-up and skin texture give all the variations necessary. Having got my required light intensity I place my artist in position and turn on my shadow light : this 1 increase or decrease by personal judgment until 1 get my required balance of light. In night scenes 1 reduce this light to a minimum, and in day shots to about half the intensity of my main light. 1 then pick out various parts of the artist with threequarters back light the hair, shoulders, die—, and so on. When these three essentials — main, shadow and back lights are satisfactory, I switch on my set lights and balance them, by my personal judgment, against the artist. I might remove one or soften one off, the main idea [Continued at foot of page 62)