Moon Yun talks to award winning cinematographer Dean Semler about using Film vs Digital when shooting Motion Pictures

Father Geek here with the latest from our Island Girl / reporter, Moon Yun Choi. She's scored a really nice interview with one of the truely great working cinematographers on a subject of vital interest to all aspiring film makers out there, a subject that has cameramen lining up (pretty evenly) on opposing sides... interesting stuff... enjoy.

Aloha, Moon Yun signing in from Hawaii with an interview of cinematographer Dean Semler, ASC, ACS. He was recently in the isles to accept an Eastman Kodak Award for Excellence in Cinematography presented during the 2003 Hawaii International Film Festival. Semler received an Academy Awards Æ Oscar in cinematography for DANCES WITH WOLVES back in the 90's.

The down-to-earth Aussie was gracious enough to take time out of his busy schedule to sit down with me and chat about his take on the digital film era.

Kicking back on the terrace of the historic Moana Hotel which faces Waikiki Beach, Semler also touched upon work he did on THE ALAMO, BRUCE ALMIGHTY, WATERWORLD and his next movie, STEALTH (current title), which is about an artificial intelligence pilot in the naval Air Force who begins to develop a mind of his own. He also talks about film technology, his love of still photography, and his admiration of Ansel Adams.

Included in this report are images taken by Hawaii-based filmmakers/cinematographers: Sergio Goes and Vince Keala Lucero. I describe briefly their current projects. I also conduct a Q & A with an AFI-grad cinematographer, Chandler Pohl, who had screened his short TOUCHED (director Mike Clark) at the 2003 Cinema Paradise Independent Film Festival, Honolulu.

Now on to the master of the camera, Dean Semler:

Semler on advice for young, aspiring cinematographers:

An advice for all cinematographers is to be very aware of the digital era that ís right on top of us, but still stay true to film at this stage and maybe experiment with both. We're at the crossroads of film into digital. I've just had some tests with film compared to digital and film is still better. Film still holds more information than digital cameras do even though they're getting better all the time. But the way to go now that's very smart filmmaking is to shoot on film whether it be 35 mm or super 16 and do digital intermediate and put it together on film at the end. I've done it with my last three or four films and I'll be doing that again with my next one. It ís really smart filmmaking to be able to use the digital technology to manipulate images. (In regards to helping me make decisions on the day of shoot), I saved shooting THE ALAMO Öon average about 10 minutes a day by making decisions like:

• There ís a flare coming off a window; send the grips up to get rid of it. We hadn't got time. I can fix it digitally. It ís very easy later on.

• There ís hot light coming off the top of the Muscos light ñ big flares. We cant get rid of the flares at the top edge of the frame. Don't worry about it. If you're going to have to set giant flags, it ís going to take 20 minutes for us to do it. Forget it. I know I can fix it digitally.

Every now and then I make decisions like that knowing that I could make corrections at a digital intermediate. That ís a very smart way to go. It is more expensive than conventional timing but it ís getting cheaper all the time. It ís just going to be the norm very shortly.

I think (it ís good) for young cinematographers to embrace that (and) to visit the digital houses (which) are more than happy to show people around (and) to show them the tricks of the trade. It ís truly a unique experience. Once anyone has done it, they'll never look back.

I haven't done commercials for a long time and I just tend to go from feature to feature. (But) most cinematographers who shoot commercials if they follow them through certainly get to see the digital technology work if they're going through the television process.

Semler on EFILM, a cutting-edge digital film laboratory in Hollywood, which is a subsidiary of Panavision:

For cinematographers who are just making films, they may not have had that opportunity but I'd strongly recommend going to a digital house. I've done all my work through EFILM. They have the resources of all the greatest optical engineers and designers, (as well as) electronic experts from Panavision. EFILM is truly wonderful Öbeen a huge help to me shooting to know that I have a good lab and great cameras.

Semler on why he ís still a film man:

I think that aspiring cinematographers have to be aware of both formats ódigital and filmó, but I tend to be (Pause) not ignoring the digital cameras, but I'm putting it off as long as I can. (Laughs) I'm a little bit guilty of not really following up on the latest technology as far as digital (high definition) cameras are concerned, but I have done tests on them. I'm still a film man. I love film.

Semler on still photography and shooting on the Big Island:

When I shoot stillsó I did a lot of stills in Hawaii when I was shooting WATERWORLDó. I used to go out on the Big Island, which I just love. The Big Island is sensational. I used to go out every Sunday morning which was my day off. I'd leave the hotel at 5 in the morning while it was dark and drive up to Mauna Kea (a Hawaii mountain), or up to one of the volcanic plains. I'd just wait for the light to be right and maybe wait for the fog to lift a little. There ís always some extraordinary imagery up there. I'd take them on black and white, 120 roll film, not 35mm. I compare that now to film versus digital or 35 vs. 16mm. Simply the bigger negative you have the more information you have (and) the richer your picture is.

Semler on Ansel Adams:

I spoke to a cinematographer at an ASC (American Society of Cinematographers) function who had the good fortune to meet Ansel Adams in his house in Carmel, C.A. Ansel took him into his darkroom and showed him some tricks Öand was doing his work and showed him photographs and negatives. They were chatting away like a couple of old photographers having a good ëole chat. Ansel said (that) in taking the picture, it ís like writing music (and) a score. In working the darkroom, you got the orchestra and you play the music. He said that ís where all the work is done. This was like 30 years ago that he had the insight to say then that one day you cinematographers are going to be able to do the same. And when you do, make sure you stay in control Ömeaning that to hand your film over to somebody else to be able to manipulate your images the way he did in the darkroom would be not catastrophic, but it ís very important for the cinematographers to stay in control. So that was pretty neat coming from him 30 years ago.

Semler on SpyderCam and THE ALAMO:

There ís another wonderful new tool I just used called SpyderCam. It was used a lot on SPIDERMAN, but it had nothing to do with SPIDERMAN (movie). It ís a series of cables with a camera flying. The camera could fly anywhere. It was used in STUART LITTLE (as well as) SPIDERMAN, wherever Spiderman was climbing up buildings or (swooping) down streets, the same with STUART LITTLE for his point of view when he was flying. So it ís basically a flying camera that can go anywhere. I've used it on BRUCE ALMIGHTY where we had a camera a couple hundred feet in the air on a SpaceCam which was mounted on a SpyderCam. The camera was released (from) about 150 feet and then dropped down (at) any variations of speed we wanted within that drop. It dropped down to within three feet of Jim Carreyís face. He was lying on his back on the road.

And then we used it twice on THE ALAMO. We had it once where it was rigged between two cranes and maybe 800 yards apart. It was a battle scene with (General) Sam Houston (Dennis Quaid) (who) is finally making his assault on Santa Anna's Mexican troops. It took place over a long field which was 800 to 1,000-yard long. So we had two construction cranes set in the diagonal from one corner of the field to the other. The camera started off high maybe 60 to 70 feet up in the air above the charging Texans. (Gen.) Sam Houston, (who) was on a horse, was in full gallop. The camera caught up to him, lowered down, and dropped in to a profile of him as he was galloping towards the Mexican lines and stayed with him as long as he rode. It was a sensational shot. I used it again on THE ALAMO when we used it as a subjective point of view of a canon ball flying out of a canon, flying through the air, and landing in the Alamo. It was about a 400 to 500-yard shot. It ís just amazing because it'll go anywhere, (at) any speed, (and) it ís totally computer controlled and repeatable.

Semler on his next project ñ STEALTH:

I'm going to be using (the SpyderCam) a lot on (my) next movie, STEALTH. We have a lot of work with good actors acting as pilots in super hypersonic jets. I've been doing a lot of green screen work on the stage where they're going to be flying towards us and around us. We're putting the SpyderCam back on a 4 point rig in the stage. It'll be totally three set by what they call pre-visualized images. These are done on the computer in Digital Domain. And they design the shots there. It ís then interfaced with the SpyderCam computer system, with the Libra head and also with the gimble the airplane is going to be left on Öand the four of them combined together to do these sensational moves like a videogame. So the SpyderCam is a tool now that one day may be like everyone having a mobile phone (in the sense) there'll be a lot of them around (and where) a lot of people will be using Öthis extraordinary piece of technology.

NOW ON TO TALENTED FILMMAKERS/CINEMATOGRAPHERS THAT I TALKED ABOUT:

Sergio Goes, photographer turned award-winning documentary filmmaker, on his new project "God Bless America: ATM Inside," which he ís developing into a documentary and hopes to publish as a book. Winner of two awards at the 2003 Full Frame Documentary Film Festival, the largest of its kind, for the beautifully shot BLACK PICKET FENCES, Goes gives us a sneak peak of images from his upcoming documentary by Just Clicking Here

Look also for his photo in the book ìAmerica 24/7,î in which his was selected from tens of thousands of submissions. To learn more about the largest collaborative photo project in history, which was produced by Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen, log on to http://www.america24-7.com/index.shtml

Cinematographer/producer Chandler B. Pohl on TOUCHED, a short film by writer/director Mike Clark screened at 2003 Cinema Paradise Film Festival.

TOUCHED is an 11-minute short about a man in his mid-40ís named Alvin who lives across the street from a high school. Every morning he goes through his routine of standing at the living room window, peeking through the blinds at the teenage girls, and masturbating. Painfully aware this is not the way he wants to live and with a desire to change, he has an unexpected encounter with an intriguing young woman, one whom heís seen before, who treats him not as the man he thinks he is, but as the man he could be.

AICN: It ís interesting that you were influenced by John Hughes movies.

CP: As a filmmaker, I've been influenced by John Hughes because thatís what I grew up on. TOUCHED had its origins from Hughesís movies in his use of the stereotypes where you have the jock, the nerd (and) the princess. They're all defined at the beginning of the movie. They're not friends (at the beginning of the movie). By the end of the movie, even if youíre the jock or the nerd, you can still have a friend which is not in your category.

For this film, the (director and I) wanted to say, ìWhen you prejudge someone, maybe youíre too quick to give someone the stereotype.î So we were saying, ìDo we want to start with a positive stereotype and end it negative or start with a negative stereotype and end it positively?î We figured the challenge and the fun would be in taking something that is inherently negative and make a positive out of it.

Both of us are from Las Vegas so we have a place in our hearts for people who are always considered to be ìbad.î Gambling, alcoholics and prostitutes. Initially the film was going to be about a prostitute, but then (we felt) prostitution was done so much (and) drug addiction didnít appeal to us. On a whim, the director said, ìHow about pedophilia?î (At first), I didn't think at the end of 11 minutes, (people were going to) change their perspective on pedophilia. But we (decided to) give it a shot and I was up for a challenge.

Is it OK to have sex with Britney Spears, or a 17-year-old like her?

Then the topic came about how Britney Spears (is) a big hit. It was OK to hear guys say I really like Britney Spears (and) I'd have sex with her, that type of thing. Then you (think) also, ìYeah, I'd have sex with Britney Spears too.î You realize Britney Spears is 17-years-old (an age Spears was at the time they were discussing the film). But if you had a 17-year-old daughter, and I came up to you and said, ìHey, I want to have sex with your 17-year-old, your reaction is going to be totally different than if I said I want to have sex with Britney Spears.î

I think it ís OK to want to have sex with an icon but it ís not OK once it turns out to be a real person, someone that you know. That ís the genesis of the story where the beginning of this movie starts with this guy masturbating to girls at a high school across the street.

At the beginning of the film, there is no personal connection between the two characters (Jeffrey Weissman and Amber East) so it ís perfectly fine for him to do that Öobjectify young women in that way. But by the end of the movie, when he makes that personal connection, in which she actually somehow comes into his life, then he realizes that maybe there is something different (now.) I can't do this anymore.

AICN: What was interesting about the film was that there was no dialogue. It was all facial and body expressions. How did you guys decide upon doing a film that way?

CP: It started off as a project for graduate school at the American Film Institute. It was a requirement for me as a cinematography student to shoot a short film which shows all your mastery of cinematography. Past that, you were given free reign of whatever you wanted to doÖ (So long that it) be a visual exercise. I wanted to be a cinematographer of narrative stories.

Coming up with a story with no dialogue:

The director didn't think you can make a story that doesn't have dialogue. I said, ìReally, why not? There have been a lot of movies without any dialogue and they have been really successful.î He felt that today's audience won't accept that because they're too savvy. Secondly, when you have a movie like a Charlie Chaplin film which doesn't have dialogue, people were fresh to movies where they didn't understand all the techniques. In today's films, people are aware of all the techniques Öthe editing (and) the music.

Doesn't hurt to try:

We came up with a script (which we both liked). When we auditioned, it was a difficult process because we were solely auditioning off of what people solely looked like. We only auditioned one scene from the movie which is when the two characters interact. The way we auditioned was we put the two people in the car together and (observed) how they looked at each other and how they played off of each other. Weíd be so engrossed into the performanceÖ weíd forget there was no dialogue. At the end of auditioning, we wouldnít even find it conspicuous if there was a lack of dialogue.

> Lonely guy has hope for a ìsomeoneî:

The whole point of the story is about a guy who has secluded himself from the rest of the world, either by choice or by force. Heís gotten to the age that he is and he acts this way. Just like you have costuming or the style of the piece be it the lighting or the framing Öanother thing you can use is your choice of dialogue. You can have no dialogue, or some dialogue or lots of them. Only this piece is about a guy whoís lonely and whoís trying to make one connection. Although itís not a connection that is going to change the course of the world, itís a connection nonetheless for him. He goes from a world where there is no one (in the) world (to) where there is a hope of someone. For us, the lack of dialogue reinforces the idea of who this guy is and the type of life that he lives.

That ís it for now, Moon Yun signing outÖ

moonyunchoi@aintitcoolmail.com