Robert
Richardson, ASC
Snow Falling on Cedars
 Robert
Richardson, ASC earned his fourth Academy Awardâ nomination and his
sixth ASC Outstanding Achievement Award nomination for Snow Falling
on Cedars. The film is based on the book of the same title by David
Guterson. The story takes place in the Pacific Northwest and concerns
the tension between German-American and Japanese-American communities
in the period after Pearl Harbor, when Japanese citizens were herded
into internment camps. It's a story about racial perceptions as well
as justice and truth.
Richardson and director Scott Hicks began their search for a visual approach by looking at still photographs from the period, and other visual references including films by Ingmar Bergman and Andrei Tarkovsky. In this manner they built up a common language to use when discussing the film. According to Richardson, Hicks' approach was very formal and very exact.
Richardson and Hicks decided that the opening scenes in the film should establish a mythical setting. The film begins with a slate gray fog, out of which emerges a golden-hued mast. Slowly a deathlike figure, reminiscent of a crucifix, materializes from the fog and is revealed to be a fisherman.
"One of the purposes of the scene was to visually represent one of the story's sources of tension, which I will crudely label Christian vs. Heathen," says Richardson. "That refers to a perception or attitude on the part of the German-American population of the area toward the Japanese. Despite the war against Germany, these white citizens were sitting in judgement of the Japanese-Americans. We often tried to visually represent the story's other themes in similar ways."
The first shot was accomplished in a water tank in Los Angeles, where real fog was generated. Richardson, with gaffer Ian Kincaid, rigged KinoFlo fluorescent fixtures to emanate blue light, which highlighted large white drops falling through the frame.
"With the proper underexposure, it became the gray of the fog," says Richardson. "I was very pleased with the outcome."
Richardson studied film and art at Rhode Island School of Design. He
won an Academy Awardâ for his photography of Oliver Stone's JFK,
and he received Oscarâ nominations for Born on the Fourth of July
and Platoon. He earned ASC Outstanding Achievement Award nominations
for The Horse Whisperer, A Few Good Men, Born on the Fourth of July,
JFK and Heaven and Earth. His additional credits include
Bringing Out the Dead, Casino, Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, Salvador,
Wall Street, Talk Radio, The Doors, Natural Born Killers, Nixon, U-Turn
and Wag the Dog.
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