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Transcript
of Allen Daviau's Live Chat
March 25, 2000
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 3:58:01 PM)
Hello. Thank you all for logging in. Let’s start…
Joseph (Mar 25, 2000
3:58:13 PM)
What do you think of the Oscar nominations this year?
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 3:59:08 PM)
I think they are all deserving. It was a tremendous year for cinematography...
Moderator (Mar 25,
2000 3:59:49 PM)
Have you any experience with HDTV... what is your reaction to it?
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:00:30 PM)
Over the years I've tried to test each new development in HDTV cameras
in comparison with film.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:01:43 PM)
The arrival of the first chip camera certainly marked a new era in HDTV...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:02:09 PM)
The most recent improvements have been in making the camera and the recording
unit smaller and more flexible…
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:02:40 PM)
The use of the 1080 progressive standard at 24 frames per second...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:03:13 PM)
is an attempt to make the instrument more of a cinematic recording device
rather than a TV camera...
 Allen
Daviau (Mar 25, 2000 4:03:35 PM)
We will soon be able to see how this works in actual production. The major
difference is.,,,
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:03:45 PM)
the image can look very good, but it still looks like video…
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:05:31 PM)
It is very high quality video, but it still tends to look like video until
it has been transferred to film…
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:05:56 PM)
Even a high quality digital projection has a different look from film.
Moderator (Mar 25,
2000 4:06:37 PM)
How much prep time do you usually have on a film, MOV, commercial
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:07:11 PM)
On a feature film, 4 to 6 weeks of prep is average. Cinematographers tend
to work..
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:07:35 PM)
on a "split prep" time approach. I definitely want to be involved in the
planning when the production designer...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:07:50 PM)
first comes on to work with the director. I think it is very important
to establish ...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:08:31 PM)
the "look" of the film very early in the planning stages. I believe that
the "look" is a combination of design and discovery. What you find out
as the filming progresses usually is as important as the tenets of design
that you begin with...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:09:28 PM)
TV movies have considerably less prep time and a TV commercial rarely
offers more than a day of meetings. There are exceptions. But by being
able...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:09:41 PM)
to set certain things in motion in the beginning, whatever the project,
you help to lay the foundation for the work you're going to be doing during
production.
Shorty (Mar 25, 2000
4:10:16 PM)
Have you had a chance to work with PreView system, and if so what do you
think of it?
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:10:56 PM)
There are 2 styles of Preview system currently available...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:11:19 PM)
One actually makes a print out of a digital camera image and allows you
to make color and density corrections to it on the set...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:11:45 PM)
The latter system uses a digital photograph that is stored on a disk that
is sent to the laboratory or the video transfer facility...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:12:37 PM)
At a work station you can make color and density corrections to it before
it is sent as a reference for the film timer or the video colorist...
 Allen
Daviau (Mar 25, 2000 4:13:01 PM)
I believe that system, in the long run, will be the more valuable because
it will give a visual component to the communication between the cinematographer
and the lab...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:13:48 PM)
The print out of the photograph on the set is highly subject to misinterpretation
by others who might view it...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:14:27 PM)
The Preview System is there as a visual voice for the cinematographer
to communicate the look of the scene...
Shorty (Mar 25, 2000
4:14:49 PM)
The Kodak/Panavision system is the one I was interested in hearing your
thoughts on…
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:15:09 PM)
I have not used that recently, but I found that in the beginning the color
accuracy was not sufficient to convey the visual concept.
evilrobot (Mar 25,
2000 4:16:35 PM)
Are you excited about shooting a music video with David Fincher and when
is the last time you shot one?
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:17:14 PM)
I'm very excited about shooting a project with David Fincher and this
will be the first music video I've done in two years...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:17:49 PM)
I filmed "Objects in the Rear View Mirror" with Meat Loaf for Michael
Bay and enjoyed the experience tremendously.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:18:15 PM)
Music videos were my start in the motion picture business, even though
we didn't use that term back then...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:18:50 PM)
We worked with performers like Jimi Hendrix, The Who, Aretha Franklin
and Richie Havens...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:19:24 PM)
The language of the music video offers tremendous potential regardless
of the budget...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:20:15 PM)
From the simplest performance type of video to extravaganzas laden with
every type of visual effect...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:20:50 PM)
Again, the director's concept of creating a visual texture is key to the
effectiveness of that medium.
Camerabreaker (Mar
25, 2000 4:21:00 PM)
Do you have any interest in shooting a large format picture (IMAX , IWERKS)?
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:21:50 PM)
I hope to see the IMAX concept expand to provide theaters for productions
not in the usual IMAX documentary form...
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 4:24:56 PM)
Large format processes like IMAX can be used to explore a vast variety
of subject matter...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:25:29 PM)
The density of information in a IMAX frame is breathtaking in its possibilities.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:25:41 PM)
I personally would be curious to see IMAX projected on a smaller screen...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:25:59 PM)
to emphasize the detail in that frame and not just the size of the image...
 Allen
Daviau (Mar 25, 2000 4:26:34 PM)
My colleague John Hora, ASC, once described an IMAX camera as a highly
precision instrument designed to shake itself to pieces...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:27:07 PM)
One of the things holding back IMAX as a creative medium has been the
compromise in composition demanded by the OMNI MAX projection venues...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:27:33 PM)
One had to make the image work for both rectangular IMAX and circular
OMNI MAX which featured different horizon lines...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:28:07 PM)
I believe that future IMAX theaters should emphasize the rectangular and
forget about the circular.
Moderator (Mar 25,
2000 4:28:28 PM)
What are your feelings about learning filmmaking using video tools.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:29:24 PM)
I think the wide availability of home video cameras has encouraged many
young and not so young people to play the role of "moviemaker" ...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:30:22 PM)
There's nothing wrong with this, but those who wish to be cinematographers
should understand that the role of the DP is to think "photographically"...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:31:15 PM)
Learning and understanding the photographic processes, previsualizing
what the effect of exposing film and processing it ...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:31:45 PM)
will have upon the image in its final form. Video does not give you the
gift of understanding the working of such a process..
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:32:41 PM)
It's turn a switch and there's the image. The image may be perfectly fine,
but the exercise of a creative use of a technology is removed by its very
availability...
 Allen
Daviau (Mar 25, 2000 4:33:12 PM)
Do not think that creativity cannot be achieved with a video process,
but one's understanding...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:34:14 PM)
of the technical - artistic collaboration is not the same as when one
has mastered the medium that results in the displayed image. One can do
wonderful work with video, but it is a different area of the brain that
is put to use.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:34:37 PM)
If you've ever watched a photographic print come up in the developer you'll
know what I mean.
T.L. (Mar 25, 2000
4:35:24 PM)
Since you don't DP very many features, what do you look for in a script
that really inspires you?
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:36:14 PM)
I always ask myself if this is a film I'd want to see, let alone photograph..
.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:36:47 PM)
Does the script make me curious about the destiny of the characters? Do
I see an opportunity to do something I've never done before? ...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:37:03 PM)
Or to improve upon something that I've done in the past? Most important..
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:37:39 PM)
Is this a movie that I'd really want to see? Does it allow me to explore
some unanswered questions about life and not just the motion picture medium?
GoldenPictures (Mar
25, 2000 4:38:01 PM)
Do you work with the same crew all the time, and how do you like to work
with your gaffer? Do you tell him the look you what or do you tell him
what instruments you want were?
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:38:48 PM)
I've been working with substantiality he same crew since 1987...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:39:05 PM)
The gaffer, Larry Wallace, I've known since 1971...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:39:57 PM)
We've developed a language that is fairly instantaneous, but each day's
work will bring something to the fore that we've never experienced in
the past ...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:41:00 PM)
I have a certain style of working that uses back-cross light and most
often a variation in the degree of soft light and hard light...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:41:31 PM)
I feel that we find all kinds of light in nature and that cinematographers
tend to work the varieties that make them happy...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:42:01 PM)
Larry anticipates what I'm going to do very well and like all fine gaffers
is never afraid to make suggestions.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:42:35 PM)
For motion pictures, we tend to be influenced by all the visual media
that has surrounded us for centuries of art...
 Allen
Daviau (Mar 25, 2000 4:43:08 PM)
I find that photography influences me as much as painting or other forms
of the visual arts. I believe that...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:43:51 PM)
from the first reading of the script, I start to get an idea of what the
key images of a film will look like. In planning with my crew, I may convey
an idea of exactly what instruments I would like to use...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:44:47 PM)
but the realities of the locations, the weather, and the previous day's
images, make this subject to change...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:45:26 PM)
I think that Larry has assembled a truck of equipment designed to make
this possible. So has Michael Kenner, my key grip..
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:46:20 PM)
Both of them carry many special rigs that have worked in the past and
are ready to engineer new ones as new demands are made...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:46:59 PM)
The relationship with key crewmembers is one of the most important lessons
a cinematographer needs to learn.
Moderator (Mar 25,
2000 4:47:17 PM)
What were some of the
discussions that you and Peter Weir has before filming "Fearless".
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 4:48:16 PM)
At our first meeting, Peter asked me to sum up in one word what I thought
would be demanded of the images in Fearless...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:48:39 PM)
I said the first word that came to mind was "clarity" and not in just
a technical or resolution sense. I meant...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:49:18 PM)
that Jeff Bridge's character was someone seeing the world in a whole new
way and that the audience had to experience with him the power of a life
rediscovered...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:50:43 PM)
This became the basis for the photography of that film. We experimented
with different photographic techniques including original photography
in 65 mm to see if we could give this quality to all of the images...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:52:24 PM)
We found that it was not any single technical device that expressed clarity
as a concept, but rather an openness in our choices for each scene...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:52:52 PM)
It was one of the most moving experiences in my film career to work with
that man.
T.L. (Mar 25, 2000
4:53:15 PM)
You clearly have a gift
that few possess--did you face a lot of jealousy/resentment the first
few years of your career? I always read about famous directors who were
around such problems, but did you face the same thing? (Maybe it's just
a product of human nature...)
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:54:05 PM)
The beginning of my career was unlikely to provoke jealousy, but yes when
success is achieved it will always make some people unhappy. Sadly, you
have to expect this, but it certainly should not reduce your desire to
excel...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:55:30 PM)
There are people who are big enough to enjoy the success of others as
much as their own.
wwsj (Mar 25, 2000
4:56:00 PM)
How did perseverance pay off in your start in this business?
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:56:33 PM)
There are 3 elements to success in anything:
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:57:05 PM)
First, you must have talent. Second, you must be willing to work very,
very hard. Third, every once in a while, you must get lucky and then you
better know what to do with the luck.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:57:27 PM)
In the beginning, you're willing to do anything that lets you shoot film
and pays for the processing. But there will always be moments in the craziness
of filmmaking when you can remember to ask yourself "what am I doing here?"...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:58:22 PM)
Keeping focus on what is important to you, is a task that never ends...
ftnpro (Mar 25, 2000
4:59:03 PM)
How difficult is it to collaborate well with a director? You best know
how to use the tools available, but the director may have preconceived
ideas of how it should look? It seems like there could be tension there.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:59:45 PM)
Is the director someone you want to work with?...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 4:59:56 PM)
Do you like the work he or she has done in the past?...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:00:01 PM)
What was it that you liked about it?...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:00:42 PM)
If you are resistant to an approach that the director suggests, ask yourself
'why?'...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:01:09 PM)
Is your problem the director's or your own? Be honest with yourself in
evaluating a script...
 Allen
Daviau (Mar 25, 2000 5:01:33 PM)
If the director's approach seems totally disagreeable, what happens when
you discuss it together?...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:01:56 PM)
Sometimes both sides of a dilemma may need to modify their position...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:02:20 PM)
If it's impossible for you to do this, are you working on the wrong project?
You can always...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:04:24 PM)
strike that... Always find a way to return to a part of the project where
you were in total agreement and see where this divergence has come from...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:04:53 PM)
Of course, often, it happens in the heat of battle on the day when you
are starting to fall behind, when the production pressures are enormous
on everyone...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:05:24 PM)
How well you can communicate in such circumstances, will prove how valuable
a collaborator you are...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:05:56 PM)
No film is without its trouble spots. You have to be able to work your
way through them...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:06:25 PM)
with the ultimate goal in mind: what is good for the film? What is going
to make that film last a long time?...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:06:53 PM)
Usually, you can find a way to make it work. If not, I hope you found
this out before you signed onto the project...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:07:27 PM)
Not to be flippant, but every project from a pizza commercial to a possibly
great work of art...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:07:50 PM)
will have moments of stress. Expect them. It comes with the territory.
Moderator (Mar 25,
2000 5:08:15 PM)
Are there other photographers who have inspired your work?
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:09:23 PM)
If you are speaking of cinematographers, we have so many inspiring figures
in such a short period of time. Two years ago, at the Library of Congress
I saw a new print...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:09:39 PM)
of a film that Billy Bitzer photographed in 1898...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:09:59 PM)
It was the interior a newly opened NY subway station. He had mounted the
Edison camera...
Allen Daviau (Mar 0025
Live Chat), 2000 05:11:10 PM)
on the front of a train and covered the surface of the train car with
Cooper-Hewitt tubes, the flurescents of their time...
 Allen
Daviau (Mar 25, 2000 5:11:36 PM)
The people walking on the platforms were real subway riders wearing everyday
street clothes and staring into the lens of the camera..
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:12:14 PM)
To see them 100 years later projected on a screen, defined what cinema
as history can be. Nothing had been staged. Just beautifully recorded
by a master photographer...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:12:42 PM)
And we all got to say hello to each other across a century.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:13:38 PM)
Many of the early cinematographers came from divergent backgrounds --
from formally trained portrait photographers to a mining engineers...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:16:08 PM)
In this first century of the cinema, so many personalities have been able
to express themselves through the camera, that we have a very, very rich
gallery to choose from.
T.L. (Mar 25, 2000
5:14:31 PM)
"And we all got to say hello to each other across a century" -- one of
the most beautiful phrases to describe the cinema that I've ever heard--
Richard, ASC (Mar 25,
2000 5:16:26 PM)
Hey Allen...Richard Crudo here. Hope all is well by you. I'm writing from
New York City where I've just arrived from the Toronto leg of the feature
I'm shooting. It would be nice to hear your thoughts on the staging of
scenes - specifically how you tend to influence a director to endorse
the shots and compositions, which best serve the story. In many cases
it seems that directors are not aware of just how important this aspect
of filmmaking is ; they often elect to play things safe and also miss
the tremendous contribution the cinematographer can make in this area.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:17:28 PM)
Hello Richard...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:18:02 PM)
I find that when first walking onto a location or onto a set, I like to
set a simple lighting "mood" before the rehearsal begins...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:18:30 PM)
If it is a day interior I want to have some light come through the windows.
.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:18:44 PM)
If it's a night interior, I want to have the practical lamps on, if there
are any...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:19:20 PM)
Even if the director and I have discussed a possible blocking for the
scene, I find that the interaction of the actors...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:19:40 PM)
is often the most important catalyst for deciding who moves where and
when. ..
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:20:01 PM)
By sketching a very basic form of light into the set, I find that actors
respond to it and will tend to gravitate toward light sources!
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:21:25 PM)
As the rehearsal progresses, one tends to find, as Steven Poster puts
it, the "power spot."
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:21:56 PM)
Or the place where you want to be to view this scene...
 Allen
Daviau (Mar 25, 2000 5:22:31 PM)
No matter how much planning has gone on before, I find that seeing the
characters in the room tells you what is most important...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:23:18 PM)
Some scenes will cry out for a master with a perhaps moving camera that
allows the drama to play out in a single take...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:23:32 PM)
Other scenes require coverage. Coverage should never be automatic...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:24:01 PM)
You always need to be able to anticipate where the director will want
to be in any given moment of a scene...
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 5:25:08 PM)
This may dictate some of the coverage, but it will be those moments when
the camera is in the perfect relationship with the actors, the setting
and the light that will cause a scene to be effective and memorable...
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 5:25:25 PM)
It's finding them every time that is the hard part.
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 5:26:52 PM)
This next question will be the last one I can take today. However I will
answer the remaining questions online later...
Kosmo (Mar 25, 2000
5:27:17 PM)
I have always been impressed by your vast knowledge of our heritage and
our technology. How and where did you acquire that knowledge. I wish you
would teach a class for members of the Local.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:28:02 PM)
I was very fortunate when I first started studying film while I was a
teenager...
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 5:28:34 PM)
to meet a young man named Bob Epstein. He was attending USC cinema department...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:29:11 PM)
and to this day I regard him as one of the great teachers of film history.
He had a tremendous appreciation for every step in cinema history...
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 5:29:24 PM)
whether it involved the art, the technology or the personalities...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:30:06 PM)
Bob taught many of us to appreciate his way of viewing what was really
important and to this day I think of him, even though he is no longer
with us, whenever...
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 5:31:07 PM)
some person or film strikes me as very significant, I think I am still
being influenced by the values that Bob impressed upon us.
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:32:14 PM)
As we have entered the second century of cinema, we are going to see many
things change. But what is valuable about film is that it is one of the
most powerful ways of viewing mankind and its achievements...
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 5:33:02 PM)
We are all very fortunate to have an art form whose history is of our
times and which will continue to surpass us and delight us...
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 5:33:56 PM)
This online forum is a very new way of extending the dialogue about this
artform...
Allen Daviau (Mar 25,
2000 5:35:15 PM)
The idea that a labor union cares about the ultimate use of the images
produced by its members shows that its interests extend to the practical
problems of our craft.
Allen Daviau (Mar
25, 2000 5:36:10 PM)
Thank you everybody for coming. I will try and answer as many of the remaining
questions on the website at a later date. Thanks again.
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