William A. Fraker on Heaven Can Wait
By Bob Fisher

"I can recall at least three times when I wanted to quit, says William A. Fraker, A.S.C., remembering what it was like to get Heaven Can Wait onto film.

"I'm glad I didn't," he admits.

Fraker ranks Heaven Can Wait high on his list of personal favorites. And for the man who was behind the camera for such movie fare as Bullit, Rosemary's Baby, Paint Your Wagon and Looking For Mr. Goodbar that's saying a great deal.

What made this picture difficult was also what made it good. "Warren Beatty really cares about what's up there on the screen," Fraker explains. "That made for some great experiences, and also for some exasperating ones. However, in the end, the only thing that counts is what happens when the audience sees the film. That's the real moment of truth."

Heaven Can Wait was in many ways a throwback to an older Hollywood, where pictures were about beautiful people and had happy endings. One pay-off is it's broad appeal." Most films today are targeted for younger audiences," Fraker says. "They are the people who most often turn off their TV sets and go to the movies.

However, I watched the lines at box offices, and there were many people in their 40's and older," he says. "I think that there was a lot of word-of-mouth. People knew that they would go home feeling good."

A key to the picture is it's visual appeal, a feeling of lushness and splendor.

"Every picture has a look, a visual feeling or a mood," Fraker says. That's true whether it's the low key-mood that earned Fraker his first Academy Award nomination last year for Looking For Mr. Goodbar, or the rich, brigh, high-key appeal of Heaven Can Wait.

Even so, Fraker doesn't believe any picture should have a preconceived look. "Some cinematographers are associated with certain types of work," he says, "however, I don't believe you can always superimpose what someone has achieved before onto a new film. The look of a film is inherent in the script, the director, the cast, and location. Those are the elements that the director of photography has to start with each time."

For Heaven Can Wait the main theme Beatty wanted to establish was the attractiveness and appeal of the characters portrayed by Julie Christie and himself. Fraker helped establish that look or feeling during the initial days of shooting at a palatial estate near Palo Alto. The cinematographer describes it as a beautiful setting with lots of rich wood, opulent marble, and high ceilings- 20 to 30 feet high.

He used the latter to turn the mansion into a mini-studio by building scaffolding for hanging lights. "I had the luxury of using one light for each job," he explains. "One light for a vase. Another for a wooden cabinet. And others for each item in the backgrounds.

"That's a 1940's studio lighting technique, but when you combine it with the current Eastman color negative II film 5247, the results can be startling. You can make anything pop out of the background, and everything can be rich and luxurious."

With all of the backlighting, Fraker was free to use flat keys to flatter the characters. Having established the look, the next challenge was following through at other locations. Heaven was built on Stage 15 at Paramount Studios. The original idea was to light from below, since heaven was presumed to be someplace above the sun. To achieve this a six-foot high metal grid served as the floor of heaven. Smoke from vats of dry ice poured over the sides of the grid and clung to a wet muslin covering it until the air heated.

The smoke and covering eliminated the possibility of lighting from below; however, the idea worked anyway because it created a cool area under the grid. This made it possible to shoot five or six minute takes.

The football game scenes were shot at half-time at the Los Angeles Coliseum. It was an extremely difficult scene because Fraker had to make due with the stadium lights." While it was more than adequate, it didn't match the controlled illumination that characterized the rest of the picture," Fraker says.

He covered the game scenes like a documentary with six stationary and two roving cameras. "I wasn't totally satisfied," Fraker says. "I'd say it was an 80 percent effort compared to the rest of the picture."

What's next? Fraker has already completed 1941, a comedy based upon a World War II incident that occurred when a Japanese submarine shelled a West Coast oil refinery. Now, he's considering directing. That would be his first such effort since Monty Walsh some 10 years ago. "I feel ready now," he explains.

One of the things he likes best about the idea of directing is that it would allow him to work with other cinematographers. However, that doesn't mean Fraker would give up shooting.

"I want the whole thing, the broadest possible experience," he says. "I want to shoot film with the good directors, and direct with the good cinematographers."

Fraker is an alumnus of the USC School of Cinema. He attended USC after World War II on the G.I. Bill- "that's the only way I could have afforded to go," he recalls. In 1950, he considered writing a master's thesis recommending that the four largest studios get together and purchase the ABC network, and use it mainly as an outlet for feature films.

Instead, he targeted on getting his union card. Fraker moonlighted for years doing inserts for commercials and grab shots for features. After getting his union card, he worked as an operator on TV programs for some ten years. That eventually led to an assignment shooting commercials in 1965, and his first feature film, Games, in 1966.

He often lectures at his alma mater and other cinema schools. What advice does he offer to young people aspiring to break into the industry? "I tell them that if they have the talent and dedication to put movie making above all else, they'll make the opportunity," he says.