According to Julio Macat, every so often a director of photography might get lucky enough to make a movie that is touching on a passionate level. The cinematographer definitely found Crazy in Alabama, the directorial debut of actor Antonio Banderas, to be that type of project.

A period piece set in the summer of 1965, Crazy in Alabama is based on a novel by Mark Childress (who also authored the script) which draws upon boyhood memories of his deep South upbringing - Peejoe is actually an alter ego to Childress. The picture's plot unfolds in parallel stories. The first strand concerns Aunt Lucille (Melanie Griffith), who murders her abusive husband, chops his head off and carries it around in a hat box because she's somewhat in denial about reality. On her way out of town, Lucille visits her mother just long enough to unload her children. Kissing her kids goodbye, the quirky Lucille leaves on a cross-country trek to Hollywood, certain that stardom awaits her. Back home, her nephew Peejoe - short for Peter Joseph (Lucas Black II) - watches as a heavy-handed sheriff accidentally kills a black teenager during a non-violent protest at a public swimming pool. Sheriff Doggett (Meat Loaf), however, vehemently denies having hurt the young man. However, Peejoe's eyewitness testimony thrusts him into a dangerous moral dilemma.

Crazy in Alabama cinematographer Julio Macat was born and raised in his native Argentina until the age of 14, when his family relocated to Los Angeles. He began his career at a rental house, a gig that led to occasional opportunities on second-unit crews. Subsequently, Macat worked on the commercial crew for Mario Tosi, ASC, and operated second-unit camera for Chris Menges, BSC (Shy People), Alan Hume, BSC (Runaway Train) and Don Thorin, ASC (Tango and Cash). He also shot several respectable low-budget features and more than 100 music videos before his 30th birthday. That experience led to an opportunity to shoot Home Alone, followed by a string of other comedies including Ace Ventura, Only the Lonely along with remakes of Miracle on 34th Street and The Nutty Professor.

"Melanie [Griffith] and [producer] Linda Knowlton Goldstein were interested in this script for a long time," says Macat of Crazy in Alabama. "Antonio saw it as a great American story about the quest for freedom. He had acted in nearly 60 movies and many plays and he was ready to try something new."

The director became introduced to Macat through his fellow cinematographer Guillermo Navarro, who had photographed Banderas on Desperado. The Spanish language was their initial link. Banderas wanted bilingual people on the crew to facilitate communications - first assistant director Jorge Baron, production designer Cecilia Montiel and costume designer Graciela Mazon are all Spanish speakers.

"He had already seen some of my work, so at our first meeting, I think Antonio mainly wanted to see how our personalities meshed, and if I shared his enthusiasm," Macat recalls. "The meeting was very emotional meeting - he was jumping up and down, acting out bits of the story. His passion was contagious. I loved the script and felt an instant affinity with Antonio."

Three months before the picture was slated for production, Macat told Banderas that he would come onboard. During the early preparation stages, Macat spent two to three hours a day in discussions with the director. "We spoke about his ideas, and I helped him jot down little storyboards," says Macat. "That got the ideas out of his head and onto paper, and gave him a visual reference to show other people who were working on the film. Antonio was already hearing the score as well as picturing a lot of this film in his head.

"I tried to put Antonio at ease about the technical parts of shooting, so that he could concentrate on the performances, but he was fascinated by the process," says Macat. "He wanted to know everything. He even bought a video recorder and a little editing system, and practiced shooting and cutting. He has an unquenchable thirst for learning."

Macat managed to get a better sense of Banderas' cinematic tastes after viewing some films with him. For lighting references, the two looked at In the Heat of the Night, Tucker, Touch of Evil and Searching for Bobby Fischer. Meanwhile, concerns for composition and other visual details were raised while watching Raise the Red Lantern, 1900 and Amarcord. "We were going to shoot 130 pages in 45 days, so we needed a common language. Sometimes I also showed him pictures from magazines, and asked what he thought about tones, contrast and colors."

Approximately two-thirds of Crazy in Alabama was filmed at practical locations in and around Alabama while the remaining scenes took place in the greater Los Angeles area. Sequences of Aunt Lucille driving across country were filmed in the Mojave Desert, and the company built the Las Vegas hotel, courtroom and jailhouse sets, in addition to various locations around the city.

Because so much of Crazy in Alabama is seen from Peejoe's point of view, Banderas decided to shoot in a wide film format. "Kids always see the world as a bigger place," explains Macat. "They are smaller and have a lower viewpoint - it allows the audience to get inside Peejoe's head and see the world through his eyes." A broader frame also makes the audience privy to Aunt Lucille's point-of-view. "She fought for her freedom and was driving across the desert," Macat says. "Antonio wanted the audience to feel her freedom and the expansive space around her."

Banderas enjoyed the look of The Mask of Zorro, which was shot in the anamorphic (2.4:1) format. That was the director's preference for Crazy in Alabama, and Macat agreed. The studio was leery, however, due to misgivings that shooting in anamorphic might eat up too much of the film's relatively modest budget.

"The anamorphic lenses cost more to rent, but that wasn't the biggest issue," admits Macat. "I knew we'd be shooting at night, usually with two cameras. I was planning to use the Kodak Vision 200-speed film [5274] for everything but the dimmest night scenes, when I switched to the Vision 500 film [5279]. To get the rich black tones we wanted, I figured we'd have to light for a T4 stop in those dark night scenes. So we could use spherical lenses, I suggested shooting in Super 35 instead. That would allow us to set up faster and reduce the instruments needed for lighting those scenes."

The downside to Super 35 is that the format uses a smaller portion of the image area, and subsequently requires an optical blow-up in the lab. With this process, Macat realized that the blackest tones could get a little milky and build up a little grain in extreme lighting situations. He shot a test with the proprietary Technicolor ENR process, which alters contrast during print processing by retaining more of the film's silver halide crystals. "Antonio wanted the audience to feel the heat," Macat says. "He saw people looking damp and sweaty. The impression he wanted to imprint in their mind was that things are boiling over and getting ready to erupt. To me, that means we needed rich tones and deeply saturated colors - it's what I call the Italian way of thinking [about tonality], not the British style."

But Macat also discovered ways to amplify emotional overtones in-camera. During a location scout, he noticed someone burning grass behind a farm house that production planned to use. He felt that the hazy smoke added a subtle touch to the overall ambiance and that the burning grass enhanced the location's theme.

The film's camera package came from Rocky Mountain Motion Picture Equipment, and included two Moviecams and one Arri-III body, Arri VariFocal prime lenses (including a Periscope from Century Precision Optics) and an Arri 45mm split-focus lens. "I like the Moviecams, they are compact, lightweight, and converts easilyinto Steadicam mode."

Macat made extensive use of a 45mm split-focus lens, or the "bending lens," as he terms the unit. "It's a great length. We shot a scene with three people in a car. It was a side mount racking shot where somebody is close in the foreground and someone else is deep in the background. They're talking and we had all three in focus. It gives you another option and a different look. It is also a great tool when you don't have a lot of time to cover a scene. You can build a beautiful frame and let the story play. Of course, you need the help of an excellent focus puller like Steve Peterson. Steve is one of the best at setting split focuses."

Adds Macat, "I also fell in love with the periscope lens, which is like a Frazier lens, but without all the nuts and bolts. We were shooting a lot from lower angles especially for Peejoe's perspective, and this lens was an effective way to get the camera right on the ground. You can see things from a different and interesting perspective."

The cinematographer mentions that, at times, Banderas "pushed him" to cover scenes with three shots of the same angle but at different focal lengths. In a few selected scenes, that emphasis enabled Macat and editor Maysie Hoy to create montages with quick cuts and dissolves. In one sequence, Peejoe is mowing the lawn only for a rock to careen off the twirling blades, hitting him in the eye. He falls backward. Macat covered that shot in different lens sizes - very wide, medium close and very close-in.

"Because of the interweaving of the two stories, we sometimes use the camera to bring the audience from one place to another," says Macat. "In one scene, the brother of the murdered boy makes a statement by getting into the pool - where the protest occurred - at night when no one else is around. He's just floating. We come in very close and there is a pure white fog caressing the pool and his body - it is an almost religious experience. We dissolved from a pretty close-in shot to a medium wide, and then to a really wide angle shot. Serene and very beautiful is the only way that I can describe it."

Macat frequently shot scenes using two cameras with different-sized lenses - typically, a medium and a close-up. Sometimes, he isolated a camera on thematically important or interesting details. "We picked out a lot of odd and interesting things with the second camera," recalls Macat. "Once, it was a close-up of someone's hands fumbling at a critical moment, and another time we came in close on a fat lady smoking a cigar. We also utilized multiple cameras for coverage of big scenes. We had as many as 150 people marching in protests. In this instance, we dressed an operator in period clothing and he shot newsreel type footage in black-and-white with a vintage 16mm camera." Coached by Macat, Banderas quickly found confidence utilizing a viewfinder to observe shots with different lens sizes. Soon after, he was requesting that the cinematographer use a specific millimeter lens for upcoming scenes. "It was like pre-editing in your head," he says. "I asked Antonio what statement he wanted to make, and then I would present him with what I thought was the best shot. Eight out of ten times, he agreed. Sometimes he had other specific ideas that worked and other times, he asked for something impossible and I'd tell him why.

"Antonio liked using variable frame rates to speed up or slow down action," continues Macat. "There is something magical that happens when you expose film at 40 frames per second. It's hyper-reality, but I think audiences are conscious and accepting of these techniques. The music swells up and the images slow down. I can't say enough about how artfully Antonio combined music cues and images."

"This picture was a process of discovery for Antonio. He was very open and willing to experiment and compare different ways of shooting scenes. He has impeccable taste, and that's something you can't learn."

Like many contemporary directors, Banderas relied on videotapes feeding images to monitors. The viewscreens allowed him to follow the action being recorded on film. The director kept the monitors close to the cameras, because he wanted to remain near both actors and cameras. Sometimes, the "actor" in Banderas crept up and he'd find himself acting out little bits of a scene for an actor.

Most of the time, Macat kept the cameras moving on cranes and dolly tracks, and also a Steadicam handled by A-camera operator Guy Bee. "I don't recall making this much use of a Steadicam before," he says. "When your back is against the wall, and you don't have a lot of time to cover a scene that plays out in one shot, a great Steadicam operator can give you the freedom to block really interesting coverage. Sometimes, we stopped halfway through a shot and Guy locked it down like a regular camera - it feels natural."

The main reason that the cinematographer likes movement is because when you stop, and the camera is static, the audience gets pulled deeper into the story. "I shot the tightest close-ups I've done on any movie, and the reason was simple - Antonio was seeing the shots that way in his mind. It was part of the passion he had for this film. He wasn't afraid to take chances or do something different. He went for it."

When Macat says "close-up," he is talking from chin to mid-forehead. One example occurs when Peejoe witnesses the young black man being killed. Both the Sheriff and Peejoe realize that their fates are linked, and that recognition can be seen in their faces and eyes. "Lucas [Black] is an amazing young actor," he says. "He looks the Sheriff in the eye and never flinches. You could write a book about the look in his eyes."

Macat also describes a heart-wrenching shot in which Peejoe and his Uncle Dove (David Morse), tell the dead child's father about the murder. That scene was filmed in one room of a shack in rural Louisiana. He kept the lighting natural and minimal with a single source motivated by daylight coming through a window. The light bounced around the room providing a source for ambient fill. A second window provided a source of sidelight.

Macat believes the film's strongest sequence to be one in which a demonstration nearly turns into a riot. A picture of the melee taken by a news photographer ends up being printed on the cover of Look Magazine. The photo puts the town and the murder on the map. The cinematographer chose to shoot part of that sequence in black-and- white 16mm and Super 8 formats. The goal was to emulate the grainy quality of 1960s news film seen on TV. The footage was blown up to a 35mm intermediate stretched into a widescreen aspect ratio.

"The black-and-white photos that were part of our story gave us the motivation, so we set up a small action sequence with people being dragged through the streets, copying the actions of riots we've seen on TV film from those unhappy days," he says. "We used the Super 8 camera to record cut-aways of details, including an angry-looking barking dog. The smaller formats accentuate the grain and give this sequence the dream-like quality of impressionistic paintings."

At one point during the protest march, the father of the dead child is walking in the crowd, illuminated by a very strong backlight. To hint at a halo effect, Macat used a net on the lens - just enough to make him stand out. "We are drawing the audience's attention to places and people in the frame," he says. "There's another scene where two boys are sleeping on cots in a mortuary. We used light to draw the eye of the audience to the caskets and religious symbols. In the mortuary attic, the split-focus lens allowed us to compose other shots, without anything important in the frame going soft."

Technicolor printed four reels of Crazy in Alabama with the ENR process. Macat was ecstatic - the look appeared exactly as he and Banderas had envisioned. The studio, however, switched horses in mid-stream. A contractual agreement had been made with DeLuxe Labs to handle all release printing, but Macat had timed the film anticipating usage of ENR. Luckily, DeLuxe's vice-president of technology, Beverly Woods, managed to substitute the company's own proprietary process - ACE, an acronym for Adjustable Contrast Enhancement - for ENR. So from the production standpoint, there was a happy ending after all. Thrilled with the final results, Macat is looking forward to his next picture, which he hopes will once again team him up "with a passionate collaborator like Antonio Banderas."

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