Eye on New England Cinematographers

Film buffs often speaks about the proliferation of indie films in recent years–efforts like BOYS DON’T CRY and THE APOSTLE–as an optimistic sign for the future of American film. Informed moviegoers cite the Coen Brothers (FARGO) and Atom Egoyan (THE SWEET HEREAFTER) as examples of accomplished independent writer-directors. Still, another essential, sometimes unheralded element in indie filmmaking is the work of the cinematographer or director of photography (D.P.).

Many filmmakers and film buffs alike make it their business to find out about the new directors of photography helping to shape the vision of the director and the screenwriter of each new independent movie. The following area cinematographers–as different as they may be in background,training, interests and philosophy–share a passionate commitment to their craft, an abiding respect for the directors with whom they work, a realism about the difficulties for novices in their profession and a willingness to choose what poet Robert Frost called "the road not taken" to arrive at a personal photographic view of their subject and the world.

Melissa Donovan, camera assistant on a NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC shoot on the Juan Fernandez Islands, off the coast of Chile.

Evans Brown has always wanted to take pictures for a living (in fact, since the age of nine), but then he had the best kind of mentor–his own father. Always impressed by Hamilton Brown’s decades of work as a respected photographer, the 33 year old Boston-frequenting cinematographer "developed a similar passion" for the field–"my stick is photography," he confessed–and continues to "aspire to be as good as he was." Even so, Brown sensed early on that he needed "to earn a living to be able to take pictures." After deciding to leave the school of the Museum of Fine Arts after three years of study because of debts he incurred, the now Los Angeles-based Brown joined a Boston union while working as a gaffer and an electrician to pay off his school obligation. "I learned a lot about lighting," he explained. For a while, Brown focused more on lighting and less on actual photography. "It was a frustrating time, but a good learning time." Just as of three years ago, he was shooting film again.

Perhaps Brown’s most important work during this time has been as director of photography on a new 35mm black and white film called DOG DAYS. A coming of age film about a 13 year old girl in a suburban family who befriends a homeless man, this "post-apocalypse-set" film was produced by Ellie Lee, someone he greatly admires. DOG DAYS, a project he calls "a dream come true," is making the festival rounds these days. "I’ll bet in my career that I won’t get a chance like that again," he predicted. By contrast, PASSWORD, a "MATRIX type sci-fi film" in negotiation for a June-July shoot will involve special effects and recall films like BRASIL. He senses that this project will be ideal for the Sundance Film Festival.

Although PASSWORD relies in part on effects, Brown concentrates on the photography itself. "I don’t have a huge interest in video," he confessed. Prefering a movie camera to a video camera, he spoke of capturing the first person looking at the movie occuring for the first time. "There’s something about the light going through the emotion," he concluded.

Scott Crawford, director of photography on TEACAKES OR CANNOLI and CAPTIVE AUDIENCE, and standing next to him, Matt Thurber (1st AC).

Scott Crawford originally planned for a career in psychology though he remembered being fascinated with photography since he was six years old. Eventually, the now 27 year old East Boston native earned a degree in the history and theory of film at Clark University. For hands-on experience, he trained as an intern at Boston Camera and served as a rental camera assistant around town. Soon he was gaining expertise with still photography. "I was able to talk my way into shooting gigs for five years," he says.

A busy director of photography, Crawford has lately produced five features, four shorts, 3 music videos, two commercials and a corporate video for the discovery channel. Two of his features, TEACAKES OR CANNOLI and CAPTIVE AUDIENCE are gaining considerable attention.

TEACAKES OR CANNOLI, a coming of age drama, is slating for screening at the Cannes Film Festival. CAPTIVE AUDIENCE, a psychological thriller in which a disc jockey is taken hostage, was an award winner at the National Independent Film Festival , the Planet Indie Festival and the Magnolia Film Festival. Crawford will be shooting another thriller in September, now untitled but formerly called THE RIGHT RED HAND, with a script by Mike Gioscia and direction by Gioscia and Kurt St. Thomas. Describing this film as "CHRISTINE meets THE BIG CHILL," he said that it is more in the vein of a horror film. The website for TEACAKES is www.corporatesucker.com. AUDIENCE is slated for eventual rebroadcast on the WGBH-TV program VIEWPOINT.

Crawford cited photographer Edward Weston (see the Museum of Fine Arts Exhibit through May 29) as an influence and local photographers Jim Dow and Bill Burke as mentors. H e also praised award-winning cinematographer Conrad Hall (AMERICAN BEAUTY) as "the prince of darkness." Crawford particularly recognized the approach of master cinematographer Nestor Almendros (SOPHIE’S CHOICE), whom he credited for "not feeling locked in by the conventions of filmmaking." Likewise, Crawford considers himself a minimalist. He says, "For every light that comes into the frame–every illumination–I can find a grounding in reality. The narrative is primary. I try to let the story dictate what i do."

Melissa Donovan actually started out studying to become a journalist at Ohio Wesleyan University but quickly knew she hated it and preferred instead to "probe my own reel." Deciding to "kind of teach myself," the 36 year old Medford cinematographer has worked at Videocraft, a local production house, and the Boston Camera House and proceeded over the last 15 years to do projects ranging from commercials (including one for the Laconia, New Hampshire Savings Bank and a series for a Midwest organization called the Marshfield Cancer Center) and videos to camera work on National Geographic show documentaries.

If Donovan has grown as a director of photography largely through self-teaching, she has also received a great deal of valuable mentoring from Bourne-based veteran cinematographer Robert Richardson (famed for his work on such major Oliver Stone films as JFK and NATURAL BORN KILLERS). Calling him "a big influence," she spoke of working "right with Bob Richardson" and learning directly from him about "being able to tell it (the story) with everything that you’re made of."

Donovan credited female mentors as well. Of Carolyn Chen, a "pretty big commercial photographer" in Los Angeles, she said,"She puts a lot of passion in it (her work)." She also cited the influence of cinematographers Ellen Kuras(I SHOT ANDY WARHOL) and Lisa Rinzler (DEAD PRESIDENTS). She is proudest of an independent film called LIFT, for which she served as a camera operator. An award -winner at Sundance for its script by De Mane Davis, who also co-directed with Khari Streeter (its producers won an Indie Award for BOYS DON’T CRY), this Boston-set drama revolves around a mother-daughter conflict and the world of professional shoplifting. LIFT is currently entering shooting and production.

Donovan also spoke proudly of a work in progress called FALL PEOPLE. Also set locally, FALL PEOPLE, slated for production in a couple of years, centers on an eccentric family that moves into a summer home in the fall while the owners are back at their main home. Donovan admitted that her own family lived in a Cape Cod home during her own childhood. She will be the director of photography for this low-budget, Massachusetts-shot film (expected to be about 90 minutes in length).

Gary Hennick, at 46, is the veteran among this group of independent cinematographers. The Boston-based director of photography began taking pictures at the age of eight or nine with an 8mm black and white camera. Photographing Russia in the pre-Gorbachev days (1981-1984: "the dark old days," as he called them), Hennick began freelancing in earnest a year later.

In 1990 he obtained a fellowship at Harvard for the Russian Research Center. Since then he has worked on the Frontline longform project and one of the six parts of a new history of the religion of African Americans called "This Far by Faith." His latest major project is directing photography for a local mother-daughter relationship movie called TREADING WATER to be shot in Super 16 in Marblehead. What sets Hennick apart from the other cinematographers in these profiles is his extensive travel (all around the world) to film economic documentaries, particularly in East Asia and East Africa (Uganda, especially). Besides directing a lot of first time directors as he shot their films, he has also worked on foreign language films in France, Venezuela and many other countries. As major influences, he cites the early Japanese master directors Kurosawa, Ozu and Mizoguchi. Hennick also credits the work of Gordon Willis and Vittorio Storaro, two cinematographers who believe in supplementing what is already there for the screen rather than creating their own realities.

Lately he has also been working as an actor on television as well as on stage, the latter with Shakespeare and Company as well as the Andrea Southwick group. Hennick subscribes to the philosophy of what are known as "The Dogma/’95 People." Their view is that there should be no tripod, no artificial lighting and nothing else that detracts from the reality of a scene.

The primary influence on Hennick is director Raoul Ruiz (ON TOP OF THE WHALE), known as "the best known of the unknown filmmakers." As with Ruiz, Hennick believes in an approach to film that is antithetical to the classic Hollywood notion of a three act film with predictable structure. He hopes that someday his canon of films, like Ruiz’s, will be seen as "lyrical, mystical and magical".

Bernie Karol actually started out as a "film school dropout" from the Brooks Institute in Santa Monica, where he studied photography, film and video. It was not until the now 41 year old cinematographer began training one summer with the Westside Community Film Workshop in New York that this Connecticut native "got bit by the production bug". At first Karol found cinematography to be "a difficult field to crack". However, increasing networking, including the Maine Workshop in 1985 at Rockport and local spots and work as a best boy and as an electrician in Connecticut began to give him access to more camera work and possibilities. Eventually he was able to work as chief lighting director for a Neil Jordan film (IN DREAMS) and director of photography Darius Khondji. Finding Khondji very approachable, Karol was able to "watch a true contemporary master". Finding this to be "a kind of revelation of sorts for me," he considered this a new phase of his career.

Although in 1988 he was able to do some independent work in commercials, he still "kind of held back". In December of that year, he got together with

S.G. Collins, director of photography for a film called THE SAME SIDE OF REJECTION STREET, an independent small budget film about two strangers (a man and a woman) who get together in the future (To be screened at the Coolidge Corner Movie House May 24).

Karol is lining up a few more public service announcements in addition to one that he completed recently on Arbor Day, which will be shown on various local stations in early May. Two of the more provocative PSA’s are one on stalking (told from the point of view of the victim) and a dot-com party theme. He is also in negotiations with several local filmmakers about shorts or features and is "working out contractual elements." Lately he has been very conscious of "the business aspect and the creative/artistic aspect of film" in order to fulfill the desire of respected filmmakers. Right now Karol is trying to pave two new roads for his work – one involving movies and another, commercial work. Yet, first and foremost, he is focusing on "making wonderful and unique images". Scituate based Karol is particularly fond of Boston’s "independent spirit" and the city’s "opportunities over the years to experiment." He says, "Certainly this (Boston) is a strong film community."  

Jules Becker serves as theater critic for the worcester telegram and backbay courant as well as film,music reviewer for the jewish advocate and the new england entertainment digest.