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 A Conversation with Award-Winning Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC
by Jacqueline B. Frost
Have you worked with directors who use focal length and depth of field aesthetically to amplify the thematic elements of the script or scene?
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC: Usually in the movies I�ve done it has been something I brought to it. Ang Lee has his choices of lenses. Usually he will do a master shot with a 27mm; a 25 is too wide angle, medium shots will be 50mm, close ups 75mm. I tried to propose in certain parts of the story going more with a long lens and hidden. He liked the idea, but when we were shooting, it would always be the same lenses, and that�s just his way of working. He would be the director who was most specific about lenses, but it was because he was comfortable with those lenses. In �Amores Perros,� for certain stories, we used different focal lengths to tell the stories. The story of the homeless guy with all the dogs, we used longer lenses because we wanted to convey more of a sense of spying, because he was going around looking at people. Another story was more kinetic. It was all handheld but with different lenses. It was something I brought to Alejandro and he liked it. On �Babel,� we used shallow depth of field to represent the perception of the deaf, mute character in Japan.
Do you prefer primes or zooms?
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC: Absolutely. I think the main reason I operate when I can, although I don�t always. But it�s to see the performance. I do get involved with them when I am looking through the camera, and the actors are feeling these emotions. I will get emotional too. Several times I have cried on camera. It really is amazing. You get the front seat of the best performances of the best actors in the world, and you are right there, best seat in the house. So it�s really amazing.
Regarding video village, do the directors you work with watch the live performances or the monitors?
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC: A little of both, although the monitors are pretty magnetic. Most of the time, directors will be by the monitors. But they are moving them closer to where the performers are rather than being in a video village far away from the camera. Alejandro will be right behind the camera with a clamshell, and Ang Lee will be right near the camera with a small monitor. On �Alexander,� there was a video village, but that was because we had several cameras, and it was necessary for Oliver to see all of the cameras, so it depends. But I have found that directors like to see what is actually going to be captured on the film. But still being closer to the performers is what the directors I�ve been working with do.
What time of day cannot be re-created on set, or is difficult to recreate?
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC: The most difficult is sunlight on a big area of a set. To have a bright hard light source with a precise shadow, I don�t think there is one unit that can create that in a big area right now. There are the soft suns that are very bright and cover a big area, but the shadow will be slightly soft. I think that�s probably the biggest challenge. In �Alexander,� I lit a scene with a 100k soft sun and tried not to see the floor. It works fine in the close up, but in the wide shot you can tell more that it is lit. I think large areas of sunlight are very difficult to recreate on a sound stage.
What about magic hour?
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC: Magic hour is about softness, lack of shadow, it�s not that hard to do. It depends on what units you use. Recently, I had a very big challenge in �Lust, Caution� in the final sequence. It�s supposed to happen at sunset. Ang wanted a purplish light combined with the golden light of sunset. I was terrified of it. How do you create the afternoon sunlight on a sound stage on a huge street? I had sunset light coming in through the alley, and it was difficult; it had to be one stop over. I had maybe eight dinos, concord lights, jumbo lights, lit up like a stadium. And then it started to get to magic hour. Right now, I�m color grading it. That scene is the main scene we are doing a DI [digital intermediate] for this movie. On �Brokeback Mountain,� we did not do a DI, because Ang was skeptical of DI�s. But the only way I could really see doing this ending scene in �Lust, Caution� was with a DI, to get what he wanted. So in this case we could isolate the sunlight and keep it going while still getting the purple glow he wanted. The first DI I did was on �Frida.� It can be like a double-edged sword.
Has the Digital Intermediate changed the way you shoot a film?
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC: A little bit, for example, on �Lust, Caution,� I wasn�t sure in the end if it would be a DI or not. So all the time I kept talking about that purple scene because Ang kept asking me how I was going to light it. And I would say, I can�t, there is no DP in the world that will light this huge street with purple light, it�s impossible. We have to use this ambient light and make it purple in color grading. Two, three days later, he would ask me again. I wasn�t sure if we were going to have a DI, but that is the one scene I was counting on for the DI in color grading.
One thing with a DI that complicates matters is that a director is expecting that you can do anything with the DI, and it�s not really like telecine. In telecine, you can do more than a DI because you have the print on film. Sometimes I lit in a certain way where I lose detail in certain shadows and I want that, but on telecine, there is detail there, because the negative has it [the details], but the final print won�t have the same details. So the director sees their dailies on video, and they see all these things that you won�t have on the final print, but they want it. So I�ve been suffering with DI�s a bit because they sometimes want to brighten the shadows more than was my intention. How do you get dailies to look the way your print will look? The difference between how the negative responds and the print is just not the same.
I am now using EFilm where you scan the negative in from the beginning so you see dailies that are color corrected to match with the look of a print. So hopefully our dailies will look more like the end result. For visual effects, you can color correct as you go, and it stays with it. That will make the DI in the end more effective and will take less time. Then everyone agrees where you are going, so there�s less tweaking in the end.
Regarding formats, what makes you decide between a super 35mm, or regular 35mm format, or even super 16mm over HD? Do you suggest format to a director based on the project?
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC: Whatever I think works for the subject matter, I have no preference at all. I like to vary it. On �Babel,� we ended up going 1:85. I think almost a natural choice would have been widescreen. But when we were scouting locations in Morocco, we checked with my viewfinder, and saw the locations with the 2:35 and the 1:85, and Alejandro felt the 2:35 was too beautiful. Because the mountain ranges looked fantastic, but he wanted to feel the ground where the people lived. He wanted to see the floor, so we actually ended up favoring compositions that sort of saw the floor, felt the ground. So that was the main reason we wanted to go 1:85 on the movie. Even though in Japanese sequence I used anamorphic lenses, we cut off the sides and used only the 1:85 portion of it. I wanted the anamorphic look for the depth of field but the aspect ratio was 1:85. So it varies. I think on this movie I�m going to do now I�ll probably go anamorphic because we do want the 2:35 aspect ratio. But for the depth of field, I could go super 35. The choice it just depends on what you feel for the subject matter. And so it�s something I always discuss with the director from the beginning. But I don�t have a preference. Some DP�s swear by anamorphic exclusively, and that�s fine. That�s why right now I don�t own equipment. I did for some time own some ultra prime lenses. I like them very much, but for example, in �Brokeback Mountain,� I used Cookes. On this movie, I may use Panavision. I prefer not to be married to anything. It may be good business to own your own gear. I prefer to be free artistically to choose whatever I think works great for a scene or a movie.
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