AIC, 1988 - AIC Associazione Italiana Autori della Fotografia ...

AIC
reality became one.
Even now that technological
equipment has become so highly
sophisticated, one still hears people
commenting that without the nails,
wire and wedges, the cinema wouldn't
be what it is today.
1 am convinced that it is possible to
realize absolutely anything on film.
Man's ingenuity knows no bounds, and
there is no end to the technologies that
can be invented — as long as it is man,
and not technology, who is running the
show.
The cinema has taken giant steps
forwards from the time films were first
shot at 16 photograms per second,
using a camera operated by a crank, to
the 24 photograms per second used
today.
All the innovations — great and small —
inventions and developments that have
taken place over the years have
combined to transform the craft of
film-making, as practised by the few,
into the vast cinema industry it is
today, with an investment and return
of capital that very few other industries
can boast.
Film-making equipment has also
changed a great deal as the cinema has
progressed.
From the hand-operated cameras, one
has progressed to the highlysophisticated
ones of today. Cameras
equipped with multiquartz, which
function to within one thousandth of a
millimetre precision, and which are
constructed from either special steel or
alloys which become lighter and more
wear-resistant all the time. Optics
which produce images with the clarity,
sharpness or soft focus that the
Director of Photography wishes to
obtain. Cameras equipped with
shutters that can change speed during
filming, automatically modifying the
aperture of the Stop. Cameras that are
incredibly silent, for filming in direct
sound. Cameras that can offer so
much, technobgically speaking, that
one can indeed say that they are near
perfect; however, research continues,
and certainly won't stop until
perfection has been reached — whenever
that might be!
The same can be said for the lighting,
as the "spots" that were once so big
and heavy, have now become smaller,
lighter and consequently more
manageable; while the bulbs
themselves have also become smaller
m°re powerful, and consume less
electricity, to the extent that, today,
one is able to create double the
amount of light with a lamp that is
jtalf as heavy, half the size and uses
naif the power.
The amount of light necessary for
shooting has also been reduced, thanks
to both the quality and senstivity of
'ne film, which has improved
enormously in the last few years.
At this point, I feel it is necessary to
say a few words about the printing and
aeveloping industry, and the
manufacture of film. The quality of
turn has reached such perfection
nowadays, and it is possible to
reproduce colours so faithfully, that the
slight variations that were once
noticeable with the different types of
film are no longer detectable. There is,
in fact, film available with an
extremely fine grain and high pose
latitude, which can take under or
over-exposing very well, and which can
be "forced" as much as two "stops"
while being developed, and still keep
the enlargement of the grain within
reasonable limits.
The printing and developing equipment
has also become much more
sophisticated, so that with the
developers and equipment now
Marco Scarpelli con una Debrie "Parvo" in Legno (1937)
available, it is virtually impossible for
the temperature of a developer bath to
suddenly fall, the composition of the
"PH" to vary, or other similar
inconveniences to occur.
Once the work print has had the
colour balance corrected, and the data
has been recorded onto a floppy disk
by the computer, the other prints can
then be struck. And once the first print
has been corrected, one can be sure
that all the subsequent prints will be
identical, even if a different positive
film is used, or the prints themselves
are actually struck at some future
point.
The computer is able to take all this
into account, and can a/so compensate
for differences that emerge from the
sensitometric tests carried out on the
different types of film.
The level of perfection reached in
optics has also helped to streamline the
actual filming.
The High Speed lenses allow one to
shoot in poor daylight, by night, or in
an interior where there is very little
light which cannot be augmented in
any way: for example, the filming of a
live performance in a theatre.
Using both a high speed lens and film
with a high sensibility, one can film in
locations, and under conditions, where
until very recently, it would have been
impossible.
As one can see, numerous factors, all
closely linked, have contibuted to the
cinema's development over the years.
The latest factor, the last link in the
chain — at least for the present — is
/timing's being transformed by
electronics, or, in other word, filming
becoming electronic.
What this really means is that the
cinema's future is strictly linked to
that of television and the High
Definition system, which results in the
image being almost as clear and sharp
as the cinematographic image. Having
read reports written by colleagues who
have already worked with this system,
I think that, apart from some
inconveniences, one of the major ones
being the "umbilical cord" factor, as
Vittorio Sforare has so aptly named it
in his article "Questo matrimonio
s'ha da fare" (A Marriage that has to
be Worked at, written after having
filmed "Arlecchino a Venecia", directed
by Giuliano Montaldo, in HDTV.
Apart from the "umbilical cord",
which prevents the telecamera^ from
moving more than a certain distance
from the director's cabin, there are
other major and minor inconveniences
that have to be eliminated — the first
being the high cost — before the two
media, which up until now have
followed parallel but separate roads,
can become "united". Many people, in
fact, believe that this won't happen for
a good few years yet.
However, apart from this projected
"marriage" of the two media, electronic
equipment is already being used in
film-making, even if in a relatively
minor way. It is most often used to
record the scenes which are actually
being filmed, and simultaneously
transmit them to a video screen where
they can be viewed immediately. It is a
system which not only results in more
economic use of film, a reduction in the
margin of error and a great deal of
time being saved, but also permits the
Director to actually edit the film while
he is shooting it!
There is no end to the amazing things
that can be done with electronics, but
perhaps the most incredible
achievement is the computer's capacity
to reconstruct images and re-create
new ones, when it transforms, for
example, old black and white films into
colour by tinting the images according
to the various tones of grey.
The transferring of film onto magnetic
tape and vice versa, is an operation
that all labs are capable of carrying
out and which is now a routine part of
their work.
Even though a little less than a
century has passed since that historical
day in 1895, it would seem that the
cinema, ber se, has already gone as far
as it ca:i go, has reached the maximum
as regards technique, and as a form of
entertainment. It's not that it has
already started on the downhill curve —
not yet — but just that it is
experiencing a momentary crisis, due to
its being slowly "overtaken" by
television. Television that results in
people shutting themselves in their
homes and becoming more and more
isolated. I feel this is a terrible shame,
as people are losing the desire to go
and see a good film at the cinema, and
sharing the experiencing a momentary
crisis, due to its being slowly
"overtaken" by television. Television
that results in people shutting
themselves in their homes and
becoming more losing the desire to go
and see a good film at the cinema, and
sharing the experience with others. It is
my firm opinion that we should make
the effort to go out to the cinema and
be social, as just one film can bring us
all a little closer together.