Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/584985
62 dga quarterly one of the great dolly operators of all time, a guy named Freddie Cooper. My cinematog- rapher, David Watkin, was one of the greats, but he really didn't care about anything ex- cept the lighting. Once he'd lit, he'd go off and read a book. But he had this fantastic operator. When we shot the ballet that opens the picture, Le jeune homme et la mort, I sto- ryboarded it with this one very complicated shot that I thought I'd probably break in threes, but Freddie wanted to try doing it in one. He did it almost perfectly, and then said to me, 'If you give me another shot, I'll be able to get it.' I thought, 'My God, I have as brilliant a camera operator as Baryshnikov is a dancer.' And of course, when you realize that you've got that tool, you start to push, you design your shots differently. My visual vocabu- lary has just expanded; I'm go- ing to try things I would have thought were impossible to do. We didn't even have to do that many takes, because Freddie and the dolly operator could rush around and just stop on a dime. We were doing 360s, and how do you do that in a dance studio, where there are mirrors all around? The designer, Philip Harrison, made every mirror cantilevered so every one could be turned a little bit, and then Freddie would an- gle each one. Baryshnikov and Hines would go all around the studio three times, and al- though you'd see them reflected in the mir- rors, you'd never see the camera. Q: Have you always had a special interest in music and dance? A: Always. I grew up in Santa Barbara, a beau- tiful bedroom community, though we were on the wrong side of the tracks, and what you don't have there is a large ethnic population. So I was one of those kids staying up late at night trying to tune in to L.A. radio stations to listen to black music. The first time I heard Ray Charles, I knew he was a cut above. He was my guy. That's why I spent 13 years trying to raise the money to make a biography of him. Q: Did your thinking about the film change a lot over all that time? A: In the original treatment, it was a story- based narrative, in chronological order. Once I finally had the money and I had to figure out how to visualize the story, it immediately became clear to me that it was impractical to tell the story that way, in part because when you're doing the biography of a brilliant art- ist, by far the best and most interesting part of the story is the attaining. Once they're there, it's less interesting; it's that process of creating something out of nothing that's indelible. I'd used a parallel structure in Dolores Claiborne, using flashbacks all the way through, so that was in my lexi- con. In Ray, I had to use some tricks. We show him in Seattle in, I think, 1949, but all we had from that time was 8 mm footage, which even after we digitized it and blew it up wasn't great quality. So what I had to do was step on the scenes right before and after the flashback, deteriorate my own material, so when the audience goes into the flashback it isn't shocking and when you come out of it the transition isn't that jarring. I used a bleach bypass process for the present-day story—you take color out, it's got a much more contrasty look, with darker darks. The look of the flashbacks, though, is really vivid, be- cause Ray could see them, and that's how he remembered it. It's the vision of a child, and it's a blind man remembering when he could see, so it's got to be idealized. Q: There is some good dancing in Ray, too. A: Those dance sequences are some of the moments I'm proudest of in my movies. A lot of the credit has to go to my [dance] con- sultant on that, Vernel Bagneris. He said to me, 'You know, this was pre-American Band- stand, there was no homogeneous dance style in America then. Every city had its own style, Cleveland or New York or Boston or Atlanta, even though they were all listening to the same music.' So that's the way we did it, with every dance scene in a different style. That's something I thought was really impor- tant. And Vernel did some terrific stuff in the scene where Ray comes up with 'What'd I Say,' with the audience responding out on the dance floor, just burning it up. To see the moment of creation, a moment like that, is unbelievably exciting. Q: Let's talk about the Guild, which I know has been very important to you. A: I love this organization, I really believe in the Directors Guild. I joined before The Idolmaker, and it was great to know that I had rights. You've got 10 weeks to do your first cut; that's a miracle. And the Guild is really the only place where filmmakers can get to- gether, share ideas, and truly have a dialogue about the process, all we do in common. None of us are the same, but we all have the same kinds of problems to solve. We've got directors of movies, TV, commercials, mu- sic videos, reality shows—plus unit produc- tion managers, stage managers, and assistant directors. ADs are a big part of the process; you're totally dependent on them. Your 1st AD is your lieutenant on the set, and when you've got a good one, you're in great shape. The directors are the largest group in the Guild, and they could throw their weight around in negotiations. But we always make room for the ADs, SMs, and UPMs, because we know we need them to get our vision on the screen. I've been in this Guild for 40 years, and I can tell you that directors are still deferential to their team. Q: What do you see as the value of Guild ser- vice and why would you encourage other ac- tive members to serve? A: At the beginning of your career, you are happy to get a job. And in reality, when you do get those jobs, you profit from the protec- tions that the DGA, over the course of time, has given directors. So you're happy to be a member, and you think this is great. But after you've been able to make two or three mov- ies, you start to realize, 'Wait a minute. There are people that came before that actually made that possible for me.' And, you know, everybody wants to say, 'I'm too busy. I've got this, I've got that.' But when you actually go and spend time with your peers at the Guild, the people who really, in the present tense, are making sure that directors and their teams are protected, it can be a really enjoyable ex- perience. You're working for other people in your profession, and a stewardship for people TAY LO R H AC K F O R D Continued from page 33 "The Guild is the only place where filmmakers can get together, share ideas, and have a dialogue about the process. None of us are the same, but we all have the same kinds of problems to solve."