In this week's Trends and Groundbreakers class, I chose "Days of Heaven" for the January One-year students at the New York Film Academy's Cinematography School to watch, because it is a film considered beautiful for its magic hour photography. But I want the students to see with their own eyes that there is so much more to the cinematography of Nestor Almendros in this film than this simplistic ...
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In this week's Trends and Groundbreakers class, I chose "Days of Heaven" for the January One-year students at the New York Film Academy's Cinematography School to watch, because it is a film considered beautiful for its magic hour photography. But I want the students to see with their own eyes that there is so much more to the cinematography of Nestor Almendros in this film than this simplistic conventional wisdom. First there is a difference between when the sun is still barely above the horizon and when it is just below. But even more importantly, most of the film is not shot at twilight and dawn at all. There are beautiful scenes in the woods at midday, interior scenes with rich contrast, and night scenes lit primarily by by fire.
But, of course, there is more to cinematography than a beautiful look; there is storytelling. So what did students studying at a cinematography school find upon watching the movie? Here's an excerpt from a student seeing this movie for the first time:
--The first scene → After killing a person during his job, you can see Richard Gere's silhouette while he is running toward the light. It looks like he is running away from the dark side of his character.
--While Richard Gere is walking, the landscape has stripes of light and shadows. He is walking in the shade. It could mean he is in conflict with himself.
--For the scene of the first night of marriage, everything looks so soft. There is a very soft light on the characters and the white colors help this kind of mood. The light gives a sense of pureness to the woman.
--In the bedroom, husband and wife are speaking: he has a backlight that makes him look aggressive, she has a soft frontal light that makes her look like in a defensive position. She is lying to him.
--During the fire → Silhouettes of the people running away from the fire make the fire look as the main character of the scene.
--Before the husband gets killed → Blue light after the big fire changes moods completely. Everything looks inanimate. There is a strange calmness. Something is going to happen.
--Last scene → The railway gives depth. It looks like the kid has all her life to live. She walks toward her future.
But I don't want to dismiss the strength of the magic hour and golden hour photography in this movie. It should be a dynamic reference for the students when they take their slide photographs for the magic hour and golden hour assignments in a few weeks.
John Loughlin
Chair
Cinematography Department
New York Film Academy's Cinematography School
