Adam Kimmel recently participated in a Master Class series in Cinematography, under Professor Dejan Georgevich in the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York .
The class is generally one session lasting for about 3 hours. Kimmel, who’s participated in this class before, chose to show students, segments of two movies he shot,”Capote” and”Never Let Me Go.” Both clips were from the next acts of these movies. He explained the choices that he had to make and why he made themand then provided details about the factors that helped him arrive at these decisions.
In”Never Let Me Go,” Kimmel clarifies there was a sequence in which one of the chief characters discovers the one thing that he believed was keeping him alive, is not correct. “He’s destined to die soon and die young,” explained Kimmel. It was as a night scene which took place out on a country road, where he’s a passenger in an auto. Based on Kimmel, the challenge, both financially and creatively, was lighting a country road that is in total darkness.
“This could have required a lot of costly equipment, so I suggested to the manager, and then to the manufacturers, to shoot the scene at that little piece of dusk, once you’re able to truly feel the evening is gone but it is not completely dark yet.” Said Kimmel,”To me, this felt more in tune with all the emotion which the character is experiencing.” It would take that Kimmel and the team operate with precision, and also do all the work in a brief window of lighting. “I knew it’d save coststime, so long as we could pull it off.”
Since the cinematographer Adam needed to convince the director and producers that shooting at dusk would include something fleeting into the scene, and be very strong, despite the fact that they would have to work fast. They agreed, and discussed what they would have to have it done. The plan was discussed together with the actors, and Kimmel broke and planned every shot with the Assistant Director to make sure they’d have everything they had, for every shot.
In the end, based on Kimmel, the scene worked extremely well and he believes how it was taken put the perfect tone for a deep performance by Andrew Garfield. “This really is a great case for students to view,” he explained later. “It shows them various factors and choices come into play, prior to shooting, and because you shoot”
According to Kimmel, the scenes that he highlighted at the Master Class at Cinematography shows to students the real life challenges that a cinematographer faces. “I hope it has given them some insight into how they could apply their imagination when they finally work as cinematographers.”
Adam Kimmel, ASC is a NYC cinematographer and director of photography (DP) who was instrumental in assisting film directors establish the visual look of feature films and commercials for over 35 years. Since DP, he’s also assisted directors and producers as they tell their tales, lending his artistic and technical experience in lighting, camera operation, and movie stock options.