ROBERT ELSWIT

ROBERT ELSWIT ASC

Born: 22 April 1950, ?, CA, USA, as Robert Christopher Elswit.

Education: University of California, Los Angeles; University of Southern California; American Film Institute, Los Angeles [graduated in 1977].

Career: Worked as vfx asst & ph at Apogee and then at Industrial Light and Magic [ILM].

Ph commercials. Ph music videos dir by Paul Thomas Anderson.

Married to visual efx producer Helen Ostenberg.

Appeared in the doc 'That Moment: Magnolia Diary' [2000, Mark Rance; prod 1998-2000].

Awards: Daytime 'Emmy' Award [1986] for 'The War Between the Classes'; Independent Spirit Award nom [1998] for 'Hard Eight/Sydney'; BSFC Award [2005], LAFCA Award [2005], 'Oscar' AA nom [2005], ASC Award nom [2005], Camerimage 'Golden Frog' nom [2005] & Independent Spirit Award [2006] for 'Good Night, and Good Luck'; 'Oscar' AA [2007], ASC Film Award [2007] & BAFTA Film Award nom [2007] for 'There Will Be Blood'.

'Good Night, and Good Luck' [2005]: A month after production wrapped on 'Syriana', Robert Elswit tackled 'Good Night, and Good Luck', which George Clooney directed and acted in. Elswit got the job after Newton Thomas Sigel, who had been testing ideas for shooting the black-and-white film, had to head to Australia to shoot 'Superman Returns' with Bryan Singer. "When I read the script, it struck me that it really didn't have a conventional three-act story structure. I thought, 'Where's the movie?'" he says. "I wasn't quite sure, honestly, that it really was a movie. But I loved George and the way he talked about it."

When Elswit and Clooney got down to business, they decided not to shoot actual black-and-white stocks, which are a relic of old-school technology. The fastest one has an exposure index of 200, and Elswit thought it would cause problems in the DI process. The filmmakers really liked the look of Kodak PLUS-X 5231, but it has an exposure index of just 64 - too slow to be practical on a 30-day schedule. "We were going to do a DI anyway, and if I shot color it would be very easy to turn the saturation knob all the way to zero," Elswit decided. To accommodate the decision to shoot in color, Elswit says, production designer Jim Bissell ended up painting the set in monochrome, essentially using a gray-scale palette with five or six different values between black and white. "It's a different approach to lighting and design, but it just seemed the best way to go. I could use zoom lenses, and 5218 is fast enough that I wouldn't struggle with low light levels, which I knew I was going to run into. There was a little more shadow detail, maybe, in the 5231, but it held the highlights, and during the DI process I could see it was going to work really well."

Some sequences were improvised, with Clooney stage-managing the actors from within the frame. It was a methodology that encouraged forward momentum, even at the expense of technical perfection - one shot, set in the room where the CBS journalists screen newsreel footage, is noticeably out of focus. "Clooney looked at it, and he just didn't want to do it again," Elswit recalls. "We filmed it out and printed it and looked at it, and he went, 'Eh, that's fine.' He felt it helped the feeling of randomness, that the arbitrary framing and haphazard look would make it more authentic. So we're sitting there going, 'Yes, but it's out of focus! Waaah!' But that whole style of shooting was trying to make it feel like we went in there and sort of captured the moments."

"From a lighting and design standpoint, the film I looked at the most was John Cassavetes' 'Faces'. Al Ruban, who shot that movie, was really a bartender. It's all Double-X 16mm, and some Plus-X. It's marvelous because he uses people's bodies and faces, and the shapes of people's faces. The whole movie is designed around completely non-traditional, non-cinematic gourmet ideas about what photography is. And it just feels so honest and real - it's almost impossible to achieve that if you think about it too much." [From article by Bryant Frazer on the studiodaily.com website (2006).]

FILMS
1981	The End of August/The Awakening [of Eve] [Bob Graham] c; addph: Paul Elliott & Ron Raschke
1981	Waltz Across Texas [Ernest Day] c
1983	Summerspell [Lina Shanklin] c; addph: Stephen Ramsey
1984	The Sure Thing [Rob Reiner] c
1984	Desert Hearts [Donna Deitch] c
1984	Moving Violations [Neal Israel] c; 2uc: James L. Carter
1986	Trick or Treat [Charles Martin Smith] c; addph: Peter Lyons Collister; 2uc: Paul Elliott
1986	Amazing Grace and Chuck/Silent Voice [Mike Newell] c
1987	Return of the Living Dead, Part II [Ken Wiederhorn] c
1988	Heart of Dixie [Martin Davidson] c; 2uc: Kim Marks; addph: Tom Sigel
1989	How I Got Into College [Savage Steve Holland] c; 2uc: John Connor
1989	Bad Influence [Curtis Hanson] c
1991	The Hand That Rocks the Cradle [Curtis Hanson] c
1991	Waterland [Stephen Gyllenhaal] tvi/c; uwph: Mike Valentine
1992	A Dangerous Woman [Stephen Gyllenhaal] c
1993	The River Wild [Curtis Hanson] p/c; addph: Kim Marks; uwph: Al Giddings
1994	Boys [Stacy Cochran] c
1995	Hard Eight/Sydney [Paul Thomas Anderson] s35/c
1995	The Pallbearer [Matt Reeves] c
1996	Boogie Nights [Paul Thomas Anderson] p/c
1997	Richard Lester! [Stacy Cochran] c; doc/31m
1997	Tomorrow Never Dies [Roger Spottiswoode] p/c; 2uc: Jonathan Taylor; miniature ph: Paul Wilson; uwph: Pete Romano; addph: Eddie Collins; aph: Adam Dale
1998	8MM [Joel Schumacher] s35/c; 2uc New York: Tony Jannelli
1999	Magnolia [Paul Thomas Anderson] p/c
1999	Bounce [Don Roos] c; 2uc: Kim Marks; aph: John Trapman
1999	Impostor [Gary Fleder] c; 2uc (+ 2ud): Rick Bota
2000	Heist [David Mamet] c; 2uc: Kim Marks
2001	Punch-Drunk Love [Paul Thomas Anderson] p/c
2001	Gigli [Martin Brest] s35/c
2002	Runaway Jury [Gary Fleder] s35/c; 2uc (+ 2ud): Mark Vargo
2003	Mattress Man Commercial [Paul Thomas Anderson] c; short/1m
2004	Syriana [Stephen Gaghan] s35/c; 2uc: Martin Kenzie; Texas ph: Heather Page; addph: Kelly Clear; aph: Adam Dale

[Left] - "Good Night, and Good Luck"

2005	Good Night, and Good Luck [George Clooney] s35/b&w; replaced scheduled ph Newton Thomas Sigel; originally developed as a live play for CBS-tv; see above
2005	American Dreamz [Paul Weitz] c
2006	Michael Clayton [Tony Gilroy] p/c; 2uc: Joe Collins; addph 2u: Steven Finestone; addph: Anthony Wolberg
2006	There Will Be Blood [Paul Thomas Anderson] p/c
2006	Shine a Light [Martin Scorsese] HD (Genesis)+s8+s16+s35-to-35mm (+ IMAX-70bu)/b&w-c; mus doc/122m; co-c.op; ph: Robert Richardson
2007	Redbelt [David Mamet] s35/c
2007	The Burning Plain [Guillermo Arriaga] s35/c; R. Elswit left prod at the middle of the shoot due to a scheduling conflict; addph (finished film): John Toll; 2uc: Heather Page; 2u aph: Dylan Goss
2008	Duplicity [Tony Gilroy] p (+ D-Cinema)/c; UK unit ph: Simon Richards
2008	The Men Who Stare at Goats [Grant Heslov] p (+ D-Cinema)/c
2009	Salt [Phillip Noyce] s35 (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Igor Meglic; uncred add 2uc (+ add 2ud & co-vfx superv): Robert Grasmere; aph: Steve Koster; uwph: David Knox
2009	The Town [Ben Affleck] s35 (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc (+ 2ud): Alexander Witt; uncred addph (reshoots, 2010): Oliver Wood; aph 2u: Brian Heller
*2010*	The Master [Paul Thomas Anderson] scheduled to start filming in August, but prod was postponed; started filming in June 2011 with ph Mihai Malaimare Jr.; Elswit was unavailable due to a schedule conflict ('The Bourne Legacy')

[Center] with Tom Cruise - "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol"

2010	Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol [Brad Bird] p+s35+65mm (IMAX + Iwerks)-to-35mm scope (+ IMAX-70bu + D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Mitchell Amundsen; ph Russian unit: Steven Finestone; ph India unit: Larry Blanford; addph: Bruce McCleery; aph: Phil Pastuhov, John Marzano (add) & Adam Dale (Dubai); uwph: Pete Romano; filmed 2010-11
2011	The Bourne Legacy [Tony Gilroy] s35+HD (Canon EOS 5D)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Mitchell Amundsen (uncred) & Paul Hughen (Manila); addph New York (+ 1st c.asst 'a' cam/c.op 'e' cam 2u Manila): Barry Idoine; ph Alberta wolf/2u: Roger Vernon; uncred aph: Hans Bjerno & Phil Pastuhov; filmed 2011-12
2013	Inherent Vice [Paul Thomas Anderson] 35mm (+ 70bu & D-Cinema)/c
2013	Nightcrawler [Dan Gilroy] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT)+s35-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; addph: James Laxton; 2uc: Christopher Moseley
2014	Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation [Christopher McQuarrie] p+HD (ARRI ALEXA 65, XT M & XT)-to-35mm scope (+ D-Cinema)/c; 2uc: Jonathan Taylor; addph: George Richmond; splinter unit ph: Tim Wooster; aph: Hans Bjerno; uwph: Peter Romano; filmed 2014-15
2015	Gold [Stephen Gaghan] p+HD (ARRI ALEXA XT/p)-to-D-Cinema (scope)/c; 2uc (Thailand): Rittikorn Manonom; aph (New York): Brian Heller
2016	Write When You Get Work/A+ [Stacy Cochran] s16-to-D-Cinema/c
2016	Suburbicon [George Clooney] HD (ARRI ALEXA XT Plus/p)-to-D-Cinema (scope)/c
2017	Roman J. Israel, Esq./Inner City [Dan Gilroy] s35+HD (ARRI ALEXA XT & Mini)-to-D-Cinema/c
2017	Skyscraper [Rawson Marshall Thurber] HD (ARRI ALEXA 65)/c; 2uc: Duane Manwiller

TELEVISION & INTERNET
1980	The Incredible Book Escape [Seth Pinsker (live action) & Sam Weiss (anim)] special/47m/anim + live-action; ep 'CBS Library'-series
1981	A Single Light [Karl Epstein] tvm
1982	All Summer in a Day [Ed Kaplan] tvm/25m; ep PBS-tv series 'WonderWorks'
1983	Tiger Town [Alan Shapiro] tvm/60m; an ABC-tv 'Disney Sunday Movie'
1985	The War Between the Classes [Michael Toshiyuki Uno] tvm/60m; a CBS-tv 'Schoolbreak Special'
1985	The Children of Times Square/Street Wise [Curtis Hanson] tvm
1986	A Different Affair [Noel Nosseck] tvm
1987	Long Gone/Stogies [Martin Davidson] tvm
1987	Into the Homeland [Lesli Linka Glatter] tvm
1988	Dream Street [various] 6-part series, 1989; other ph: Thomas Alger Olgeirson
1988	[Double Exposure: The Story of] Margaret Bourke-White [Lawrence Schiller] tvm; aph: Mark Morre
1990	Evidence of Love/A Killing in a Small Town [Stephen Gyllenhaal] tvm
1990	Steel Magnolias [Thomas Schlamme] pilot/30m; for CBS-tv
1990	Prison Stories: Women on the Inside [seg 'Esperanza' dir by Donna Deitch & 'Parole Board' dir by Joan Micklin Silver] tvm; seg #3 dir by Penelope Spheeris & ph by Jamie Thompson; 2uc: Chris Tufty
1990	Opposites Attract/Running Mates [Noel Nosseck] tvm
1990	Paris Trout [Stephen Gyllenhaal] tvm
1990	The Summer My Father Grew Up [Michael Tuchner] tvm
1991	Human Target [pilot dir by Max Tash] 7-part series, 1992; other ph: Greg Gardiner
1991	Vidiots [Howard Storm] pilot/30m; for CBS-tv
1992	[A Murderous Affair:] [The Lovers of Deceit:] The Carolyn Warmus Story [Martin Davidson] tvm
1996	Prince Street [pilot dir by Roger Spottiswoode] 6-part (4 unaired) series, 1997; other ph: Jonathan Freeman
2002	Behind the Red Door [Matia Karrell] tvm; 2uc: Nigel Markham
2010	Lost Masterpieces of Pornography [David Mamet] s16/b&w-c; short/6m; made for internet (www.funnyordie.com)
2012	The Night Of/Criminal Justice [Steven Zaillian] unaired pilot for miniseries (2016); pilot was shelved after the death (19 June 2013) of actor James Gandolfini, but was reshot in 2014 by Fred Elmes; for HBO-tv
*2014*	Blanco [Juan Carlos Fresnadillo] pilot/HD; pre-production; status unknown; for Cinemax-tv
2018	Velvet Buzzsaw [Dan Gilroy] HD (Panavision DXL)-to-UHD/c; 2uc: Christopher Moseley; for Netflix

MISCELLANEOUS
1977	Fraternity Row [Thomas J. Tobin] c.op; ph: Peter Gibbons
1978	Genesis [: Four Billion Years in the Making] [George Casey; doc/IMAX] c.asst; ph: James Connor, J. Barry Herron & Averill Townsend
1978	Star Trek The Motion Picture [Robert Wise] co-efx ph; ph: Richard Kline
1979	Star Wars - The Empire Strikes Back/Star Wars - Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back [Irvin Kershner] co-asst matte ph; matte ph: Neil Krepela; ph: Peter Suschitzky; sfx (ILM) 1979-80
1980	Raiders of the Lost Ark [Steven Spielberg] ?; ph: Douglas Slocombe; sfx (ILM) 1980-81
1981	Poltergeist [Tobe Hooper] uncred ?; ph: Matthew Leonetti
1981	E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial [Steven Spielberg] co-c.op efx ph; efx ph: Mike McAlister; ph: Allen Daviau
1982	Star Wars - Return of the Jedi/Star Wars - Episode VI - Return of the Jedi [Richard Marquand] co-miniature & optical efx ph; ph: Alan Hume & (uncred) Alec Mills; sfx (ILM) 1981-83