He Is A True Artist

Cecil B. DeMille in his studio office, California, 1919.
The photograph was taken by Karl Struss, ASC. Adept
as both photographer and cinematographer, long-time
ASC member Siruss filmed many of the DeMille epics
during a long and distinguished career

Amid the strange ingredients
of Hollywood - a world
typified by the human swarm
and the artistic abstraction -
there is a figure unknown to
the chants of promoters and
glorifiers. His hand has
rarely held the scepter of
public acclaim, his brow is
not crowned with the envied
olive leaf which so often
seules upon the lordly
producer and queens of
beauty. This figure, a giant
in his industry, is the cam-
eraman the sine qua non of
a profession which often
boasts that no one in its
ranks is indispensable. No
one, I say, save the camera-
man.

I believe this is why:

He is the custodian of the heart of filmmaking as the writers are
of its soul..

His tool is a box with a glass window, lifeless until he breathes
into it his creative spirit and injects into its steel veins the plasma
of his imagination...

The product of his camera, and therefore of his magic, means
many things to many persons - fulfillment of an idea, an ambition
... realization of dreams

He is the judge who applies the laws of dramatic effect in
complete coordination and fellowship with the director who
interprets those laws.

Light, composition, treatment are his instruments of power,
which he wields with intelligence and sensitiveness to bring to full
bloom the meaning of his art

His versatile management of intricate mechanism yields
astonishing results in mood, emotion, dramatic effect.

A slanting shadow becomes a shattering portent of doom
A lifeless chair instills the feeling of infinite sorrow...
A dead wall awakens a foreboding of plunging terror

A flash of a man's face rises to the grandeur of drama, inspiring
and ennobling

Before his wizardry, wrinkles fade from the faces of
Hollywood's ageless, imperishable beauties... chins take on lovely
contours... years melt away

Yes, the technique of the cameraman is the technique of artistic
vivisection that lays bare the inner workings of our profession. If
art can be said to be the expression of beauty in form, color, sound,
shape or movement, then it must be said that same art is the art of
the cameraman - expressed in the boundless reaches of his imagi-

nation.

For his patience and singleness of purpose in a most arduous
work, he is eminently deserving of that which is justly said of few
men: "He is a true artist."

STATEMENT OF STANLEY CORTEZ, A.S.C.

PAST PRESIDENT OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CINEMATOGRAPHERS BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON PATENTS, COPYRIGHTS AND TRADEMARKS OF THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE

OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE

OCTOBER 24, 1989

I thank Chairman DeConcini and the Subcommittee for allowing

me the privilege of inserting my remarks into the record of these hearings and for the kind words expressed about me by the Chairman and other witnesses.

I note that in his opening remarks, the Chairman revisited the issue of colorization in films photographed in black and Subsequently, this subject was discussed with great

white.

eloquence as well by George Stevens Jr.

When this matter first arose, prompting the need for past Congressional hearings, I was then the President of the American Society of Cinematographers.

We of the A.S.C. thought it ironic and, in fact, shocking that of all of the creators of film, we, the cinematographers, were not even consulted about our views on this issue.

After all, when a motion picture which was originally photographed in black and white is then colorized, it is not the actor's acting which is changed, nor the writer's writing, nor the composer's music, nor the editor's editing, nor the

director's directing.

No.

altered

-

It is the cameraman's photography which is totally

from what was an expressive work of intricately refined light and shadow to a totally different form, completely foreign to the cinematographer's vision of the story.

Not only was the cinematographer not brought into the prior debate before Congress, the cinematographer was not even included as a member of the National Film Preservation Board a stepchild conceived out of the colorization issue.

Representatives of the directors, writers and actors were included on the National Film Preservation Board. The critics, broadcasters, representatives from film departments at universities, and the producers were all represented on the Board. But not the cinematographer.

Whose work is principally being altered?

One would hope and trust that this glaring omission will be corrected by Congress in the future out of a simple sense of fairness and respect for the position of the cinematographer as a co-author in the creation of motion pictures.

I have photographed many feature films, including The Magnificent Ambersons and Night of the Hunter. The great majority of those films I photographed in black and white. I concur with the A.S.C.'s position voiced by our esteemed counsel, Mr. David Fleming, in that producers should have the right, as owners of films, to exploit them in whatever economic manner they have available to them, provided however, that any material

alterations they allow to be made should be clearly labeled to indicate that they were made to the original version and were done without the collaboration or consent of the cinematographer. This is absolutely necessary to protect our integrity and reputation as artists.

But as a long time craftsman in the Hollywood community, I still hold to my personal beliefs regarding the colorization process.

-

I know that perhaps some young people in America today scorn the impressionistic beauty of the classic black and white film the master achievement of Hollywood's Golden Era. But because some people do not appreciate the black and white picture does not mean all should be robbed of the joy of seeing a classic in its original beauty and splendor.

Each of us must have the right to feel that indescribable thrill of seeing classics uncut and uninterrupted -- the truth and the whole truth as we, the cinematographers created them.

-

When the colorization issue first arose, as President of the A.S.C. I wrote the following statement on behalf of

cinematographers.

It still is my personal philosophy regarding

the matter:

"I believe firmly in the preservation of the historical

would be sacrilegious, no matter what method is used.
This would be tantamount to altering a single note of