The Post’s Production: Longtime Spielberg-DP Janusz Kaminski Expresses Himself Through Light

Limitations on Shooting with Two Cameras

We shoot with one camera 85 percent of the time. Frankly, Steven doesn’t like using two cameras because you can never get that second camera close enough. Otherwise, you will see the other camera. You may lose 10 or 20 percent of the emotionality by not being the right place with the framing. What you’re gaining is the spontaneity of two actors talking to each other telling the story in one continuous take. But the sound people don’t like it. “Where am I going to put my boom?” Steven would rather have the right production soundtrack, so he doesn’t have to dub. When you’re grabbing shots with the B camera, it often feels like a B camera.

Benefits and Pitfalls with Same Collaborators

What happens with the people who I’ve worked with before is that I work less on the things I don’t want to work on. I talk less about specific lighting fixtures and the technical aspects and can focus more on the emotional aspect of the story: “How am I going to achieve the visual metaphors of the movie?” My life becomes easier, and it makes me a better cinematographer, simply because I can allocate my time toward the right directions. With a new group I have to be very specific.

On Bridge of Spies, we shot half in New York and half in Europe. I brought the operator and focus puller from New York to Europe, but everyone else was hired in Germany and Los Angeles. It was great working with two separate crews, altering my practice, but essentially still making my own movie, with people contributing to the visuals who had different aesthetics. The gaffer and key grip are able to influence me to go in slightly different directions. “This is how I’ve done it in a previous movie. Do you like it?” Well, I do. “Let’s do it in this movie as well.”

Older vs. Newer Lenses

I use older lenses now, because I can alter the light better with older lenses. Newer lenses are sharper, but [on The Post] I was not looking for sharper or clearer light; I was looking for slightly softer light coming through the lenses. However, I leave a lot of that to the camera assistant to decide. Sometimes we use Primo lenses because we have so many visual effects, a little bit of sharpness and contrast helps us later. Usually it is dictated by the movie. MM

The Post Photos Courtesy of 20th Century Fox. This article appears in MovieMaker’s 25th Anniversary Winter 2018 issue.

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