IMAGE MAKERS: THE ADVENTURES OF AMERICA'S PIONEER CINEMATOGRAPHERS (2019) B/W & C 91m dir: Daniel Raim

w/John Bailey, Kevin Brownlow, Steve Gainer, Leonard Maltin, Michael McKean, Rachel Morrison, Matt Severson, George Spiro Dibie, Lothian Toland-Skelton, David Totheroh

From the San Francisco Chronicle website (www.datebook.sfchronicle.com), this article about the film by G. Allen Johnson: "When Charlie Chaplin set about to revolutionize cinematic storytelling with his blend of athleticism and precisely choreographed physical comedy, he turned to a San Francisco-born former baseball player.

"To create the luminescent, exotic allure for the sexiest movie star in the world, Greta Garbo demanded that a young man from Cleveland make it happen.

"Those are among the stories in Daniel Raim’s absorbing treat for classic film buffs, Image Makers: The Adventures of America’s Pioneer Cinematographers, a documentary that premieres just in time for the 100th anniversary of the American Society of Cinematographers on Turner Classic Movies on Wednesday, Nov. 6.

"The film, written by former San Francisco Examiner film critic Michael Sragow, traces the creation of a new language — the language of cinema — by pioneers whose influence endures to this day. Raim and Sragow focus mainly on Billy Bitzer, D.W. Griffith’s master cinematographer on Intolerance and many other classics; Rollie Totheroh, whose understanding of teamwork and athletics made him indispensable to Chaplin; Charles Rosher and William Daniels, the personal cameramen for Mary Pickford and Garbo, respectively; German-American expressionist Karl Struss; and groundbreaking artists James Wong Howe and Gregg Toland (Citizen Kane).

"We hear from the subjects themselves. Raim (Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story) and Sragow had access to the ASC’s archives, which included an extensive audio project undertaken in the 1960s to interview cinematography pioneers before they passed away.

“'There was an intensity to the older movies that were so well thought out in visual terms — certainly for the silent films,' said Sragow, who was the lead critic for the Hearst-owned Examiner in the 1980s and early ’90s. 'These were milestone cinematographers individually who also helped us tell the growth of American cinematography from the very beginning to Citizen Kane.’

"Adding to the discussion are current cinematographers such as Rachel Morrison, the first woman nominated for best cinematography (Mudbound); John Bailey (Ordinary People, The Big Chill) and historians such as Kevin Brownlow and Leonard Maltin.

"Totheroh was playing for the San Rafael Colts semipro baseball team when he was discovered by 'Broncho Billy' Anderson, the movies’ first Western star, and put to work at Anderson’s Essanay Studios in Niles Canyon. But Totheroh, who was hired to play on the company baseball team, was worthless as an extra, unable to hit his mark in a timely fashion and was clueless about continuity. But when he picked up a camera, he was a natural.

"In 1914, Totheroh was sent to the Hayward train station to pick up Essanay’s newest star. It was, of course, Chaplin, and the two hit it off. Soon, Totheroh was Chaplin’s personal cameraman, because he was able to keep up with Chaplin’s complicated and fast-moving blocking and provide perfect framing.

"Playing baseball, Sragow said, 'was probably the best preparation for being Charlie Chaplin’s long-term collaborator because Rollie was a team player. Charlie really set all the goals and practices of the team. He was a very idiosyncratic filmmaker, developing his features improvisationally. He needed someone of Rollie’s temperament. And Rollie was very inventive and had a great eye.'

"Since the idea of films was relatively new, so was the job description of a director of photography. Totheroh wasn’t the only DP who took an unconventional path to the movies.

“'It’s really amazing the different roads these guys took to get in the industry,' Sragow said. 'Billy Bitzer was a silversmith. … James Wong Howe was a great story of American immigration. He came to America at age 5 from China and he’s a tough, smart, talented guy who withstands all the racial prejudice of the time.'

"Sragow said he hopes Image Makers gives people an added visual awareness and appreciation of the photography, composition and movement of great filmmaking.

"And, even not-so-great filmmaking.

“'You can watch a pretty mediocre horror film like ‘Mark of the Vampire’ — not one of (director) Tod Browning’s best,' Sragow laughed, 'and you can just see it for the texture that James Wong Howe brings to the cinematography.'”

From the website of the American Cinematographer magazine, this 2019 article about the film by Naomi Pfefferman Magid:

"As detailed in the new documentary Image Makers: The Adventures of America's Pioneer Cinematographers, director of photography Billy Bitzer was faced with a seemingly insurmountable obstacle on the set of the classic 1916 silent epic Intolerance.

"The film’s director, D.W. Griffith --- with whom Bitzer would go on to forge a longtime collaboration --- wanted a nighttime shot of the movie’s epic battle scene between the ancient Persians and Assyrians. Up until then, nocturnal sequences were traditionally photographed during the daytime, with a darker print and blue tint added later to feign darkness. Also, there literally wasn’t enough electricity on the set to light the vast, ornate towers and streets of the fictional Babylon.

"But Bitzer remained unfazed. He called on Hollywood pyrotechnics expert 'Fireworks' Wilson to gather all of the three-minute magnesium flare torches he could find. Wilson then spent most of one afternoon climbing over the set’s walls --- even though he was missing an arm --- situating the flares in improvised holders that Bitzer had placed to hide them from the cameras. Extras also were assigned to carry flares during the shoot.

"The result was one of the most memorable scenes in silent cinema: Flames appear to blaze from the smoky towers of the cinematic Babylon.

"This story is just one of numerous anecdotes featured in Image Makers directed by Daniel Raim and presented by Turner Classic Movies (TCM) timed to the network’s celebration of the 100th anniversary of the American Society of Cinematographers. ...

"Image Makers --- shot by Norwegian director of photography Aasulv Wolf Austed, FNF --- primarily focuses on seven groundbreaking cinematographers, including ASC members Gregg Toland, who filmed Citizen Kane; Roland Totheroh, who shot 36 movies for Charlie Chaplin, using mostly wide-angle lenses and long shots to capture the actor’s athletic comedy; Charles G. Rosher, the personal cinematographer for actress-producer-studio head Mary Pickford; William H. Daniels, who lit 'Swedish Siren' Greta Garbo in such a way to enhance her mysterious allure; and Chinese immigrant James Wong Howe, who braved racial prejudice even as he forged an esteemed reputation shooting films such as The Thin Man (1934) and Hud (1963).

"The documentary also covers the founding of the ASC in 1919, as hand-cranking camera visionaries came together to socialize and exchange ideas.

"But the advent of sound films --- notably with the release of The Jazz Singer (1927) was the death knell for silent pictures. And soon there was fear among many directors of photography: Where would they place the camera so the whirring of their machine didn’t interfere with recording the dialogue?

"One answer was to enclose the cinematographer and camera in a sound-proof booth. 'That inhibited the kind of achievement that had been made during the silent era, when cameras were fluid,' says Curtis Clark, ASC, who produced the documentary along with Raim. 'Cameras were restricted in mobility by encasing them, almost putting them in tombs ... so it didn’t interfere with the sync sound.'

"Clark, an officer of the Society, co-founded the ASC Motion Imaging Technology Council (MITC) in 2002.

"Karl Struss, ASC came up with a 'sound' solution by the time he shot Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1932): He placed his camera inside special housings --- 'blimps' --- that blunted the noise. His roving camera then was able to capture such images as a chase sequence involving Hyde on London streets as well as evocative subjective shots for the characters.

"While the 1994 documentary Visions of Light: The Art of Cinematography spotlights contemporary directors of photography discussing their work and paying homage to their pioneering predecessors, Raim sought a different approach for Image Makers. 'I wanted to focus on how films were dramatized and lit by these early cameramen, and how they invented the art form,' he explains. 'I wanted to bring to life these people who pioneered the same art form that is now the biggest global cultural medium of our time.'

"According to Clark, 'A key thing our film does is show the personalities of these early cinematographers and the determination they had to use their own innovations to achieve artistic results.'

"Raim, 45, an Israeli-born American director, came to filmmaking during his service in the Israel Defense Forces’ documentary unit, for which he photographed civilians living in war zones, among other assignments.

"While attending the American Film Institute in Los Angeles in the late 1990s, Raim bonded with Robert Boyle, then 90, Alfred Hitchcock’s longtime production designer. 'From [Boyle], I learned about the master craftspeople who were artists in their own right --- and whose stories deserved to be told as much as those of actors or directors,' Raim says.

"Raim eventually profiled Boyle in a 2000 short film The Man on Lincoln's Nose, which earned an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Short.

"Raim’s fascination with cinema’s unsung heroes working behind the scenes led him to make his 2015 documentary Harold and Lillian: A Hollywood Love Story; the feature-length movie spotlights famed storyboard artist Harold Michelson and his wife, Lillian, a film researcher, who worked on hundreds of movies during Hollywood’s golden age (including Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments and Hitchcock's The Birds).

"Image Makers came about due to Raim’s 'desire to better understand the contributions of the earliest cinematographers,' he explains. But how did he select the subjects to profile? Raim said he decided to focus on individuals for whom ample archival material existed.

"The ASC’s archive of audio interviews with directors of photography proved crucial, as did permission to film subjects in the evocative milieu of the ASC’s Clubhouse in Hollywood. James Wong Howe’s home movies, donated to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ archive, also helped bring to light the personal and professional story of one of Hollywood’s greatest cinematographers.

"Raim’s on-camera interviews include award-winning cinematographer and longtime AC blogger John Bailey, ASC; author and critic Leonard Maltin --- whose 1978 book The Art of the Cinematographer is an exceptional resource--- renowned British film preservationist and historian Kevin Brownlow; and Rachel Morrison, ASC, whose camerawork in the period drama Mudbound made her the first woman to earn an Oscar nomination.

"Gregg Toland’s now 90-year-old daughter Lothian Toland-Skelton was interviewed next to her father’s Mitchell BNC camera, with which he shot Citizen Kane and many other exceptional films. At one point, she even caresses the machine, which seems to become a spiritual embodiment of her father.

"The Image Makers production took place over a six-month period starting in early 2019, employing two Canon Cinema EOS C-300 Mark II cameras --- one to capture master shots and the other focused in intimate close-up with a shallow depth of field. 'That way all you see are the [subjects’] faces, with the foreground and background out of focus,' Raim describes. 'The audience then can make very intimate connections with the characters. I didn’t want them to appear just as talking heads or sound bites.'

"For Clark, one of the 'most important things about the documentary is it shows the humanity of the people involved --- and that each had to overcome certain challenges to accomplish the things that they were able to do.'

"Howe, for instance, was prevented by the studios from appearing in public with his wife, Sanora Babb, who was Caucasian. Before that, they were unable to marry in the U.S. due to unjust racial laws then on the books --- instead tying the knot in France in 1937. Their marriage was not recognized until 1948.

"In the early 1900s, with the beginning of the motion picture industry, cinematographers faced a violent obstacle. Thomas Edison’s Motion Pictures Patents Company controlled everything possible to do with Edison’s equipment --- even the sprockets on the sides of celluloid film. 'There was a very colorful period, much like the Wild West, when patent claimants fought each other --- literally employed gangsters with rifles' the film’s narrator, Michael McKean, describes.

"Edison, for one, employed a private eye, Joseph F. 'Gumshoe' McCoy, to sniff out patent irregularities on early film sets. McCoy paid thugs to infiltrate sets as extras, where they would shoot bullets at cameras perceived to violate Edison’s patents. But many of the cinematographers fought back. On Western films, for example, some directors of photography hid their cameras inside wigwams or covered wagons to prevent spies from discerning the kind of equipment they were using.

“'It’s a little-known saga that’s fairly remarkable,' Clark says, 'and you should imagine should only be in a movie, not in real life.'

"Clark hopes Image Makers will help viewers 'to better understand the role that the cinematographers played in making films --- and that they were not just people who set a camera up and took directions. They in fact worked collaboratively with their directors. And they had a serious role to play in terms of fashioning and developing the vision of a film, because they were the image makers.'”