Robert Bridge Richardson
Cinematographer
Few film-making partnerships have produced a mutual resumé as creatively and critically successful as that of cinematographer Robert Richardson and writer/director Oliver Stone. In the dozen years since their first pairing on the documentary-flavored 1986 film Salvador, a compelling exposé of the civil war in El Salvador, the two men have explored a diverse array of human conditions and events. Their pictures together have not only displayed an evolving technical virtuosity, but a raw emotional power that has propelled several of them beyond the realm of popular culture and into the national spotlight.
A signature technique that Richardson has utilized while working with Stone is the interweaving of textured imagery in order to amplify emotions and accent specific imagery. Super 8 reversal stocks, black-and-white 16mm, and various video formats are intertwined with vintage stock footage and silky-smooth 35mm color anamorphic photography, and then carefully blended by Stone and his expert editors. These methods were used to poetic effect in JFK, which shifts between past, present and fictional passages while exploring the assassination of John F. Kennedy in an impressionistic style.
A signature technique that Richardson has utilized while working with Stone is the interweaving of textured imagery in order to amplify emotions and accent specific imagery. Super 8 reversal stocks, black-and-white 16mm, and various video formats are intertwined with vintage stock footage and silky-smooth 35mm color anamorphic photography, and then carefully blended by Stone and his expert editors. These methods were used to poetic effect in JFK, which shifts between past, present and fictional passages while exploring the assassination of John F. Kennedy in an impressionistic style.
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Bert McCoy
Professor P.K. Ziainia
Film 1: Intro to Cinema Studies
July 22, 2016
Stone, Richardson, and the JFK Courtroom Scene
Robert Richardson is a well known cinematographer/director of photography or simply called a (DP) is known for his craft, artistry, and teamwork. Having already worked with Oliver Stone on the 1986 film Salvador and the 1986 film Platoon, Richardson was hired by Director Oliver Stone once again to be the DP for Stone's 1991 movie JFK. In The Hollywood Reporter's Cinematographer Oscar Round-table Discussion, Richardson maintains that in order to produce exceptional films a DP must have a close relationship with an exceptional director and production designer. In the film JFK, Richardson surely seems to have been blessed to work with an exceptional director and production designer. In JFK, Richardson created an Oscar performance in cinematography, especially in the last scene where New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison played by Kevin Costner pieces together how he believes President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by not just one shooter as most Americans are led to believe; but, brutally assassinated by several conspirators with multiple guns from multiple vantage points.
In the courtroom scene, the scene begins with Jim Garrison played by Kevin Costner enlightening the court why he believes multiple shooters had murdered President John F. Kennedy. Richardson speaks through light and shadow cross-cutting the mood by adding an intertwined juxtaposition of pseudo vintage stock footage and smooth 35mm color anamorphic photography in order to arouse specific emotions. Richardson begins by using a soft focused slightly overexposed black and white (B&W) shot to establish the verisimilitude of the fact that the event happened in 1963 in an era where most people filmed in black and white. Garrison continues to speak through the montage while the film cuts quickly to a 16mm lens B&W scene of a very blurred dark and sinister black suited figure in the background, a medium shot of a man wearing a suite having just looked over a fence, a medium shot of a tall blurred figure wearing a beanie walking quickly away from a fence, and a medium full shot of a blurred police officer walking in a serious gate carrying a rifle. Cinematography has clearly allowed for contrast in this scene by incorporating multiple dark places that suggest to the viewer the fact that someone could have be hiding secretly in the shadows waiting to waylay the president. In this slightly overexposed scene, the 50mm lens is just behind and above an old styled wooden fence which allows the viewer a privy peek into the makings of the unclean act of sedition. Next, the scene cuts to a 16mm B&W slow pan and nicely contrasted shot away from what seems to be a dark hidden area (possible hiding spot) underneath a tree beside a fence to a medium full shot of the back of a larger gentleman wearing all black standing behind a waist high white wall watching as the president's motorcade approaches in the background. Next, the shot cuts once again to a grainy overexposed 16mm B&W shot from the opposite side of a chest high fence to another overexposed close shot of a made to believe policeman conversing genially with an unrecognizable figure. Once again the frame brings the viewer into the clandestine world of the unnamed assassins with the quick vintage-like 16 mm B&W shots. Next, the scene cuts to a overexposed 16mm B&W medium close-up top down quick shot of a quickly moving foot wearing a workman's shoe stepping into a clay-like mud. This shot clearly intensifies the emotions surrounding this unclean act. Next, is a 16mm B&W highly overexposed medium close-up shot of a thirty something year old emotionless businessman looking onward to the presidential motorcade. Next, the film quickly cuts to a 50mm medium shot of a man wearing a black suit slowly and methodically raising a black umbrella so as to signal someone of an approaching action. Here, Stone and Richardson have once again framed a black (dark-side) suited man with a black umbrella in sharp contrast to the four light colored figures in the shot to bring the viewers eye to the assassins plan. Next, the camera cuts to a below eye extreme close-up 85mm B&W overexposed shot of an expressionless clean cut man looking onward giving the viewer the feeling that he is definitely a part of the assassins plot because he seems to have methodically diverted his attention upwards towards something. Next, the scene cuts to a soft focused 50mm B&W overexposed medium shot of a middle aged blue collar worker with crossed arms looking in the opposite direction of the crowed upwards to some vantage point. Next, the eye sees a wide close-up 85mm B&W shot of a man seemingly looking upwards and towards the same above vantage point. Next, the lens zooms in toward a building window with a man holding a high powered rifle and a man seemingly on a radio talking to someone awaiting an order to be carried out. The continuity editing seems seamless here, and the cinematography of the two men in the window are contrasted nicely with a dark background to help the viewer quickly focus on the gunman and radio operator-It is interesting to note the sniper is targeting the audience in this shot adding to the tension of the scene. Leading up to the firing squad which is to come, Stone and Richardson allows for varying amounts of contrast in the juxtaposition of quick shots to help manipulate a tense expectancy. Next, is a grainy highly overexposed 85mm B&W extreme close-up point-of-view (POV) thumb shot loading a shell into a rifle chamber. This POV shot shows what the shooter, or in this case what the shooters are actually doing at this particular time. This one quick shot represents the POV of the several shooters by allowing the viewer to see the action from the shooters POV, as if the viewer is standing alongside the shooter. As far as continuity is concerned, this shot should have come just before the sniper seemingly targets the audience. A trained sniper should have already loaded his or her rifle prior to seeing the target come into view.
Jim Garrison continues from the courtroom with the above scene to describe the events which lead up to the shooting. The viewer is now looking through the rifle's scope seeing the cross hairs targeted on two motor police. This intense shot allows the viewer to share the sniper's angle, location, and to witness what a cold calculating killer would see whereby intensifying the pending climax that is to come. Next, the scene cuts to an 85mm B&W wide over-the-shoulder closeup shot of another seemingly darkly dressed participant looking downwards from a building window towards the street with a telephone to his ear. This over-the-shoulder wide closeup shot shows the viewer the approximate location of the individual as well as allowing the viewer a POV shot. Continuing, the scene cuts to several 85mm soft focused B&W quick camera shots of the happy crowed awaiting to see the president pass by. These quick wide to medium camera B&W shots of the happy Americans waiting to see the president plays with the emotions of the viewer by contrasting what the viewer should be feeling in this moment with what the viewer already knows. The next shot is a grainy and out of focused 85mm B&W wide close-up with a push-in toward the very first on the scene police figure just behind a fence aiming at some target. The viewer quickly sees a variety of quick shots with the lens zooming in to one sniper then quickly zooms out from the same sniper. This push-in camera movement towards the policeman and the camera lens zooming in and out of another sniper allows the viewer a quick line-of sight visual from the two shooter locations.
Now that the president's motorcade approaches the targeted area the camera shots quicken in time from an extreme B&W close-up of an earpiece in a man's ear, to a quick zoom away from a window sniper, to an over-the-shoulder shot of a blue-collar worker dressed sniper and radio man, to an extreme close-up shot of a sniper's eye positioning the guide and bead of a rifle, to a vintage medium wide shot of President Kennedy and entourage in his limousine. The barrage of full to medium close-up shots continue to quicken with happy to see the president Americans, a policeman keeping the crowd from the motorcade, back to the one of the sniper's cross-hairs, then shots to the multiple shooter locations. The scene escalates with tension as the shots push into the shooters. The camera shots begin to push into the snipers faces and invade their personal space. The B&W shots begin to cut from medium to closeup shots to take in each of the snipers' shooting stances. Here, Stone and Richardson are masterfully using an array of camera formats and movements, angled shots, and lens to coax the viewer into the narrative. The quick sniper positioning shots, the archival found and made footage of a motorcade, shots of happy Americans wanting to see the president, and the silent 8mm Kodachrome sequence filmed by a private citizen/Abraham Zapruder allowing the viewer the actual images and seating position of President John F. Kennedy in his limousine creating a shark frenzied emotional response from the viewer.
The scene is not finished; Stone and Richardson continue to build upon the previous emotional roller coaster ride with more cross-cut editing. Next, the viewer sees a 200mm B&W full closeup shot below eye level looking upwards into an anxious looking man's face just as the camera booms down to focus on what seems to be the man's pocket watch--someone seems to be more concerned with the time than watching the president. Next, the viewer is given another slash from the Zapruder footage and the viewer now begins to bleed inside Stone and Richardson’s shark tank during a feeding frenzy of gun shots and terror.
Cinematography is the creative process of opening up and allowing one's creativity to blossom and flow through the telling of a story of beautiful images-twenty-four beautiful pictures per second. The palette cinematographers flow with is the medium of light, shadow, and 24 frames per second. The creative process of any great artist is a spontaneous outflow of the love that is within him or her. Once an artist tries to put a bridle and saddle on this wild horse called creativity, this freedom, energy, and outpouring of love will cease to be. In the JFK courtroom scene Stone and Richardson pepper the 24 frames per second with image after image of emotional and memorable beauty and/or unrest. This soviet montage beautifully brings out the verisimilitude of the scene. The viewers are lead to believe deep down that they have witnessed the actual John F. Kennedy assassination. Cinematography creates this mood with light, shadow, composition, a flashing array of camera formats, angled shots, and various lenses to bring to fruition the right amount of verisimilitude. Working alongside Academy Award winning Director Oliver Stone, American Cinematographer Robert Bridge Richardson A.S.C. has won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography three times...For his work on JFK, The Aviator, and Hugo.
Work Cited Page
JFK. Dir. Oliver Stone. Prod. Oliver Stone and A. Kitman Ho. By Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar. Perf. Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, and Joe Pesci. Warner Bros., 1991.
"Watch THR's Full, Uncensored Cinematographer Roundtable With Tarantino's Robert Richardson and More - Cinematographer Oscar Roundtable." Watch THR's Full, Uncensored Cinematographer Roundtable With Tarantino's Robert Richardson and More - Cinematographer Oscar Roundtable. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Aug. 2016.
"Zapruder Film." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Aug. 2016.
Professor P.K. Ziainia
Film 1: Intro to Cinema Studies
July 22, 2016
Stone, Richardson, and the JFK Courtroom Scene
Robert Richardson is a well known cinematographer/director of photography or simply called a (DP) is known for his craft, artistry, and teamwork. Having already worked with Oliver Stone on the 1986 film Salvador and the 1986 film Platoon, Richardson was hired by Director Oliver Stone once again to be the DP for Stone's 1991 movie JFK. In The Hollywood Reporter's Cinematographer Oscar Round-table Discussion, Richardson maintains that in order to produce exceptional films a DP must have a close relationship with an exceptional director and production designer. In the film JFK, Richardson surely seems to have been blessed to work with an exceptional director and production designer. In JFK, Richardson created an Oscar performance in cinematography, especially in the last scene where New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison played by Kevin Costner pieces together how he believes President John F. Kennedy was assassinated by not just one shooter as most Americans are led to believe; but, brutally assassinated by several conspirators with multiple guns from multiple vantage points.
In the courtroom scene, the scene begins with Jim Garrison played by Kevin Costner enlightening the court why he believes multiple shooters had murdered President John F. Kennedy. Richardson speaks through light and shadow cross-cutting the mood by adding an intertwined juxtaposition of pseudo vintage stock footage and smooth 35mm color anamorphic photography in order to arouse specific emotions. Richardson begins by using a soft focused slightly overexposed black and white (B&W) shot to establish the verisimilitude of the fact that the event happened in 1963 in an era where most people filmed in black and white. Garrison continues to speak through the montage while the film cuts quickly to a 16mm lens B&W scene of a very blurred dark and sinister black suited figure in the background, a medium shot of a man wearing a suite having just looked over a fence, a medium shot of a tall blurred figure wearing a beanie walking quickly away from a fence, and a medium full shot of a blurred police officer walking in a serious gate carrying a rifle. Cinematography has clearly allowed for contrast in this scene by incorporating multiple dark places that suggest to the viewer the fact that someone could have be hiding secretly in the shadows waiting to waylay the president. In this slightly overexposed scene, the 50mm lens is just behind and above an old styled wooden fence which allows the viewer a privy peek into the makings of the unclean act of sedition. Next, the scene cuts to a 16mm B&W slow pan and nicely contrasted shot away from what seems to be a dark hidden area (possible hiding spot) underneath a tree beside a fence to a medium full shot of the back of a larger gentleman wearing all black standing behind a waist high white wall watching as the president's motorcade approaches in the background. Next, the shot cuts once again to a grainy overexposed 16mm B&W shot from the opposite side of a chest high fence to another overexposed close shot of a made to believe policeman conversing genially with an unrecognizable figure. Once again the frame brings the viewer into the clandestine world of the unnamed assassins with the quick vintage-like 16 mm B&W shots. Next, the scene cuts to a overexposed 16mm B&W medium close-up top down quick shot of a quickly moving foot wearing a workman's shoe stepping into a clay-like mud. This shot clearly intensifies the emotions surrounding this unclean act. Next, is a 16mm B&W highly overexposed medium close-up shot of a thirty something year old emotionless businessman looking onward to the presidential motorcade. Next, the film quickly cuts to a 50mm medium shot of a man wearing a black suit slowly and methodically raising a black umbrella so as to signal someone of an approaching action. Here, Stone and Richardson have once again framed a black (dark-side) suited man with a black umbrella in sharp contrast to the four light colored figures in the shot to bring the viewers eye to the assassins plan. Next, the camera cuts to a below eye extreme close-up 85mm B&W overexposed shot of an expressionless clean cut man looking onward giving the viewer the feeling that he is definitely a part of the assassins plot because he seems to have methodically diverted his attention upwards towards something. Next, the scene cuts to a soft focused 50mm B&W overexposed medium shot of a middle aged blue collar worker with crossed arms looking in the opposite direction of the crowed upwards to some vantage point. Next, the eye sees a wide close-up 85mm B&W shot of a man seemingly looking upwards and towards the same above vantage point. Next, the lens zooms in toward a building window with a man holding a high powered rifle and a man seemingly on a radio talking to someone awaiting an order to be carried out. The continuity editing seems seamless here, and the cinematography of the two men in the window are contrasted nicely with a dark background to help the viewer quickly focus on the gunman and radio operator-It is interesting to note the sniper is targeting the audience in this shot adding to the tension of the scene. Leading up to the firing squad which is to come, Stone and Richardson allows for varying amounts of contrast in the juxtaposition of quick shots to help manipulate a tense expectancy. Next, is a grainy highly overexposed 85mm B&W extreme close-up point-of-view (POV) thumb shot loading a shell into a rifle chamber. This POV shot shows what the shooter, or in this case what the shooters are actually doing at this particular time. This one quick shot represents the POV of the several shooters by allowing the viewer to see the action from the shooters POV, as if the viewer is standing alongside the shooter. As far as continuity is concerned, this shot should have come just before the sniper seemingly targets the audience. A trained sniper should have already loaded his or her rifle prior to seeing the target come into view.
Jim Garrison continues from the courtroom with the above scene to describe the events which lead up to the shooting. The viewer is now looking through the rifle's scope seeing the cross hairs targeted on two motor police. This intense shot allows the viewer to share the sniper's angle, location, and to witness what a cold calculating killer would see whereby intensifying the pending climax that is to come. Next, the scene cuts to an 85mm B&W wide over-the-shoulder closeup shot of another seemingly darkly dressed participant looking downwards from a building window towards the street with a telephone to his ear. This over-the-shoulder wide closeup shot shows the viewer the approximate location of the individual as well as allowing the viewer a POV shot. Continuing, the scene cuts to several 85mm soft focused B&W quick camera shots of the happy crowed awaiting to see the president pass by. These quick wide to medium camera B&W shots of the happy Americans waiting to see the president plays with the emotions of the viewer by contrasting what the viewer should be feeling in this moment with what the viewer already knows. The next shot is a grainy and out of focused 85mm B&W wide close-up with a push-in toward the very first on the scene police figure just behind a fence aiming at some target. The viewer quickly sees a variety of quick shots with the lens zooming in to one sniper then quickly zooms out from the same sniper. This push-in camera movement towards the policeman and the camera lens zooming in and out of another sniper allows the viewer a quick line-of sight visual from the two shooter locations.
Now that the president's motorcade approaches the targeted area the camera shots quicken in time from an extreme B&W close-up of an earpiece in a man's ear, to a quick zoom away from a window sniper, to an over-the-shoulder shot of a blue-collar worker dressed sniper and radio man, to an extreme close-up shot of a sniper's eye positioning the guide and bead of a rifle, to a vintage medium wide shot of President Kennedy and entourage in his limousine. The barrage of full to medium close-up shots continue to quicken with happy to see the president Americans, a policeman keeping the crowd from the motorcade, back to the one of the sniper's cross-hairs, then shots to the multiple shooter locations. The scene escalates with tension as the shots push into the shooters. The camera shots begin to push into the snipers faces and invade their personal space. The B&W shots begin to cut from medium to closeup shots to take in each of the snipers' shooting stances. Here, Stone and Richardson are masterfully using an array of camera formats and movements, angled shots, and lens to coax the viewer into the narrative. The quick sniper positioning shots, the archival found and made footage of a motorcade, shots of happy Americans wanting to see the president, and the silent 8mm Kodachrome sequence filmed by a private citizen/Abraham Zapruder allowing the viewer the actual images and seating position of President John F. Kennedy in his limousine creating a shark frenzied emotional response from the viewer.
The scene is not finished; Stone and Richardson continue to build upon the previous emotional roller coaster ride with more cross-cut editing. Next, the viewer sees a 200mm B&W full closeup shot below eye level looking upwards into an anxious looking man's face just as the camera booms down to focus on what seems to be the man's pocket watch--someone seems to be more concerned with the time than watching the president. Next, the viewer is given another slash from the Zapruder footage and the viewer now begins to bleed inside Stone and Richardson’s shark tank during a feeding frenzy of gun shots and terror.
Cinematography is the creative process of opening up and allowing one's creativity to blossom and flow through the telling of a story of beautiful images-twenty-four beautiful pictures per second. The palette cinematographers flow with is the medium of light, shadow, and 24 frames per second. The creative process of any great artist is a spontaneous outflow of the love that is within him or her. Once an artist tries to put a bridle and saddle on this wild horse called creativity, this freedom, energy, and outpouring of love will cease to be. In the JFK courtroom scene Stone and Richardson pepper the 24 frames per second with image after image of emotional and memorable beauty and/or unrest. This soviet montage beautifully brings out the verisimilitude of the scene. The viewers are lead to believe deep down that they have witnessed the actual John F. Kennedy assassination. Cinematography creates this mood with light, shadow, composition, a flashing array of camera formats, angled shots, and various lenses to bring to fruition the right amount of verisimilitude. Working alongside Academy Award winning Director Oliver Stone, American Cinematographer Robert Bridge Richardson A.S.C. has won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography three times...For his work on JFK, The Aviator, and Hugo.
Work Cited Page
JFK. Dir. Oliver Stone. Prod. Oliver Stone and A. Kitman Ho. By Oliver Stone and Zachary Sklar. Perf. Kevin Costner, Sissy Spacek, and Joe Pesci. Warner Bros., 1991.
"Watch THR's Full, Uncensored Cinematographer Roundtable With Tarantino's Robert Richardson and More - Cinematographer Oscar Roundtable." Watch THR's Full, Uncensored Cinematographer Roundtable With Tarantino's Robert Richardson and More - Cinematographer Oscar Roundtable. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Aug. 2016.
"Zapruder Film." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, n.d. Web. 02 Aug. 2016.