Tricks of the Trade

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George La Fountaine, ASC

Our business is unique in that each day we're forced to reevaluate the ordinary things we see about us. If you're anything like me, you have to know what causes those patterns on that wall and are not above tearing a light apart to see what's inside.

During my commercial days of the late sixties, Maybelline and Ultrasheen hired me to shoot full screen eyeballs to sell their eyeliner products. Not only did these shots take a ton of light, but they revealed the crew, lens, lights and exit signs in the pupil.

Digging into my ditty bags for every trick I could think of, I had the crew hang blacks, stalk the eyeball dressed as Ninja warriors, and build snoots the length of the studio. But I was only polishing my mistakes, not fixing them.

Then, while shopping for appliances with my wife, I stumbled across a new kitchen light from GE, a ten-inch fluorescent in the shape of a circle. It fit perfectly around the lens and only had to be color corrected. That one observation served me for years, and simplified my life.