British Cinematographer
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Few debuts have been more disturbing than Eraserhead,
the surreal body horror that announced the arrival of David Lynch. The project
began as a short during the 24-year-old’s first year at the American Film
Institute AFI in 1970 with Herbert Cardwell shooting early scenes.
“When it became clear that it was going to be a long-term
project, Herb departed to get a real job, while I, still a starving student,
took over,” explains Fredrick Elmes ASC.
Elmes, who joined AFI a year after Lynch, recalls first
meeting the writer-director. “David
showed me some shots and I got a sense of it in gorgeous black and white
35mm. I seemed a very simple story, a
very simple character but it was also evident he was creating something out of
the ordinary. There was nothing really controversial until the last shot of the
baby and that piqued my interest completely.”
Lynch’s opaque narratives have come to be critically lauded
and loved by audiences but as one of the first to encounter the auteur at his
most raw, Elmes must share credit for shaping the look and tone of not only Eraserhead,
but Blue Velvet and later, Wild at Heart.
“It was a matter of extracting,” he says. “David was not
forthcoming with words or anything about story so it was up to me to figure out
how to take the next step. Really, there was a great trust between us because
[then] he didn't know me from anyone.”
The budding DP drew on clues he’d seen in a couple of
Lynch’s paintings. “His sense of light and design and the graphic nature of it
were really astounding.”
There no overall lighting plan. Elmes says, “We were
lighting specific spots out of the darkness that had to be seen as the
character moves from spot to this spot. I saw what was happening with just
enough light on the wall for the character’s transition and that's all that
David wanted. That became integrated into the style and really the feeling
of the movie.”
As deliberately vague as he could be, Lynch could also be
exacting. Recalls Elmes, “Early on Eraserhead, I remember going up to
one of the tables as I was setting the shot and moving one of the props over to
get a better composition. David said, ‘You know, we don't actually move the
props.’ This was contrary to every other director I worked with.”
Eraserhead introduces Lynch’s signature transitions
which seem to move from one reality into another dimension. “There’s a moment
when Henry's alone in the room and about to have a dream. We cut to a bulb
lighting up and then the camera starts to dolly and the next light bulb lights
up and the next and the camera tilts up to reveal this stage, which you've
never seen before with a character you've never met before. We appear to be in
a different dimension; none of it's familiar.
“I chose to make those transitions in the most
straightforward way possible. There was nothing tricky, there were no
dissolves. It was really nothing out of the ordinary. We just treated it like
the next scene in the movie. That simple approach became part of the film’s
style.”
Eraserhead was supposed to be made in a few weeks but
ended up taking five years as Lynch continually ran out of money but persisted
in pursuing his vision. Only a handful of cast and crew, including lead actors
Jack Nance and Catherine Coulson, stayed the course.
“It was a slow, methodical process. Most of the film was
made by five or six people, including the actors who helped build the sets.”
Elmes continues, “AFI was extremely supportive. They gave us
a load of equipment and lights. After they stopped giving us film stock they
gave us the laboratory and a deferment on processing. They also leant David a
little studio space where we could work and edit. It was wonderful, but at a
certain point there were no more dollars.”
The AFI gave them short ends of negative from The Last
Picture Show (Peter Bogdanovich’s black and white movie) that had just
wrapped while Elmes would stop by Kodak on his way to work and pick up a roll
of film “so that we had something to shoot that evening.”
Elmes even shot The Killing of a Chinese Bookie for
John Cassavetes in 1975, just to pay the bills. When this happened, Eraserhead
paused “partly because I took the crew with me.”
The almost non-existent budget had Elmes experimenting to
create optical effects in-camera, “either running it backwards or upside down
or doing some weird small thing.”
Members of the cast and crew kept the production afloat with
donations. Lynch didn’t forget this generosity. At a diner with Elmes and
Coulson he promised them a share of royalties with a contract written on a
napkin. No-one expected the film even to be released, but Elmes confirms that
Lynch’s handshake was honoured with an annual cheque.
“It became a very intimate relationship with David because
it really was just a few of us shaping this story scene by scene. It did
change, but it was our growth that changed it.”
Filming also took place in Elmes’ small West Hollywood
apartment. “We had this exterior scene which required a number of bigger
lights. I discovered I could climb on the apartment roof and tap into the power
on the other side of the meter so we could plug in the bigger lights and
wouldn't be charged electricity. It's a little dangerous now, when I think
about it, but that's what we did to get it done.”
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