Cool as Ice (1991)

[M Joel W]

I watched most of this movie with a friend and thought it looked pretty bad overall, some of it unusually bad. There was some nice magic hour photography and I've seen much worse from the era, but this was not a good looking movie and the music video effects didn't age well, either. The lighting in particular is quite bad; there's a lot of poorly done hard HMI fill during the day and the interior (sound stage) lighting can be reduced to two looks: hard HMIs through each window (at totally illogical angles) during the day and the same lights bluer and a stop darker for "night." Really inelegant stuff, but fast to work with, I assume.

 

That alone isn't remarkable, but this movie was shot by Janusz Kaminski with Mauro Fiore as gaffer. Anyone know the story behind this movie? I assume the two met at Columbia College Chicago, but how did they land this gig and how did the relatively poor photography on it launch two very impressive careers? Or am I missing something? Just curious if anyone knows, not trying to disrespect either as both went on to shoot some gorgeous stuff.

[Jan Grindheim]

I have not seen this movie, I just wanted to point out that they met at AFI Conservatory. They where part of a crew that consisted of Kaminski, Fiore, Wally Pfister and Phedon Papamichel. They shot a lot together, working in everything from Corman productions to straight-to-video erotic thrillers.

 

Some people learn on the job, I guess. Check out some of the uneven early films Hoyte von Hoytema lensed in Norway, for instance

. Now he has shoot one of the absolutely most stunning films of 2011, TINKER TAYLOR SOLDIER SPY.