ROBERT PRIMES ASC

Born: 10 January 1940, San Francisco, Calif., USA, as Robert Joseph Primes.

Education: Reed College, Portland, Oregon [Mathematics]; San Francisco Conservatory of Music [Classical Piano].

Career: After leaving Reed College, he traveled around Europe, taking thousands of still pictures. After about three months, he returned home and enrolled at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. He left after about a year and a half, and got a job in a San Francisco camera store. He took extension classes in filmmaking, and soon focused on cinematography. 'I proclaimed myself a filmmaker in the hippie days of San Francisco. I bought a Bolex, then an Éclair, and learned while I earned.' From 1964-75 wrote, produced, directed, ph and edited doc's, shorts and commercials. Came to Hollywood in 1975 to direct and ph commercials and music videos. 'It wasn't until I came to Hollywood that I realized how little I knew. The reel from my hippie-filmmaker days got me a job as a director/cameraman at a big TV commercial house. It only lasted six months, but it brought me to L.A. Later, I was hired to shoot the TV show 'thirtysomething', probably because I'd never set foot on a TV set. The show won the 'Emmy' for Best Drama, and I was launched [at least for a while].'

Member of the ASC since April 1990.

Was teacher at the University of California [Los Angeles], North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Texas and the International Film Workshops [Rockport, Maine]. Was a member of the SMPTE committee on High Definition TV formatting.

Married [1964-present] to pianist Theodora Carras.

Appeared in the doc's 'The Story Behind Baadasssss!: The Birth of Black Cinema' [2004; 22m], 'Cinematographer Style' [2005, Jon Fauer; ph: J. Fauer, Jeff Laszlo, Brian Heller & David Morgan] & Zacuto's 3-part doc web series (camera comparison) 'The Great Camera Shootout 2011'.

Awards: ASC Award nom [1992] for 'Reasonable Doubts'; 'Emmy' Award [1995] & Cable Ace Award nom [199?] for 'My Antonia'; 'Emmy' Award nom [1996] for 'Harrison: Cry of the City'; 'Emmy' Award [1999] & ASC Award nom [2000] for 'Felicity' [ep 'Todd Mulcahy, Part II', dir by Jeffrey Abrams]; 'Pixie' Award nom [2000] for 'Quantum Project'; ASC Award [2002] for 'MDs' [ep 'Wing and a Prayer']; 'Emmy' Award nom [2006] for 'Sleeper Cell' [pilot]; SOC 'President's Award' [2008].

'DSLRs: A Time Exposure'

By Robert Primes ASC

THE INCITING INCIDENT
At some point in the evolution of today's DSLR [digital single-lens reflex cameras], digital replaced film, and low light level photography became astonishingly clear. We saw our world in a whole new way. And then a seemingly innocent event occurred that for some would be the beginning of a whole new style, and for others, would be another nail in the coffin of quality cinematography.
Rather than schlep a real movie camera or camcorder around with your still outfit, wouldn't it be convenient if you could just lock the mirror up and shoot motion synced to audio? Canon added the feature to their marvelous 5D Mark II still camera, almost as an afterthought. Their normally astute marketers calculated that no more than 3 or 4% of users would ever use the feature - perhaps a few wedding photographers and single-person reporting teams.

With Canon EOS 5D

BLINDSIDED
They were off by a mile. The $2,800 camera started selling 5,000 per week. And 35 to 40% of buyers were shooting movies! Had Canon known they would sell 100,000 or so of these high-end cameras they could have built the camera a whole lot better for us cinema types. As originally delivered, the aperture, gain, exposure, frame rate and shutter speed of the 5D Mark II could not be adjusted by the user. There was no 24 frames per second mode, only 30, and if you panned past a window, the camera would dutifully underexpose your subject, confident that you'd rather try to see what's out that window than see the facial details of that boring person in the foreground.
These deficiencies have been more or less successfully remedied with software updates for the 5D and with 3 newer Canons, the 7D, 1D Mark IV and the Rebel T1i, all of which have HD movie capability.
NIKON AND PANASONIC
Naturally, other major players weren't sleeping through all this. As of a few months ago, Nikon's only manually-controllable HD DSLR was their amazing D3s, which though not as high resolution as the Canons [720x1280 instead of 1080x1920 pixels], was the undisputed sensitivity king, with ISOs all the way up to an astonishing 100,000! Panasonic's Lumix GH-1 delivered less speed and exposure latitude than the competition, but offered a reasonable 1080p image at a bargain price.
FATAL FLAWS
Focusing - easily one of the most challenging of the cinematography skills - is made dimensionally more difficult by using cameras and often lenses not designed for following focus in movie scenes with subject and/or camera movement. The large imagers are a mixed blessing. Yes, you get more selective focus but that also requires a gifted technician to avoid distracting focus buzzes.
The critically sharp optical finder is disabled for movie work. All that remains during shooting is a reduced resolution video output. Aftermarket focusing devices are necessary and some cinematographers find themselves required to design less challenging shots or shooting with more light at smaller apertures.
Because the movie mode originated as merely an extra feature, very little effort was put into maximizing quality. The cameras were tiny compared to purpose built motion picture cameras with similar size sensors. Hence the amount of processing power, rate of data flow, heat build-up, storage etc. was severely limited and the makers certainly had no interest in compromising their world class still photography capabilities. The result was a greatly compressed image using the h.264 codec. Compared to the pristine raw modes most of these cameras offered, the motion picture images suffered from noticeably less exposure latitude, greater noise, fixed pattern noise, less usable sensitivity [ISO] and of course, much less resolution.
REDEEMING VIRTUES
But as imperfect as these images might have been when compared to the quality of raw files from the same sensors, changing the image 24 times each second can hide a lot of sin. And of course there were some really significant virtues.
First and foremost, these cameras are really cheap. If you consider that all the development costs of the hugely successful Panavision Genesis camera were initially amortized over just 100 cameras, and that the RED ONE, arguably the motion picture marketing coup of our time, is rumored to have sold around 7,000 cameras, then the significance of selling 100,000 professional quality cameras in around a year becomes clear. This, in turn allows fantastic research and development costs to be amortized over so many cameras that they can be sold at a fraction of the cost of purpose-built professional movie gear.
Second, the cameras are small and inconspicuous. As one example, the wedding scene in 'Up in the Air' [2009; ph by Eric Steelberg] was shot with DSLRs. Camera operators wearing tuxedos passed for guests shooting still pictures and could be seen working right in the middle of scenes without distracting viewers.
Third, they offer 35mm class selective focus. Sometimes better! This selective focus is achieved by having a limited depth of field which in turn is achieved by having a large diameter lens opening. For a given lighting condition, the lens diameter is directly proportional to the size of the image sensor. Therefore, it is much easier to achieve effective selective focus with a large sensor. DSLRs generally provide a large sensor in a relatively small camera, and there you have it: selective focus from a cheap, tiny camera. Brilliant!
Finally, despite their imperfect compression, modern high end DSLRs still have extraordinary sensitivity to low light levels. ISOs of 3200 and more are commonplace. This is astounding and allows cinematography in previously unthinkable venues. [For the complete article click HERE.]

FILMS

1966	[The Plot to Kill JFK:] Rush to Judgment [Emile de Antonio] b&w; doc/98m
1969	Gimme Shelter [Albert & David Maysles, Charlotte Zwerin] c; mus doc/90m; cph: Ron Dorfman, George Lucas, Albert & David Maysles, Joan Churchill, Eric Saarinen, Kevin Keating, Peter Smokler, a.o.; restored version released in 2000
1970	Maxie/The Butchers/Murderer's Keep [Paulmichel Mielche] c
1970	Jumprope [Robert Primes] c; cinepoetry short/7m; shot at 360 fps
1974	Never Give Up [Ann Hershey] c; doc/28m; cph: George Hood & Shera Thompson
1974	The Grateful Dead/The Grateful Dead Movie [Jerry Garcia & Leon Gast] 16mm-35bu/c; concert film/131m; cph: David Myers, Kevin Keating, Jon Else, Stephen Lighthill, a.o.; addph: Bill Zarchy
1976	Sandstone [Jonathan Dana & Bunny Peters Dana] c; doc/85m; cph: Patrick Darrin
1977	She Came to the Valley/Texas in Flames [Albert Band] p/c; 2uc; ph: Daniel Pearl
1978	Stunt Rock/Crash/Sorcery [Brian Trenchard-Smith] 16mm (stunt footage)+35mm-to-tao35/c; Sorcery concert ph (as Bob Carras); stunt ph (16mm): Brian Trenchard-Smith; 2uc Australia: Russell Boyd, John Seale, a.o.; addph: Reynaldo Villalobos & Paul Ryan; uwph: Allan Gornick Jr.
1978	Eduardo the Healer [Richard Cowan] 16mm/c; doc/55m
1978	The Secret Life of Plants [Walon Green] p/c; doc/98m; cph: Ghislain Cloquet, Daniel Pearl, Mike Hoover, David Myers, a.o.; natural history ph: Ken Middleham
1979	Cuba Crossing/Assignment: Kill Castro/The Mercenaries [Chuck Workman] c; uwph: Jack McKenney; as Robert Carras
1980	Dr. Heckyl and Mr. Hype [Charles B. Griffith] c; addph: Hal Trussell; as Robert Carras
1981	Lovely But Deadly [David Sheldon] c; as Robert Roth
1982	Rumble Fish [Francis Coppola] b&w; efx ph; ph: Stephen Burum
1982	They Call Me Bruce?/A Fistful of Chopsticks [Elliott Hong] c; 2uc: Robert Harmon; as Robert Roth
1983	Crimewave/Broken Hearts and Noses/The XYZ Murders [Sam Raimi] c; addph: Eugene Shulgleit; 2uc: Tom Campau
1984	Du-beat-e-o/We're All Crazy Now [Alan Sacks] b&w-c
1984	16 Days of Glory [Bud Greenspan] p/c; doc Olympic Games Los Angeles/145m; cph: Robert Collins, Gil Hubbs, Michael Margulies & Chuck Cohen
1985	A Great Wall/The Great Wall Is a Great Wall/Beijing Story [Peter Wang] c; cph: Peter Stein; 2uc: Xie Huaji
1987	The Best Show in Town [Chuck Workman] ?; doc/?m; cph: Paul Ryan; the history of Paramount Pictures
1987	Hearts of Stone [Steve Anderson] c; short/30m; also shown as part of Showtime-tv series '30-Minute Movie', 1991
1988	Homesick [Johanna Demetrakas] c; short/25m; addph: Joseph Calloway; also shown as part of PBS-tv series 'American Playhouse Triple Play'
1989	Total Recall [Paul Verhoeven] c; efx ph; ph: Jost Vacano
1989	Bird on a Wire [John Badham] s35/c; 2uc: Peter McLennan; aph: Frank Holgate & Steve Smith
1989	Till There Was You [John Seale] c; Los Angeles ph; ph: Geoffrey Simpson
1990	The Hard Way [John Badham] p/c; fired halfway through filming and replaced by D. McAlpine; cph: Don McAlpine; 2uc: Ron Fortunato; addph 2u: Roy H. Wagner; ph cons: Alicia Webber
1992	Aspen Extreme [Patrick Hasburgh] c; cph: Steven Fierberg; 2uc: Jan Kiesser & Edgar Boyles
1993	Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult [Peter Segal] c; addph; ph: Robert Stevens

[Right] with dir Brett Ratner - "Money Talks"

1996	Money Talks [Brett Ratner] s35/c; cph: Russell Carpenter; 2uc: Russ Lyster & Tony Cutrono
1996	[Def Jam's] How to Be a Player [Lionel Martin] c; addph; ph: Ross Berryman
1997	A Murder of Crows [Rowdy Herrington] c/V
1998	Theo Plays Chopin [Robert Primes] HD/c; mus short/8m
2000	Quantum Project [Eugenio Zanetti] DVCPRO HD/c; internet movie/32m
2001	Forgotten Valor [Lane Nishikawa] dv/c; short/40m
2003	How to Get the Man's Foot Outta Your Ass/Gettin' the Man's Foot Outta Your Baadasssss!/BAADASSSSS! [Mario Van Peebles] HD-to-35mm/c; 2uc: Dan Kneece; + small part
2004	A Thousand Beautiful Things [Ryan Lonergan] c; short/17m
2005	Bachelor Party Vegas/Vegas Baby! [Eric Bernt] c/V
2007	Ca$h [Steve (Stephen Milburn) Anderson] HD (Sony F23)-to-35mm/c; cph: John R. Leonetti; addph: Keith Gruchala
2010	Serengeti - Tanzania [-] HD (Sony PMW-350+Weisscam HS-2+Canon 5D)/c; doc/?m; cph: Dan Kneece & Yousef Linjawi; for CreativeCOW.net
2012	Image Camera Assessment Series [?] DVD/c; cph: Bruce Logan & Fred Goodich; a test with 5 of the latest digital cinematography cameras: ARRI ALEXA Studio, Canon C300, RED Epic, Sony PMW-F3 and Sony F65, as well as an ARRI 435 film camera; prod by the ASC & Producers Guild of America

TELEVISION

1977	Rape: The Hidden Crime [Don Silverman] doc/50m
1978	Inside 'The Swarm' [Andrew Kuehn] doc/22m; co-addph; ph: José Luis Mignone
1978	Rescue from Gilligan's Island [Leslie H. Martinson] tvm
1979	Gauguin the Savage [Fielder Cook] tvm; stand-by ph Hollywood; ph: Walter Lassally
1985	The Insiders [various] 13-part series, 1985-86; other ph: ?
1987	thirtysomething [20 ep dir by various] 85-part series, 1987-91; 1st season, 1987-88 (21 ep); ph pilot: Dan Lerner
1988	Mickey - 60th Birthday [Scot Garen] special/50m; anim + live action; for NBC-tv (ep 'The Magical World of Disney')

1989	Disneyland's 35th Anniversary Celebration [John Landis; James Burrows ('Cheers' sketch) & John Cherry ('Ernest' sketch)] variety special/60m; for NBC-tv (ep 'The Magical World of Disney') (1990)
1991	Reasonable Doubts [pilot dir by Robert Singer] 44-part series, 1991-93; 1st season, 1991-92; other ph: Richard M. Rawlings Jr.
1992	Elvis: The Great Performances [Andrew Solt] mus doc/120m
1992	Quantum Leap [various] 97-part series, 1989-93; 5th season, 1992-93; other ph: Donald M. Morgan, a.o.
1993	Golden Gate [Randall Zisk] pilot
1993	Nurses on the Line [: The Crash of Flight 7] [Larry Shaw] tvm
1994	Get Smart [pilot dir by Nick Marck] 7-part series, 1995; other ph: John Fleckenstein
1994	My Antonia [Joseph Sargent] tvm
1994	[Moment of Truth:] Murder or Memory? [Christopher Leitch] tvm
1995	The Pastor's Wife [James Hayman] pilot
1995	She Fought Alone/Scared by Love [Christopher Leitch] tvm
1995	Charlie Grace [various] 9-part series; main title seq ph; ph: Shelly Johnson & Richard M. Rawlings Jr.
1995	Harrison: Cry of the City [James Frawley] tvm
1995	Malibu Shores [various] 9-part series, 1996; other ph: Bradley B. Six
1996	All Together Now [Ron Lagomarsino] pilot; for CBS-tv
1996	A Friend's Betrayal/Stolen Youth [Christopher Leitch] tvm
1997	Crowned and Dangerous [Christopher Leitch] tvm
1997	Blood on Her Hands [Steven Robman] tvm
1998	Felicity [14 ep dir by Matt Reeves, Brad Silberling, Todd Holland, Joan Tewkesbury, a.o.] 84-part series, 1998-2002; 1st season, 1998-99; other ph: Michael Bonvillain & Richard Fannin
1999	Sealed with a Kiss/First Comes Love [Ron Lagomarsino] tvm
1999	The Sandy Bottom Orchestra [Bradley Wigor] tvm
2000	Young Americans [various] 8-part series, 2000
2001	The X Files [ep #180 'Alone' dir by Frank Spotnitz] 202-part series, 1993-2002; 8th season, 2000-01; 2uc; ph: Bill Roe
2002	Georgetown [Scott Winant] pilot; for CBS-tv
2002	MDs/Meds [ep #2 'A La Casa' dir by Michael M. Robin, #3 'Open Heart' dir by Rick Rosenthal, #4 'Heartland' dir by Daniel Lerner, #5 'Cruel and Unusual' dir by Vondie Curtis-Hall, #6 'R.I.P.' dir by Peter Horton, #7 'Wing and a Prayer' dir by Vincent Misiano & #8 'Reversal of Fortune' dir by Peter O'Fallon] 11-part (3 unaired) series/HD; ph pilot: Craig DiBona
2004	Sleeper Cell [pilot 'Al-Faitha' dir by Clark Johnson] 18-part series/HD, 2005-06; 1st season, 2005; other ph: Matthew Jensen; main title seq ph: Steve Lee
2004	¼life [Edward Zwick] pilot/60m; for ABC-tv
2005	Night Stalker [ep #2 'The Five People You Meet in Hell' dir by Rob Bowman, #3 'Three' dir by Daniel Sackheim & #6 'The Source' dir by Steve Shill] 10-part (4 unaired on ABC-tv) series/HD (Genesis); other ph: Clark Mathis (pilot), Sandi Sissel & Rick Maguire; for ABC-tv & Sci-Fi Channel
2005	Las Vegas [ep #69 'Fidelity, Security, Delivery' dir by David Straiton] 106-part series, 2003-08; 3rd season, 2005-06; other ph: John Newby

MISCELLANEOUS

1971	The Godfather [Francis Ford Coppola] c.asst pick-up ph; pick-up ph: Caleb Deschanel; ph: Gordon Willis
1983	Monster in the Closet [Bob Dahlin] co-c.op; ph: Ronald W. McLeish; released in 1987
2009	Defining Beauty: Ms. Wheelchair America [Alexis Ostrander; doc] co-c.op; ph: David J. Frederick & A. Ostrander

FILMS & TELEVISION AS DIRECTOR

196?	Vietnam Dialogue [doc/b&w/16mm; + ed]
1970	Jumprope [dir; + ph] see Films
1992	Silk Stalkings [ep #43 'Voices'] 2nd season of 176-part series, 1991-99; ph: Ernest Paul Roebuck
1998	Theo Plays Chopin [dir; + ph] see Films
2002	[Harold Pinter's] Night [?]