James Wong Howe Essay

HOWE, JAMES WONG (1898-1975), photographer, cameraman. Howe was born in Canton, China, in 1898 and came to the State of Washington in 1904 with his p atomic number 18nts. His original name was Wong Tung Jim, which he continued to use until 1922. He is recognize for his great photographic camera work in the United States and for bringing new, revolutionary techniques to the camera serviceman. Among his best kn confess photographic innovations be the use of the wide-angle lens, deep focus, and raftered sets to give the claustrophobic feeling of universe aboard ship.In 1947 he was excessively wholeness of the first cameramen to use a hand-held camera. In his innovative methods of take he use roller skates and wheelchairs. Because of his dainty and revolutionary techniques Howe won Oscars for the scenes The Rose Tatoo and Hud in 1957 and 1963, respectively. His other acclaimed films include Come moxie Little Sheba, The Last Angry Man, and The sr. Man and the Sea. (Hyung-Cha n Kim, 1986) Howe arrived in America ancient five and grew up in Pasco, Washington. brusk (51) moreover stocky, he handy as a boxer and fought profession every(prenominal)y as a teenager, but he was bascinated by photography Making his direction to Los Angeles, he landed a crease with DeMilles unit at the Lasky Studios and worked his focussing up to camera assistant. Howe owed his breakthrough to a happy change. Assigned to impinge on stills of the friend Mary Miles Minter, he delighted her by making her eyes appear dark. (The orthochromatic film of the period lightened blue eyes into blankness. ) pose at first, Howe realized that dense velvet-textured drapes behind him had created the effect.Minter insisted he should shoot all her films, and rumours spread that she had imported her own Chinese cameraman who hid behind lightlessness velvet to work his magic. Howe was soon widely in demand. Luckily, the magician had more than one trick up his sleeve. Imaginative and exp erimental, Howe was never content to rely on veritable techniques. He believed that a good cinematographer should be willing to gamble a little more. The normal thing is not really interesting its the ludicrous and sometimes even accidental things that are. mightily to the end of his carrier he went on taking chances.Reacting against the insipid, shadowless photography preferred by his coachs. Howe set ab turn out exploring the creation of peevishness through the camera. To suggest the thaumaturgy world of Peter Pan (1924) he used low-key lighting (a technique which for a while became so characteristic that he gained the nickname Low-Key Howe). He seized thirstily on devices to increase camera mobility smasher (1926) was one of the first films to make lengthened use of dolly-short. When sound it Hollywood Howe was in China trying to set up a film to direct.The project vaporize through, and when he returned to America he demonstrate himself tagged silent-era. Work was s carce until Howard Hawks chose him for The vile Code (1930). This earned him a deuce year contract with Fox where he lent The Power and the Glory (1933), a tycoons life-saga, a quasi-newsreel take care that may rush influenced Welless Citizen Kane (1941). There followed a stint at MGM, creating dark, opulent interiors for Manhattan Melodrama (1934) and The Thin Man (1934), but Howe came under constant pressure from Cedric Gibbons, the studio apartments design head, to over-light.Quitting, he visited England, where dickens costume dramas, Fire over England (1936) and infra the Red Robe (1937). Were flattered by his warm, sentimentalist treatment. Returning to Hollywood, Howe freelanced for a while. The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) and Algiers (1938), lowering and atmospheric, mark the culmination of his 1930s black and white work The Adventures of Tom sawyer beetle (1938) was his first color feature Rejecting the highly strung tones beloved of Technicolor, Howe went for subdued, earthy colors befit the poor rural setting, to the alarm of Technicolors house cameraman Wilfred Cline.Howe simply handle Cline, and was banned from Technicolor films for the next twelve years. In 1938 Howe signed with Warners. The studio style, grainy and downbeat, should have suited his penchant for realism, but in the event he found Warners as restrictive as MGM. Their cut-price, fast-shooting methods outraged the perfectionist Howe, who analogous to prepare meticulously and take time to get things right. (Esther Mikyung Ghymn, 2000)Even so he achieved some fine work ofttimes in an expressionistic vein all high contrast and oppressive shadows to crack melodramas like Kings Row (1942) or passing play to Marseille (1944), besides the near-documentary look of Air impression (1943) and Objective Burma (1945). Released from Warners, the ex-boxer captured some sweatily vivid charge scenes for Body and Soul (1947) by having himself pushed rhythm the ring on roller-skates. For the rest of his life story Howe freelanced.Most of his colour films date from this period, from the picture-book fantasy of Bell, Book and Candle (1958) to the muted subterraneous shades of The Molly Maguires (1969). There was never a uniform Howe look the style, he insisted, whould conform to the story, but he preferred black and white, and his late masterpieces are all in monochrome Hud ( 1962), with its flat white Texan skies the tormented distortions of Seconds ( 1966) and the slick, glitzy darkness world of Sweet Smell of winner ( 1957). Howe was never easy to work with. unfailing and dedicated, he demanded equal dedication from his crews and, maybe in reaction to the racial slurs he suffered all his life, adopted an autocratic come out that risked alienating colleagues. Given an inexperienced director Howe would virtually take over, sometimes to the hitch of directing the actors, and even strong directors knew reform than to cross him. But few doubted that whatsoever h e did was for the sake of the story nor that he was, as Alexander Mackendrick put it, preferably simply, the best.As stated earlier, Chinese Americans physical appearance alone has rendered them unassimilable end-to-end American history. Compounding this first barricade are the culture-specific traits of language, food, custom, and value. Popular presses continue to grade Asian Americans as model minorities, which inwardness that despite prejudice, this group has made it so others should follow suit and not complain. The realism is that visible Asians experience glass ceilings in the workplace and tuning out by whites in interpersonal communications. (David A. Cook, 1996)Success, for Asian Americans at least, does not readily dictate the heathenish persons cultural identity. This was what dog Chin realized when he interviewed an award-winning Chinese American cinematographer and director From greeting us in the oldest homeliest Sze Yup Cantonese Id heard since Chinatown ol d throng Wong Howe was a Chinaman. He took us out for Chinese food and ordered for everyone like a Chinaman. He got along with whites, was the mental capacity of the most American art Hollywood movies and had two Oscars without losing any of his Chinese language, culture, or taste. (Vincent LoBrutto, 1999)