"As a photographer, sometimes you just need to be a fly on the wall."
Steve Schapiro. Excerpt from the book 'The Godfather Family Album'
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By that time, those special rays of light had passed us by. I had a strobe lamp coming from the side to illuminate Al himself, but the only way to light the window and the floor the way we had planned was to make a four-second timed exposure with the camera. Al Pacino is not exactly the sort of person who likes to sit still in a chair for very long. I would click open the camera shutter, the strobe light would go off—and so would Al. Before we could say anything, he was standing up, in a completely different position. He was double-exposed on the entire first roll of film I took.
With some actors, I've had to jump up and down or even make bird sounds to get the appropriate look
Finally, I explained in greater detail what we were up against.We cut back to a three-second exposure, Al sat still, and the photo came out as the poster image we had dreamed of, with hardly any retouching at all. The Godfather trilogy is a story about love, honor, revenge, violence, family, and the handing down from one generation to the next. It strikes chords in all of us. It was a coming together of script, direction, actors, lighting, costume, and scenic design. I was very fortunate to see all this happen firsthand, along with the behindthe- scenes moments that made it an even more poignant event. I hope this book conveys at least a little bit of what I saw of The Godfather.
—Steve Schapiro, Chicago, 2008
Page 1 2 3
Page 1 2 3
By that time, those special rays of light had passed us by. I had a strobe lamp coming from the side to illuminate Al himself, but the only way to light the window and the floor the way we had planned was to make a four-second timed exposure with the camera. Al Pacino is not exactly the sort of person who likes to sit still in a chair for very long. I would click open the camera shutter, the strobe light would go off—and so would Al. Before we could say anything, he was standing up, in a completely different position. He was double-exposed on the entire first roll of film I took.
With some actors, I've had to jump up and down or even make bird sounds to get the appropriate look
Finally, I explained in greater detail what we were up against.We cut back to a three-second exposure, Al sat still, and the photo came out as the poster image we had dreamed of, with hardly any retouching at all. The Godfather trilogy is a story about love, honor, revenge, violence, family, and the handing down from one generation to the next. It strikes chords in all of us. It was a coming together of script, direction, actors, lighting, costume, and scenic design. I was very fortunate to see all this happen firsthand, along with the behindthe- scenes moments that made it an even more poignant event. I hope this book conveys at least a little bit of what I saw of The Godfather.
—Steve Schapiro, Chicago, 2008
Page 1 2 3
