Harris Savides (1957-2012)

Harris Savides, the BAFTA nominated cinematographer and contributing DP for Gus Van Sant, Ridley Scott, and David Fincher, died today at the age of 55.  In a career that has spanned almost 25 years, he started his work in film as the director of music videos for R.E.M., Madonna, and Michael Jackson. His panache for German-Expressionist chiaroscuro mixed brilliantly under the direction David Fincher when Savides acted as cinematographer for Fincher's 1997 thriller, The Game. Savides would bring the same film-noir style when he collaborated with Fincher in 2007 for the film, Zodiac, as well as reveal the world of corruption and drug smuggling in Ridley Scott's American Gangster, for which Savides was nominated for a BAFTA for Best Cinematography. Savides is best known for acting as DP under Gus Van Sant for his films Gerry, Elephant, and Milk. The last film he worked on was Sophia Coppola's The Bling Ring, which is scheduled for release in 2013.

Savides was a brilliant cinematographer; like those before him, such as Conrad L. Hall, he managed to bring beauty and horror within the shadows of the characters onscreen with minimal lighting, such as he had displayed in Fincher's films. Also, his use of the stedicam in Van Sant's films are as chilling as Kubrick's floating camera was used in The Shining. Look at how he manages to add the suspense to the post-Columbine film, Elephant, as the camera hovers around like a fly on the wall. His close-ups and tracking shots of the actors are chilling to watch, whether it is a tortured Michael Douglas in The Game, or a vengeance-filled Josh Brolin in Milk as he walks down the hallways of San Francisco's City Hall ready to assassinate Harvey Milk. There are very few cinematographers like Savides and his use of lighting and positioning of the camera enhanced the emotions of the audience, as well as brought the canon of films he had worked on to a higher level as anticipated by the directors he had worked with.