A Message from Jon Delano,
Denis Theatre Foundation President
Dear Friends of the Denis,
It’s that hot, sultry time of the year when nobody wants to do much of anything, but thanks to some wonderful volunteers who worked very hard this summer, we had a terrific Champagne & Dessert social that raised over $7,000 for the operating costs of The Denis. The setting at the Historical Society of Mount Lebanon could not have been lovelier, and we heard a terrific update on local television and filmmaking from the inimitable Dawn Keezer, director of the Pittsburgh Film Office.
In addition to Dawn, let me thank the following volunteers who made the evening so special: Susan Henry, Lauren John & Jane Delano for coordinating the event; Alyssa Jones, Beth Romig, Jim Wojcik & Geoff Hurd for facilitating this at the History Center; high school students Katie Ding & Lucien Mikush for excellent music, Mikette Stinebiser for needed trays & candelabra; Jay Patrick, Georgia Connell, Mary Ellen Muth & Alison Peters for social media & publicity; Andy Henry for bartending; Pat Raffaele for setting up sponsorships; Doug Mitchell for his photography; Elaine Wertheim & Jon Delano for invitations, and special thanks to ALL who contributed and joined us that summer evening.
Frankly, it’s never too late to help us pay our monthly expenses. Click here for a way to do that now: https://www.denistheatre.org/donate-now
While summer is an important time to take a break and recharge our batteries, we continue to identify donors who will pledge (not give now) dollars for the reconstruction of The Denis. If you’d like to consider doing that, please let me know.
Enjoy the rest of your summer and stay cool!
Warm regards,
Jon
SWELTERING SUMMER MOVIE PICKS
We’re sliding down the backside of summer and everything is damp with humidity and sweat and used pool towels. Summer also inspires a specific type of cinema. It's never too late to slip into some hot summer movies that focus on coming-of-age, adolescent freedoms, idle flights of fancy, momentary flings, and vacations to far flung locales. They sweat. They bake. They swelter and shrivel under the midday sun. These are some of our favorite “Summer Movies.”
Elaine’s Picks
The Way Way Back (Jim Rash, Nat Faxon, 2013)
A beach house, a station wagon, and a water park with a tube slide fuel this coming-of-age tale. It’s a familiar story, but the cast and the writing tell the story well. The movie stars Liam James, Toni Colette, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell and Allison Janney. If you like this try Adventureland (2009) which was filmed at Kennywood and features a similarly bittersweet and comic tone.
My Donkey, My Lover & I (Caroline Vignal, 2020)
Antoinette’s summer holiday takes an unexpected turn in this French dramedy. This is a buddy movie—with unique buddies. It’s the journey, not the destination that matters. Vignal and cinematographer Simon Beaufils (Anatomy of a Fall) paints with the film camera.
500 Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009)
Screenwriter Scott Neustader describes 500 Days as an anti-Hollywood romantic comedy. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, the film dessolution of a new romance as the story bounces around chronologically to tell a clever yarn, full of heart and heartbreak.
Jay’s Picks
The Sandlot (1993) dir. David Mickey Evans
Few movies nail the beauty of a “wasted” summer with friends better than this 1960’s nostalgia-fueled baseball comedy. The Sandlot playfully explores coming-of-age, childhood mythmaking, and the value of legends. It’s lasting appeal can be attributed to its heart and quotable dialogue. (“You’re killing me, Smalls.”)
Summertime (1954) dir. David Lean
A tour of Venice through the eyes of an emotionally muted Katherine Hepburn on holiday. She’s a woman harboring uncertain pain until a smitten shopkeeper turns his attention toward her. As the threat of connection grows, Lean explores middle-aged anxiety, want, and the self-fulfilling prophecies of loneliness. Summertime feels slight – but it’s a deeply soulful and spiritual film.
Body Heat (1981) dir. Lawrence Kasdan
Kasdan transplants the golden age of the film noir into 1981 and this steamy thriller starring William Hurt and Kathleen Turner. The stunted double entendre, loaded phrasing, femme fatale, double (and triple) crosses. Body Heat also belongs among the sweatiest films of all time; you can feel the heat (temperature and smolder) right through your screen.
See more picks from Elaine and Jay at denistheatre.org/blog
UPCOMING EVENTS
Sponsored by the Mt. Lebanon Public Library, Elaine and Connie will host BOOK AND A MOVIE featuring a discussion of Claire Keegan’s novella FOSTER and Colm Bairéad’s adaptation THE QUIET GIRL (An Cailín Ciúin).
OCTOBER 6, 6:30 - 8:30pm: DISCUSS THE BOOK
OCTOBER 13, 6:30 - 8:30pm: WATCH AND DISCUSS THE MOVIE
Visit the Mt. Lebanon Public Library’s Calendar for more info.
FILM SCHOOL: DAY FOR NIGHT
Day for night in David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
Since we’ve been experiencing the longest days of the year, it seemed like a good exuse to discuss the technique that’s been used longer than there’s been cinema. In order to create night scenes for a photographic medium that requires light to expose images on film, filmmakers have long turned to a little trick known as “day for night."
The human eye sees moonlight as blue due to the Purkinje effect, which explains how our vision skews toward the blue end of the color spectrum as it adapts to low light. Because film stocks lacked the sensitivity to document action at nighttime, it was difficult to replicate the experience of night. The result would be black, underexposed film with little clarity.
Luckily a workaround presented itself through early photochemistry.
Early 19th century photographers used chemical techniques to simulate night scenes by adding a blue tint to the negative. The practice carried over into early silent cinema. Directors would film a traditional, well-lit scene and tint night scenes in blue.
The blue tint to signify nighttime in F.W. Murnau’s Nosferatu (1922).
As the science of filmmaking became more advanced, directors of photography perfected a new method of creating night scenes. With a little in-camera tweaking and post-production magic, “day for night” became the standard practice by the 1950s.
The term “day for night” refers to the filming of a night scene during the day, just as they’d always done — with a few simple tweaks to the formula. Cinematographers would underexpose the film in-camera by two f-stops to create the illusion of nighttime. A neutral-density filter that reduces the intensity of all wavelengths of light equally was also often used so that the camera aperture remains constant. Looking back on these scenes with our modern eyes, they stand out due to their high contrast and the appearance of shadows. These shots may seem dated — but contemporary filmmakers have learned how to harness the artificiality of day for night to benefit their own creative visions. You probably didn’t even know you were watching a scene shot “day for night."
Sidenote: If you’re wondering, there’s also a reversal of this technique called “night for day” when an interior scene is shot at night (generally due to tight scheduling) and a large flood lamp projects light through the windows.
Due to improvements in cameras and lenses, day for night filming has largely disappeared, but directors and cinematographers will sometimes still use the technique for stylized, otherworldly shots. For example, George Miller used day for night in Mad Max: Fury Road. Director of Photography John Seale actually overexposed scenes to increase the image’s detail without adding grain or noise during digital post-production.
Jordan Peele’s Nope (2022).
On Nope, Jordan Peele took the technique even further. Day for night would normally be captured in a single camera, and as a result, the sky always looked brighter than the foregrounded action. DP Hoyte Van Hoytema utilized a custom camera setup with two cameras – the 65mm Panavision large format and an Arri Alexa 65 with an infrared sensor. The details are for the film junkies; the takeaway for everybody else is that the overexposed and inverted footage from the infrared Alexa would create the blackest of possible night skies. Combine the two identical images in post-production – the Panavision film with the digital Alexa – and you have visible foregrounded action and a believably black-as-night sky.
Help us reach our goal! Every donation brings us a step closer to opening the doors of The Denis and giving the South Hills access to a vibrant cultural center. Your gift is tax deductible and may also be eligible for a matching gift of up to 100% – be sure to ask your employer. There are a variety of other opportunities to support The Denis including bequests, stock gifts, and IRA-qualified charitable distributions. Contact us at info@denistheatre.org to learn more.