A Close Collaboration

Public Enemies Brings Director Michael Mann and DP Dante Spinotti Together Again

“I started working with Michael Mann on Manhunter,” says cinematographer Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC. “It was a story about a serial killer, which Michael took to a transcendental level. I loved every minute of that experience. Michael’s decisions about the visual dynamics, camera angles—why we put a camera two inches to the right as opposed to inches to the left or two inches higher as opposed to two inches lower—or why the background has to be slightly blue-green. That was the opportunity I was looking for. It was a total immersion in a filmmaking experience right down to the very last drop of blood circulating in my veins. It was an amazing experience. We spoke very little, and just about basic issues. He probably liked what I did because we did a few more movies together after that one, including The Last of the Mohicans and Heat.”

Over the years the close collaboration has increased as the two men have developed a mutual trust.

“There are directors who are very good at understanding the visual aspects of their movies,” Spinotti says. “On The Insider, I was with Michael during the first three passes of the answer print at the lab. I left for Italy, knowing that Michael would keep working on the answer print. You have directors who have that kind of ability, but that’s more the exception than the rule. I think most directors are going to want their cinematographers, who intimately know the intensions of the images, there during digital timing sessions. I don’t see digital timing as a threat.”

A superb stylist, Italian cinematographer Spinotti was a prime factor in the artistic success of such '80s critical favorites as Fabrio Carpi's Basileus Quartet (1982) and his first American film, Choke Canyon (1986), which is distinguished by its excellent use of the widescreen format and its heart-stopping aerial photography.

Throughout the late '80s and early '90s, Spinotti alternated between American and Italian productions. These included the collaborations with director Mann with whom he worked on Manhunter (1986), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Heat (1995) and The Insider (1999). One of Spinotti's greatest triumphs came in 1997, when he earned an Oscar nomination – as well as a number of other honors – for his work on L.A. Confidential.

This year he has teamed up with Mann again to make one of the summer’s most anticipated movies, Public Enemies, an adaptation of Bryan Burrough's book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34.

The crime drama is set during the Great Depression with the focus on the FBI agent Melvin Purvis’s attempt to stop criminals John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Pretty Boy Floyd. The cast includes Johnny Depp as Dillinger, Christian Bale as Purvis, Marion Cotillard as Dillinger’s girlfriend and Channing Tatum as Floyd.

No one could stop John Dillinger and his gang. No jail could hold him. His charm and audacious jailbreaks endeared him to almost everyone – from his girlfriend Billie Frechette to an American public who had no sympathy for the banks that had plunged the country into the Depression. But while the adventures of Dillinger' gang – later including Baby Face Nelson and Alvin Karpis – thrilled many, J. Edgar Hoover made Dillinger America's first Public Enemy Number One and sent in Melvin Purvis, the dashing "Clark Gable of the FBI."

However, Dillinger and his gang outwitted and outgunned Purvis' men in wild chases and shootouts. Only after importing a crew of Western ex-lawmen (newly baptized as agents) and orchestrating epic betrayals – from the infamous "Lady in Red" to the Chicago crime boss Frank Nitti – were Purvis, the FBI and their new crew of gunfighters able to close in on Dillinger.

Principal photography began in Wisconsin in March 2008 and continued various Wisconsin towns and in Chicago until the end of June. Some parts of the movie were shot in Crown Point, Indiana, the town where Dillinger escaped from jail. Burrough has read the film's screenplay and says, "It’s not 100 percent historically accurate. But it’s by far the closest thing to fact Hollywood has attempted, and for that I am both excited and quietly relieved."

The decision to shoot parts of the film in Wisconsin came about because of the number of high quality historic buildings. Mann scouted locations there as well as looking at 1930s-era cars from collectors in the area. In addition, the film was shot on actual historical sites, including the famous Little Bohemia Lodge in Manitowish Waters where Dillinger’s most famous gunfight with the F.B.I. occurred.

“Michael always brings the cinematic language a little step forward – and others watch and follow. So, it wasn’t a surprise that he decided to shoot Public Enemies in high definition,” says Spinotti.

“His idea was to create a hyper-reality, to bring a very realistic and beautiful look – not in terms of cosmetic Hollywood, but in terms of a direct approach to the number of locations and realistic settings,” Spinotti says. “We’d done a number of commercials together using the Sony F23 cameras and decided to test the Sony against film. Once we got through the whole process – digital to film and film-to-film – the final film-out sold us. The shots with the F23 camera were sharper and gave us the hyper-realism we wanted.”

The depth-of-field of the F23 combined with the ability to go into the camera and do modifications as they were shooting rather than recording to raw signal and doing corrections later in the D.I. process were also a plus for the team.

“To me, digital gives you creative freedom,” says Spinotti. “No matter what the situation, you can go in without any predetermined rules. In film, you walk into a location and say ‘This is what I have to do – I have to raise the exposure.’ The toe is slow in film, while in digital it is linear, so the capabilities of the F23 cameras give me more freedom.”    

“When combining the F23 with either the Zeiss 6-24mm, 17-112mm DigiZooms or the DigiPrime lenses, we could get anything we desired,” Spinotti says. “The lenses are sharp. They gave us the hyper-sharpness Michael wanted for this picture. And their rendering of the chromatic was amazing. At times, when Michael wanted an extra shot, acrobatic moves, or to get into small spaces, we used the Sony EX1. I recently saw all the footage cut together and I was amazed. The footage cuts together seamlessly.”

“Public Enemies featured a vast variety of challenges, including extreme darkness, extreme cold, and hard to reach locations,” Spinotti says. “No matter where we went or how hard we rode the cameras and lenses – the images were spectacular. Sony and Zeiss really came through for us on this picture.”