Karl Freund, an innovative director of photography responsible for
development of the three-camera system used to shoot television
situation comedies, was born on January 16, 1890, in the Bohemian city
of Koeniginhof, then part of the Austria-Hungarian Empire (now known as
Dvur Kralove in the Czech Republic). Freund went to work at the age of
15 as a movie projectionist, and by the age of 17, he was a camera
operator shooting shot subjects and newsreels. Subsequently, he was
employed at Germany's famous UFA Studios during the 1920s, when the
German cinema was the most innovative in the world.
At UFA, Freund worked as a cameraman for such illustrious directors as
F.W. Murnau and Fritz Lang. For Murnau's Der letzte Mann (1924) (aka The Last Laugh),
screenwriter Carl Mayer worked closely with Freund to develop a scenario
that would employ the moving camera that became a hallmark of Weimar
German cinema. One of the most beautiful and critically acclaimed
silent films, Der letzte Mann (1924) is considered the perfect silent by some critics
as the images do most of the storytelling, allowing for a minimal
amount of inter-titles. The collaborative genius of Murnau, Mayer, and
Freund meant that the images communicated the integral part of the
narrative, visualizing and elucidating the protagonist's psyche. Freund
filmed a drunk scene with the camera secured on his chest, with a
battery pack on his back for balance, enabling him to stumble about and
produce vertiginous shots suggesting intoxication.
Director Ewald André Dupont gave credit for the innovative camera work on his
masterpiece Varieté (1925) (aka Variety) to Freund, praising his ingenuity in
an article published in The New York Times. Freund was one of the
cameramen and the co-writer (with Carl Mayer and director Walter Ruttmann) on
Berlin - Die Sinfonie der Großstadt (1927) (Berlin: Symphony of a Great City), an artistic documentary
that used a hidden camera to capture the people of the city going about
their daily lives. Always technically innovative, Freund developed a
high-speed film stock to aid his shooting in low-light situations. This
film also is hailed as a classic. Other classic German films that
Freund shot were Der Golem, wie er in die Welt kam (1920) (aka The Golem) and Lang's Metropolis (1927).
Now possessing an international reputation, Freund emigrated to the
U.S. in 1929, where he was employed by the Technicolor Co. to help
perfect its color process. Subsequently, he was hired as a
cinematographer and director by Universal Studios, where he cut his
teeth, uncredited, as a cinematographer on the great anti-war classic
Im Westen nichts Neues (1930), Universal's first Oscar winner as Best Picture.
Universal's bread and butter in the early 1930s were its horror films,
and Freund was involved in the production of several classics. Among
his Universal assignments, Freund shot Dracula (1931) and Das Geheimnis des Dr. Mirakel (1932), and
directed Die Mumie (1932). Die Mumie (1932) was Freund's first directorial effort, and
co-star Zita Johann, who disliked Freund, claimed he was incompetent, which
is unfair, seeing as how the film is now considered a classic of its
genre. The film uses the undead sorcerer Imhotep's pool with which he
can impose his will over the living by spreading some tana leaves on
the water, as a visual metaphor for the subconscious. The film is
arresting visually due to Freund's cinematic eye that created a sense
of "otherness." The film is infused with a dream-like state that seems
rooted in the subconscious mind. Freund's other directorial efforts at
Universal proved less satisfying.
Moving to MGM, Freund directed just one more motion picture, Mad Love (1935)
(aka The Hands of Orlac) a horror classic that utilized the
expressionism of his UFA apprenticeship. With the great lighting
cameraman Gregg Toland as his director of photography, the collaboration of
Freund and Toland created a European sensibility unique for a Hollywood
horror film. The compositions of the shots featured arch shapes and
utilized the expressive shadows of the best of the European avant-garde
films of the 1920s.
But MGM wanted Freund for his genius at camera work. He shot the
rooftop numbers for Der große Ziegfeld (1936), another Best Picture Oscar winner, and
worked with William H. Daniels, Garbo's favorite cameraman, on "Camille" (1936).
He shot Greta Garbo's Maria Walewska (1937) solo, though he never worked with Garbo
again. That same year, he was the director of photography on Die gute Erde (1937),
for which he won an Academy Award for Best Cinematography.
Other major MGM pictures he shot were Stolz und Vorurteil (1940), for which he received an
Academy Award nomination, Tortilla Flat (1942), and Kampf in den Wolken (1943). He also worked for
other studios, shooting Golden Boy (1939) for Columbia. In 1942, he pulled off a
rare double: he was nominated for Best Cinematography in both the black
and white and color categories, for The Chocolate Soldier (1941) and Blüten im Staub (1941), respectively.
One of the last films he shot for MGM was Two Smart People (1946), starring Lucille Ball. In
1947, he moved on to Warner Bros, where he shot the classic Gangster in Key Largo (1948) for
John Huston. His last film as a director of photography was Michael Curtiz'
Montana (1950), which starred Gary Cooper.
Always the technical innovator, Freund founded the Photo Research Corp.
in 1944, a laboratory for the development of new cinematographic
techniques and equipment. His technical work culminated in his receipt
of a Class II Technical Award in 1955 from the Motion Pictures Arts &
Sciences for the design of a direct-reading light meter. That same
year, he had the honor of representing his adopted country at the
International Conference on Illumination in Zurich, Switzerland.
It was perhaps inevitable that the technical and innovation-minded
Freund would get to work for a brand new visual medium, television.
Lucille Ball, whom he had photographed when she was a contract player
at MGM, became his boss when he was hired as the director of
photography at Desilu Productions, owned by Ball and her husband,
Desi Arnaz. Desilu hired the great Freund as its owners were determined to
shoot the show I Love Lucy (1951) on film rather than produce the show live, as
was standard in the early 1950s. Most shows were shot live, while a
film of the program was simultaneously shot from a monitor, a process
that created a "kinescope." The kinescope would be shown in other time
zones on the network's affiliates. Desilu's owners disliked the quality
of kinescopes, and needed Freund to come up with a solution to their
problem of how to maintain the intimacy of a live show on film.
Freund agreed that the show should be shot on film rather than live, as
film enabled thorough planning and allowed for cutting, which was
impossible with live TV. Freud knew that film would allow Desilu to
eliminate the fluffs which were a staple of early television, and would
allow the producers to re-shoot scenes to improve the show, if needed.
I Love Lucy (1951) had to be filmed before an audience to retain the immediacy of
a live TV show, which meant that the traditional, time-consuming
methods of studio production with one camera would not work. Freund
decided to shoot I Love Lucy (1951) with three 35mm Mitchell BNC cameras, one of
each to simultaneously shoot long shots, medium shots and close-ups.
Thus, the editor would have adequate coverage to create the 22 minutes
of footage needed for a half-hour commercial network show.
The then-innovative, now-standard technique of simultaneously shooting
a situation comedy with three 35mm cameras cut the production time
needed to produce a 22-minute program to one-hour. The cameras were
mounted on dollies, with the center camera outfitted with a 40mm
wide-angle lens, and the side cameras outfitted with 3- and 4-inch
lenses. The resulting shots were edited on a Movieola. A script girl in
a booth overlooking the stage cued the camera operators. Due to
extensive rehearsal time before the show was shot live, the camera
operators had floor marks to guide them, but Freund's system was
enabled by the script girl overseeing their actions via a 2-way
intercom. The system made the shooting, breaking-down, and setting-up
process for the next scenes on the three sets of the I Love Lucy (1951) stage very
economical in terms of time, averaging one and one-half minutes between
shots.
Freund worked out the lighting during the rehearsal period. Almost all
of the lighting was overhead, except for portable fill lights mounted
above the matte box on each camera. In Freund's system, there were no
lighting changes during shooting, other than the use of a dimming
board. Since the lighting was mounted overhead on catwalks, power
cables were kept off the floor, which facilitated the dollying that was
essential for making the system work fluidly.
Freund's solution to the problem of shooting a show on film
economically was to make lighting as uniform as possible, taking
advantage of adding highlights whenever possible, since a comedy show
required high-key illumination. Due to the high contrast of the tubes
in the image pickup systems at the television stations, contrast was a
potential problem, as any contrast in the film would be exaggerated
upon transmission of the film. To keep the film contrast to what Freund
called a "fine medium," the sets were painted in various shades of
gray. Props and costumes also were gray to promote a uniformity of
color and tone that would not defeat Freund's carefully devised
illumination scheme.
In a typical workweek, the I Love Lucy (1951) company engaged in pre-production
planning and rehearsals on Monday through Thursday. I Love Lucy (1951) was filmed
before a live audience at 8:00 o'clock PM on Friday evenings, and
Freund's camera crew worked only on that Friday and the preceding
Thursday. Freund, however, attended the Wednesday afternoon rehearsal
of the cast to study the movements of the players around the sets,
noting the blocking and their entrances and exits, in order to plan his
lighting and camera work. Thursday morning at 8:00 o'clock AM, Freund
and the gaffers would begin lighting the sets, which typically would be
done by noon, the time the camera crew was required to report on set to
be briefed on camera movements. Then, Freund would rehearse the camera
action in order to make necessary changes in the lighting and the
dollying of the cameras.
It was during the Thursday full-crew rehearsal that the cues for the
dimmer operator were set, and the floor was marked to indicate the
cameras' positions for various shots. For each shot, the focus was
pre-measured and noted for each camera position with chalk marks on the
stage floor. Another rehearsal was held at 4:30 PM with the full
production crew. Though a full-dress rehearsal was held at 7:30 PM,
with the attendance of the full crew, the cameras were not brought onto
the set. The director would take the opportunity to discuss the plan of
the show and solicit input from the cast and crew on how to tighten the
show and improve its pacing.
The next call for the entire company was at 1:00 PM on Friday to
discuss any major changes that were discussed the previous night. After
this meeting, the cameras would be brought out onto the stage, and at
4:30 PM, there would be a final dress rehearsal during which Freund
would check his lighting and make any required changes.
After a dinner break, the cast and production crew would hold a "talk
through" of the show to solicit further suggestions and solve any
remaining problems. At 8:00 PM, the cast and production crew were ready
to start filming the show before a live audience. Before shooting, one
of the cast or a member of the company had briefed the audience on the
filming procedure, emphasizing the need for the audience's reactions to
be spontaneous and natural.
Shooting was over in about an hour due to the rapid set-ups and
break-downs of the crew, which shot the show in chronological order.
Due to the thorough planning and rehearsals, retakes were seldom
necessary. Camera operators in Freund's system had to make each take
the right way the first time, every time, to keep the system working
smoothly, and they did. An average of 7,500 feet of film was shot for
each show at a cost that was significantly less than a comparable major
studio production.
Freund also served as the cinematographer on the TV series Our Miss Brooks (1952),
which was shot at Desilu Studios, and Desilu's own December Bride (1954). It was no
accident that Desilu productions turned to Karl Freund to realize their
dream of creating a high-quality show on film. Freund had the broadest
experience of any cameraman of his stature, starting in silent
pictures, and then excelling in both B&W and color in the sound era.
With his penchant for technical innovation, he was the ideal man to
develop solutions for filming a television show. Freund met the
challenge of creating high quality filmed images in a young medium
still handicapped by its primitive technology.
Freund became the dean of cinematographers in a new medium, with
Desilu's I Love Lucy (1951) and its other shows recognized as the gold standard
for TV production. His work ensured the fortunes of Desilu Productions,
and the personal fortunes of Desilu owners Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball, as he
provided them with quality films of each show that could be easily
syndicated into perpetuity, whereas the live shows filmed secondarily
off of flickering TV monitors as kinescopes could not.
After retiring as a cinematographer, Freund continued his research at
the Photo Research Corp. He died on May 3, 1969.
