GIVING THE DIRECTOR HIS ALL

IF you were looking for a cinematographer with both sizzle and substance, you couldn’t find a more adept visual stylist than Harris Savides. A frequent collaborator with such disparate filmmakers as David Fincher and Gus Van Sant, Savides shot a trio of striking films this year: Ridley Scott’s “American Gangster,” Fincher’s “Zodiac” and Noah Baumbach’s “Margot at the Wedding.”

It’s a sign of his canny visual sensibility that “American Gangster” and “Zodiac,” while set in almost exactly the same period, couldn’t look more different. Savides has spent much of his career working with tough, strong-willed directors but he has no complaints. “I like it when people are demanding,” he says. “It’s good when a filmmaker expects good work. I take it as a challenge.”

You’d actually worked with Ridley Scott before “American Gangster,” right?

We did a Miller beer commercial about 15 years ago. He’s quite impressive. We met at the airport and there was a particular shot he wanted, which he drew on a cocktail napkin. Since I was across the table, he drew it upside down and backward, so it would make sense for me looking at it. When he was finished, it had the exact perspective of how the shot should look. Ridley always seems to know what he wants. Was he that way on “American Gangster”?

Oh, yes. He wants it done fast and he wants it done right. It’s tough filmmaking. There isn’t much time for indulgences. It’s like you’re working for a general in the Army. He’s a warrior. If he wants something, no matter how complicated, you’ve got to get it. You can’t be a crybaby with Ridley Scott. In “American Gangster,” you’re shooting New York from 35 years ago. What did Ridley say he wanted the film to look like?

He wanted it to be gritty, to be a color film that was almost black and white. So I went back and watched “The French Connection” and “Prince of the City,” to try to absorb some of the style. We made the colors less vivid. I actually pulled the film, by underdeveloping the negative, to give it a slight veil, an almost subliminal fogginess. I really wanted it to look like it was shot 35 years ago. In the film, you don’t always shoot in the parts of New York where the film is supposedly set. You’re a New Yorker. Did that bother you?

We’d go to Brooklyn and Ridley would say, “This is our Newark.” I’d cringe a little, as a New Yorker, but Ridley knew what he was doing. In one shot, a modern subway train went by and Ridley said, “Don’t worry, no one will notice.” He was right. Even I buy it now. So what would you do if you really disagreed with something he wanted?

I’d go to craft services and get something to eat. You present your side of the argument as strongly as you can but you do what the director wants. It’s his movie.

The Big Picture appears Tuesdays in Calendar. You can contact Patrick Goldstein at patrick.goldstein@ latimes.com.