A PALI NOISEMAKER: Master of Light Arthur Albert Illuminates the Dark Corners of TV Drama

By JOHN HARLOW | Editor-in-Chief

There was a moment during the filming of the finale of acclaimed drama “Breaking Bad” that Palisadian Arthur Albert nearly changed TV history—and gave us a lot more of school-teacher-turned-drug-kingpin Walter White.

It was in those moments after White had been wounded during his redemptive rescue of young protégé Jesse Pinkman and appeared to be walking away.

“I turned to [creator] Vince Gilligan and said: ‘You know you could cut right here and then bring him back for another season?’” recalled Albert, who was director of photography (and keeper of many plot secrets) for the finale shot in New Mexico.

“I could see on his face that he was tempted. He considered it, maybe for a second, and then he shook his head and that was that.” And so one of the most remarkable modern dramas ended.

But showbusiness moves on.

Albert, who lives in The Village, will next relocate to Spain to film a 16th century costume drama for Shonda Rhimes.

With “Grey’s Anatomy,” “How to Get Away with Murder” and “Scandal” to her name, Rhimes is probably most powerful show creator in contemporary American TV.

But this is her first period drama—and a most unlikely project at that—a sequel to “Romeo and Juliet” for ABC.

It’s based on the 2013 novel “Still Star-Crossed” by Melinda Taub, which follows the next generation of love-stricken Montague and Capulet aristocrats.

“It’s going to look amazing—you can point a camera anywhere in these 14th century Spanish cities and it looks gorgeous, all dark shadows and flashing torches,” Albert said with a characteristic grin that friends describe as both boyish and mischievous.

Those are the night shoots; the days have already proven more troublesome.

“Our producers have wisely decided that shooting cast and extras in black armor, heavy black leather jackets and many layered gowns in full sun at 110-degree weather was not a good idea. Hope it cools off soon,” he signaled from the front last week.

“Finally my Spanish has paid off with a job,” he said with a grin.

Albert was born to U.S. parents in Caracas, Venezuela, “at a time when it was paradise on earth, not the hell-hole it is now.”

He loves the old Venezuela, and has returned time and again to the benighted country to make documentaries and shoot films, including the Cannes-featured “La Case de Agua,” which won him the National Cinematography Prize.

Such work also included lensing from a helicopter as it plunged 3,200 feet down the face of Angel Falls and camping in uninhabited mountain country for weeks, cut off from all contact.

Bronwen Sennish, Albert’s wife and documentary film maker, recalled such days lightly. “Sure, there were some terrifying moments, flying with crazy bush pilots, navigating rapids in dug-out canoes and nights of lightning strikes on mountaintops.

“But you come out with a heightened awareness of how fortunate you are to be alive in the midst of such natural wonders.

“I thought Arthur and I have made a great documentary team. I love working with him.”

The only problem was that those films did not pay. “It all depended on national politics and the price of oil. Sometimes the money just disappeared. But it was all worth it.”

Albert learned filmmaking at Columbia University during the late 1960s, where he was swept away by the fresh immediacy of French New Wave films like “400 Blows.”

They made Hollywood look stale, so after graduation, the “Latin from Manhattan” went into documentary filmmaking at PBS, an exciting time with powerful works on the 1970 Kent State shootings and other Vietnam war horrors.

In search of a paycheck, Albert found himself shooting oddball comedies such as “Night of the Comet,” a 1984 teen zombie shambled that influenced the creation of “Buffy The Vampire Slayer” and is now a cult classic, and “The Squeeze”—a post-Batman Michael Keaton film Albert describes as a production disaster, where all the real drama (including the death of a stuntman) happened offscreen.

Then there was “Happy Gilmore” with Adam Sandler.

Perhaps burned by such big-screen silliness, Albert has instead made his mark largely on TV, including “The Wonder Years,” “The Blacklist” and, for many years, “ER” on which he captured bloody medical mayhem in both 35mm and Red One, a 4K digital camera, which helped end making TV shows on film.

“That transition killed careers, that and the need to speed up shooting. By the end, ‘ER’ was such a smooth machine we could shoot 10 pages [of script] a day with eight characters in four different rooms and be totally in synch with each other.

“When I started on TV it would be maybe 25 set-ups [shots] a day—now it’s 50 to 70 and yet the quality of television is so much better, partly because the U.S. industry imports so many directors from the BBC, which has a training school.

“Many of the suddenly hot American directors I have worked with do not know how to do the job, but we cover for them, make it work—that is an industry secret.

“We shoot to give them ‘coverage’ (scenes an editor can can stitch together later) they do not even realize they need.

“Hollywood must admit to itself that directing is not an entry-level job, but a complex, skilled one that takes years to learn. This does not excuse the blatant ‘white males only’ hiring practices so rampant in the industry in any way.

“The door must be open to all, but it should include an apprenticeship system where people can learn the trade. Pilots fly Cessnas before they fly 747s,” he said.

Albert has experienced it from both sides, directing episodes of “ER,” and then moving on to shoot the finale of “Breaking Bad” and the first two seasons of its prequel, “Better Call Saul.”

The soft-spoken cinematographer enjoys directing—which he says is more “verbal” than working behind the lens—but took the Spanish gig as cinematographer because he could not resist Renaissance wardrobe and architecture lit by candlelight

“A show like this is appealing to cinematographers because the television picture has become darker, richer and more detailed, because cameras can catch it and televisions can show it.

“And more can happen in post [editing], where color can be repainted. There is a higher dynamic range. I don’t think most viewers can spot the difference between current 1080  hi-def and next generation 4K TV, but the transition from standard definition to high definition has completely changed the way people see our work.

“I would weep to myself in the old days when I saw a lovingly shot movie shown in standard def. Everything you worked for was lost, but now, on hi-def, all the detail and richness is there.

“It is a great time to work in movies and television, and the technology improves and becomes more accessible daily. I wish we had these tools when I started.

“No one but a studio could afford to shoot 35mm film.

“Now anyone can beg, borrow or buy a digital camera that is equal to or better than that and the raw stock is virtually free.

“Good writing, however, was, and always will be, the key.”