Dickerson, Ernest 1952(?)–

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Ernest Dickerson 1952(?)–

Film director, cinematographer

“All the camera is is a recording device,” Ernest Dickerson told Nick Ravo of the New York Times. “You have got to see it [the image] first in your mind’s eye, [then] manipulate the image to make it look like it does in your head.” Dickerson’s ability to effect this transformation—turning ideas into cinematic moments—has made him one of the most respected contemporary cinematographers in the United States. His work for a number of demanding and creative directors, most notably Spike Lee, has earned him considerable acclaim. This would be impressive enough for anyone in the field, but Dickerson has attracted additional attention because, as the Times noted, he was, as of mid-1993, “the youngest member of the American Society of Cinematographers and the only black.” In 1992 Dickerson moved into the director’s chair himself with the feature Juice. While the film’s reception was mixed, Dickerson showed himself to be an accomplished stylist. “Dickerson has more than skill as a director,” opined Rolling Stone film critic Peter Travers. “He has potential.”

Born in Newark, New Jersey, Dickerson grew up in the city’s housing projects. Always a movie fan, he only became aware of the art of cinematography after seeing David Lean’s classic 1948 film of the Charles Dickens novel Oliver Twist. “That was the film that made me realize that films are photography,” Dickerson told the New York Times. As he recalled to Premiere’s Fannie Weinstein, “It wasn’t the sets; it was the shadows and textures and angles.” Viewing the films of British suspense master Alfred Hitchcock—one of the most influential directors of the modern era—also pushed him toward the medium.

Nonetheless, he initially chose what seemed a more practical career path: architecture. This was to be his major at Howard University in Washington, D.C., though he found himself in cinematography classes before he graduated. In an interview with Kari Granville of the Los Angeles Times, his college friend and eventual writing partner Gerard Brown discussed Dickerson’s talent as a photographer during their Howard days: “He was always messing around with the camera, taking pictures of his girlfriend or me or his other friends, and you could see then he had a great eye.”

“A Camera Is a Camera”

The architectural world offered Dickerson few immediate opportunities. He remained in Washington, frequenting its many movie houses and working as a medical photographer,

At a Glance…

Born C 1952 in Newark, NJ; married; two children, born 1988 and 1992. Education: B.A. in architecture from Howard University; also attended New York University Film School.

Cinematographer and director; worked as medical photographer at Howard University Medical School; directed and/or photographed student films at New York University, including Spike Lee’s Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads. Served as cinematographer on feature films The Brother from Another Planet; Krush Groove; She’s Gotta Have It; School Daze; Do the Right Thing; Eddie Murphy Raw; Mo’ Better Blues; Jungle Fever; Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll; and Malcolm X, 1982-92. Worked on television series Tales from the Darkside; shot music videos for Bruce Springsteen, Miles Davis, the Neville Brothers, and others, throughout the 1980s; directed television special Spike and Company: Do It A Capella, 1990; directed various television commercials, 1991—; cowriter and director of feature Juice, 1992; director, Surviving the Game, 1993.

Member: American Society of Cinematographers.

Selected awards: New York Film Critics Award for cinematography for Do the Right Thing.

Addresses: Home —Connecticut. Production company—(Surviving the Game) New Line Cinema, 116 N. Robertson, Los Angeles, CA 90048.

though the gruesome task of shooting footage of amputations at Howard’s medical school soon got the better of him. “After about eight of those, it really started getting to me,” he admitted to Premiere’s Weinstein. He decided to enroll in the film school at New York University. It was there that he met Spike Lee. Dickerson later became Lee’s director of photography, serving first as cinematographer on his award-winning student film Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads, in addition to helming his own projects. “In school,” Lee told Premiere, “Ernest had the best films.”

Among those who viewed Joe’s Bed-Stuy Barbershop was maverick director John Sayles, who hired Dickerson as cinematographer on his 1984 feature The Brother from Another Planet. The low-budget film was Dickerson’s first major professional work after film school; filmed in a few weeks on a paltry budget, it proved the resourcefulness of both director and cinematographer. “On a low budget,” Sayles told Premiere, “the equation that you look for in a cinematographer is how good they are divided by how fast they are. And Ernest’s stuff was consistently good.” Dickerson admitted years later to the New York Times: “I lied when he [Sayles] asked me if I had ever shot 35-millimeter before”—referring to the industry’s standard film size, as opposed to the less expensive 16-millimeter format favored in film schools— “I figured a camera is a camera.” He soon worked on the television series Tales from the Darkside and the 1985 Michael Schultz film Krush Groove.

Helped Focus Lee’s Vision

It was Dickerson’s work with Lee, however, that most effectively showcased his talents. From the time of Lee’s breakthrough comedy She’s Gotta Have It, Dickerson’s talent for evocative camerawork shined through. That film’s low budget and mostly amateur cast couldn’t conceal the imaginative energy of its creators; the black-and-white sex comedy contains a brief color interlude that refers cheekily to The Wizard of Oz. Dickerson’s artful sense of movement and light helped flesh out Lee’s distinctive vision. As the director told Premiere, he and Dickerson had “developed a sort of shorthand where a lot of times we know exactly what the other is thinking.” Indeed, Lee reflected in an earlier interview with the magazine, “I’d feel really insecure if Ernest wasn’t behind the camera for me. A lot of directors of photography can’t bring you anything—all they do is shoot. He gives you creative input.”

Part of the “input” Dickerson provided took the form of storyboards—cartoon sketches of the action to be filmed—which evolved naturally out of his study of architecture. He informed Weinstein of Premiere that he modeled the dance sequences in Lee’s sophomore effort—the campus musical School Daze —on such classic musicals as An American in Paris, in which “the takes are long and fluid. The camera moves with the dancers. The rhythm comes from the music and the dancing, not so much from the editing.” Lee enlisted Dickerson to design the climactic fight sequence in his breakthrough 1988 drama Do the Right Thing. “I set up shots for that whole thing,” the cameraman told Ravo of the New York Times. “Spike said, ‘I don’t have the time to do it. Take it. Work it out for me.’” Soon his peers in the film world began to recognize Dickerson’s achievements: he snagged the New York Film Critics Award for cinematography for Do the Right Thing. Respected cinematographer Allen Daviau, who shot such popular films as E.T., the Extra-Terrestrial and The Color Purple, told the New York Times that he had “never seen such consistently daring work” as Dickerson’s, adding, “he is one of the cinematographers I respect the most.”

Pushed for Juice

In addition to his collaborations with Lee, Dickerson worked behind the camera on the concert film Eddie Murphy Raw and the Eric Bogosian performance Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll. John McNaughton, who directed the Bogosian film, tapped Dickerson after a recommendation from esteemed filmmaker Martin Scorsese and a look at Do the Right Thing. Dickerson also shot videos by rocker Bruce Springsteen, jazz legend Miles Davis, and R&B heroes the Neville Brothers. While working on these many projects, he was also nursing something of his own: a script he began developing in the early 1980s with Gerard Brown. It was a long process, developing this story about black kids struggling to survive the streets. And once it was written, it took some time before anyone in the film world would consider backing it. “I didn’t get any encouragement,” he recalled to the Los Angeles Times. “My agent at the time never gave me any positive feedback.” Of course, this lack of encouragement preceded the boom in black filmmaking spearheaded by Spike Lee’s success.

Meanwhile, Dickerson worked on more Lee projects, developing his palette in the moody jazz tale Mo’ Better Blues and the interracial romance Jungle Fever with what Ravo of the New York Times called “vibrant and stylish cinematography.” In 1990 he directed a television special, Spike and Company: Do It A Capella, starring Lee and written by Brown; the program aired on public television. But it was in 1991 that he finally began work on the project he and Brown had developed earlier. The film, called Juice, featured Dickerson in the director’s chair. “I wanted to do something that dealt with coming of age and the hard choices teen-agers had to make and about the forces that sometimes push young men into making the wrong choices,” he reflected to Los Angeles Times reporter Granville. Taking its title from the term for credibility and respect on the streets, Juice is set in Harlem. Dickerson knew better than to stretch himself too thin: he hired Larry Banks, who had worked as his gaffer, to be his cinematographer. “I think every film should have its own look, and as a director I can set it in the right course,” he said, “and then I have to step back and allow my cinematographer room to express himself.”

The film was released in early 1992 to mixed reviews and some unfortunate violence in theaters. Regarding the latter, New York Times critic Janet Maslin defended Juice against those who blamed it for the incidents, noting that it “conveys a vivid sense of the temptations its characters try to resist” but ultimately trumpets an anti-violence message. Reviews of the film were mixed. Variety dubbed it a “technically superior, narratively flawed directorial debut.” Rolling Stone’s Travers remarked on Dickerson’s “potential” and ability to “draw bracing performances” from his young cast but noted that he “hasn’t yet developed a unique personal style” and “sometimes gets didactic.” Dimitri Ehrlich of Interview found the film “a realistic and subtle examination of young black men struggling to maintain dignity in the face of systematic disempowerment.” The reference book MagilL’s Cinema Annual, however, heaped praise on Juice’s purely cinematic virtues, emphasizing the “pure classical balance” of Dickerson’s frame design—that is, his organization of the shot within the film frame.

More Camerawork

While waiting for Juice to be released, Dickerson worked again as Lee’s cinematographer, this time on the epic historical drama Malcolm X. Dickerson explained to Premiere that his technical approach followed the path of the activist’s experience: “We’re using color and light to accentuate the different moods of Malcolm’s life. Before prison is warmer, more idealized. Prison is very blue, very cold.” For the later years, “no filtration, the light is hard and clear, as he is Malcolm X. The Spokesman. Then, toward the end, in Mecca, when he makes yet another conversion, the clarity is softened—we’re trying for a look, then showing an awareness of knowledge.” Newsweek, reviewing the film, referred to Dickerson as “brilliant.”

In 1992 Dickerson also signed on with Original Film, a commercial production company; having shot a number of Lee’s commercials for Nike and Levi’s, he became an ideal candidate for directing commercials himself. One of his spots, a General Tires ad, ran into difficulty when it poked fun at New York with somewhat grittier images than many critics—including then-mayor David Dinkins—could accept. Dickerson, however, insisted that since most of his critics had heard about the spot secondhand, they shouldn’t have attacked it until they’d seen it themselves. Dickerson was also set that year to direct the pilot for the television series The Untouchables but was replaced a month after the assignment was first announced. Variety quoted “sources” who said that “Dickerson was running over schedule.” In 1993 Dickerson began directing the action-adventure Surviving the Game, starring Rutger Hauer, Ice-T, Charles Dutton, F. Murray Abraham, and Gary Busey. The film—about a homeless man tracked for sport in the wilderness—was shot in the state of Washington and set for release in the spring of 1994.

Dickerson has clearly arrived as a director; whether or not he will return to cinematography remains to be determined, though Spike Lee has little doubt. “We will work [together] again someday,” the director assured the New York Times. Lee also offered perhaps the most eloquent praise of his collaborator, saying, “Ernest is an artist, a painter. He’s not a technician.”