Editing Chinatown (1974 film) (section)

===Filming===
[[Principal photography]] took place from October 1973 to January 1974.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/locations/ | title=Chinatown (1974) – Filming & production | website=[[IMDb]] | access-date=March 9, 2024 | archive-date=March 18, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230318061712/https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071315/locations | url-status=live }}</ref> [[William A. Fraker]] accepted the cinematographer position from Polanski when Paramount agreed. He had worked with the studio previously on Polanski's ''[[Rosemary's Baby (film)|Rosemary's Baby]]''. Robert Evans, never consulted about the decision, insisted that the offer be rescinded since he felt pairing Polanski and Fraker again would create a team with too much control over the project and complicate the production.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=g6owDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA11|title=A Hidden History of Film Style: Cinematographers, Directors, and the Collaborative Process|last=Beach|first=Christopher|date=May 2015|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=9780520284357}}</ref>

Between Fraker and the eventual choice [[John A. Alonzo]], the two compromised on [[Stanley Cortez]], but Polanski grew frustrated with Cortez's slow process, old fashioned compositional sensibility, and unfamiliarity with the Panavision equipment. Alonzo had worked on documentaries and shot film for ''National Geographic'' and for Jacques Cousteau.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasson |first=Sam |title=The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood |publisher=Flatiron Books |year=2020 |location=New York |pages=205}}</ref> Alonzo was chosen for his fleetness and skill with natural light a few weeks into production. Alonzo understood that Polanski wanted realism in his lighting; "He wants the soft red tile to look soft red."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasson |first=Sam |title=The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood |publisher=Flatiron Books |year=2020 |location=New York |pages=204}}</ref> Ultimately, only a handful of scenes in the finished film, including the orange grove confrontation, were shot by Cortez.<ref name="Wasson, Sam 2020"/> Because Polanski's English was poor, Alonzo and Polanski would communicate in Italian, which Alonzo would then translate for the crew.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasson |first=Sam |title=The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood |publisher=Flatiron Books |year=2020 |location=New York |pages=207}}</ref> Polanski was rigorous in his framing and use of Alonzo's vision, making the actors strictly adhere to blocking to accommodate the camera and lighting.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Wasson |first=Sam |title=The Big Goodbye: Chinatown and the Last Years of Hollywood |publisher=Flatiron Books |year=2020 |location=New York |pages=208}}</ref>

In keeping with a technique Polanski attributes to Raymond Chandler, all of the events of the film are seen subjectively through the main character's eyes; for example, when Gittes is knocked unconscious, the film fades to black and fades in when he awakens. Gittes appears in every scene of the film.<ref name="dvd" /> This subjectivity is the same construction used in Francis Coppola's ''[[The Conversation]]'' in which the main character, Harry Caul (Gene Hackman), appears in every scene in the film. ''The Conversation'' began shooting eleven months prior to ''Chinatown''.