Michael Gershman’s work on Buffy the Vampire Slayer is strongest when the camera gives someone time to take in a fright. We rate his quiet attention to faces above the monster business, without mistaking a shared television achievement for his alone.
Fi1m perspective
In Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997), we often want the camera to stay on the person taking in a fright. Michael Gershman and Kenneth Zunder are among its cinematographers, and their quieter attention to faces gives the danger weight. We found those reaction shots affecting because the characters were allowed a moment to look frightened. Gershman’s lighting also gives the school scenes a bright, naturalistic look, then brings strong backlight and deep shadow into the nights. The contrast works because the everyday scenes feel ordinary enough for the darkness to disturb them.
His route to directing ran through camera work, including an assistant camera credit on Heaven’s Gate (1980), working under Vilmos Zsigmond. He became a television director of photography in 1990, and Buffy gave him a sustained stretch in which to develop that work: 82 episodes as cinematographer across 1997–2001. He began directing the series with Passion (1998). He eventually directed ten episodes, making the move from lighting scenes to directing them a substantial part of his contribution.
On Joss Whedon’s series, Gershman could push exposure towards washed-out brightness or near-blackness, and mix colour temperatures to give a shot depth. His slices of light across a face leave enough hidden to make looking an uneasy business. Editors including Regis Kimble and Skip Macdonald deserve their share of the credit for the quieter scenes: they leave room after quick exchanges for awkward responses to become funny. At other times the pace slackens, particularly when the supernatural plot has to sustain our interest without much help from the people.
His work on Crossing Jordan (2001) continued the combination of cinematography and directing. That was a recurring occupation, then, rather than a single excursion from the camera department. Even so, the clearest grounds for our praise remain the photography of Buffy; its performances and editing matter too much to assign every successful pause to Gershman’s direction. Start with Buffy, and allow its uneven supernatural plotting some patience for the sake of the people caught up in it.
Biography
Michael Gershman (1944–2018) was an American cinematographer and television director. He served as director of photography on 82 episodes of the series Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997–2001) and directed ten episodes.
Early in his career Gershman worked as a camera assistant to Vilmos Zsigmond on films including The Deer Hunter (1978), Heaven's Gate (1980) and Blow Out (1981). He later became a director of photography on television series such as Shannon's Deal and Crossing Jordan, on which he also directed episodes. Gershman received a Primetime Emmy Award nomination for outstanding cinematography for the Buffy episode "Hush" (1999).
