American Cinematographer - January 2008 - (Page 60) Very Close Shaves Right: Johanna (Jayne Wisener), Todd’s daughter, is Turpin’s ward — and a prisoner in his home. Below: Overhead space lights, controlled by the Light by Numbers system, were positioned above large silks to create London’s overcast atmosphere. us a consistent color temperature but at a different lighting level. “We also found a material similar to grid cloth that we rigged under the space lights above all of the stages featuring London streets,” continues Higgins. “That way, if we ever saw a reflection in a window, it just looked like it was the sky.” When the London streets needed some additional fill from ground level, the gaffer often utilized large Ultrabounces measuring 12'x12', 20'x12' or 20'x 20'. “There’s never any suggestion of bright sunshine in the film,” he notes. The menagerie of fixtures was controlled via Light by Numbers, which Higgins praises as “the only way we could record our lighting setups and keep a consistent look.” Developed by Chris Gilbertson, Light by Numbers is a light-control console built around an ETC Insight board, Cast’s WYSIWYG software and a PC, providing control for up to 64,000 individual DMX dimmers while recording detailed lighting plots that can be recalled at any point during a production. (See New Products & Services, AC Dec. ’06.) When Todd arrives in London, he seeks to establish himself as the city’s best barber — part of his scheme to lure Turpin beneath his razor. His first step is to reclaim his old establishment, which has sat vacant above a pie shop owned by Mrs. Lovett (Helena Bonham Carter) since the breakup of the Barker family. A staircase that runs along the outside of the building connects the pie shop and the barbershop, and following the actors as they mounted the steps presented a significant logistical challenge. “We needed the camera to be close to the wall, but we had no room for a crane,” says Flemming. “So we ended up building an ascender rig with pulleys and counterweights that we controlled manually, and it 60 January 2008
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