American Cinematographer - April 2012 - 74

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Sundance Standouts
some tungsten Fresnels and two 2.5K HMIs gelled for sodium vapor in the first-floor windows of the buildings at both ends of the street, out of shot, to backlight the scene from either angle. The only lights on the floor were two dimmed Parcans held by a spark [electrician] to simulate car headlights.” Throughout the shoot, the “tiny” lighting package sufficed thanks to Raedeker’s choice of an Arri Alexa, which he rated at ISO 800 most of the time. (He used ISO 1,200 on some night scenes.) He had used the Alexa several times and chose it mainly for the latitude of its Alev-III CMOS sensor. “I had to shoot a lot of available light on this film,” he says. “The flat [where Rash and Mo live] was high up, and we didn’t have the resources for cherry pickers to light from outside. Also, it was very hard to hide lights [inside] because we shot so much handheld. I needed a camera with a great contrast range to capture the detail outside because I wanted to give the image a lot of depth — I didn’t want the windows to burn out. I knew that apart from shooting film, which we couldn’t afford, the Alexa was the only way we could achieve this.” For day interiors, he typically augmented available light with a few single Kino Flo tubes. The council estate’s sodium-vapor streetlamps defined the night look, and Raedeker carried these warm hues inside with a few small practicals. Though he prefers Cooke Panchros for digital shoots, he chose Cooke S4 primes this time. “The Panchros help take the digital edge off, but because I was shooting so much available light and had so much backlight coming through the windows, I was a bit concerned about soft lens flares,” he explains. “The S4s were great. “I was often shooting wide open [at T2] and just following the actors, and my focus puller, Chris Kane, did amazing work,” he adds. “I don’t know how he did it, but he did it.” London rental house Movietech supplied the camera package, as well as

Top: Cinematographer David Raedeker consults with director Sally El Hosaini. Bottom: Assisted by focus puller Chris Kane, Raedeker shoots Elsayed on a street set that the filmmakers had to prepare in a hurry. An LED Kisslite on the camera casts a bit of extra illumination on the actor.

nature of low-budget filmmaking,” he continues. “Sometimes the Hackney kids we’d cast would turn up late or not at all, and we’d have to adjust. That unpredictability is not always a negative thing because it makes you think about why you’re doing what you’re doing. You have to determine what’s important now.” One last-minute rewrite actually led to the production’s biggest lighting setup. The scene depicts a nighttime fight involving Rash, his friend Izzi (Anthony Welsh) and some rival gang members, and it was originally to be
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filmed on the streets of Hackney. “We had to move it to a street set on a studio backlot, and the only street we could get was a suburban street with a village pub,” recalls Raedeker. “Stéphane had to transform that into a gritty Hackney street overnight, which was not easy! We shot a lot of the action up close, and I think we just got away with it. “Because it was a studio backlot, we had to light everything. We had a tiny lighting package from Panalux, and my gaffer, Max McGill, had to position lights so we could be ready shoot in any direction immediately. We positioned
American Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - April 2012

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