American Cinematographer - May 2016 - 67

A lethal epidemic
and resulting
government-imposed
quarantine in Atlanta
causes citizens -
including elementaryschool teacher Katie
Frank (Kristen
Gutoskie) - to fight
the disease and each
other in the series
Containment.

Containment (The CW)
Cinematographers:
Nelson Cragg;
John Smith;
William Wages, ASC
Based on the Belgian TV series
Cordon, The CW's Containment -
executive produced by Julie Plec and
David Nutter - tells the story of a
strange and lethal epidemic that quickly
spreads throughout the city of Atlanta.
Trying to control the outbreak, the
government establishes a quarantine
that immediately results in chaos as citizens scramble to fight the disease - and
each other. The show stars David Gyasi
as police officer Lex Carnahan, who
tries to keep order on the streets, and
Claudia Black as Dr. Sabine Lommers,
who leads the government's efforts to
contain the epidemic.
Cinematographer Nelson Cragg
shot the pilot episode, after which directors of photography William Wages,
ASC and John Smith shot the series on
a rotating basis. According to Cragg,
Nutter - who directed the pilot - is
famous for his meticulous and thorough
prep. "Before we even started talking
about shots, he'd already blocked out

every scene of the show and made overhead diagrams," Cragg recalls. "David
went to Atlanta a few weeks before and
sent me photos of locations and some of
the hero sets. When I came out for my
two weeks of prep, we scouted everything and talked about every shot in the
show."
Even though Cragg was only
shooting the pilot, Nutter was insistent
that he watch the entire Belgian series in
order to understand where Containment
was headed. Cragg wanted to create a
naturalistic look similar to the one he
had crafted on seasons one and two of
the Showtime series Homeland. Director
Michael Mann's The Insider -
photographed by Dante Spinotti, ASC,
AIC - was also a significant visual
touchstone; Cragg looked to that film
for its "beautiful and documentary-like
feel," he explains.
Cragg shot the pilot with Arri
Alexa XT cameras and Arri/Zeiss Ultra
Primes; Angenieux Optimo 24-290mm
(T2.8) zooms; and Angenieux Optimo
16-40mm (T2.8), 28-76mm (T2.6) and
45-120mm (T2.8) lightweight zooms
- capturing 2K ProRes 4:4:4:4 files in
the 1.78:1 aspect ratio to 512GB Codex
XR Capture Drives. Although on previwww.theasc.com

ous projects he has utilized a variety of
LUTs, Cragg limited himself to only a
low-contrast and medium-contrast
LUT for Containment. "I like to treat
the camera like a film stock these days,
with one constant image that I can trust
and understand," he says. "I know that I
can do anything I want in post - shifting blacks and lifting highlights."
Given Nutter's penchant for
doing up to 75 setups a day, Cragg
wanted to give the director the ability to
shoot in 360 degrees. One of their most
ambitious sequences was a night exterior
for which Nutter called for a
Technocrane shot that follows the lead
character bicycling through a traffic jam;
the camera cranes up to reveal a huge
scene of extras outside the city's containment zone.
To light the exterior, Cragg used
multiple 12-light Maxi-Brutes - gelled
to matched the streetlights in the vicinity - on Condors. Additionally, he
explains, "I had production designer
John Kretschmer bring in [seven or
eight] Wacker Neuson lights, which are
those four-headed construction work
lights that can be either mercury or
sodium vapor." Gaffer David McLean
adds that the crew replaced the existing
May 2016

67
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 2016
