American Cinematographer - May 2017 - 21

normally on dollies; a third one that
remains on Steadicam; and a fourth body
- the only one with an EF mount rather
than a PL mount - that Gutierrez stripped
down to its bare bones so it could fit into
unusual spots, such as the inside of a
refrigerator. The latter camera, christened
the "Ninjacam," "is usually fitted with a
Canon still lens and is often used on a
bazooka," he notes. "The Canon still-lens
catalogue is huge, so Gale has a lot of
different lenses at his disposal." Gutierrez
reports that the production carries several
Canon EF lenses specifically for use on the
Ninjacam, including "a 15.5-47mm and a
30-105mm [Cinema Compact Zoom, both
T2.8], plus a hodgepodge of Canon
primes. Whenever we needed a specialty
shot or employed Ninjacam for extra
footage, it used the Canon EF lenses."
"We must put in a 'hurrah' for
Keslow Camera," Tattersall interjects.
"They are the most awesome rental house.
They have a machine shop and make
special parts for us. From CEO-owner
Robert Keslow and chief operating officer
Dennis McDonald on down, they are just
terrific."
The production's lighting package is
provided by Paramount, and the watchword on Grace and Frankie is "soft
sources." Tattersall says, "Luke and I
designed a plan that, in a sense, turns
every shot into a photographic studio. We
put Jane and Lily inside the light by
[surrounding them] with light. Jane once
asked me where the key light was. Well, a
lot of the time there isn't one - or, rather,
the whole thing is a key light."
Open-faced traditional tungsten
units - "1K Redheads and 2K Blondes,"
Miller specifies - serve as the main interior
light sources. Hung at angles from above,
they are bounced into large pieces of
bleached muslin that cover virtually every
inch of wall that isn't in the shot. "Key grip
Jerry Deats came up with the idea of hanging rolls of muslin that could be rolled up
or down the wall, depending upon our
needs," says Miller. "Pull two down next to
one another and suddenly you have a 12foot-wide soft source.
"Our primary light is almost all indirect," he continues. "Because the sources
are large and soft and as far back as possi-

Cinematographer Gale Tattersall studies a scene.

ble - which isn't all that far, given that the
sets are built right up to the fire lanes -
characters can walk from the living-room
sofa to the dining-room table without
going in and out of a key light. We try to
avoid shooting opposing angles because
that can compromise the lighting. We
usually have a few floor units that we move
around per shot."
Finally, nine-light fays are positioned
a few feet behind 12'x12' diffusion rags, to
create a large soft source. "The units are
very shallow, work well in confined spaces,
and spread the light really well," explains
Tattersall. "They are directional, rather than
bounced, but go through diffusion - Light
Grid, Quarter Grid, and sometimes doublediffused with an additional Opal or 250 to
soften things even more."
Grace and Frankie live in an elegant
beach house ostensibly in La Jolla, Calif., for
which the practical exterior and surrounding neighborhood are actually shot in
Malibu, while interiors are shot on the Paramount lot, where three stages are reserved
for the show. The beach house is quite
open, with many windows, and double
glass doors leading out to a back patio,
which is also a set, and the ocean beyond.
Originally, a Rosco backing provided the
view of the ocean; these days, however, the
ocean is added entirely in post with the aid
of bluescreen. Bigger tungsten units -
including 10Ks and 20Ks - push light into
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the house through windows. "If we aren't
looking directly out toward the water, we
usually put big diffusers on the patio -
Light Grid 12-bys - and blow even more
light in," Tattersall notes.
Asked to describe the look of Grace
and Frankie, the cinematographer replies,
"It's easy on the eye - Jane's quote - and
looks very natural. The lighting is not
making a statement." And as to camera
angles on the production, he remarks,
"Comedy is about action and reaction;
somebody says something and the other
person reacts. Singles don't work that well
in comedies; two-shots are much more
common. We tend towards wider over-theshoulder shots rather than close-ups. Similarly, wide shots don't have an awful lot of
value in comedies. The viewer isn't really
interested in the architecture; they want to
see Jane and Lily."
Miller recalls the episode in which
both Grace and Frankie throw out their
backs and are crawling around on the floor,
writhing in pain. The scene required shots
that were low and moving. "Jerry made a
rig with a piece of carpet on the bottom of
the cheese plate, so it would slide on the
woodwork like a dust mop. It had a long
pole with a camera mounted on the
bottom - it actually looked like a mop -
and you just rested it on the ground and
pulled it. It enabled us to get wonderful
shots of Jane's and Lily's faces as they
May 2017

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 2017