American Cinematographer - July 2016 - 39

scene: the big fashion show, during
which Jesse catches her reflection in a
mirror and falls in love with her own
beauty. The scene begins with a group of
runway models standing backstage,
waiting for their cue. When it's Jesse's
turn to step onto the runway, the other
women disappear and the imagery turns
abstract. "It's like we go into Jesse's head,
into her mental state," says Braier.
The sequence was shot at Calvert
Studios in Van Nuys, Calif., where a
large triangle of mirrors was constructed
to serve as the doorway to the catwalk.
Mirrors above and on both sides of the
triangle reflect Jesse as she makes her
entrance; Hostetter describes the configuration as "a mirrored cave, or a kind of
inverted pyramid that was faceted in
such a way that the light bounced all
around, as did Jesse's reflection. It was
almost like Jesse was inside of a
diamond." Jesse walks down the runway
toward a double triangle in a star-like
configuration, outlined in neon-blue
light, which was accomplished with
RGB LiteRibbon. Undulating blue light
surrounds her as she walks; the rest of
the room is dark.
To create this watery effect in the
wide shot of Jesse walking, Braier
explains, "we bounced Sputniks
[outputting] blue light into big pieces of
silver and white silk that the grips would
rustle. We then cut to a medium shot of
her, at which point Elle is actually walking on a treadmill." The use of the treadmill was per Refn's directive, Braier
notes, "so Elle could walk on and on
without having to cut every 60 feet, and
he could keep the shot running and
work on the performance without technical interruptions. The grips and
electrics made a patchwork of gels -
green, blue and turquoise. We put them
on a big frame that rotated in front of
[an Arri M40 bounced into an 8-by-8
silver lamé]." Tapia describes the gel rig
as "a sort of stained glass on a pinwheel
that could be spun manually."
"That continued the watery
effect," Braier adds, "but with a slight
change in colors. As Jesse reaches the
star, we wanted the water effect to

become even more pronounced, so we
bounced [three of the Digital Sputnik
DS 6 units] into [pans] of water that had
[broken bits of ] mirrors in the bottom of
them, and the textured water effect
bounced back on Elle.
"Conceptually, the idea is that
when Jesse reaches the star structure, she
glimpses herself in a three-paneled
mirror and undergoes a kind of transformation," the cinematographer contin-

ues. "It's as though she is seeing both
herself and another side of herself - a
more evil Jesse. At that moment, the
triangle changes colors from blue to red."
Feeling empowered, Jesse kisses her
reflection in the mirror, turns around and
walks back to the entrance triangle,
which now also glows red.
There was, in fact, some sleight of
hand involved in Jesse's kissing of the
mirror. To obtain the most pleasing

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