American Cinematographer - August 2010 - 71

ambience,” says Boyd. “For ‘firelight,’ we used two units designed and built by [gaffer] Brian Gunter, each of which had four individually dimmable globes. Their shallow design was perfect for our very small practical location. Handheld solids and nets extended the range of these lights to suit the needs of the scene. I echoed the lantern light with a Blonde on a dimmer and flickerbox bounced up into beadboard overhead. It took nine or 10 hands on switches and knobs to make it happen each take, but it works beautifully for the scene. Bobby and Sissy could easily feel and respond to the growing light in their own work. “I mixed colors readily on this film,” continues the cinematographer. “In the tungsten realm, I liked MaxiBrutes with Firestarter globes, 1,200watt narrow globes, to make great daylight of all kinds. In the HMI world, I loved 12K and 4K Pars and Joker Pars for hot, spotty sources. I tended to like pinny sources for this film more than softer light for locations, and that’s why I didn’t use Fresnels very often. I preferred hot, open-faced lights for the feel, and then softer units to file off the edges a little. This movie required a beautifully rough, unrefined look.” For certain interiors where rigging possibilities were limited, Boyd relied on a lightweight overhead grid designed and built by key grip Billy Sherrill. This rig was utilized extensively in the funeral home owned by Frank Quinn (Murray), where Bush comes to arrange his funeral party, and other locations. “It was gridwork constructed out of lightweight 5⁄8-inch copper pipe that could easily support nine to 12 China balls and could be safely and easily installed in a ceiling,” Boyd explains. “It was designed to install and break down fast; we usually used it in a 4-by-8-foot configuration. The China balls were on dimmers, and we skirted off the source with black Grid Cloth to control spill. Billy rigged it to various ceilings, many times using small pulleys so we could adjust it quickly.” Several lighting challenges cropped up in the woods, including a

Above: The crew prepares to film one of Felix and Mattie’s encounters in town. Left: During a cozy scene in Felix’s cabin, the pair becomes reacquainted.

scene early in the film that shows Bush wrapped in a blanket and stumbling into the night, carrying a lantern in the pouring rain. Although the scene looks fairly straightforward, Schneider calls it “the most challenging photography in the film.” That’s because the team had to design a way for the lantern to flicker realistically in a driving rain and also play off Duvall’s face in a way that would be both photographically pleasing and naturalistic. Boyd built a rig using an old oil lantern, and hidden from view was a small bulb activated by a battery hidden in Duvall’s wardrobe. “We wanted to see the flame in the lantern, which meant we’d have to augment its light from a logical place,” says the cinematographer.
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“We also wanted to shoot in a downpour, which meant a low-voltage DC globe of some sort. We found what we needed at an auto-parts store and rigged it up, hiding a small peanut bulb on the lantern side that wasn’t facing the camera and making a small battery pack that Bobby could carry. We localized the rain towers, and I let the background fall off so that there would only be the warm glow around his cabin, motivated by the lighting inside. Bobby wore the battery in a small satchel on his shoulder covered by wardrobe.” However, the flickering lamplight was one of the few practical effects in the movie that required digital augmentation. “Because of the wind and rain,
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American Cinematographer - August 2010

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