American Cinematographer - August 2018 - 44

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Family Torment
Bélanger shoulders
the camera for a
candlelit night
interior. "We
always knew the
show would be
dark because of
the material and
because a lot of
action happens at
night, but this was
our first
[collaboration on
which Vallée]
actually asked me
to underexpose
the image," the
cinematographer
explains.

which held standard 3,200K tungsten
bulbs.
Another departure for Bélanger
on Sharp Objects was his use of underexposure. He recalls, "In prep, when JeanMarc and I were shooting our
camera/makeup test - our only test -
he said, 'I don't know why, but this show
should be underexposed.' We always
knew the show would be dark because
of the material and because a lot of
action happens at night, but this was the
first time he'd actually asked me to
underexpose the image.
"Weirdly, filmmakers light a lot to
create 'dark' movies," Bélanger continues. "The image is very contrasty, but
they light a lot. But when you shoot
available light, like Jean-Marc and I do,
sometimes it's tough to have contrast
because you don't have that control. So
he asked me to underexpose. Usually I
would expose for between the shadow
and the key light, but on this I was
always exposing for the brightest part of
the frame and closing maybe half a stop,
so everything [else] became dark very
fast. I was a little scared, but I'm very
happy with the final images - especially now that I'm seeing previews on
TVs in American hotels, which are
always so bright and overexposed!"
44

August 2018

As Bélanger executed this strategy, however, night scenes in Camille's
bedroom gave him pause. "The only
lighting in that room was the candles in
the window and the practicals, and they
were far apart," he recalls. "All the practicals were well-exposed, but there were
no eye lights anywhere. I was shocked,
but Jean-Marc said, 'Let's go for it!' I
didn't know how far I could go with the
underexposure. HBO hasn't refused any
images yet, so that's good!"
Vallée says his goal was "to make
you pay attention. I want you to wonder
if you see what you're seeing.
"It's very hard for a cinematographer to go there, to get out of the
comfort zone of exposing the actors and
the sets at the perfect levels and instead
go under," the director continues.
"When you go over, you have some
range in post to bring it down, but when
you go under, it's not possible to get it
back, so you've got to trust the process.
Yves let go and did that. It's about trusting the storytelling, the content, the
emotion. We've never done anything
like this, and we're both very happy with
the result."
Even underexposing, Vallée
eschewed fill with few exceptions. "We
made a few small LiteGear kits for car
American Cinematographer

interiors when Amy was driving, but we
seldom used them," Crawford recalls.
"Sometimes Jean-Marc would just hold
up his iPhone to light her."
"When you're in a car, you're
always underexposed," says Bélanger.
"For car scenes, filmmakers often light
the interior and expose for the face, but
in this case, we exposed for the outside
and let the face be a little or a lot underexposed, like in life."
In keeping with Vallée's preferences, almost all of Sharp Objects was
shot handheld, and the crew's footprint
was kept as small as possible. "It's
usually just me, Yves, the focus puller
[Patrick Blanchet] and the actors," says
Vallée. "Sometimes the actors wear a
mic and even the boom is not allowed
in. I ask the crew to get out because we
want to use the space. We figure it out,
we adapt, we get creative with the
actors, and it becomes sort of a dance
where the actor is aware of the camera.
If we move the camera, it's because the
character is moving and we want to
follow her or him. We witness; we
capture."
On Sharp Objects, he and
Bélanger decided to bring in another
operator, Orlando Duguay, to give
Bélanger a physical break. "Orlando is

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