American Cinematographer - September 2008 - (Page 33) from coming into contact with interior walls or ceilings, which makes the rigging of lights a particular challenge. “We were also very careful with the lux levels,” notes gaffer John Colley. “They were often concerned with the levels of light hitting delicate artwork and tapestries, so we had to cover a number of them with 12-by-12 textiles on frames. In addition, we took simple precautions like putting tennis balls on all the C-stands to preserve floors and being diligent when carrying equipment in and out. This isn’t the only film that had ever, or will ever, shoot in these places, but we wanted to make it easy for ourselves and also for those who came after us.” Filming took place over the course of an English winter, so daylight hours were extremely short; shooting hours were made shorter still by the lengthy delays involved in getting actors into the elaborate costumes and makeup of the era. “If we did more than one scene a day, we’d lose two hours in the morning and then another two in the afternoon to costume changes because Keira is in almost every scene,” explains Dibb. “That leaves you a tiny amount of time on camera, and yet I believe in actors having a degree of ownership of their parts, so there will be certain scenes that I don’t want to be pre-staged; I want to be able to see the actors in the situation and then find the scene. That [approach] makes it even more difficult, because you’ve got to rehearse and commit to the staging before you can shoot.” With time so tight, Pados could take only as much time to adjust the lights between setups as it took to move the camera to each new position. For daytime interiors, the solution was to make use of the sizeable windows typical of the buildings in which they were shooting; lighting came in from outside, keeping the walls and ceilings free of fixtures and the floors Top left: The duke ponders his marital quandary. Top right: Georgina trysts with her true love, Lord Grey (Dominic Cooper). Bottom, left and right: A distraught Georgina eventually realizes that her husband considers Bess and her sons to be his true family. American Cinematographer 33
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