American Cinematographer - October 2014 - 24

Director Michaël R. Roskam (bottom, left) discusses a key scene with
Gandolfini and Schoenaerts.

Inside, the actual bar area - the
mirrored back-wall, the shelves of liquor
bottles and glasses, the beer taps, and the
patrons' stools at the counter - was lit
entirely from the ceiling. "We wanted the bar
to be warm, golden and comfy [so] you
understand why people like to go there," the
cinematographer notes. Laughing, he adds,
"There were so many lights it looked like a
studio, but it was a real location. The basement of the bar was one big dimmer room -
our technical backstage, as it were."
Gaffer Ken Shibata adds, "We
wanted to have a controllable soft box above
the bar, and we asked Thérèse to give us
warm, translucent drop-ceiling pieces. Above
those we had a series of 2-foot four-bank
24

October 2014

Mac Tech LED bulbs with ¼ CTS and Full
Grid to make [the light] warmer and softer.
We had a total of maybe 60 bulbs [in the
soft box]."
Additionally, five or six practical
lamps, each containing a 60-watt frosted
household bulb, were suspended from the
ceiling. "The other practical lamps throughout the bar had smaller bulbs, like 40-watt
household bulbs," says Shibata. Covered
wagons, which consisted of three to five 60watt bulbs diffused through bleached
muslin shaped over chicken wire, were used
for close-ups, as eye lights and to give more
sheen to the wood. Most of the fixtures
came from Shibata's company, Dark Lights;
the rest came from Arri CSC.
American Cinematographer

The area near the restrooms
featured a deep-red glow, ostensibly from
the exit sign and the "ladies" and "gentlemen" designations on the doors. Shibata
created the effect with two 2x2 Kino Flos
gelled with Primary Red, and he sometimes
added gelled covered wagons or a small
soft box. "Nicolas really likes to be aggressive with colors," says Shibata. The red
creates a feeling of unease and danger,
which is borne out in the final confrontation, near the restrooms, between Bob and
Eric (Matthias Schoenaerts), Nadia's exboyfriend, who attempts to rob the bar.
Outside the bar's service door in the
back, where Bob and Marv are often seen
working or talking, the crew rigged a larger
soft box, this one supported from an 80'
articulated Condor positioned around the
corner. The soft box comprised three 6K
space lights, a 12'x12' Light Grid with egg
crates, and Duvatyn skirts.
The film's signature shot finds the
camera executing a 360-degree vertical flip
as a man walks up to the bar counter and
hands Bob an envelope of cash, which Bob
then places in a drop box behind him. Key
grip Dave Stern was tasked with designing
the rig that would allow the camera to roll
360 degrees. Working with Seno Moussally
at Modern Studio Equipment in Los Angeles, he conceived a sort of lazy Susan that
was mounted on a cheese plate; three
aluminum rods then connected to a
second, larger, L-shaped cheese plate. "At
the base of the L cheese plate is the dove-
American Cinematographer - October 2014

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