American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 36

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Family Business

Above: Lucious performs with Jamal and
Hakeem in a scene from the season-two
episode "The Lyon Who Cried Wolf." Left:
Sommers lines up a shot for the scene.

highlights. It's a classic look."
All of the overhead lights in the
mansion and office sets are LED -
dubbed "MacDaddies" and consisting
of four MacTech tubes in a Kino housing - as are the fixtures used to light
the backings on three of the sets. "The
36

October 2016

mansion, office, and Jamal's are
day/night JC Backings," Sommers says.
"We have a Translight at Hakeem's."
The cinematographer notes that the
efficiency of the LEDs has cut down
significantly on amperage and cables,
but these units haven't yet completely
taken over the set - for example,
Sommers offers, they still can't
adequately depict hard sunlight. For
that, he uses "both 20K and 10K beam
projectors," he says. "For soft north
light, I use both coops and space lights."
Supporting Sommers and
Crededio is dimmer-board operator
Jared Moore, who works with a High
End Systems Hog 4 and an ETC Ion
console. He notes, "Day to day, when I
am running the more conventional
stages, I use [ETC's] iRFR app on an
iPad linked back to the Ion so I can be
on set with Gino and Paul to ease
communication during setups."
Beyond the stage work, the
production typically ventures out to
locations around Chicago for one or
two of each episode's eight shooting
days. Crededio says that a rough lightAmerican Cinematographer

ing plan for each location is hammered
out during an initial scout. For the first
episode of the season, he and Sommers
will both go on the scout, but for each
subsequent episode, the gaffer usually
scouts without the cinematographer,
reporting back regarding the particular
needs of each space.
Sommers and Moore look
forward to the series' musical numbers.
"To me, one of the most interesting
aspects of the show has been the opportunity to shoot music again," the cinematographer opines. "It's just a ton of
fun. When I was a Steadicam operator I
did more music videos than you can
shake a stick at. The last time I had done
anything like that was probably 15 years
ago, so there was a bit of a learning
curve, but these large performance
setups were the candy that enticed me
to move back to Chicago and shoot the
show.
"The producers also wanted those
scenes to look bigger and lusher," he
continues. "Instead of shooting what is
essentially a music video on a stage, they
wanted it to feel like a performance in
front of a stadium audience. This show
gives us the ability to really get into that
world, which is exciting. Also, the music
has direct ties to the dramatic action and
the storytelling of the show. The music
comes out of the family's lives. [It
is] storytelling in a different way - not
just eye candy or an interlude."
For the larger performance
setups, Sommers and Crededio usually
employ 50 to 80 moving lights
- comprising PRG Best Boys, GLP
Impression X4s and X4 Bar 20s, Clay
Paky Sharpys and Alpha Spot HPE
700s, Robe Robin Pointes, and TMB
Solaris Flare LED strobes - with
perhaps another 50 color-changing
Martin Rush Par 2 RGBW Zooms,
depending on the shot. The Sharpy
units, Robin Pointes and Best Boys are
useful for harder light or gobo spins,
while the X4s frequently serve as wash
lights.
"We have moving lights that are
LED as well as some that are regular
discharge [units]," says Sommers. "That



Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - October 2016

Contents
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - Intro
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 1
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 2
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - Contents
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 4
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 5
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 6
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 7
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 8
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 9
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 10
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 11
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 12
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 13
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 14
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 15
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 16
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 17
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 18
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 19
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 20
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 21
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 22
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 23
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 24
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 25
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 26
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 27
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 28
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 29
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 30
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 31
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 32
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 33
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 34
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 35
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 36
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 37
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 38
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 39
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 40
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 41
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 42
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 43
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 44
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 45
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 46
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 47
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 48
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 49
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 50
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 51
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 52
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 53
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 54
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 55
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 56
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 57
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 58
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 59
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 60
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 61
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 62
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 63
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 64
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 65
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 66
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 67
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 68
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 69
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 70
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 71
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 72
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 73
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 74
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 75
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 76
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 77
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 78
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 79
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 80
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 81
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 82
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 83
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 84
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 85
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 86
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 87
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - 88
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - October 2016 - Cover4
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