American Cinematographer - November 2007 - (Page 65)

crispness I don’t like, unless they’re put through a large amount of diffusion, and even then it can be hard to get rid of that slightly unnatural quality,” he says. “Tungsten light has an inherent soft, gentle, glowing quality that reflects from the skin in a different way.” He also employed Dinos and Dinettes for exteriors. “They’re quick, easy to use and very versatile. I always try to use simplicity when lighting, no matter what the size of the setups.” Interior setups made use of space lights for soft, overhead moonlight, while a range of lamps — including Dinos, Kino Flos, 2Ks and 650s — lit the sets. Willems found that lighting exteriors posed fewer problems than the often-cramped interior sets. “Overall, I was after a soft look, and by using the Moon Pods on exteriors it was fairly easy to achieve a soft moonlight effect. However, once the film gets going, a lot of the action takes place indoors. The townspeople hide from the marauding vampires in small spaces, anywhere they can find. Also, the power is out, so the only source of light is the moonlight. The lighting needed to look realistic, but in reality you wouldn’t see your hand in front of your face!” An example is the attic set in which the film’s main protagonists hide from the vampires for an extended period of time. A-shaped with steep pitched roofs on either side, the set was 8' wide and 25' long, and all the windows were boarded up. “You could just about stand up in there without hitting your head,” recalls Willems. “Given the limited space and the absence of windows, it was quite a challenge to get any light in there at all. There were times when the characters had a small gas lantern, but most of the time there was nowhere for the light to come from.” He decided to use a nondirectional source from the top of the set. The peak of the ceiling was left off, with the hole hidden by support beams. Through this gap, Above: Marlow (Danny Huston), the leader of the vampire horde, orchestrates the attack on the Barrow population. The show’s makeup artists created a pearlescent base for the vampires’ skin. Bottom left: The vampire characters wore black contact lenses, which allowed Willems to provide them with a soft eyelight generated by Dinos aimed through 8'x12' diffusion frames. Bottom right: Willems takes a light reading in the attic set, where the film’s protagonists hide. The set was lit with a non-directional source from above. American Cinematographer 65

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2007

American Cinematographer - November 2007 Contents Editor’s Note Global Village DVD Playback Production Slate Deconstructing Bob Dylan Honoring a Lost Friend Night Terrors Losing Control TV’s Top-Rated Short Takes Post Focus New Products & Services Points East International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up

American Cinematographer - November 2007

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