American Cinematographer - November 2008 - 16

Above: Michael (Jonathan Charis) begins asking troubling questions of the outside world while Marie (Sinta Weisz) tries to sleep away the tension in their relationship. Below, left to right: Steadicam operator Michael Alba, Mayén, gaffer Mike Kelly and Stone work out a setup inside the apartment. When facing away from the window, Mayén created a sunlight effect with Kino Flo Image 80s and Source Four Lekos. T2.8 or wide open, it was very noticeable and dramatic.” Though Singularity takes place in the future, the filmmakers didn’t want it to be a predictably stylized sciencefiction piece. The script called for a range of different looks: desaturated, bleached-out establishing shots; golden-hued flashbacks; and cold, sterile interiors. Stone and Mayén cut a wide swath through many possible interpretations, drawing inspiration from Blade Runner and 2046, as well as the Cold War cloak-and-dagger stylings of The Conformist and the Brutalist architecture of Gattaca. Stone and production designer Kathleen Lorden were looking for locations with architecture that reflected a fascist aesthetic. One of the primary locations is a spartan apartment with concrete floors, black walls and a single wall-to-wall window slatted with Venetian blinds. The ambience is distinctly modern, devoid of any personal touches, and appropriately ambiguous in terms of the time period it represents. In these scenes, Michael, Marie and Wells reveal their dark secrets and true loyalties, and Mayén uses lighting and color to create an even deeper sense of detachment between the former friends. The light in the room comes from a single source — the window — as though suggesting a myopic perspective; it’s sunlight, but it has a cold, harsh quality. On the rare occasions when characters make eye contact, one person is usually hidden in full or partial shadow. According to Mayén, the apartment location offered both benefits and challenges. One advantage was the darkly painted walls, which freed the cinematographer from worrying too much about controlling unwanted shadows. The biggest difficulty was the direction the long window was facing. All of the scenes photographed at this location (on Kodak Vision2 500T 5218) were set during the day, but Mayén could only shoot toward the window when the sun shone directly through it. During the other half of the day, he would shoot away from the window, using Image 80s gelled with 1⁄2 or 3⁄4 CTB as a soft source; several Source Four Lekos accentuated the room with hot spots. For the film’s exterior flashbacks, Mayén and Stone sought a rich, warm tone to create visual and thematic contrast. These scenes depict Michael, Marie and Wells when they were still close, playing basketball and talking in a park, but with the oppressive facade of the Los Angeles Federal Building looming ominously in the background. To accomplish the dramatic shift in tone, Mayén employed a trick he picked up while working with Robbie Greenberg, ASC: “I shot all my exteriors with tungsten film — Kodak [Vision2 100T] 5212 — and an 85 filter, but I lit them with color-corrected tungsten lights instead of HMIs. It’s just amazing how much more pleasing it is to the skin tones.” Mayén and gaffer Mike Kelly used 1⁄2 CTB and 1⁄2 gridcloth on a 12'x12' frame in front of Nine-light Maxi Brutes. “The exterior represents better days,” Mayén comments, “and that’s another reason I used tungsten for the exteriors. I wanted those scenes to have a pleasing, magical look.” Finishing touches on Singularity were performed at Company 3 by colorist Ryan Greenberg. Mayén prepped Greenberg by forwarding him a copy of the script, along with stills from Gattaca and The Conformist. For his work on the picture, Mayén was honored with an Emerging Cinematographer Award from the International Cinematographers Guild, an Emerging Cinematographer Grant from Deluxe, and a 2K filmout by EFilm in Hollywood. He stresses, however, that the credit should be shared with rest of the crew, including Steadicam operator Michael Alba and focus pullers Tracy Viera and Ken Bender. “I’ve learned a lot working as an assistant,” Mayén reflects. “I’m proud that I’m able to tell a story visually, that I’m underlining the performances and the mood of the actors, and that I can use the cinematographer’s tools to tell the story.” I 16 November 2008

American Cinematographer - November 2008

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