Digital Video - January 2008 - (Page 37) THE HOLLYWOOD-BASED REALITY SERIES LA INK USES DOCUMENTARY-STYLE CAMERAWORK TO ILLUSTRATE CANDID STORIES. BY JON SILBERG harlie Corwin, the CEO of New York-based Original Media, sold his idea for the TLC reality series Miami Ink as “Taxicab Confessions in a tattoo parlor.” The show quickly found viewership among the tattooed, un-tattooed and simply tattoo-curious. It then expanded into a franchise with the West Coastbased spin-off LA Ink. As Corwin predicted, tattoo parlors are rife with colorful, compelling characters with unusual anecdotes. “People usually get tattoos to commemorate a crossroads in their lives,” Corwin explains. “Sometimes it’s sad like they want to memorialize someone who died; other times, it’s a happy event like a marriage. People get tattoos to commemorate kicking drugs. All those things become important, and the tattoo bed in a sense becomes a confessional with the tattoo artist acting basically like a pop-culture priest taking confession. There is also a good amount of physical pain that goes on in the process, and in some ways the pain is cathartic and allows the person getting the tattoo to unburden themselves.” As is Miami Ink (now in its fourth season), LA Ink is shot inside a working tattoo parlor — High Voltage Tattoo on La Brea Ave. — so director of photography Aaron Krummel has very limited ability to alter his lighting during production. His solution was to outfit the place with eight 4-Bank and three 2-Bank Kino Flo units overhanging the shop. They are mounted inside boxes so that they fit in with the environment and don’t look out of place. The soft illumination is then teased down with black Duvateen skirts. “On a lot of reality shows,” Krummel explains, “the ceiling is a big dead zone, but we don’t mind shooting upwards. That makes it convenient.” The shop’s main room was painted a reddish-pink at the suggestion of tattoo artist and show lead Kat Von D, who loves the bold color. “I was happy with anything at all but white!” Krummel says, explaining that photographing bright white can wreak havoc on contrast, especially in C With the ever-present camera angling in, tattoo artist Kat Von D works on a client at High Voltage. CHRIS RAGAZZO/TLC JON SILBERG
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