American Cinematographer - January 2019 - 16

SHOT CRAFT

By Jay Holben

I Fresh Perspectives

When you're on a production for any length of time,
chances are you'll be revisiting the same set or location multiple
times - especially when shooting episodic television, where
certain standing sets will be reused for multiple episodes throughout the season. As the cinematographer, will you re-create the
same look to maintain consistency with that set, or will you mix it
up and strive for a different look each time?
AC caught up with ASC members Michael Goi and Alan
Caso to get their thoughts on approaching a recurring set. Goi is
a former president of the ASC whose work includes the series My
Name Is Earl, Glee, The New Normal and American Horror Story (AC
Nov. '12), as well as the TV movies The Fixer (AC May '99) and
Judas. Caso, a recipient of the ASC Career Achievement in Television Award (AC Feb. '18), has been behind the camera on series
including Six Feet Under (AC Nov. '02), Hawaii Five-0 and American
Gothic; the telefilm George Wallace; and the miniseries Frankenstein
and Into the West (AC June '05). At press time, the two were
collaborating on two episodes of The Rookie, with Goi in the director's chair and Caso as cinematographer.
"My approach to shooting any scene is an internal one, in
terms of how the main character in that scene feels about the situation that they're in," Goi explains. "I climb into the head of that
character, and I depict the world as they see it. We might be in the
same set four or five times in a movie, or every couple weeks on
a television show, and [this approach] requires giving that set a
different visual treatment - one that alludes to the mental state
of the character - each time. It makes it more interesting to watch
as a result. If the set looks the same every time you go into it, that's
January 2019

monotonous and almost tends to be like white noise. The look
should vary according to how the character is feeling in that scene.
"How we accomplish that is by using the color and angle
of light to mix it up," Goi continues. "Turn practicals on or off from
one scene to the next. Light in a way that is completely, radically
different than any way you've seen the room before - but have
it all be motivated by how the character feels at that particular
moment."
"When you're shooting a feature or long-form TV, it can be
an issue to keep it interesting if you're in a set for a lot of time,"
Caso attests. "If you're doing 30 pages in one location, you're going
to have to find a way to see that place from a lot of different
angles. You have to take something specific that is on the page -
such as a moment where the characters are in a subdued or
vulnerable position for whatever reason - and then maybe you
pick a high angle looking at them like small rats in a lab. You pick
something like that not because you do it for every scene, but
because it's right for this scene. In another scene with a lot of
activity, you design a shot with a lot of movement, and you pass
off the frame from one person to the next. In the next scene,
maybe one of the characters is in a position of power, so you do
a lower shot. Always look at what is on the page for inspiration. I
have yet to fail from doing that.
"The next layer is to borrow from time-of-day," Caso adds.
"Nights are different than days, obviously, but days can also be very
different from one another. Is it bright and sunny, or overcast and
shadowy? Is it early morning, or high noon, or magic hour? Are
there hot beams of sunlight streaming in, creating hard shadows on
the walls and hot spots on people's bodies? Is it just after sunset
and before people turn on the lights, when the windows are a cold

ASC 100th Anniversary

Photo courtesy of USA Network.

Actor Zak Orth
takes a seat in
one of Falling
Water's
recurring sets
for the Season 2
episode "The
Art of the
Deal," directed
by Michael Goi,
ASC, AIC.

American Cinematographer - January 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2019