American Cinematographer - January 2020 - 72

Truth to Light
Rob and his
boss, Tom Terp
(Tim Robbins),
have words
about the
former's
continuing
involvement
with Wilbur
and his case.

do a lot in the DI to bring back the
highlights, but it also helped sometimes to shoot at a higher rating -
1,280 or 1,600 - rather than the
native 800, which let us better hold
highlight detail. Using the higher EI
also introduced some texture into the
image, while blocking up the curve
on the low end, which I feel helped to
provide more of a feeling of film."

Production designer Hannah Beachler
- whose work on Black Panther
earned an Oscar, which she shared
with Jay Hart - set about bringing
character and a feeling of authenticity
to the locations. Lachman always
prefers to work closely with production designers and art directors from
early on in the process. "I like to be
involved in the colors and textures
they use to paint and dress the sets,"

he notes, "so I can coordinate my
color temperatures and gels when
filming."
In the approach to imagery,
Lachman notes, "I was looking for a
way to feel the images becoming
more 'toxic' and 'contaminated,' as it
is for the characters. There is also an
overall coolness in the film, literally
in the weather and the environment,
but also in the temperament and

Designing a Film Look

I've had the pleasure of working with Ed Lachman, ASC
and Todd Haynes on Wonderstruck and several re-mastering
projects. Dark Waters is a bit different from their previous films
because of its gritty fact-based story, though there is also a
definite, carefully thought-out look and color palette to the
images.
To start with, they shot with Arri Alexa Minis, but they'd
wanted to shoot film. So we designed a specific show-LUT in
preproduction with that in mind. We didn't use Arri's K1S1
color science; instead, we customized more of a film-print
emulation LUT that we tweaked to bring more of a cool blue
cyan bias into the shadows, and also rein in and bend some of
the blue hues. They could treat this as their "film stock" while
they were shooting, which I know was something they found to
be helpful.
When we started work on the final grade in [Blackmagic
Design DaVinci] Resolve, we stayed away from most of the bells
and whistles, using "printer light" and contrast controls to
affect the overall look and color temperature. If the blacks in a
scene got softer or milkier based on exposure, as would happen
with film negative, we didn't fight that - we embraced it.
We further enhanced the filmic look with LiveGrain,
which I've found to be a very powerful tool. I've worked with a
January 2020

lot of different methods of adding grain effects, and this just
feels more like it's adding a three-dimensional organic texture.
You're compositing three different grain elements into every
shot, with the grain response based on where the exposure of
a part of the frame sits. The idea wasn't to draw attention to
the grain, but to add the kind of texture that would have been
present if they'd shot on film. You don't have to see it. You feel
it.
After we got all the shots balanced, Ed and Todd gave me
a few days to go in and do a bit of a technical pass, and then
they came back and continued to take more of a fine touch to
parts - dodging and burning, maybe adding a grad to the sky
or pulling a key - always making sure to keep everything
within the feel of the photochemical world. We enhanced
some of the yellows and greens in the law offices, and for the
rural farm scenes we pushed the blueness pretty far to emphasize the cold, stark, overcast environment.
It's always inspiring working with Ed and Todd. They
both have such strong visual sensibilities and they are relentlessly passionate about the work.

American Cinematographer - 100 Years

- Joe Gawler, Senior Colorist,
Harbor Picture Company

American Cinematographer - January 2020

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