American Cinematographer - May 2016 - 28

This lighting
diagram
illustrates
director of
photography
Bill Fernandez's
approach to the
strip club in the
third act of
the film.

machined soccer-ball rig between the arm
and the camera," Fernandez explains. "This
system achieved the handheld look, while
taking the load off of the camera operator."
The production saved money by
shooting with re-canned film stock -
Kodak Vision3 250D 5207 (acts one, two
and five) and Vision3 500T 5219 (acts three
and four) - purchased from Reel Good Film
in Hollywood. "At the time, it was 16 to 17
cents per foot," says Hauck. "It was a little
risky, but they snip-tested everything and
guaranteed that they were 1,000-foot
loads."
Far from being knocked out in a
week, Too Late was shot intermittently over
two years, from 2012 to 2014. Shot entirely
on practical locations in L.A., each act had
three to five days for rehearsal and shooting
combined. On average, the filmmakers
rolled camera for 10 takes.
Production started with act three, a
stand-alone flashback, and the first hurdle
quickly became evident: The camera was
simply too heavy for a day's worth of 22minute takes. "We had very fit Steadicam
28

May 2016

operators," Fernandez avows, "but with the
camera, vest and Steadicam arm, they were
probably carrying 80 to 90 pounds." They'd
hired Michael Alba, SOC, with Cedric
Martin, SOC as backup, for this act. Once
Alba went through the whole shot on location, he tapped the director on the shoulder
and suggested they start thinking about cut
points. But Hauck was committed to true
one-shots, so Alba and Martin instead
found a hand-off point where they could
transfer the camera without stopping the
shot.
A moment's pause was already written into the scene: Sampson has left the
strip club and gone next door to hear a
friend's band play; he sits down at the bar
and orders a drink. At that moment, Alba
would smoothly dock the Steadicam sled
onto a stand, frame up as Hawkes orders his
drink, then detach his arm from the sled.
Martin would then come out of the bathroom where he'd been hiding, attach his
Steadicam arm to the sled, and float toward
the singer. "The exchange is very smooth,"
says the cinematographer. "With the handAmerican Cinematographer

off, each op could rest for half the take,
which was crucial for endurance as the
takes progressed."
This approach continued when
Joseph Arena, SOC operated on the remaining acts, tag-teaming with Sergio De Luca.
"There are actually multiple switch-off
points in acts four and five," Hauck adds,
"especially at the drive-in, because that
involved staircases. We wanted to keep [the
operators] fresh, so they were handing off
the camera every six or seven minutes."
It took a spreadsheet to track the
choreography and technical details associated with act one. "Gaffer Bill Persaud and I
made a spreadsheet of the different sections
of the scene," says Fernandez. "Ahead of
each take, we'd align on the stops for all
those locations, fill out the sequential
spreadsheet, then he'd follow-rack the iris
throughout to make sure it was the proper
exposure based on camera direction, zoom
level and the general ambiance."
In the scene, Dorothy is on Radio Hill
and makes a call to Sampson to arrange a
meeting. Since the shot was a "oner,"
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