American Cinematographer - June 2020 - 65

Goldman crafted a moody look for this scene from the Season 3 episode "Margaretology." From the beginning of the show, Goldman says, "I felt that we
should be able to almost hear the characters breathing, so I wanted to be close to the actors - I'm talking about the physical distance between the camera
and the actors. We could have opted to shoot scenes with long lenses, in a more documentary style, to deliver a modern look for a period drama. That's a
reasonable conversation, but we never wanted that. We didn't want to make the show too Cinderella-like - too ideal."

adds to the coverage, but not in a
traditional B-camera way; it's either a
punch-in - a way to cut into the
scene - or a way to cut out of the
scene. Or, if it's a long dialogue scene,
maybe the A camera will shoot over
the shoulder while the B camera
shoots the profile. If you save that
profile shot until the end of the scene,
it looks more like a dedicated shot
than a B-camera shot. All shots should
look like dedicated shots, and I think
the editors on The Crown celebrate the
fact that they have another angle, but
they resist [using them until it's
appropriate]. I think if you go back
and watch some of the long dialogues
on The Crown, you'll see that.
Crudo: You shot Seasons 1, 2
and 3 with the Sony F55. What did
you rate the camera at?

2:1

TECH SPECS

Digital Capture

Sony PMW-F55, Sony Venice

Cooke Speed Panchro, Zeiss Super Speed

Goldman: Eight hundred ISO.
And I rarely played with that number,
because if you jump to 1,250, it gets a
little too noisy; for a show like The
Crown, I didn't feel like that kind of
look was right. If you connect the lens
selection to each season's cast, there's a
consistency. The first two seasons with
Claire Foy were shot with Cooke
Panchros, and for Seasons 3 and 4 with
Olivia Colman we used Zeiss Super
Speeds. On Season 4, we changed the
camera bodies as well, to the Sony
Venice, and I've been rating the Venice
for only two different 'sensor environments' - the main one is our 'day
mode,' at 500 ISO, and the second is
our 'night mode,' with a base rating of
2,500 ISO and shot at 1,000. The Venice
is an unbelievable camera, Richard -
basically, it sees more than your eye
sees. Although I'm not a very technical
person, after working an entire season
on the Venice, my impression is that
the 500 base environment prefers a
little underexposure. So I've been
exposing skin tones under 50 percent.
Then when I jump to the night mode,
by setting the ISO at 1,000, I'm basically overexposing by a stop and a
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half. By doing that, you absolutely kill
the noise.
Crudo: What stop do you
generally shoot at for interiors and
exteriors? What do you generally aim
for?
Goldman: My dream is to shoot
everything at a 2.8, maybe 2.8 and a
half [for interiors] and 4.5 for exteriors. We're heavily ND'd when we're
outside.
Crudo: How did Netflix
support the show's use of HDR? That
stuff looks beautiful.
Goldman: We shot the first two
seasons in SDR and then Seasons 3
and 4 in HDR. Between Seasons 3 and
4, Netflix invited me - hired me - to
re-grade all episodes of Seasons 1 and
2 to HDR. So if you have an HDR
monitor at home, all of the show's
episodes are now available in HDR in
your Netflix menu.
Crudo: Since you knew in
advance that Seasons 3 and 4 would
be shot in HDR, how has that
changed your approach? Have you
had to adjust any of your working
methods on set, or anything you're
doing in post?
➔
June 2020

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American Cinematographer - June 2020

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