American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 22

Left: In a scene from the Two and a Half Men episode “A Fishbowl Full of Glass Eyes,” Alan (Jon Cryer) returns the expensive wedding ring that his divorced friend Walden (Ashton Kutcher) has gifted to him in frustration. Right: Cinematographer Steven V. Silver’s sketch depicting his idea for lighting the beach scene, which required a moonlit-night look.

When executive producer Chuck Lorre first called to say he wanted me to shoot his new multi-camera sitcom, Two and a Half Men, I was ecstatic. He told me the show would be set in Malibu and would star Charlie Sheen as hedonistic, womanizing jingle writer Charlie Harper and Jon Cryer as his more sensible, uptight brother and housemate, Alan. I’d grown up watching both actors and had always been a fan. Better still, I love Malibu and have lived there for most of my life. I would be leaving it every morning, driving across town, and attempting to recreate its beauty on a Warner Bros. soundstage. The show’s main setting is the living room of Charlie’s spacious beachfront house. My lighting for the series was originally inspired by the color palette and texture of a vintage still photo that shows Hugh Hefner and some Playboy Bunnies in the den of his bachelor pad. I’ve always loved that photo, which looks like it was taken in the early 1960s. The tone is soft and cosmetically smooth, but the image also has some cool tones and deep contrast. Warm, incandescent light emanates from stylish practicals; turquoise and teal colors accent
22 July 2012

American Cinematographer

Two and a Half Men photos by Darren Michaels, SMPSP, courtesy of Warner Bros. Sketch courtesy of Steven Silver.

I

Sitcoms Are Easy? Sure. By Steven V. Silver, ASC

the room’s dark corners and serve to highlight the cabinets and shelves in the background. Using a similarly sexy approach to Charlie’s home seemed to work with the Malibu I knew, and the style also became a point of development for his womanizing-but-stillcharming character. My general approach to the show’s lighting is fairly straightforward: for day scenes, I allow “sunlight” to stream into the rooms and around window areas; for night scenes, I add practical units in the frame and then augment those with keylights. I allow the sources to play several stops over, and I create an acceptable fill level to control the mood throughout the show. I project soft lighting at the show’s female characters when the story calls for that additional cosmetic touch. We’re still shooting on film (Kodak Vision2 500T 5218), and I light by eye except in very lowlight situations. (I don’t like the key level to slide below 6 footcandles.) One of the most unique aspects of the living-room set is the ocean backdrop. A few years before I started working on the show, I was doing some tests with an 8x10 bellows camera. One of the test shots showed Point Dume as seen from Paradise Cove, and that shot has served as our 70' ocean backing for all these years. During the first season, we did our best to shoot around this static backdrop.

Chuck asked me to make the water move for the following season. I researched several ways to do this, but it wasn’t until I saw the Gam SX4 (Professional Scenic Projection System with Loop Tray) that I became truly inspired. By teaming this with ETC Source Four Revolution units, we could create an effect that looked like the vertically dancing flames of a campfire, and we could project this fire unit horizontally onto the back of our “water.” It looked great to the eye, and test footage helped me sell the effect to the producers. We now use 19 of those units across our 70' backing. One episode, “A Fishbowl Full of Glass Eyes,” called mostly for swing sets, built from the ground up for the week. Although this is usually the case, instead of having our normal two days to light for a massive amount of shooting, we were cut down to one. The other prep day was dedicated to an on-location night shoot at the beach in Malibu. To fully tell this story, I have to begin where all shooting concepts begin: the script. The first time I read a script, I clear my mind and try to visualize the final image. What is the mood of the scene? The tonal quality? The emotional weight and density of the image? Going through this mental



American Cinematographer - July 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2012

American Cinematographer - July 2012
Contents
Editor’s Note
Short Takes: Keane’s “Silenced by the Night”
Production Slate: Trishna • Two and a Half Men
Ancient Aliens
High Anxiety
Hair-Metal Heroes
Shooting J.R.
New Products & Services
International Marketplace
Classified Ads
Ad Index
Clubhouse News
ASC Close-Up: Peter Lyons Collister
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - American Cinematographer - July 2012
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 1
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 2
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Contents
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 4
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 5
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 6
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 7
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Editor’s Note
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 9
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Short Takes: Keane’s “Silenced by the Night”
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 11
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 12
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 13
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 14
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 15
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Production Slate: Trishna • Two and a Half Men
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 17
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 18
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 19
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 20
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 21
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 22
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 23
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 24
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 25
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 26
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 27
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 28
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 29
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Ancient Aliens
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 31
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 32
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 33
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 34
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 35
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 36
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 37
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 38
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 39
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 40
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 41
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - High Anxiety
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 43
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 44
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 45
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 46
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 47
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 48
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 49
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 50
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 51
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 52
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 53
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Hair-Metal Heroes
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 55
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 56
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 57
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 58
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 59
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 60
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 61
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 62
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 63
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Shooting J.R.
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 65
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 66
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 67
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 68
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 69
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 70
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 71
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - New Products & Services
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 73
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 74
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 75
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 76
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 77
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 78
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 79
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 80
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 81
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - International Marketplace
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Classified Ads
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Ad Index
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 85
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Clubhouse News
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - 87
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - ASC Close-Up: Peter Lyons Collister
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - July 2012 - Cover4
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