American Cinematographer - July 2018 - 66

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Time Independent

Top: In the episode "Mother" from Season 3, "Future Cole" meets "Present-Day Cole"
in the lobby of the Emerson Hotel in the year 2163. For this scene, Greene employed a Technodolly
to allow for 180-degree camera moves that could be repeated for Stanford's dual roles.
Above: A rendering of the entrance side of the hotel lobby.

did a lot of Movi work in Season 3,
especially on crossover unit. I think of
the Movi as a Technocrane that's carried
by a human. It's a very different feel
from the Steadicam, but they're each
appropriate for certain things. The Movi
is great when you need an exploratory
shot that can be super low and very
expressive, and then high and circling.
Greene: Sometimes, for logistical
reasons, we would block-shoot two or
three episodes together. When I started
Season 3, I block-shot episodes 3-01, 302 and 3-03. Each day would be a mishmash of each episode, and I was
changing the look on a daily basis. Often
the look tended to be a patina. For
example, the base elements of the lighting in the temporal facility are the same
whether we're seeing it in 2163 or in the
66

July 2018

1920s, when Jennifer Goines is doing
the Vaudeville thing - practicals define
the space, and there's a soft side source
and maybe an architectural light in the
background. One look is cool and
brooding; the other is warm and inviting.
In the first episode I directed,
'Immortal' [Season 2, Episode 6], Boris
applied a similar lighting style but with
a color correction that introduced some
green to the mid-tones and a bit of
desaturation. For an episode he shot that
was set in the 1960s, he went quite
desaturated, almost black-and-white.
Two great assets on 12 Monkeys
were our digital-imaging technician,
Josh Jinchereau, and our colorist, James
Garrow at [StudioPost on the Universal
Studios lot in Los Angeles]. Josh has a
American Cinematographer

great visual sense and a great eye; when
Boris and I knew what we wanted, he'd
always deliver it, and if we were struggling, he'd come up with a couple of
options and we'd choose one. James
always had a very good base to start
with, and we were very happy with the
work he did. We'd receive drives with his
first pass on it and make notes. Doing
color correction remotely is not a great
way to work, but collaborating with a
great colorist who knows what you're
thinking makes it easier. [The final
grade was performed with Blackmagic
Design DaVinci Resolve.]
Mojsovski: On-set color correction has been of utmost importance to
me since the very beginnings of digital
cinematography. I was a photographer
who printed his own stills, so the process
of color correction and manipulation of
the image is a very big part of my way of
thinking. Josh and I have worked
together on numerous shows, and when
we needed an on-set colorist for the
third season, I didn't hesitate to bring
Josh in. I strongly believe in getting the
look within 90 percent of the final
image, so everyone sees where the visual
story of the film/show is going.
We were always conscious of who
our heroes were: They're from modern
times or the future and they travel into
the past, so how do we bring that
together visually? Sometimes we'd play
with the romantic notion of a period,
like making the 1970s look a little green,
a little warm, or just go against it directly,
like making the 1980s look crisp and
present while the wardrobe was period.
We often combined modern framing
with period lighting. For instance, we
might do short-sided frames to suggest
the character doesn't know what's ahead,
but combine it with warm, painterly
tones because it's 1896.
Greene: In the episode 'Mother'
[Season 3, Episode 1], which was
directed by Terry Matalas, 'Future Cole'
and 'Present-Day Cole' meet in a
surprise splinter to one of our sets, the
lobby of the Emerson Hotel, in the year
2163. The building is in decay and
seemingly uninhabited. It was crucial to

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2018