American Cinematographer - July 2019 - 69

green to enhance the throw from the
green chandelier hanging above the
stairs in the foyer, and the other two
pushed either 'moonlight' or
'daylight' ambience through the
foyer skylight," Stipsen explains.
Two Celeb 400Qs in soft boxes
were used in the library, and the
hallway was lined from above with
400Qs. Two more 400Qs were used
in Nadja and Laszlo's bedroom,
where custom LED units illuminated
the glass cabinets. Atmosphere was
used throughout the mansion interiors to enhance the environment's
faded look.
The soft boxes that housed the
LED units were custom configurations "that had interchangeable
panels underneath, about 2 feet from
the face of the lamp, with a 3-footdeep skirt of duvetyn dropping
below that to control spill," Stipsen
details. "We could run unbleached
muslin or any diffusion we wished
by swapping out the panels.
"I am not a big fan of toplight,
so the lamps over the set were often
at low levels or not on at all," he
continues. "The lanterns, candles
and all the built-in practicals did
most of the work for us, which was
particularly useful as we wanted the
cameras to be able to look almost
anywhere in the main set at any
given time. It was an exciting way to
work; it isn't an easy method to
tackle. A lot of time was spent hiding
small lights, taping LED strips to
tables - that kind of thing."
Stipsen also asked rigging
gaffer Sean Anicic "to build an LED
version of a very useful lamp I had
constructed and used in New
Zealand," the cinematographer
explains. Featuring a cube-shaped
aluminum frame, the original
version contained a lantern lock for
an incandescent bulb, while the
updated iteration instead incorporated a bespoke LED "barrel" positioned in the center; the frame,
Stipsen says, was skinned with
"independently removable or fold-

The crew readies a scene in a 26'-high well that was built on the backlot at Cinespace's
Kipling Avenue Studios in Toronto.

able muslin or duvetyn panels so we
could accurately control the amount
of light - and also the spill - coming
out of the cube." He adds that series
gaffer "Andrew Sneyd loved these
lamps. The quality of light is so soft
and creamy - it's almost 'sourceless.'
We built sizes from 1-foot-square
upwards. Because they are a cube
with a spigot, you can rig them or just
pop them onto a flat surface. We
could hide them easily on set."
For scenes outside of the mansion,
the filmmakers strove to emphasize
just how incongruous the vampires
are in the city environment. "They are
fish out of water, completely out of
their element," Stipsen observes. "We
showed that by using inherently
unattractive locations, such as multistory car parks, late-night convenience centers, public buses - all lit
with aggressively bright fluorescent
sources. We want the viewers to feel
as if they themselves are in the supermarket at 2 a.m., buying milk."
Night-exterior scenes are abundant throughout the series. When
appropriate, Stipsen would adopt
what he calls a "gothic" aesthetic. "If
we felt it was the right thing to do, in
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park locations or on quiet streets, we
would bring in atmosphere, do wetdowns and set up a 'full moon' with
some Arrimax 18Ks on condors. If we
were closer [to the actors] or we had
no trees to break up the 18Ks, we
dropped to [Arri] M90s.
"We also had a base 'broad
strokes' palette for the night exteriors," he continues. That palette incorporated "a Pale Lavender gel on our
18K 'moon,' with Urban Vapor gel on
any tungsten units, and mercury
vapor - 1⁄2 CTO and 1⁄4 Plus Green -
on any other daylight-balanced units.
"On other occasions I leaned
heavily on practical lighting for
night-exterior scenes," the cinematographer adds. "We would
utilize a combination of set-decorated streetlights, M90s rigged just
out of the top of frame, and often one
of our cube lights on a fish pole either
under camera or just above, tracking
with the actors."
The supernatural elements of What
We Do in the Shadows have called for
their fair share of visual effects and
stunt work. For example, the first
season has featured levitation, aerial
vampiric combat, 9' werewolves,
July 2019

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American Cinematographer - July 2019

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