American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 31

AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER ASCMAG.COM
Top, from left: " Spider " Webb (Freddie Fox), Nick Duffy (Chris Reilly)
and top brass Diana Taverner (Kristin Scott Thomas) oversee an
ill-fated operation at London's Stansted airport.
Bottom: Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) in his disheveled office
with colleague Catherine Standish (Saskia Reeves).
There, a surly Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman) lords over the disgraced
agents, hurling insults and grumbling his way through bottles of brown
liquor. Though certainly an outsider to the agency's state-of-the-art offices
in Regent's Park, Lamb maintains a shadowy connection to Taverner
and the internal intel at British Intelligence.
Part of what makes the pilot compelling, both visually and dramatically,
is its series of surprising contrasts: action vs. idleness; Slough
House's ramshackle feel vs. Regent Park's pristine ambience; Taverner's
refinement to Lamb's insouciance.
Cohen, whose filmography is crowded with acclaimed work on features
and TV series (including The King's Speech and Les Misérables),
worked with director James Hawes on every episode of Slow Horses. The
two collaborators prioritized a sense of visual cohesiveness throughout
the pilot, while also establishing a unique look for the episode's major
settings. And though the show diverges largely from the globetrotting
action of James Bond-style spy fare, the director and cinematographer
did find inspiration in classic espionage films such as The Third Man
(1949) and The Spy Who Came In From the Cold (1965). " I think what we
took from these types of spy films was more the atmosphere and mood,
rather than specific shot ideas. One other film we used as a reference
was [the 1985 feature] Defense of the Realm, shot by Roger Deakins [ASC,
BSC]. It's a fantastic thriller about intrigue and double-crossing. It has a
great look and a real sense of time and place. "
Production on the series took place from November 2020-May 2021,
squarely amid the Covid-19 pandemic. Cohen notes that when it came
time to shoot the opening action sequence in Stansted, the airport, which
normally has " 70,000 people going through, now contained about 700
people. It was a ghost town. " The vacant setting became a " playground, "
he adds, with airport authorities parking planes just for the production.
" If it had been a working airport, we never could have had an actor driving
a car really fast next to airplanes.
" On the bigger, actiony stuff, we'd probably have three or four cameras
- Arri Alexa Mini LFs paired with Panavision Panaspeed lenses, "
the cinematographer says, adding that he switched mostly to using two
cameras for the rest of the pilot. " We shot the series with that [camera
and lens] combination. The only other lenses we used were the [Panavision
70] zooms - 28-80mm, 70-185mm and 200-400mm. We also used
Sony HXR-NX80 4K and a7S II cameras for the CCTV footage.
" The Alexa Mini LF has a slightly softer look than other cameras,
which I like, " he continues. " It meant we didn't use diffusion filters at
all, which helps at night because they can sometimes do weird things to
highlights. The Panaspeeds worked well, as they cover the large-format
sensor, they're fast lenses, and they have a bit of contrast, which I like
as well. "
In the airport, Cohen relied primarily on the fluorescent tubes in the
building and natural daylight coming through the windows, with " a few
Arri SkyPanels here and there, " he says.
The exterior of Slough House is a real building on Aldersgate Street in
London, but the interior offices were constructed as a set. There, Cohen
JULY 2022 / 31
Starting off in traditional thriller style, the
pilot episode " becomes more about these
absolutely hopeless downtrodden spies
who are complete rubbish at what they do. "
http://www.ASCMAG.COM

American Cinematographer - July 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - July 2022

Contents
American Cinematographer - July 2022 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - July 2022 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 1
American Cinematographer - July 2022 - Contents
American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 3
American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 4
American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 5
American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 6
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American Cinematographer - July 2022 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - July 2022 - Cover4
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