American Cinematographer - July 2022 - 32

SIGNATURE STYLES
Tech Specs: Slow Horses
2:1
Cameras | Arri Alexa Mini LF
Lenses | Panavision Panaspeed,
Panavision 70 zoom
Cinematographer Danny Cohen, BSC (right) and
director James Hawes plan a shot at the airport.
required a lighting setup that could be easily adapted to different needs.
" We had to create lighting that was 'neutral' for the day interiors, because
we'd be jumping outside to shoot characters walking in or out, "
he notes. " Because the schedule was impacted by Covid, we sometimes
did the stage work before the exterior shots, which meant taking a punt
on what the exterior light would look like on specific scenes. The neutral
look was mainly [to avoid having] hard sun coming through the windows,
as I felt that it would be a big jump if, when we shot the exteriors,
it didn't match. Having slightly flatter/cloudy light would mean the
eye wasn't drawn to the windows and [wouldn't register] a mismatch
if it ended up being very sunny in the real world. The night work, [in
regard to] interiors and exteriors, was simpler, so shooting it whichever
way 'round wasn't a problem. " To achieve the variety of tones he desired,
Cohen used a mix of practical lighting and LiteGear LiteMats, all programmed
into the same dimmer board.
Whenever Oldman was on camera, Cohen explains, the idea was to
The cinematographer and director
prioritized a sense of visual cohesiveness
throughout the pilot, while also
establishing a unique look for the
episode's major settings.
make him look as worn out and defunct as possible. " Typically, with
movie stars, the directive is to make them look fantastic - but here, we
were trying to make Gary look like a farting old man who's falling apart. "
With Scott Thomas, the aesthetic objective required the opposite approach.
" The whole point was to make her look amazing in contrast to
Gary, " he notes. The cinematographer again relied primarily on the practical
lights built into the set - Regent's Park, in this case - with the addition
of small LiteMats, " just to put something in her eyes. And bigger,
softer supplemental sources worked well to achieve a different look for
her - OctoDomes or 2Ks bounced off bedsheets. "
Throughout the pilot, Cohen employed a few key workarounds. For
a scene where Cartwright visits the cozy home of his grandfather (Jonathan
Pryce), the cinematographer charged Mark Holt Special Effects
with creating a silent fire in the fireplace. " Fire creates a sound nightmare,
so this company came up with a gas fire where you can control the
intensity of the flames, but it's completely silent - so everything you
get is usable, " Cohen says. And for a scene where all of Slough House's
employees are huddled together in a small office watching a computer
monitor, Cohen cut holes in the walls of the set to shoot through. " I
hate flying walls because it's such a time killer. There were a couple of
pictures hanging on the walls, so we just poked the camera through, to
shoot above the computer screens, and got coverage that way. "
An ongoing visual theme throughout the pilot, whether in Slough
House, Regent's Park or on the street, is the obscuring of characters by
windows or glass. Says Cohen: " One of Hawes' keynote visual goals was
to have double images, reflections, light reflecting on glass - anything
that was kind of interrupting the viewer's image. " Though Slow Horses is
about the worst of spies, it is a spy thriller, after all, where nothing is as
it first seems.
32 / JULY 2022
American Cinematographer - July 2022

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