American Cinematographer - August 2011 - 26

Left: Working on a breakaway prison set while shooting the episode “Behind Locked Doors,” cinematographer Roger Chingirian (at camera) angles in on actresses Ana Alexander (on bunk) and Kit Willisee (at door). Right: Actor William Gregory Lee, portraying a bank robber, delivers his lines as Chingarian frames his shot.

1.2K Firestarter Par cans to highlight particular buildings or vegetation. “Our night looks vary dramatically from episode to episode,” says Lundgren. “For ‘Help Me, Rhonda,’ we had to shoot an action scene at night on a narrow, rope bridge crossing a deep gorge. The location was a ranch out in Big Tujunga, and we created a classic moonlight effect by driving an 80-foot Condor up a hill overlooking the ravine and blasting two 24K Luka Lights [gelled with Daylight Blue] from there. We used some Nine-light Maxis, Baby 5K Fresnels and Firestarters on the ground to supplement. “When we’re shooting in a cleanlooking suburban area,” continues the gaffer, “we tend to do a bit of uplighting around the perimeters using VNSP Par 56s and Par 64s on beaverboards, along with a number of 300-watt stake lights.” Day interiors are usually lit with 18K Fresnels, 6K and 4K Pars and small HMIs, almost always through windows. These are sometimes supplemented with daylightglobed Kino Flos. “Larger HMI units are usually topped from the inside by using diffusion frames,” Lundgren says. “That way, faces are modeled while we maintain a hotter streak on the subject’s body and across furniture and objects. We do quite a lot of shaping to take the light off walls. We often mold keylights for day interiors by
26 August 2011

shooting a 400-watt Jo-Leko into a 4-by-4 muslin bounce, sometimes with a 4-by frame of diffusion in front to create a small booklight. We try to avoid using Kino Flos for day interiors in order to maintain contrast, and we also sometimes bring in negative fill to further control the ratio.” On the episode “White Flower,” the crew used off-the-shelf, bug-repelling lights as a practical solution in the background “to create an interesting, rather dirty look that we mixed with Cool White overheads and edges, while keeping keys white,” says Lundgren. While shooting the episode “Killer Instinct” in an industrial part of downtown L.A., the crew found several 50-watt metalhalide exterior streetlights in a Dumpster near their location. “We wired them up and used them as practical uplights in the background of a warehouse,” says the gaffer. Naturally, great care is taken in lighting each episode’s actresses. Lundgren explains, “Female subjects are generally keyed with 45-degree diapered Kino Flos or Barger Baglites with an added layer of diffusion, or sometimes we use a book light comprising a Source Four [Leko] bouncing into 4-by-4 muslin with Opal 250 in front. We prefer to use keys that wrap, rather than adding fill in order to further maintain a solid contrast ratio. For further glamour, we add strong backlights. If the woman has
American Cinematographer

darker hair, we tend to use tungsten units with a layer of diffusion inside doors, and if the hair color is lighter, we’ll usually go with a tungsten unit with a Chimera, or even diapered Kino Flos, depending on the environment.” Klutz notes that Chingirian also has an extensive filter package at his disposal. “One of Roger’s favorites for shooting the women is the Hollywood Black Magic filter,” Klutz says. “The Red’s resolution is so high that it reveals just about everything, so we have to take off curves with something in front of the lens.” Chingirian emphasizes that a key component of the creative approach on Femme Fatales is decisiveness. “I’ve become a big believer in that,” he notes. “Find a direction, do as much of it as you can incamera, and presume your decisions will hold up. With our tight schedule, you can’t say, ‘Let’s keep trying things.’ You have to make a decision and run with it.”

TECHNICAL SPECS
1.78:1 Digital Capture Red One Arri/Zeiss Ultra Prime, Angenieux Optimo ●

American Cinematographer - August 2011

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