American Cinematographer - September 2011 - 52

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Immersive Dance
was quickly dimming lights to avoid casting a Technocrane shadow on the dancers. Multiple shadows are frequent in theatrical lighting, but Louvart is categorical about avoiding them. “There’s only one sun and only one moon, so I prefer a single shadow,” she says. Getting single shadows took some work on a set with dozens of sources, especially in Café Müller, when dancers performed with their eyes shut right up against the set wall. Louvart swapped sources out for the filming, replacing Enizooms with two 5Ks and cutters to light the wall panels on the set. In Meeting Hall, she replaced a frontal bank of PCs and Enizooms with a wall of diffusion lit by 5Ks to prevent multiple shadows on line-ups of dancers facing the audience. The film’s finale, Full Moon, is a spectacular water dance that is staged next to a giant boulder. Jacon explains that water pipes above rained down 8,000 liters [2,113 gallons] of heated water, creating a river onstage. The challenge was to light falling water against a black background. “We put everything we had to backlight and toplight the water,” recalls Louvart. Three 10Ks, four 5Ks and four banks of Par 64s above and behind created a dramatic setting for the rain-soaked dancers, with a minimum of frontlight and half a dozen Enizoom sidelights. The lighting ambience required carefully flagging the lights to allow for individual variations on the front and back of the stage, and on the river and boulder. The resulting sequence is kinetic and riveting, as dancers run wild under brightly detailed water in a dark setting. A common problem in shooting 3-D occurs when polarized light from reflections on glass, metal or water yields different values for the camera behind the half-silvered mirror than the one above it. Louvart says her team varied camera positions and lighting to minimize the polarized effect on the wet set floor, but the problem was finally resolved in the digital grade by colorist Moritz Peters, who patiently corrected

Top: Andrey Berezin and Ruth Amarante perform at another location. Bottom: Cristiana Morganti joins Zeche Zollverein in a performance at an urban site.

key provided by the 5Ks was supplemented by three rows of Par 64s. A little backlight was added by a dozen Par 64s. The final effect is striking and dramatic, as a group of muddied women and men dancers commingle on a floor covered with orange peat. The dominant toplight adds depth against a dark background, accentuat52 September 2011

ing the vibrant bodies. “I knew I had to reinforce the light above,” says Louvart. “It was a matter of translating Pina’s initial idea with cinema tools.” When moving in for close-up “specials,” she added bounce boards to whiten the reddish bounce cast on faces from the peat. Jacon notes that part of his job
American Cinematographer

American Cinematographer - September 2011

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