American Cinematographer - September 2017 - 81

Unit photography by Lacey Terrell, courtesy of Showtime.

ground for the Next Big Things. A hint
of atmosphere hangs in the room,
whose hues favor the era's archetypal
oranges and browns. Primary illumination is provided by two heavily blackwrapped Dedolights secured on stands
and diffused with Hampshire Frost.
The sense of film noir is tangible.
Flinckenberg notes that he's seeking the "perfect combination of shadow
and eye light," as he points out two
"Twiggy" lights hidden on the set. The
stealthy little units - employed on this
production in 6", 12", 24" and 36" sizes,
according to gaffer Jeremy Launais -
are bicolor, battery-powered, dimmable
LEDs, used here for eye and hair lights.
With Leo's stand-in, Marie Todd, at the
desk, the cinematographer asks Launais
to have the Twiggy behind the desk
chair dimmed down to demonstrate
how the subtle sheen on the stand-in's
hair slowly vanishes. They bring it back
up and all is well. The eye-light Twiggy,
meanwhile, is tucked amid Goldie's
desktop trappings.
A Quasar Science hybrid
HMI/tungsten LED strip shines hard
light through the windows located quite
high on the wall, providing enough
"sunshine" to indicate time of day, while
maintaining the low-light motif. An
off-stage voice instructs, "Kill the
Cush," and the room darkens further.
Leo enters and takes her seat behind the
desk. She's immediately in character
with cigarette in hand - hence the
atmosphere - and is joined by Ari
Graynor, who plays comedian Cassie
Feder. The meeting between the two
characters is clearly not a social call, as
Cassie asks to regain her spot on the
main stage.
Two Arri Alexa Classics are
mounted on Chapman/Leonard dollies
- A camera on a Hustler IV, operated
by Anka Malatynska, and B on a Super
PeeWee IV, operated by Nicholas
Davidoff. The operators are assisted by
respective 1st ACs Gunnar Mortensen
and Patrick Blanchet. The Alexas are
recording ProRes 4:4:4:4 at 2048x1152
resolution, to 128GB SxS cards, and
framing for 1.78:1. We watch for a bit

Opposite and this page, top: Los Angeles comics mine their personal anguish to entertain
the crowd and battle their way to fame in the 1970s-era Showtime series I'm Dying Up Here.
Above: Cinematographer Peter Flinckenberg, FSC adjusts a set of Venetian blinds to control
the in-bound light.

from behind the cameras, in a wellshadowed corner of the office set. The
production shoots another take, this
time with a 1⁄8 Pearlescent filter on the
cameras' respective detuned Panavision
zooms - a Primo 19-90mm on A, and
a 24-275mm 11:1 on B.
At a stopping point, we retreat to
the wings, where director Adam
Davidson oversees the sequence at video
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village. "It's not a comedy," he says of the
show. "It has comedy in it, but it's really
about the dark places that the comedy
comes from." Regarding this first
collaboration with Flinckenberg, he
notes, "Both of us embrace the flaws.
We don't like things to be too perfect.
It's okay if there are flares, and it's okay
if we miss a moment and it's not quite in
focus - if the moment was real, and it
September 2017

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American Cinematographer - September 2017

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