American Cinematographer - September 2019 - 44

Secrets and Lies

test, and she really liked it.
Psychologically, I think it helped her
to feel like she was more gaunt, with
her character having lived in a thirdworld country.
How many days did you have
to shoot?
Macat: Four days in India and
26 or so in New York. We had a lot to
do in New York with a small crew. In
total, we had seven Steadicam days,
beautifully done by Billy Green;
otherwise I operated the camera
myself. It was a one-camera crew with
four and four: my great New York
gaffer Richard Ulivella and three electricians, and a terrific key grip, Jesse
Saviola, and three grips. The budget
could not afford a DIT, so I looked
through the lens and set exposure

through the eyepiece and with my
meter, the old-fashioned way, as if I
was shooting film. We didn't mess
around playing with color or density
with the monitors on the set; it was
just like working with a one-light
print at the lab. It brought back
memories of the old days of film, and
that great excitement and worry of

not knowing exactly what you really
got until dailies!
Most of the shooting in New
York was at Theresa's office space and
Isabel's hotel. It was all supposed to
be upscale and rich, so it made sense
that it would be a cooler world, and
the whites would be cleaner. We introduced more blues in the office, and

On After the Wedding, Macat
primarily used Brokeh F Series patterns -
with F standing for "facial" - which
feature dominant and complementary
skin tones in pronounced hourglassshaped patterns designed with the intention of enhancing the curves of a face
while also softening imperfections.
Macat also used Brokeh N
Series (Nature) patterns, which bear a
"camouflage" design and are used on
large reflection and lighting sources. "The

N Series has a dual purpose," Macat
notes. "It can be used in the shot as an
out-of-focus 'impressionistic' background
for close-ups or background shapes, and
it can also be used as a non-white reflective surface when you're photographing
something very reflective, such as a glass
of wine or a car. The surface of the
reflecting material is a multi-color
pattern, but if you bounce a standard
white light into it, the output of the
reflection is a white light."

"I want the actors to feel like they have
someone on their side behind the camera,
and if there are any concerns, they can
talk to me about it."

Brokeh Lighting System

Created by director John Tindall, the
Brokeh lighting system owes its name to
the Japanese term "boke" - meaning
"blur" or "haze," and in English referred
to as "bokeh" - and to the "broken"
colors of Impressionist painting. "The idea
is that you're creating a pattern - in front
of a white light - that looks like a party
gel gone crazy, with stripes that break the
light into color strands," cinematographer
Julio Macat, ASC explains. "It breaks down
all of the elements of white light into
color strands, yet still ends up delivering
white light in the end and somehow
giving the light more of a drop-off. It's
almost as if the same light, adding up to
the same color, has a different quality to
it and drops off the shadow side of the
face faster."
To break the visible light spectrum into different colors, the Brokeh
System's patterns can be placed like a gel
in front of a soft light or can be printed on
a soft cloth. When actors are lit with
Brokeh, although the white light is filtered
through different hues, the overall color
of the light remains white. The intended
effect is that of a greater sense of depth
to facial modeling.
September 2019

ASC 100th Anniversary

American Cinematographer - September 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - September 2019