American Cinematographer - October 2014 - 22

Production Slate

Behind the Bar
By Jean Oppenheimer

Set in a working-class neighborhood of Brooklyn, The Drop
focuses on Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy), a shy loner who tends bar at
the local watering hole run by his cousin Marv (James Gandolfini, in his
final screen performance). Marv once owned the place, but was forced
to sell to Chechen mobsters to pay off a gambling debt; the mob now
uses the bar as a "drop," or deposit site, for their money-laundering
operation. One night, as Bob walks home from work, he meets Nadia
(Noomi Rapace), a vulnerable young woman trying to escape her own
troubled past.
The production reteamed director Michaël R. Roskam and cinematographer Nicolas Karakatsanis, who had previously collaborated on
Bullhead, a 2012 Best Foreign Language Oscar nominee. Speaking
with AC from Atlanta, Ga., where he was shooting the upcoming
feature Triple Nine, Karakatsanis notes, "Michaël didn't want a romanticized or Hollywood version of Brooklyn." The Drop was shot entirely
in the borough, and the cinematographer says the director "wanted a
realistic world, with a sense of grittiness. But he didn't want to suggest
a documentary, so we stayed away from handheld. The camera was
on a dolly for the most part, often on a slider. Michaël always likes the
camera to 'float' a bit."
Reached at his home in Brussels, Roskam describes The Drop as
"a character study, but always with the city in the background. I wanted
it to look like a film noir but without going into the clichés. I wanted a
lot of color - not the typical world of shadows and darkness."
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October 2014

The film's color palette was chiefly inspired by the realist
paintings of George Bellows, a member of the Ashcan School
whose work was characterized by bold brush strokes and textured,
colorful depictions of urban life in New York City. Karakatsanis
employed an array of Lee gels to 'paint' The Drop in blues, reds,
ambers, yellows and greens. "I think this is the first movie [on which]
I have ever used blues at night," the cinematographer observes. "I
have always been afraid of them because they make me think of
movies from the 1980s, but Bellows used a lot of blue in his paintings."
Bellows' habit of mixing warm and cool colors also influenced the look of the movie. For example, one night scene finds
Marv driving down a deserted street on his way to meet an accomplice. The area is awash in orange from sodium-vapor streetlamps
on the nearby Brooklyn-Queens Expressway; the warm light
contrasts sharply with a moody blue-green further down the street,
created by 18K HMIs gelled with ½ Plus Green. Practical fluorescent
bulbs, also with ½ Plus Green, provided additional patches of cool
light on nearby buildings.
Karakatsanis operated the A camera himself on The Drop,
which was predominantly a single-camera shoot. Rather than use an
eyepiece, he prefers a small, on-board monitor. His tendency is to
shoot characters at a slight up-angle; when asked why, he laughs.
"I can't honestly tell you. There is no specific motivation - I just like
it. Story-wise, if I need to be at eye height, I will."
Renting from Arri CSC in New Jersey, the production carried
an Arri Alexa Plus with a 16x9 sensor. Karakatsanis framed for a

American Cinematographer

The Drop photos by Barry Wetcher. Photos and frame grabs courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox.

Bartender Bob Saginowski (Tom Hardy) finds himself embroiled in a robbery gone awry and an investigation that digs deep into a
Brooklyn neighborhood's past in the feature The Drop.

American Cinematographer - October 2014

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