American Cinematographer - November 2017 - 28

Right: Paige
listens to angry
voicemails from
Stephen.
Below: Crothers
measures the
light.

highlights. I set the camera to 8,500K to
emulate a warmer look, knowing we'd
finesse it a little in our final color grade
[which was performed by Lauren Malis at
The Colonie with Blackmagic Design DaVinci
Resolve for a 2K DCP final deliverable.]
Throughout the shoot, we only incorporated
flares that happened organically within the
frame. At one point we aimed a PAR 64
toward the lens to create more flares for
these sequences, but it felt forced and we
maintained our simple approach of less-ismore.
Tell us about the opening
overhead shot of the intimate scene
between Gabrielle and Alex Lynn Ward
in a bedroom.
Crothers: Years before we shot the
film, Roze and Gabrielle had made a trailer
to raise some money for it, and the entire
trailer was a variation of that image, so going
into the film, they both talked about that
28

November 2017

shot quite a bit. I think that shot got more
time than anything else in the entire film
because it had to be just right for everyone.
The first and last shot of a film are especially
important to me, as are the images of the
first time you introduce a character - and
this was both the opening image and it
introduced us to two of our main characters.
We lit it using an M18 through a 4-by-4 of
250 [diffusion] and then through an 8-by-8
of Light Grid. We had a lot of duvetyn off
camera for negative fill, and that's it. In fact,
the entire opening scene of the film in the
bedroom used that one setup, with a little
extra light coming through a small window
courtesy of a 4-by-4 Kino Flo.
How did you accommodate the
challenges of a small budget, short
schedule, and limit of two locations?
Crothers: It became a matter of
trade-offs. One house had a great dining
room but not a great kitchen, and another
house had the ideal bedrooms but incredibly
small bathrooms. We had to work
exceptionally fast, and often many decisions
were made based on what we could do
rather than what we'd like to do. There's a
sequence early in the film that takes place in
a bathroom - Paige is getting ready to
return home and is listening to increasingly
angry voicemails from her abusive boyfriend.
We wanted a few different shots, but the
size of the bathroom was so small that I
literally couldn't extend my arms out, side to
side. It was the last scene of the shoot and
the sun had set, so we bounced an M18 into
a 4-by-4 muslin outside the window, and
used an 800 Joker coming through sheers to
put an edge on Gabrielle. It was a simple
American Cinematographer

setup that kept equipment out of the room
and let us work quickly. Between me
operating the camera and Gabrielle,
however, there was no room for anything or
anyone else. Fortunately, I come from a
background of independent features, so
working quickly with limited resources on
location is something I've got a lot of
experience with, and it was fun flexing those
different creative muscles - as opposed to
the more managerial and logistical muscles
that are predominantly employed on a large
television show.
We were after a natural look with rich
contrast that was also fast to set up and
didn't require a lot of time and work to
maintain for each new setup. Looking back,
if we'd had more equipment and more crew,
I'm not sure I would have done anything
differently. In general, if the scene can be
done with a practical and a bounce card -
the bedroom sex scene later in the film, for
example, is nothing more than two 60-watt
practicals and a China ball with a 100-watt
bulb in it - I'm thrilled. If it requires a truck
of lights and a small army of crew, so be it,
but usually the simplest solution is the most
elegant and correct. I was very fortunate that
gaffer Jason King was available to join the
shoot. It's been a few years since we worked
together, but from the very first setup, we
fell right back into a rhythm, and he helped
keep the set running smoothly by lighting
sets ahead of me and guiding our crew of
volunteers.
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American Cinematographer - November 2017

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