American Cinematographer - December 2013 - S-7

Which cameras did
you use?
We shot on PANAVISION
MILLENIUM XL2s. I like
how this camera feels as
a studio camera and as a
handheld camera. We had
two cameras with us all the
time. We would set up one
and then see if we could fi nd
another angle that would add
something to the scene.
Describe the cinematic
language and choice of
lenses?
The series covers three
different time periods. Firstly,
the fl ashback memories of
Cohle (McConaughey) and
Hart (Harrelson); secondly,
the interrogations they are
put through by Papania (Tory
Kittles) and Det. Gilbough
(Michael Potts); and fi nally,
Hart and Cohle's discoveries
in the present.
For the 1995 and 2002
sequences, we used
PANAVISION PVintage
lenses. These lenses are
re-housed 1970s glass that is
pretty low contrast and the
highlights bloom a bit, which
gave us a lovely, soft image.
As the 1995/2002 sections
of the screenplay are written
from the point of view of Hart
and/or Cohle's memory, the
coverage refl ected that. It
was as though the camera is
an omnipresent vehicle being
led by the fragmentation
of their lucid imaginations
back through their past. This
section we tried to make very
cinematic. The compositions
were bold and ever so slightly
exaggerated with wider
lenses - for instance, a
40mm instead of 50mm for
mid shots helped us with this.
For the interrogation
sequences, the camera
"We had to shoot about fi ve
minutes of screen time a day,
so at times I was leaning on the
format pretty hard to give me a
provocative result."
stayed as an objective
observer, purely as a
documentation of their
accounts of the past. The
camera didn't move too
much and involved the use of
standard-size lenses.
For the post interrogation,
we tried to make the world
more alive and slightly more
fl ighty. The camera was more
subjectively involved with the
plight of Hart and Cohle.
We used (PANAVISION)
Primos for the 2012 segments.
These lenses are a lot sharper
and have more contrast, giving
the image a more modern, crisp
feeling. Longer lenses helped
pull the characters out from
their environments to hopefully
help audiences get inside their
heads, and camera movement
became a little faster, like
there's a ticking bomb to disarm
at the end of the tale.
Did you use any fi ltration
on the lenses?
I like to shoot tungsten
stocks in daylight situations
and partially correct it back
using different warming
fi lters to keep lovely blue
tones in the image. We
used 81EFs, Chocolates and
Antique Suedes.
Photos: Top: DP Adam Arakpaw with
crew on the set of True Detective. (Photo
courtesy HBO/Lacey Terrell.) Bottom left
(L to R) and center left (R to L): Woody
Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey.
(Photos courtesy HBO/James Bridges.) This
page, bottom, DP Adam Arakpaw. (Photo
coutresy HBO/Michelle K. Short)
What comprised your
go-to lighting setup on the
series?
We used yellow-gold gel
on tungsten sources for a
sodium-vapor look for night
exteriors. We used White
Flame Green lighting gels
with 1/2 CTO gel on HMI
sources for our mercury-light
look. Our light sources were
a pretty standard set of HMIs
and incandescent lights and a
lot of KINO FLOs.
How did you communicate
your intentions to the dailies
colorist?
The fi lm went to Deluxe/
Encore in New York. I took
photos on set every day and
graded them myself to send
to Steven Bodner, the colorist.
After a month or so, he had
the idea of the aesthetics for
the show, and I left it to him
to do it. Steve did a nice job
of pushing the images into
interesting areas.
American Cinematographer - December 2013

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