PRODUCTION


CINEMATOGRAPHY CRAFT


SI BELL BSC


Camera movement comes from the script. If you’re tuned into it, to me it’s obvious where what kind of shots work; for example, if it’s really emotional, you need to be close.


CREDITS INCLUDE A Very British Scandal, The Serpent, Peaky Blinders, Pennyworth, A Christmas Carol, Ripper Street, Cold Feet


I’m always involved in set planning. I make sure that it is all going to work visually. On locations I look at how the symmetry of the rooms helps shooting, whether we can shoot through doors.


I try to shoot camera tests when we have the actors in costumes and makeup, and a couple of backing boards with show wallpaper. I get the colourist involved at that point to make a show LUT to use across the rushes, in the assembly and the offline, and in the grade.


If you do that early,


everyone– including the execs and the channel – gets used to seeing it on the monitors and the dailies, and make- up and costume can see where we’re going.


My lighting plans give me maximum control when I need it. I like to light everything from outside,


76 televisual.com Winter 2022


with big sources. On a recent studio rig we had big softboxes for natural daylight outside windows with SkyPanels – able to be adjusted to be daylight, moonlight, or sodium. We had separate lights in the background for the clouds and sky, we had another layer of SkyPanels doing a soft push into the windows. We had bigger lights that also pushed into the windows on ropes or chains so we could bring them down or move them left and right.


The whole set is lit to shoot whatever we want, rigged for speed, freedom, and maximum creative control. When blocking I move through the rooms and adapt whatever lighting is there quickly to make that shot work by dialling in all the lighting settings using an iPad.


When we shot Peaky Blinders, we had 91 lighting plans. We prepped six episodes in one hit. We were recceing in the summer and we had lighting plans for shooting in January. On location, your lighting plans need to adapt to whatever the weather is, so you can shoot no matter


what happens and work as quickly as possible to get the creative look that you need.


I shape the light and take light away to add mood. When I do big diffusions, I have egg crates on the outside to directly control the really soft light. I also use negative fill, normally floppies, to take light away


You don’t want anything that takes you out of the drama. The key to lighting is to make it not look lit. You don’t want to feel like there’s any presence of the camera, or if it’s handheld, it’s only motivated by story.


You can’t storyboard it too much. A lot of creativity comes on set once you’ve blocked and you’re working with the actors.


Most of my camera work will be handheld, on the shoulder, or on the DJI Ronin [camera gimbal]. You can really be reactive with the actors. If I need to make the camera move, I often lay tracking boards and use the Ronin on the dolly.


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