American Cinematographer - January 2007 - 42
Fear and
Fantasy
Navarro and his
crew
had to
light the dark
pozo set entirely
from above,
through
a
10'-12'
hole at the top,
and ceiling
height onstage
was
limited. The
solution was to
surround the
opening with
lights shooting
into
a
silver
card overhead,
sending
a
generous
bounce down
into the well.
about it.
keep things dark is not necessarily
having very low levels of light.
Today's film stocks are very sensitive,
so they can actually see quite a bit
more
in the dark
areas
than you
would
imagine. To keep things dark,
actually have to have highlights
at a stop where the film doesn't have
an opportunity to reach in - some¬
thing where you might think you're
at a T 1.4 but are actually at a T3.5.
you
That also avoids milkiness. On this
contrasty."
that for most of the
film, the look is pretty
Lee says
shoot, "We were well outside my
comfort range - it was throw-yourmeter-away dark! In most interiors
and in a lot of the night work, we
were
playing down in that range
you're getting on
where the number
the
meter
number
bears
no
correlation to the
the lens." On top
of that,
production's only dailies were on
high-definition video. "With video
dailies, you're never quite sure what
you're getting, so I just trusted
Guillermo [Navarro], who would
say, 'That's fine, it's enough light.'"
the
42
January 2007
The filmmakers'
Many times, the way to
on
mixing of
color temperatures was equally bold.
In the storage room, for example,
approaches were fairly simple and
straightforward," continues the
gaffer. "I didn't have a bank of 900
outside
the
Pars
this
construction
only obvious source is daylight;
light is glimpsed through the
doorway and appears quite cold, yet
the palette inside is warm. "If you
look at that set closely, you'll notice a
lot of weird stuff going on colorwise," says Lee. This was partly
because "we would be doing a setup
and the light would be one way, and
by the time we were done with the
setup, the clouds had rolled in and it
was
a
very different feeling."
Meanwhile, the lamps pushing in
the windows stayed at a warm color
temperature. "Guillermo [Navarro]
was
aware
and
scene
of the color imbalance
might decide from
that it
was
scene to
desirable, or at least
interesting," says Lee. "It was a deci¬
sion both Guillermos made instinc¬
window
a
crane.
light the scene where Ofelia
a tunnel and finds a giant
frog, the answer was drilling tiny
holes [into the set] and putting tiny
lights outside them, and trying to
pick out little bits here and there. We
had a little fiber-optic light on the
crawls into
camera
for her face, and that
For about 70 percent
was
light in the
eyes, a
there, a little bit of fill
was
was
on
the face."
One of the few "toys" the
production allowed itself was a
sausage-shaped lighting balloon,
crew gelled Steel
which Navarro's
Blue
illuminate the final
wide shots and there
film
some
a
tion here
or
it.
little bit of
little bit of reflec¬
just to get
the end.
the
was
of the movie, I
somewhere in there with
kind of card
the
"Part of what
a
came to
tively. If it worked for them, they'd
let it go, and they have enough expe¬
rience to know what they will get in
about
on
When the time
to
scene
labyrinth. "We had to
balloon because there
were so
was no
in
use a
many
way to
liberating
really rig anything in the labyrinth,
that
which
the
was
built around trees," recalls
American Cinematographer - January 2007
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2007
Contents
American Cinematographer - January 2007 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - January 2007 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - January 2007 - 1
American Cinematographer - January 2007 - 2
American Cinematographer - January 2007 - Contents
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American Cinematographer - January 2007 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - January 2007 - Cover4
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