American Cinematographer - January 2008 - 64

Very Close Shaves add 1⁄2 CTS to warm them,” notes Wolski. Practical candles are featured throughout the film, and the art department followed the time-honored tradition of supplying candles with three wicks, thus enhancing their brightness. For example, in a scene at Turpin’s ball — visited in flashback as Mrs. Lovett tells the Barkers’ story — candle-laden chandeliers hang above the revelers. Turning to the MR-16 flicker units to enhance the candlelight, Wolski shot this scene on Kodak Vision2 500T 5218. “I used 5218 for nights when I wanted to accentuate candles, oil lamps and gas lamps,” says the cinematographer, who otherwise used Vision2 200T 5217. Wolski rated his stocks normally, though he tended to underexpose while maintaining a consistent T-stop of 2.5. 1st AC Conroy notes, “It was a decent working stop, and it seemed very natural.” (After principal photography wrapped, Conroy assumed the role of cinematographer for the “element unit,” picking up a mélange of visual-effects and second-unit shots.) Most of Sweeney Todd features an almost monochromatic palette; flashbacks to the Barkers’ happier days account for nearly all of the color in the picture. Wolski notes that this aspect of the film’s design was planned from the start and highlights the collaboration between departments. “The flashbacks were art-directed in a colorful manner, and there was a lot of collaboration with costume designer Colleen Atwood,” he says. “The costumes [for the flashbacks] and makeup are more colorful, and the lighting is warmer and softer.” Seeping beyond the confines of the flashbacks, red makes a splash through much of the picture, covering more of the canvas as the demon barber makes good on his promise to deliver “the closest shave you’ve ever known.” Wolski notes, “Movies Lovett roasts the victims of Todd’s razor. All light in the cellar beneath Lovett’s pie shop was motivated by the oven, which the crew outfitted with panels of 2K Blondes wired with heat-proof cable in order to enhance its hellish glow. onto it, we had to decrease the light level. And if we looked away from the window, we could turn everything on and we had a very big, soft source, which was also very useful.” Wolski and his crew avoided lighting from the floor inside the set, but they often affixed low-profile fluorescent units to the walls and ceiling if they needed some additional fill. “We used Kino Flo tubes with 4-by-4 frames of grid cloth, and we used bounce,” explains Higgins. “It was a very small footprint within the set.” When going in for coverage, the crew would often trade the grid cloth frames for “one of Dariusz’s favorites, Rosco Half Density Soft Frost,” he adds. Taking advantage of their space-light arrangement outside the window — and allowing themselves to briefly indulge in the whimsy afforded by a musical — the filmmakers employed a lighting cue in one scene to transition from the overcast afternoon to a moonlit evening. As Todd stands at the window, razor in hand, and surveys the city outside, “we took the level down [on the space lights] but still saw sky and clouds,” says Wolski. “The whole film is a balance between naturalism and theatricality, but we felt we could afford [a theatrical touch] there to turn it into night.” For the film’s many night scenes, lighting was motivated by an array of candlelight, firelight and gaslight sources. From the earliest moments of the movie, when Todd first sets foot in the port of London, gas lamps illuminate the city streets. Higgins recalls, “Most of the gas lamps were practical gas, but behind them we built small square boxes holding three 800-watt bulbs wired to a dimmer effect. We could move the units around behind the lamps and create a flickering effect on the wall.” To further spread the flickering glow of candles and lamps, Higgins’ crew “built 14 different flicker units that measured between 1 foot square and 4 feet square and held multiple MR-16 bulbs,” says the gaffer. “They were wired into dimmers so we could put them into a flicker unit. We used these to great effect as street light, candlelight, flames and so on.” These units were usually dimmed down to between 30 and 60 percent, but “when we didn’t have enough exposure, we’d flicker them on a higher level and 64 January 2008

American Cinematographer - January 2008

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - January 2008