American Cinematographer - March 2007 - 61

reflection."
Other

unique visuals

are cre¬

ated with "the shoe rack,"

large,
square piece of plastic that has verti¬
cal and horizontal shelves, creating a
series of squares. "We'll put the cam¬
era on a
dolly, place the glass close to
the lens and just dolly through it,"
says Mills. "It keeps changing reflec¬
tions and you have no idea where
you are. It's just something that
refracts and distorts the light and
a

throws off the viewer. We

whenever it feels
Both

use

it

cameras are

have

because it looks nice. If
camera move

be

and

[in frame] for

times I steal

a

we

have

everything

a

light is going to

a moment, some¬

of Eagle's

tricks and
monofilament behind the lens
to refract the light and disguise a
working lamp."
Egilsson also devised a tech¬
nique that his crew refers to as "the
one

put a

Icelandic turnaround," a reference to
his native country. He first used it on
Red Shoes Diaries. "I shoot the

right."

usually on
dolly tracks. Sometimes the camera
will just slide a foot or two. Lighting
is often provided by 20Ks and T12s
coming down hallways and hot Pars
aimed across people's bodies. Beamprojectors and smoke create large
shafts of light in the background.
Book lighting is popular in confined
areas. Nothing is pre-rigged. "We
don't have to justify where a light is

we

coming from," observes Mills. "I can
put a light or hot spot on a wall just

and then

mas¬

close-up. Then,
turning around to shoot,
I'll flop the key and create different
highlights. The background doesn't

ter

a

instead of

matter
saves a

because it's out of focus. It

Given the number of charac¬
in all of these programs,

the
work many of them
require, and the financial limitations
that typify television work, shooting
a
weekly series clearly isn't for the
ters

greenscreen

faint of heart. All

seven

of the cine¬

matographers interviewed for this
article attribute their ability to get the
work done to their crews, starting
with

camera

assistants, operators,

gaffers and key grips, and extending
to the visual- and special-effects
supervisors, production designers
and colorists. Every interviewee
swore
crew

that he works with the best

in

Hollywood. As Rao puts it, "I
like a conductor of all

feel very much
first chairs."

■

lot of time."

Egilsson
of both

sums up

cameramen

the feelings

when he

con¬

cludes, "The visuals are so important
to

this show. It's

a

great

place to be a

cinematographer."

you

need, from cameras,
lenses, dollies and lights
to location services.

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