American Cinematographer - July 2007 - 93

The woman heads into the human traffic of Times Square. rated and feature a lot of geometric compositions, and the second half would be oversaturated and looser.” For the first half, the filmmakers referenced 19th-century Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershoi; for the second, Loktev showed Debie a book of photos of Shanghai at night. Different camera packages enhanced the contrast. Debie shot the first half of the story with a Sony CineAlta HDW-F900R and Zeiss DigiPrimes, recording at 25p to more easily integrate with the second half of the picture, which was shot with a Sony HDR-FX1 at 50i. The FX1 permitted mobility on crowded sidewalks and attracted no attention. Debie maintained all factory settings but increased gain by +3 in the motel and +9 in Times Square; he wanted additional sensitivity in low light and the added grain. On the F900R, he also worked with the sharpness setting, increasing it on close-ups and decreasing it on wide shots. Though the logistics of shooting in Times Square might seem the greater challenge, Debie says the tightly composed first half of the story was actually a bigger stretch. “The second part was more like my style,” he says. “Usually I like to work with a lot of contrast, a lot of color, and the first part of the story is completely different, soft and monochromatic.” Debie created soft ambient light in the motel room by rigging a China ball on the ceiling and replacing bulbs in practical fixtures with standard incandescents purchased at Home Depot. “For me, the frame was more difficult than the light,” he notes. “Julia asked me not to use a tripod but at the same time to be very stable — to shoot pictures, not a movie. I had to be static but at the same time very flexible about moving the camera.” To stabilize the camera, he sometimes used an Easyrig support. “By the end of the day, it was hard to keep the camera on my shoulder all the time. The Easyrig helps you maintain stability and move the camera without bearing all the weight of it.” Shooting in Times Square, he continues, “was fun because there were just three of us: Julia, the actress and me. The sound guy was on the other side of the street. You know, when you shoot a feature with huge equipment and lights, it can be very difficult. But in this case, I was like a tourist who was filming his girlfriend.” If Debie had to move backwards through the throng, Lektov grabbed his jacket and guided him. “We worked very fluidly, like a dance,” says the director. Working with existing light in Times Square fit well with Debie’s approach to his craft. “I don’t like to use too much light when I work. I prefer to have a good feeling about the location or the city and see exactly what we can do with natural light.” Only once did he supplement light, and then only with two flashlights, one red and one white. The scene was the final close-up of the girl, when the city lights are reflected on her weary features. “At 4 a.m. there were sometimes no cars in the street, so I just panned a flashlight on her face to create a traffic effect,” he recalls. Such tactics pleased Loktev. “Benoît was able to use the look of the street to create something very, very visual yet totally real. He’s incredible.” s Erratum In our May coverage of The Nanny Diaries, Steve Scammell was incorrectly identified as the visualeffects supervisor for RhinoFX. This work was shared by Arman Matin and Harry Dorrington. Scammell was the owner/operator of the MoSys motion-control system used on the show. American Cinematographer 93

American Cinematographer - July 2007

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