American Cinematographer - July 2008 - 67

rig and then 90 minutes to shoot, but it worked well. It’s fun to have those kinds of challenges.” Another facet of 30 Rock’s cinematography that has evolved is the camerawork. When the series began, Scardino leaned toward single-camera shooting, sometimes with elaborate masters, but he and other directors segued into covering almost everything with two cameras — one wide, one tight. “We usually have a 32mm lens on the A camera and a ˇ 65mm or 75mm on B,” saysCernjul, who uses Cooke S4 prime lenses. The cameras, Arricam Lites, are almost always handheld. “Our A-camera operator, Peter Agliata, spent years on Law & Order and is one of the best handheld operators in the industry,” says the cinematographer. “And Matt Clark, who’s been with me since my student days, operates the B camera and is also the 2nd-unit director of photography. Our camera assistants, Jeff Dutemple on A and Jonathan Beck on B, are also excellent.” They have to be, he adds, because he likes to work at a T2.8 or even a T2 in order to throw the walls behind the actors out of focus. “With those wide apertures, handheld cameras that move all the time, and 65mm and 75mm lenses, the assistants have to be on top of their game all the time,” he says. “Don Scardino describes what he wants from the camerawork as ‘catching lightning in a bottle,’” notes Agliata. “It’s about staying with the actors and making it look like we’re catching them live. Using two cameras all the time is a luxury that can create complications — sometimes, there’s one sweet spot that both operators want to get to. But we always work it out, like a little ballet.” The operators on 30 Rock, like the actors, seek to help the material but not overstate it. “It’s a comedy show, but if you force a camera move to punch a joke, you telegraph it, and it’s not funny anymore,” says Agliata. “It’s about keeping up with the actor; if he nails a joke, you want to be right there with the camera movement. Too much or too little can hurt the joke, and you have to get it right every time.” ˇ Cernjul keeps a 1⁄2 Tiffen Black Diffusion/FX filter on the lens unless he’s shooting a close-up, in which case he sometimes switches to a #1. “It’s my favorite diffusion. It’s almost undetectable, and it takes the edge off and brings the highlights down a bit without adding any kind of halo. It’s part of our whole look.” When production told ˇ Cernjul it would be switching to Fuji film stock, he tested Eterna 500T and 400T. “Even though we’d been shooting on a 500-ASA stock, I preferred Eterna 400; I really liked the softness of the contrast and colors. In fact, we were tweaking 5229 in post to make the colors even more pastel and soften the contrast. The 400speed Fuji is closer to what we want, so we tweak it less.” ˇ Cernjul communicates with the show’s telecine colorist at PostWorks, Bobbie Thomas, via Kodak’s Look Manager System, into which he has programmed his own look-up tables. (The LUTs were unaffected by the switch to Fuji, he notes.) “The grips built a station on the camera cart for the Look Manager equipment,” he explains. “I take stills during the blocking rehearsals, view them in Look Manager, and make some decisions about how I want them to go. I send a Jpeg to Bobbie, and she can send one back to me on my cell phone so I can get an idea what she’s up to. I try to bring the look of the dailies as close to the final look as possible. “There’s never enough time for me to go to the telecine sessions, but with this method, I can constantly communicate with the colorist using pictures instead of words. My cell phone has become as important as my light meter!” I The look of the show’s backstage scenes can vary widely, depending on the action. Far left: Kenneth (Jack McBrayer) and Jenna (Jane Krakowski) act up behind the scenes. Near left: Camera operator Chris LaVasseur and 1st AC Jeffrey Dutemple capture a shot of Krakowski. TECHNICAL SPECS 1.78:1 35mm Arricam Lite Cooke S4 lenses Fuji Eterna 400T 8583 Telecine by PostWorks American Cinematographer 67

American Cinematographer - July 2008

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