Crime Family Lighting by intuition and putting a premium on in-camera accuracy, career gaffer Gene Engels takes the reins as cinematographer on the CBS crime drama Blue Bloods. By Jim Hemphill *|* 70 July 2018 O ver the past eight years, the Reagans - a clan of cops and attorneys who take varied political and moral stances on issues of law and order - have become one of the most beloved families on network television. A visit to the Brooklyn stages that Blue Bloods calls home reveals that the warmth and professionalism of the characters on screen extends to the crew working under director of photography Gene Engels, whose status as a firm yet esteemed authority figure on set mirrors that of Tom Selleck's Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, the patriarch on the series. Like Frank, Engels ponders all possibilities, considers his options, and ultimately lets his instincts rule the day. "Lighting isn't based on knowledge - it's based on emotion," he asserts. "What does the scene feel like? How should the audience feel? I think about how I would light the scene if I was there on the set all by myself, with no distractions. How should it look? And at this point a scene 'tells' me how it American Cinematographer