American Cinematographer - September 2008 - 28

Right: Willoughby (left) and MacDonald discuss what to blow up next. Below: The crew rigs a tungstenbalanced 8K Tubelight from Mobile Lighting Solutions to illuminate the lobby of the Royal Courts of Justice in London, doubling for the Palace of Westminster. time, so you back off and use a longer lens. The idea is that you never quite know whether people are being watched, who’s watching them or why they’re doing so.” To accentuate this voyeuristic tone, MacDonald often incorporated real surveillance cameras into his location shooting on the streets of London. Shots frequently begin on a security camera before tilting down to pick up the actors. “We always knew there would be a lot of camera-POV shots because Peter actually put them in his scripts,” the director notes. “The intention was to create a sense of unease by looking at the characters through these cameras.” Willoughby assigned a young trainee on his crew to film such shots. “We basically gave him a video camera and sent him off to grab a few surveillance shots everywhere we went,” says the cinematographer. “He was brilliant!” The versatility and range of Super 16 emulsions allowed Willoughby to adapt quickly to different light conditions without employing a large lighting package. This proved especially helpful for a sequence shot in a Romanian warehouse. “The first day we were there, during rehearsals, the weather was beautiful,” he recalls. “As soon as we finished rehearsals and went to shoot, it clouded over, started raining, and the place was plunged into darkness. When I got out my light meter, I thought we were in real trouble. I was carrying two 12Ks, and we lit the little area of the warehouse that the character was occupying with those and a few practicals. I got out the 500T and it looked great, even though we had hardly any lights in there at all.” One of the most important sets built in Romania was the Ezards’ London apartment, which is seen throughout the series at all times of day and night. “My approach to that set had to be simple because of the tight schedule, so we lit it all with tungsten,” the cinematographer recalls. “The main lights were softboxes above the set, and for day scenes, we also had 20Ks coming through the windows. We’d already done all the exteriors in London, so we knew what weather we’d had for preceding and following scenes, and we tried to follow that by diffusing or hardening the 20Ks. “For night scenes, we used practicals, dimmed the main lights quite low to match them, and then backlit the TransLite outside the windows, which we lit from the front for day scenes,” he continues. “There wasn’t really any other way to light that set because Iain wanted the Steadicam to go all over it. We tried never to put marks down for the actors. For me, operating is all about going with the actors and trying to find the best possible composition in whatever space they’re occupying.” Prioritizing MacDonald’s desire for flexibility and speed endeared Willoughby to the director and made for a very successful collaboration. “Nigel lit beautifully and shot beautifully,” says MacDonald, “but when I wanted to shoot quickly, he was always prepared to just let go and say, ‘Let’s get on with it.’ He took risks, and I think they paid off.” “I moan about TV schedules the same as everyone else, but I actually work much better under extreme duress that forces me to think on my feet,” says Willoughby. “Some days the schedule is so full that it doesn’t seem possible you’ll get through it, and you feel like you’re making it up as you go along. Quite often, those end up being the best scenes. I can’t explain why!” I 28 September 2008

American Cinematographer - September 2008

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