American Cinematographer - May 2000 - 77

CAVAPMAK/
dark that I didn't

bother

using
morning, because
we'd be switching by two in the after¬
noon
anyway. I only used 98, which I
underrated by a stop."
Incorporating classic, studiostyle lighting was a particular chal¬
lenge on the episode, because it was
shot entirely on location in a variety
of places. "We were totally on loca¬
tion for this episode, so we couldn't
work in a 'studio' style, hanging lights
off a grid," he points out. "Luckily, the
director was fairly open to working
even

LEON ARD

slower film in the

around

whatever

particular

location

constraints

[had],

a

and

because of my

documentary back¬
ground, I have a real preference for
letting the in-shot sources serve as
the source lighting for the actors.
"For the flashbacks,

we were

very careful with the tones and colors
we used. We
kept everything in the

browns, grays and blacks. Our palette
in the normal world of the show was

also
also

very 'teched down,'
in the greens and blues, so

always

more

provided

between the

two
-

but
that

a nice contrast
time periods."

Christopher Probst

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they left the restaurant, he persisted,
backing into the street and into the
path of a speeding municipal bus.
"Part Two begins in the hospi¬
tal, as Mulcahy is being wheeled
down the corridor by emergency stat
teams," explains Primes. "He really
should have been killed. He is severely
injured, but miraculously, he's not
dead. Felicity is normally a very
thoughtful show and doesn't feature
these physical traumas, so we decided
that when

wanted

one, we

ing of Part Two that
the show:

Robert Primes, ASC
Felicity, "Todd Mulcahy, Part II"

did have

we

hit pretty hard with it. We
therefore did something in the open¬
to

trauma

we never do on
made the hospital

we

ward very hot - allowing the

lights above the

scene to go more

than three stops

of

photography Robert
Primes, ASC, had already won an
Emmy Award for this ASC Awardnominated episode of Felicity (see AC
Nov '99). "Todd Mulcahy, Part II" is
the second in a two-part episode
dealing with the return of a child¬
hood boyfriend whom Felicity (Keri
Director

Russell) hasn't seen since she was
about 12, but who nonetheless

proclaims his undying adoration of
her. In the first installment, Mulcahy
re-entered Felicity's life and began to
systematically woo every other
person she knew, almost suffocating
the oft-perplexed coed. Toward the
end of the episode, in an effort to
control the situation, Felicity agreed
to have dinner with Mulcahy, but
refused to kiss him afterwards. As

overexposed, blow¬
ing out the whites and making the
image contrasty and distressed. It was
almost

a

music-video kind of look,

and

a

rest

of the show."

real break from the

style of the

Besides the

high-octane pace
Primes is
also fond of the episode because of its
of the

trauma sequences,

focus

on

"In

the

previous
episodes, Felicity had been trying to
get into this very prestigious medical
seminar held by a famous teacher.
She's a very good student, a bit of an
overachiever, but she's still required to
go in for an interview. However, Todd
has gotten her thinking about the
direction of her life by questioning
why she's going into medicine when
art.

she had wanted
life."

& Charger

to

be

an

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American Cinematographer - May 2000

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