American Cinematographer - May 2000 - 82

Must-See TV
and other

techniques, but I never
quite satisfied with the look.
Ultimately, however, Warner Bros,
developed some sort of difficulty

shadowless

was

range; even though the light is only
six inches high, it ranges from 24 to

with the 98,

ceiling in the

so we went

back to

Vision 500T and the look I

origi¬

nally wanted."
reasons

Del Ruth

appealed to The West Wing's creators
his use of high-octane, frenetic
camerawork on ER; they wanted
their pilot to feature some of that
same kinetic
energy. "We originally
planned to shoot about half of each
episode with a Steadicam," Del Ruth
reveals. "With that approach in
mind, our lighting style had to be
was

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nhorl

in

i

.-tin

i

lilo

somewhat similar

done

to

what we'd

the

original ER episodes.
For those shows, I rigged the light¬
ing into the sets so that the camera
could float around 360 degrees, and
we were able to avoid multiple shad¬
ows
through our use of dimmer
systems and cues. My gaffer, Jeff
Butters, and I also rigged the West
Wing sets in a way that would allow
us
to shoot in any direction.
However, were now probably down
to about 20 percent usage of the
Steadicam
[in each episode],
on

30 inches wide. I put those up on

where

the

of all sets and
That way,

is

standing
given time, we don't have to
hang an additional light. We can just
bring up one of those as a backcross, a backlight, a liner, or occa¬
sionally even as a keylight or
additional fill. They're very efficient
and quick to manipulate.
"Additionally, I had MR-16s
built into the ceilings to add to the
at

matter

an

actor

any

kinetic

sense

Steadicam

of movement that the

creates

when

a

character

is

moving from Point A to Point B.
The MR-16s point straight down
and create
actor

about

to

narrow

shafts, and

as an

walks under them, his or her

light level

goes from an ambient T2
a Til. With the rapid

motion of the actors,

with the Steadicam

combined
[action], the

lighting punctuating their heads
gives the image an almost strobo¬
scopic look, and adds to the feeling
of

camera

our

movement.

That's

one

of

theatricalizations of the White

found that the pace,

House. The actual White House has

rhythms and resonance of Aaron
Sorkin's writing don't necessarily
require us to add any energy to the

lights pointing down, but of course,
they don't produce the same shock¬
ing effect that ours do."

because

we

In addition to his ASC Award

scenes.

"Rigging the lighting into the
fairly expensive," he contin¬

sets was
ues.

"We have

more

than 1,200

lighting instruments, ranging from
Pans all the way down to Midgets.
We have boxes I designed - which I
call bat-lights - that are six inches
high, 24 inches wide and about 18
inches deep; they're covered in two
layers of diffusion [half grid and full
grid] and baffles to direct the light.
Inside, I have eight MR-16s, which
produce 250 watts of light and can
burn for 200 hours before they start
to go yellow. With the dual layers of
diffusion, the piercing shafts that the
light would cause on its own is now
heavily diffused. It creates an almost
76

corners

in the center of each wall.
no

One of the

effect, yet in a very broad

nominations, Del Ruth has been
nominated for two

Emmys (in 1980

for The Last Convertible and in 1995
for

My Brother's Keeper). His feature
By Me (which

credits include Stand
earned him

a

1986 ASC Award

nomination), The Breakfast Club,
Fandango, Quicksilver, The Running
Man, Look Who's Talking, The
Mighty Ducks and Up on the Roof.
Christopher Probst
-

Jonathan Freeman
Strange Justice
Strange Justice marks Jonathan
Freeman's second ASC nomination
for television series work; the first
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