American Cinematographer - December 2004 - 80

Genius Hits the Road

Charles flirts
with

one

of his

backup singers
(Aunjanue Ellis)
during her
audition. The
reference still

(far right, with
Edelman

partially visible
in the

foreground)
shows the setup,
which utilized a

PowerPod
remote head.

Backlight from a
12K Par keys the
scene.

he is

not an

operator by nature.

"My

feeling is that organizing the space
and light in front of the camera is the
most important work I can do," he
maintains. "Choosing the camera
position is, of course, extremely
important, but most important are
the light and atmosphere of the
scene. I sometimes find operating
the camera very enjoyable, but when
I'm making a project where I don't
have much time, it isn't easy to sit at
the camera, because you have to be
in two or three places at the same
time, physically and mentally, in
order

to

addition

think about the next shot in
the

you're shooting."
Ray, the ability to think
ahead was crucial. "We were hurry¬
ing like hell," says Edelman. "There
to

one

consideration
lighting: the
sunglasses Charles always wore.
"Jamie played all of Ray's manner¬
isms, which included moving his

studio. "We put some small Kino
Flos on the music stands to augment

head around

film's many club locations, which
were all found in New Orleans, were

than 100 locations in the

script and more than 120 scenes. We
were shooting two scenes a day, and
often more than one location a day."

came

a

to

lot, and that trans¬
mirrors on a face

over the place,"
Bauman. "The key was to

explains
find an
angle for the light sources that
wouldn't reflect off the sunglasses,
and toplight was the answer," says
Edelman. "Toplight also works well
in multiple-camera situations, so
Ray features a lot of toplight. There
swinging all

were

no

other choices;

we

had to

make it work."
Rifa-lites

became

a

with

standard soft

eggcrates
above

source

practical sets like Charles' New York
apartment, while Kino Flos were
used for cooler toplight in locations
such

offices and

were

airports. To
achieve contrast and separation, says
Bauman, "we built a lot of reflections

anything but spacious. As a result,
the most commonly used lighting

into the set. We'd put some low
Kinos on the floor to create high¬

Kino Flos and Lowel

lights off polished wood or the
piano, to get definition and separate
people from the background.
Stephen Altman gave us a lot of dark
walls because we were striving to
take light off the walls as much as
possible and build contrast in that
way."

Most of those locations

fixtures

were

Rifa-lites, compact units that could
be

squeezed into tight spaces. "There
a lot of motivated practical,
too," says gaffer Michael Bauman.
"We were shooting on 5218, so we
could utilize low light levels. Pawel

were

wasn't afraid to shoot at T2.5

or

T2.8, so you're talking 10 footcandles
to get an exposure."
There was, however, one
76 December 2004

it

lated into two

On

were more

technical

unique
when

as

The filmmakers maintained
the

toplight scheme even on the rare
such as the recording

stage set,

the guys in the band from below, and
then hung a very long top source
over

their heads," says

similarly reliant

on

reflective walls, but

Bauman. The

toplight and

more

color and

elaborate

practical, including
table lamps and large on-camera
hanging sources equipped with
space lights, were used in these
more

sequences.
Source

light from windows
played a role in several
sequences. "In one scene, Ray is play¬
ing the piano at the back of his
house, and he's strung out on drugs,"
says Bauman. "He's just lit through a
also

window, and Pawel achieved separa¬
tion of

foreground and background
by playing with silhouettes and
reflective

surfaces."

Edelman

is

strongly committed to naturalistic
lighting, but as Ray progresses, it
purposefully takes on a more "artifi¬
cial" look. "You
what the main

must

source

understand

of light

is in

a

and you have to try to create a
natural look with that main source,"

scene,

says

Edelman. "It's very simple."
In the

which take

flashbacks,

some

of

place in a shack with no
electricity, this philosophy was espe¬
cially ascendant. "Those are primar¬
ily daylight scenes, which meant our
light sources were windows," he says.
American Cinematographer - December 2004

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