American Cinematographer - December 2005 - 87

"The corridors have T80 tubes
built

right into them as practical
and little Par spots built into the ceil¬
ings to add hot spots that people can

walk into. We also have little Nooks

cutting through grates along the
sides of the walls

add

to

some

dimension. I have

multiple looks I
can go with in there: everything on,
nothing on or some combination."
For the episode "Valley of
Darkness," in which

a

mechanized

Cylon boarding party cuts power to
Galactica while attempting to vent
the crew into space, McNutt used the
"nothing" option in combination
with "a couple of 5K Skypans up in
the perms, which brought light
through the whole set, breaking it up
and creating fantastic textures with
really hard shadows. Fortunately, we
could get the lamps far enough away.
I also added a touch of amber gel to
that, giving it an emergency lighting'
look, and then gave the actors flash¬
lights that became our keys."
McNutt initially had trouble
convincing Rymer that flashlights
could be the primary sources. "Fie
was a

him
to

bit

nervous,

but I convinced

[by telling him] he would have

instruct the actors

their

on

how

to use

flashlights within the action
and dialogue they had to deliver. Of
course, the actors jumped at the
opportunity - we have a fantastic
cast
and they did a large part of
the lighting. I had some of my crew
off-camera with a couple of Xenon
lamps and regular flashlights and
bounce cards to add light when we
-

needed it. Of
strobe effects
flashes

course, we

to

also added

augment the muzzle

during the battle sequences.

"Overall, the Galactica has

a

slightly underwater feeling - the
crew is stuck,
they can't feel the sun,
and every once in a while it becomes
very claustrophobic."
The precise color control
offered by HD is not only a visually
interesting aspect of Galactica, but
also an essential storytelling tool, as
the show often cuts between action

simultaneously taking place aboard
the Galactica and other ships in the
fleet, as well as several other planets.
This was the case in the episode
"Kobol's Last Gleaming." As this
first-season-ending
cliffhanger
unfolds, Starbuck engages in brutal
hand-to-hand combat with a deadly
clone of Number Six on Cylonoccupied Caprica; Baltar and a
survey team are shot down over the
lush planet of Kobol; and a Cylon
sleeper-agent assassin guns down
Adama on the Galactica bridge.
Aiding in the clear delivery of this
complex information and action
was McNutt's use of
contrasting and
complementary colors for each
venue, with the cool cyan tones of
the warship supplying the normal,
or

The Galactica

that

episode set
mainly on a
planet where

film

we

in

and

around

making very few physical
changes aside from removing all
people and signage. Caprica has
been bombed by the Cylons, so we
decided it would have a glowing,

Vancouver,

nuclear summer'
we

sort

of look. Once

got out there, I started adjusting

the

image. I turned the camera's
knee off, blowing out the highlights,
and in combination with
chocolate filters I had

on

some

the lens, I

suddenly had a bizarre, orange
world. Suddenly, we were on
Caprica. These effects greatly appeal
to Gary Hutzel because they give
him some groundwork with which
to

start."

crew

shoots

Sackhoff

on

location for

an

her character
commandeers

a

Cylon ship. At
left,

an

HD

capture by
Modern
VideoFilm
reveals the
finished look
for the scene,
which features
extensive
in-camera
colorization and
the HD

equivalent of
45-degree

a

shutter to
accentuate the

dust-filled

atmosphere.

Kobol is

richly forested
world where Roslin hopes to find
clues regarding a sanctuary where
the humans might escape the
Cylons. Playing to the strengths of
the dense British Columbia foliage,
a

McNutt added detail to the

and

image
the greens, evening
out to approximate a single
of emerald while cranking up

played

them

shade

up

the whites, which rendered Number
Six

as an

almost ethereal

angel when
through a ruined city.
to push these scenes a

she led Baltar

"control," look.
"A considerable

place on the planet of
Caprica throughout the series," says
McNutt. "It's a modern cityscape

action takes

amount

of

"We wanted

American

Cinematographer 83
American Cinematographer - December 2005

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