American Cinematographer - December 2006 - 119

eight days on local
soundstages and in the mountains and
hills just 40 miles north of Los Angeles.
Early on, the producers faced the diffi¬
cult challenge of keeping costs low
while maintaining the freedom to take

Blane

(Dennis

Haysbert)
surveys a

village along the
Pakistan-

Afghanistan

the action to far-off countries such

border in the
television series

Siberia and Indonesia. "The unit" is

The Unit,

who, along with
colorist Ed

Twiford at
Technicolor
Creative
Services in

Hollywood, uses
a dynamic color
palette to help

ment its own look so viewers

sell the show's
exotic
locales. At the

top is a more

"We're

neutrally
image
by dailies

airing back-to-back episodes
place in different countries

that take

balanced

but

colorist Rick

were

shot in the

same

location.

That's when

using color becomes really
important to achieving that differentia¬

Brunick. The

image

reflects final

tion."

timing.

The Unit's

Super 35mm dailies
1080p high-definition
resolution on a Spirit telecine to a D-5
master, and graded by colorist Rick

are

the entrance and double back,

Lending The Unit a Wide

across

World of Looks

but their driver has

by lain Stasukevich

murdered. A second later, four armed

It's

a

dark, early morning in a

village on the PakistanAfghanistan border, and a conspicuous
Mercedes sedan is rolling through the
dusty street as carts and pedestrians
scramble to clear a path. The car comes
to a stop in front of what looks like an
empty apartment, but inside, several
remote

already been

Eastern

men

the floor, while an

exit the

sedan

and

cautiously enter the apartment. They
spot the tripwire that's been pulled

da Vinci 2K color-correc¬

video environment at Technicolor's

disguise spring
building and open fire
on their unsuspecting targets, who go
down. After retrieving a satchel from
one of the corpses, the men of "the
unit" quickly and quietly dispose of the
evidence.

Meanwhile, back in the States,
at the fictitious Fort Griffith U.S.

Army

sunny skies seem a world away from
the steely, blue-hued intensity of

on

man

on a

from around the

clothing stands guard at the window.
He peers outside as two more Middle

armed white

in robes and

Brunick

American soldiers in

dressed in similar

turbans lie dead

men

scanned at

tion system. Final color work makes use
of the da Vinci 2K in a 10-bit linear

base, it's business as usual for the unit's
stoic wives and children, whose mani¬
cured lawns, elementary schools and

Middle Eastern

110 December 2006

would

immediately know when we've cut to a
different segment of the story," recalls
associate producer Nick Bradley.

international

color

a

operations team, but every
episode is divided equally between
what's going on with the men in the
field and what's happening at home
with the wives, who aren't always
baking cookies.
"Our cinematographer, Krishna
Bao, suggested giving each environ¬

Krishna Rao,

bottom

as

covert

photographed by

timed

over

cameras

Covert team
leader Jonas

Pakistan.

Hollywood facility before being deliv¬
ered to the network

on

HDCam SR at

720p HD resolution.
The final color process

is the
responsibility of industry veteran Ed
Twiford, who was handpicked for the
job thanks to his previous collaboration
with Bradley on the CBS series The
Guardian.
Rao

came

aboard The Unit after

directing several episodes of The
Pretender, Dawsons Creek and Angel;
he has also served

But it's not.

on a

CBS's The Unit is shot with two

and

as camera

operator

number of feature films. Twiford

Bradley credit Rao for coming up

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Frame
American Cinematographer - December 2006

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