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Calvache determined through testing that he would need five film stocks to achieve the results he desired. He used Vision2 200T 5217 for most night interiors; Vision2 250D 5205 for day interiors and magic-hour exteriors; Vision2 Expression 500T 5229 for most night exteriors and moonlit interiors; Vision2 500T 5218 for nighttime football games and the film’s final night scenes; and Vision 200T 5274 pull-processed by one stop for day exteriors.“I am a big fan of pull-processing, and the benefit of extending the dynamic range by softening the contrast and the chroma seemed ideal for this project,” says Calvache. “We pull-processed the day exteriors for In the Bedroom, but on this film, whenever I had enough exposure I did it for interiors as well. I overexposed one stop to compensate for the underdeveloping. It made the colors a bit softer and more naturalistic, and the contrast a lot more pleasing. One example of the benefits of this is the detail visible in Jennifer Connelly’s jet-black hair.“I need to credit [Deluxe vice president of technical engineering and client services] Beverly Wood for the extensive sensitometric tests Deluxe Laboratories did for me on every film stock I used,” he continues. “She created the characteristic curve of each stock at different processing [normal, pulled, and pushed], as well as the characteristic curve of the resultant print, using different print lights to explore the changes in the curve, as the printing lights adapt to over- and underexposure. It was a very thorough job, and it was very exciting to see notions that I’d come to just through practice confirmed scientifically. Those tests totally reassured me about the benefits of pull-processing.“It was surprising to see how well 5274 performed pull-processed. It gave me the most latitude of any medium-speed film stock, which is why I used it for exteriors even though it’s tungsten-balanced. Given that we had extensive day exteriors at the park and the swimming pool, where I was going to be constantly dealing with sun and shade, it was important to get the most latitude of exposure out of the stock. But I even pull-processed some night scenes, like the moonlight interiors.” In the latter scenes, several characters are glimpsed asleep in their beds. “There was no possible motivation other than moonlight, which we created with very soft HMIs through frames of diffusion outside the windows, and a few daylight Kino Flos inside. The low-contrast 5229 was a great tool to enhance the effect of moonlight in those scenes. By pulling it, I was able to achieve a moonlight effect that was more subtle and believable than what I would’ve achieved with another stock exposed normally.”Calvache used 5218 for a handful of night scenes that needed more visual punch, such as the football games Brad plays with ex-cop Larry (Noah Emmerich) and other men from the neighborhood. “We shot the football scenes using existing lighting fixtures in the stadium,” explains Calvache. “I knew I was going to be playing in the underexposed area of the negative, so I used 5218 because I knew it would preserve very deep blacks while dealing with some degree of underexposure.” Field explains, “We had to make some very practical decisions in our approach to the football and skateboarding scenes. David Wagreich, our second-unit director/cinematographer, was working ahead of us at those locations, so he and Antonio had to come up with a lighting scheme that would work for first unit as well. That meant a stripped-down package. [Rigging grip] Billy Patsos broke off from first unit to key-grip for David, and Tim Guinness was his gaffer. When first unit arrived at the field, our original gaffer, Russ Engels, had left to work on another film, so Tim took over to gaff for Antonio. This worked out very well.”Calvache also used 5218 for the film’s final scenes, when various tensions come to a head during one explosive night. “I wanted those scenes to be intriguing, dramatic and suspenseful,” he says. “I wanted the purest blacks, and for that I went to 5218, because I welcomed that extra bit of contrast.”During night scenes in particular, Calvache tried to re-create the mood of the Crewdson photographs. “We used the brightest and sharpest possible lenses, the Arri Master Primes, which are great for night shooting,” he says. “We were very fortunate, because at the time there were only two sets in use; we had one and Michael Ballhaus [ASC] had the other [for The Departed]. All through prep we waited with bated breath until ours arrived from Munich.” In lighting these scenes, “we tried to follow the logic of the sources, which in most cases were streetlamps. I avoided resorting to an even, strong backlight. We were exposing as wide open as those wonderful lenses would allow, and using our lighting only to reinforce what the streetlamps were doing.”Filming at night inside the playground, a Staten Island location where one of the final scenes unfolds, was more difficult. “There was no motivation whatsoever for the lighting in that park,” says Calvache. “On one hand, we wanted darkness, but I also felt that having a few visible light sources would create contrast between light and shadows, and would definitely help me sell the light without relying on a moonlight effect. We had the art department create a few practical lamps, and our key grip, George Patsos, rigged a homemade ‘mini Musco,’ four 12K Pars gelled with 1/2 CTS on an 80-foot Condor with a 20-by-20 frame of grid cloth in front. That was the ambient light for the park, and for backlight we had a Condor outside the park holding two 10Ks. The key was usually a 5K shooting through an 8-by-8 grid cloth. Using tree branches, we broke the light up as much as possible. At times we had a dozen C-stands and Hi-rollers with branches breaking the path between the source and the actors. I have to credit George’s inextinguishable energy during those long nights, when he coped with my many requests to add more branches.”Daytime scenes in the park presented another set of problems. “One of the biggest challenges was maintaining lighting continuity — the weather, of course, was totally inconsistent,” says Calvache. “Originally, I wanted to cover the whole playground with a large silk, but that wasn’t something production could afford, so we played a lot with existing daylight. In that respect, I’m very grateful we were able to finish with a DI, because it helped us smooth out the weather variations.” The filmmakers also relied on available light for all scenes at the swimming pool. “I need to give a lot of credit to Néstor Alméndros [ASC], because early in my career I learned so much by studying his very naturalistic approach to lighting,” notes Calvache. “We didn’t bring a single light to any of the scenes at the pool. Todd asked me to do it that way for practical reasons, and it ended up being a good call because it allowed us to simplify the setups and move faster through a very ambitious shooting schedule. I had only one light for these scenes, the sun, and we then used silks, reflectors, branches and a host of other bounce and diffusion materials to accomplish what was needed.” Avoiding movie lighting at the location also helped the filmmakers focus on the other gear required for those scenes, including a Super Technocrane, a Steadicam and an underwater camera.Moving the camera is not a commonplace occurrence on Field’s set. “I think Todd feels most comfortable with static compositions, and I share that taste,” says Calvache. “The beauty of not doing so much camera movement is that when you do it, it really draws you in.” One such moment in Little Children takes place at Sarah’s house, after she returns from a weekend tryst with Brad and has an awkward moment with her friend, Jean (Helen Carey), who has been babysitting her daughter. “Location interiors are always challenging,” notes Calvache, “but that was a very difficult one because we had to do a 360-degree move, and it was a small kitchen. The ceiling was quite low, and there was no place to put our lights. Still, it was important to allow Todd to communicate something visually through the camera movement, so I simplified the lighting, setting up a few HMIs outside the windows in the only blind spots left by the camera.
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