Key & Peele - Behind the Scenes with DP Charles Papert

Fog is a tough one. There are a number of different kinds out there (machines and juice) and getting one that behaves the way you want it is a definite art and science. The best all purpose room haze machine is the good ol' DF50.

LCD is "light control device", a confusing name for soft fabric egg crates.
 
What ISO were you sporting on the Alexa using something like an M18?

I had to do a similar light setup this weekend but due to lack of budget I combined dimmable in-house tungsten lights with one daylight balanced soft light source off-camera on one side to simulate the directional window light. Lucky for me there was a fireplace going right in the middle of the scene so it was forgiving to mix the warmth of tungsten and cooler light coming in from the side.

In my case however I was using a weak dimmable flo bank and had no choice but to shoot at 6400 ISO on the F3.
 
I've been using a Chauvet Hurricane 1800 Flex Fog Machine to add atmosphere to my shots. It has REALLY come in handy for a Halloween video I've been shooting this last week. It's ridiculous how much visual interest a little smoke in the background adds to your shot.

I'm loving the videos! "I'm Retired" was hilarious.
 
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starcentral said:
What ISO were you sporting on the Alexa using something like an M18?
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i keep it at 800 almost all of the time. Since changing the ISO also shifts the dynamic range of the camera, it's best to just use ND's for exteriors.

Regarding your lighting setup--if I'm looking to suggest daylight wash from a window, especially against incandescent bulbs and fire (both warmer than tungsten), I'd likely use a tungsten unit with 1/4 to at most 1/2 CTB. Would be very unusual for me to use a straight daylight unit unless I was going for a "home video" look. I don't mind the look of incadescent or tungsten in a daylight balanced environment (i.e.very warm practicals against a neutral base), but I don't care for it the other way around.

6400 ISO!!! I'm surprised you needed to drive the camera that much. I don't think I've ever used it above 3200. We had a night exterior drive-by on Key & Peele that I had to grab at the end of a shooting day--the section of street that was convenient but had very little light. We shot it at 3200 and it looked a little unearthly. Presumably the practicals that were in your shot blew out quite a bit...?!
 
We were shooting in the last hour before sunset with the only two windows in the room facing east and 10 minutes to get any lighting going in the room. It was not good so I had good old betsy running +18db gain to give a nice dimly and warm look to the room and I don't think the daylight flo bank suggested daylight really more than some moon or streetlight coming in - it was set so dim it wasn't lighting the scene rather it was proving some nice white directional light. A group of super heroes sat on both sides of the fireplace as I shot directly down between them towards the fireplace. It was very dramatic and contrasty look, I hope I can show a frame grab eventually to show you how it turned out.

None of the practicals were seen in camera, they were 20 feet up on various ceiling fans throughout the room. Thank god they were on dimmer switch!
 
Season 3 trailer of Key & Peele released:


Mostly Alexa but a few glimpses in there of the early 80's 3-tube cameras I picked up off eBay for the vintage look.
 
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Trailer looks great, quite the stunning array of different looks and visual references! Did the show get a bigger budget for season 3? Some of those setups look really expensive. You guys have always nailed the looks of the material that's parodied on the show, but judging by the trailer this season looks to be decidedly more ambitious from a visual standpoint.

Oh, and that Mr. T and Bootsy Collins(?) stuff looks great. What media did you shoot to for those old 80's cameras?
 
Thanks Stefan!

We really went for it this year, definitely more visually ambitious and while we had a bit more pocket money to play with, it was still quite humble. I dare say that as a team we have learned how to create a "trompe de l'oiel" of production value!

The 70's material we shot on two circa 1981 JVC-KY1900 cameras (I sourced four on eBay and cobbled together two working cameras out of the remains), for some reason those cheap Saticon tubes appear to have stood the test of time vs the revered Plumbicons. We recorded out to two nNovia DV hard drive recorders I had lying around and had forgotten to sell while SD gear still had any value, plus two DVCAM decks as backups. My feeling was that the tape look is largely the camera not the recording medium, and if we wanted to further distress the image, we could do so in post by recording out to VHS, 3/4 etc. as required (don't think we will). Dealing with old analog cameras was, frankly, a bit of a nightmare--we had interference issues, hum, intermittent picture problems, matching between cameras...but it was all worth it because the look was, well, you can see the value in it!

FYI none of the shots in that trailer have yet been color corrected, those were the on-set temp LUT's that we built for the edits and network approval. In a few weeks we start color correcting in earnest, can't wait to roll up the sleeves and get to work (that blown-out lake in the first shot will be swiftly tamed)!
 
Looks great, Charles! Between Keegan and Jordan, and the Hell Baby guys, you get to hang out with the funniest people on Earth. :D
 
And Ken Marino, David Wain, Garfunkel and Oates, the list goes on...

Key & Peele is a fantastic opportunity, since comedy is not generally thought of as being the most visually stimulating medium. It's such a treat to be able to stretch one's craft while working in that genre.
 
Honestly, your work is really one of the things that makes the comedy that much stronger. So much effort is put into creating totally authentic looks, that it gives the jokes that much more "bite." Great stuff!


CharlesPapert said:
And Ken Marino, David Wain, Garfunkel and Oates, the list goes on...

Key & Peele is a fantastic opportunity, since comedy is not generally thought of as being the most visually stimulating medium. It's such a treat to be able to stretch one's craft while working in that genre.
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CharlesPapert said:
And Ken Marino, David Wain, Garfunkel and Oates, the list goes on...

Key & Peele is a fantastic opportunity, since comedy is not generally thought of as being the most visually stimulating medium. It's such a treat to be able to stretch one's craft while working in that genre.
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exactly why I've always shy'd away from working on comedy scripts for directors/producers. but up until recently I think that's changed alot. more and more we see cinematic looking films and tv shows. Shaun of the Dead comes to mind, and a this other series called Key & Peele.
 
Wilfred (at least the US version) has some very funky visuals. Lots of room for a cinematographer to play around, and the result they got is stellar. Obviously the fact that the series is so unique and funny helps a lot too!
 
So cool! I absolutely loved how the first season was shot, almost made me buy a f3 (not kidding). Can imagine it will look even more fantastic with the alexa. The show is absolutely hilarious too, literally laugh out loud funny even when watching by myself, so good
 
Thanks Matt (and everyone else), we shot second season on Alexa also; the first 30 or so clips on the link in my signature are from that season.
 
I knew I recognized that name Charles Papert. haha Been a big fan of Key & Peele since Mad TV. Great stuff I love a majority of their sketches. Good stuff Charles! I had to log in just to compliment your work.
 
Two of this season's 13 episodes have aired so far (new ones Wednesday nights on Comedy Central). The network has cut back on the number of sketches released to the internet because they are looking to drive traffic to the broadcast; the interesting part is that the choice of sketches is being made based on viewer popularity (each episode has its own hashtag).

My favorite so far has been the parody of "Les Mis" which I mentioned elsewhere, which was a notably elaborate scale for us to pull off.

I had a blast shooting the East/West Bowl Rap, which continues the characters of the outrageously named football players that formed the basis of one of most popular sketches to date. The first half of this clip takes its cue from the Superbowl Shuffle from the mid-80's, and I sourced a couple of broadcast tube cameras from that era to recreate the look (along with deliberately terrible lighting and camerawork). The second half incorporates a more contemporary music video vibe with an truly absurd numbers of lens flares (Blue Streak filters and Xenon flashlight aimed at the lens--as the director and I described it, as douchey as possible)!

Finally, Terrorist Interrogation was inspired by a scene at the beginning of Zero Dark Thirty although I went a little more stylized with the lighting than the movie scene. FYI this clip is only on Vimeo, where you will find the other ones above as well, sans Comedy Central badges. See the playlist for more clips.

Happy to answer any questions.
 
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