CharlesPapert
Director of Photography
Jordan is amazing in this one (as always)!
We shot this the Park Plaza in Los Angeles, which is a grand old building that is now used exclusively for filming and events. I've shot there a number of times but it still holds a little excitement for me because it was the location of the video for Steve Perry's "Oh Sherrie" which I loved as a kid because it had lots of film gear visible in it! Every time we run four aught across the floor of the lobby it makes me think of that video (and I always marvel at how almost all of the gear shown looks exactly the same today).
The ballroom we shot this in was quite large (the three windows at the end are what appear in the background):
Because we needed to go around the table and shoot all sides, we decided we would suggest that this was a much smaller room with windows on two sides. So at a certain point, we rotated everything in the set 180 degrees and re-used the visible windows pretending they were the other side of the room. This caused plenty of confusion for everybody especially the set dressers, because we quickly learned that the room wasn't completely symmetrical and that the outer sections beyond the pillars didn't match, so flipping the sides of the set became a major cheat. Of course, all of the attention is on the actors in the center so you can get away with murder. The section on the cheated side is between 2:45 and 4:00 in the sketch, after which it cuts back to the original orientation.
When we scouted, I determined the time of day the sun would be at an optimal position to get the wide shots. As can be seen in the first shot of the sketch, this was with the sun nearly parallel to the windows. As the afternoon continued, the sun moved to the right (from this perspective) and eventually disappeared behind the side of the building. We got the wider stuff shot and I then was able to recreate that directionality and intensity of light on the window sheers with an 18K on a condor. An M40 into a bounce from the right provided fill. When we created the cheated side of the room, we killed the 18K and with the sun around the side of the building and no longer striking the windows, they now read as in shade as would be expected on the opposite side of the room. I added an M40 push from behind camera to suggest that the sun was now behind us, lighting up the sheers. That again is the section from 2:45 to 4:00. A few M18's sprinkled around the perimeter created sheens that opened up the panelling in the corners of the room, behind the pillars.
Of course, we fogged the room to give it both an 80's movie vibe and because people are seen smoking. While it would have been fun to go really 80's/Flashdance style and really go for it with hard backlight/sidelight and no fill and a ton of smoke, it may have taken away from the comedy a bit with Jordan's over the top character. It was something I battled constantly on Key & Peele--how much to push the lighting towards the dramatic and still keep it comedic. Most times I went a little too far where you couldn't necessarily see into their eyes, the director would have me pull it back a little either on set or by bringing it back up in color, so I think we found a happy medium.
We shot this the Park Plaza in Los Angeles, which is a grand old building that is now used exclusively for filming and events. I've shot there a number of times but it still holds a little excitement for me because it was the location of the video for Steve Perry's "Oh Sherrie" which I loved as a kid because it had lots of film gear visible in it! Every time we run four aught across the floor of the lobby it makes me think of that video (and I always marvel at how almost all of the gear shown looks exactly the same today).
The ballroom we shot this in was quite large (the three windows at the end are what appear in the background):
Because we needed to go around the table and shoot all sides, we decided we would suggest that this was a much smaller room with windows on two sides. So at a certain point, we rotated everything in the set 180 degrees and re-used the visible windows pretending they were the other side of the room. This caused plenty of confusion for everybody especially the set dressers, because we quickly learned that the room wasn't completely symmetrical and that the outer sections beyond the pillars didn't match, so flipping the sides of the set became a major cheat. Of course, all of the attention is on the actors in the center so you can get away with murder. The section on the cheated side is between 2:45 and 4:00 in the sketch, after which it cuts back to the original orientation.
When we scouted, I determined the time of day the sun would be at an optimal position to get the wide shots. As can be seen in the first shot of the sketch, this was with the sun nearly parallel to the windows. As the afternoon continued, the sun moved to the right (from this perspective) and eventually disappeared behind the side of the building. We got the wider stuff shot and I then was able to recreate that directionality and intensity of light on the window sheers with an 18K on a condor. An M40 into a bounce from the right provided fill. When we created the cheated side of the room, we killed the 18K and with the sun around the side of the building and no longer striking the windows, they now read as in shade as would be expected on the opposite side of the room. I added an M40 push from behind camera to suggest that the sun was now behind us, lighting up the sheers. That again is the section from 2:45 to 4:00. A few M18's sprinkled around the perimeter created sheens that opened up the panelling in the corners of the room, behind the pillars.
Of course, we fogged the room to give it both an 80's movie vibe and because people are seen smoking. While it would have been fun to go really 80's/Flashdance style and really go for it with hard backlight/sidelight and no fill and a ton of smoke, it may have taken away from the comedy a bit with Jordan's over the top character. It was something I battled constantly on Key & Peele--how much to push the lighting towards the dramatic and still keep it comedic. Most times I went a little too far where you couldn't necessarily see into their eyes, the director would have me pull it back a little either on set or by bringing it back up in color, so I think we found a happy medium.
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47 for instance), it bothers me because of the color and intensity. Moral of that story is: in that instance I was a little too production-friendly and now the material lives forever. My last chance to improve it would have been in color, but I was unable to supervise at that time because I was on another show. Ah well.