Behind the lens
- The look -
From the very beginning Nick (director) and I knew the script called for colorful visuals. during the weeks leading up to principal photography we carefully created a color palette that would match the tone we needed in order to evoke whatever emotion we were trying to convey in each and every scene. Most of the films I have done up until this point hadn't required such intricate use of color, this required a multitude of tests and research to make sure the image we saw in our heads was Able to be executed on set. Apart from the color, the exposure of the images was also discussed heavily ahead of time. we wanted a "pop" look which required hot highlights and crushed shadows that we maintained throughout most of the scenes. the only scene we didn't want that look was when our protagonist, grace, returned home to meet her parents after a night of partying because we thought it would create a more grounded reality.
- The "dream" party scene -
This "oner" was one of the trickiest shots I’ve ever had to plan out. Nick and I talked extensively about this scene in pre-production because we knew how integral it was to the story. The scene is the protagonists fantasy of what a house party is despite never being to one. The idea was to make the scene feel as bombastic as possible. Almost night club-esc. Originally, we were taking inspiration from Casino and its use of whip pans + quick cuts, but eventually the idea evolved into a “oner”.
Party scene overhead
Trying to plan out how to light this scene quite literally caused a few anxious-filled and sleepless nights. In the end though, the solution was much simpler than I thought. MY Best boy electric saved us with a plethora of Aputure MC’s and B7C’s which we had strobe between blue and purple. They were also able to act as practicals which was great. Other practicals we had were 2 purple strobing spotlights that created an extremely bright hair light. Our key light was a huge softbox hung from above that filled the room with ambient blue. Then, we had a moving light gag where we used a spotlight with a gobo which was just being manually operated from a c-stand. Some Titan Tubes were also placed around the room to fill in detail where we needed.
- Before and After -
before
After
- The church scenes -
I don't think i could really visualize how this film was going to come together until I knew how Nick and I were going to shoot the final scene at the church (the shot below). For me, it had to look different than the opening church scene to create contrast...a visual contrast that matched the emotional change in the story.
We knew we couldn't simulate moonlight since there were no windows, so we had the idea to add our own practical lights behind the cross to silhouette it. These were the only lights used in the scene. I tinkered the idea with adding large sourced front light to add some details in the shadow, however, it became very clear very quickly that that was not necessary. We wanted the color of these lights to be the whitest WHITE (contrasting the tungsten we wanted in the opening church scene above), to represent purity, but also using our silhouetted cross to portray the fact that there was sacrifice. This scene is the only time in the entire movie that you'll ever see true white. The rest of the scenes in the movie are either tinted greenish blue or orange to add a gritty feel.
- on set -
bouncing some tubes off bleached muslin for the final scene
nick and I working out kinks in the frame during one of the hardest scenes
pk premiere at the Montclair film festival
