CRASH & BURN

Do you remember New York City in the months leading up to October 19, 1987, the day of the largest stock-market crash since the Great Depression? It was a world fat with excess, maximalism, and Reaganomics, and (apparently unbeknownst to historians) it was set afire by a group of outsiders who challenged Wall Street’s good-old-boys’ club and made the global financial markets tank.

“We wanted to develop a period look that went deeper than the wild hair, flashy costumes, and 1980s set pieces,” explains Director of Photography Carl Herse, who returns to Showtime’s outrageous comedy, Black Monday, for Season 2. “We wanted it to feel like it could have been shot in the 1980s but still have the energy of a modern series.”

Created by Seth Rogen disciples Jordan Cahan and David Caspe, Black Monday chose early on (the pilot was shot by James Laxton, ASC) to shoot in anamorphic as a nod to iconic films of the period, such as Ghostbusters and Raiders of the Lost Ark. “But we needed to be able to shoot at a television pace without the usual constrictions of anamorphic – poor close-focus capabilities, deep t-stops, et cetera,” Herse adds. “These characters are callous, coked-up crazy people. We wanted to promote loose blocking and express the insanity of that time.” And, he notes, shooting handheld promoted that sense of freedom for the stellar cast, which includes Don Cheadle (also an executive producer), Andrew Rannells, and Regina Hall.

Finding the camera package posed a unique challenge. Showtime required 4K resolution, “but for international distribution, they additionally mandated that a 16:9 center frame extraction be ultra-HD,” Herse shares. “Because we were shooting in such a wide aspect ratio, in reality, we had to capture above 4K so that the 16:9 extraction met their resolution requirements once they shaved so much information off the sides.” Herse and his team tested the RED Weapon and Panavision DXL, but ultimately chose the Sony VENICE, explaining that “from an on-set efficiency standpoint, I loved the fact that it had the entire range of ND filters built into the camera body itself. This eliminated stressful filter changes throughout daylight work.”

The VENICE also allowed Herse to incorporate a tangible, textured film grain by emphasizing the noise in the on-set capture and allowing the recorded camera noise to blend-in with post-process. “I’ve always found that baking some noise into the initial image helps it all feel physical and cohesive,” he continues. “By shooting primarily at 3200 ISO, and only dropping to 2500 ISO to protect the darkest sequences, we were able to achieve a muted push-processed look that built out this grimy, greed-fueled corporate world.”

For lensing, Herse chose the Panavision T Series, with its softness and a roll-off of focus as well as flaring, bokeh, vignetting, and subtle distortion – all in the lightest anamorphics needed for on-the-go handheld capture. “The T Series lenses open up to a T2.3 and feature between an 18- inch and 24-inch close-focus, so it wouldn’t be a challenge to shoot in small offices, elevators, and vehicles,” Herse explains.

Herse’s next step was to meet with Ricky Gausis, senior colorist at MPC, to set the look. “We wanted a nod to classic 1980s films and photography, but we weren’t ever trying to completely trick the viewer into thinking that it was shot back then,” Gausis explains. “That would be a futile venture as soon as we were introduced to the present-day cast members, so we didn’t shy away from incorporating contemporary elements.”

The two explored another major challenge of the series: creating a seamless blending of the stock footage needed to set the period, often with VFX added in. Gausis, who would often not see the stock shots until just before delivery, recalls that he “would never compromise the look of an entire show to work around a handful of stock shots, but not knowing how these looked until late in the process meant I would spend a great deal of time trying to work with their very limited range,” he explains. Knowing that any key/isolation would not be smooth enough to work without breaking up, he did a significant number of incredibly subtle contrast and color adjustments in the curves.

As the look changed from Season 1 to Season 2, the art department had to pivot as well. As Production Designer Alec Contestabile describes: “Season one’s main set was dark, dirty and grimy. For season two, we wanted to lighten-up the whole place and make it more inviting. Color-wise, we changed from grays, browns and dark greens to pastel pinks, mauves, and light grays. Lighting-wise, our set decorator, Kaitlynn Wood, added a bunch of diffused sconces and soft lamps to the desks. We also installed recessed can lights into the ceiling for the 1980s feel.”

Season 2 also featured new rooms on the set. While these areas were lit with natural light in the first season, Contestabile says he and Herse came up with the idea of adding a wall of glass where there were once dark file cabinets. “This gave us another half wall of daylight, which brightened up the set,” the designer adds.

Herse cites various flashback scenes from Episode 108 (Season 1) as some of his favorite moments. The time is 1968, and Mo Monroe (Don Cheadle) is seen as an idealistic member of the Black Panthers doing volunteer work in South Los Angeles.

“The filmmakers wanted to introduce a version of Mo that we hadn’t seen before and tell the story of his transition into self-preservation, greed, and corruption,” Herse explains. Herse researched 1950s and 1960s handheld photography, where early 16mm documentary cameras such as the ARRI ST were used on the streets to help set the tone. He also looked at newsreel coverage of the era, including that of the Vietnam War and big sporting events.

“The strongest choice was to abandon the anamorphic 2.39:1 in favor of a 16:9 spherical,” he continues. “I asked our operators to manually ride the lightweight spherical zooms as if they were news cameramen from that period. Unlike the mechanical servo-operated zooms that are used by today’s ENG crews, the quality of this camera work felt authentically imperfect, as if we were trying to keep up with a story that was being captured live.”

Season 2 also contains similarly out-of-the-box footage. It opens with a reenactment sequence from the Season 1 finale for a fictional 1980s television series called America’s Most Unsolved Mysteries.

“In both seasons we shot news footage and security-camera footage with a retrofitted Sony DXC- 3000A CCD [a customized camera system developed by 1st AC Justin Watson], recording digitally in Apple ProRes 422 outputting 480i to a Blackmagic Recorder,” explains 1st AC Andrew Dickieson. “For this sequence, we chose to shoot on the ARRI AMIRA with Canon Super 16mm zoom lenses in a 4:3 aspect ratio.”

The key to the sequence was the use of Dutch angles and wider focal lengths “to express the bombastic nature of these dramatizations,” Herse adds. “We rated the AMIRA at a high ISO of 1600 to incorporate digital noise. In the color suite, we added a Super 16mm film grain. On top of this degradation, VFX added an interlaced, broadcast video layer.”

Herse, whose TV credits include the similarly inventive The Last Man on Earth, notes he also used an unusually strong combination of Smoque and Glimmerglass filtration to further soften the image, “as a contrast to the sharpness of the main body of our show. We also employed saturated, colorful lighting choices – purple, teal, neon orange – and harder lighting instruments to emulate the Fresnel-based lighting of the era.”

“On top of the multimedia,” Dickieson notes, “we are bouncing between presentday 1980s [T-Series anamorphic] and 1970s flashbacks [Panavision Super/Ultra Speeds]. Because we did not have a DIT, we found that for a few episodes the camera bodies were not matching in either color or contrast. Mark Legaspi [B-Camera 1st AC] and I had to take a few lunches to shoot tests on each body and analyze each image at the monitor to find the best body matches. We ended up swapping out bodies a couple of times but ultimately found the right combination.”

A-Camera operator Orlando Duguay, SOC, says Steadicam was used throughout the series, “particularly in scenes where Mo and his cocaine-fueled frenetic energy aren’t present, and where the camera had to move quickly and across large distances without having the handheld feel become a distraction,” he notes. Duguay cites a shot from Episode 204 that follows Corky Harris (June Diane Raphael) as she walks down the bullpen to confront Dawn Towner (Regina Hall) in her office.

“We started following her with the Trinity in extreme-low mode on Corky’s high heels, then slowly boomed up her body into a tight following shot that then swung 180 degrees to land in a medium close-up,” the operator describes. “Because it was a compound move, I gave Barry Elmore, our B-Camera operator, remote tilt control for the Trinity, so that he could adjust headroom while I ensured the camera was in the right place at the right time to land on a line of dialogue.”

Dickieson says such shots are challenging because “the way we are shooting, it’s impossible for a focus puller not to be on a monitor; but at the same time, there is no real way to gauge perspective, distance, and movement when you are in the next room.

“In episode 205,” he continues, “ we had a nine-page scene where Dawn and Blair [Andrew Rannells] are working out a deal with Lenny Lehman [Ken Marino], when Mo bursts in and tries to break-up the deal. After covering this scene fully, we went to a single camera to run a single pass on the full scene, swinging in almost 270 degrees. Without being in the room to see all the players, I would have only been able to react to the screen instead of proactively engaging in exactly where Orlando was swinging or walking. This gave us a couple of takes where we had the majority of the scene that could play out in one if needed. Most of the time, the edit will take over, but it is our job as focus pullers to give them takes that can play out [as designed]. When I can’t be in the room, I use a Wards Sniper MKII [infrared laser].”

Season 2 ends with high excitement, much of it shot on the Warner Bros. backlot, where, observes Director Payman Benz, “it was tricky because upon first glance, the backlot looks sitcom-like and fake. We began the episode on an active walk-and-talk between Mo and Dawn through the streets of New York at night. Mo and Dawn burst out of a restaurant, with Mo trying to keep up with Dawn. They turn a corner, step into a taxi, exit the taxi almost immediately, and then continue down the street until they end up at a bus stop. Between Carl, his team, the art department, and Special Effects doing a wet-down, the final product is stunning, and you can’t even tell that it’s a backlot.” Benz says the extended scene was broken up over two nights because “shooting in one evening would not have been fair or safe for the crew.”

Contestabile’s art team “dressed” the backlot location to shoot both day and night.

“For the night shots, we would see everything,” he explains. “We brought in neons, chasing bistro lights, standing lamps and a multitude of window coverings, all different colors to try to break up all the backlot to make it feel as ‘lived in’ as possible while simultaneously putting out enough light to see our actors.”

Local 728 Chief Lighting Technician Oliver Alling says lighting for the scene (and all of the stage work) was about “letting the actors inhabit the sets without the distraction of lighting instruments. On the New York street shoot, a lot of coordination went into choosing and placing the practical fixtures, hiding our sources, and programming cues that would create an environment free of clumsy equipment,” Alling explains. “We made liberal use of DMX’d practical fixtures that allowed Production to seamlessly move from day to night, shooting wide tracking coverage without slowing down to tweak.”

As B-Camera Operator/2nd Unit Director of Photography Barry Elmore explains, Episode 210 took things a step further. “One of our main characters, Keith [Paul Scheer], is rollerblading through the streets trying to deliver important information. It opens with Paul rolling into the frame and beginning to weave past cars. In the background, another car crashes into Mo’s Lamborghini limousine, and to achieve all this I had to work closely with First AD Adam Martin and Stunt Coordinator John Koyama. Of course, on the day, it was downpouring, which was not part of the plan. But Paul still wanted to do the stunt, so John, Adam, Carl, and I worked out a safety plan that would keep Paul far enough away from the crash but close enough in the frame to still maximize the impact.

“Riding on a Grip Trix [with driver Art Ortiz, Legaspi and dolly grip Phil Heath operating the jib arm, with Libra head tech John Bonnin], we were able to keep Paul in a medium shot,” Elmore continues, “and have the action of the car crash happen out of focus in the background. Although the shot was covered by two other cameras, it could easily be used as a oner. The rain made things more difficult, but with the expertise of everyone on the crew, the shot was pulled off in one go.”

Herse praises his camera department for making such challenging shots work.

“Orlando Duguay is unparalleled in his ability to move the camera and coordinate with the performers to chase, lead, and exchange coverage as actors move,” he states. “Andrew Dickieson kept it all in focus and was ninjalike in his execution of complicated long sequences that might feature the camera moving through multiple environments. [Second AC’s] Devon Taafe and Emily Zenk are incredible at tracking the sheer volume of marks and impeccably recording the chronology of actors’ positions. And Barry Elmore is great at identifying the moments we missed with the A-coverage and finding supplemental angles that are still as visually impactful, dynamic, and engaging as everything else.”

Herse adds that the mantra on Black Monday is always to “avoid boring choices. We try to coordinate individual setups to cover as much of the scene as possible, taking big 180-degree swings, clocking the camera from frontal to profile positions, and swapping focus of coverage mid-scene,” he concludes. “Rather than slogging through one isolated piece of coverage after another, we use the camera to dynamically express the interconnected stories and their characters. The show feels alive and messy; I think the actors elevate their game when it’s apparent that anyone could be on camera take after take.”

LOCAL 600 CREW

SEASON ONE

Director of Photography Carl Herse

A-Camera Operator / Steadicam Orlando Duguay, SOC

A-Camera 1st AC Andrew Dickieson

A-Camera 2nd AC Devon Taaffe

B-Camera Operator Barry Elmore

B-Camera 1st AC Zoe Van Brunt

B-Camera 2nd AC John Roney

Utility Emma Massalone

DIT Chris Hoyle

Still Photographer Erin Simkin

SEASON TWO

Director of Photography Carl Herse

A-Camera Operator / Steadicam Orlando Duguay, SOC

A-Camera 1st AC Andrew Dickieson

A-Camera 2nd AC Devon Taaffe

B-Camera Operator Barry Elmore

B-Camera 1st AC Mark Legaspi

B-Camera 2nd AC Emily Zenk

Utility Beau “Tai” Cheadle

DIT Chris Hoyle

Still Photographer Nicole Wilder