A Painterly Approach to Lighting
Grosse Pointe
By Bob Fisher

Here’s a test. Tune in to a summer re-run of Grosse Pointe on the Warner Bros. Network. The episodic series, created by Darren Star and produced by Artists Television Group, is a tongue-in-check comedy with a dramatic texture that works on two levels. On one level, it's a soap opera, featuring five main characters, parodying shows like Melrose Place and Beverly Hills 90210. At other intervals, the actors portraying the soap opera characters strip off those identities and become themselves behind the scenes. Turn down the sound, concentrate on the images and see if you can identify the production format. Answer: Grosse Pointe, like The Gilmore Girls, The Sopranos, Sex in the City and other cable and alternate network episodic series with tight budget boundaries, is produced in Super 16 format. That trims film and related postproduction costs by as much as 50 percent without placing any limits on the ability to take a painterly approach to lighting.

Rune Erickson, a Swedish cinematographer, invented the Super 16 film format during the early 1970s. He envisioned using it to produce low budget movies in wide screen format. At that time, all 16 mm film was perforated on both edges of the frame. Erickson asked the manufacturers to eliminate the perforations from one side of the frame. By reclaiming that space, he created an image area that was 46 percent larger, resulting in a significant improvement in picture quality. The additional space on the edge of the frame also allowed for a wider (15:9) aspect ratio, a perfect match for the 1.66:1 aspect ratio commonplace with most European 35 mm movies.

The Super 16 format is now providing producers working in the narrative TV arena on restricted budgets with an intriguing option. Below-the-line costs can be lower than originating the same content in HD format. The advantages are more mobile cameras, a much wider choice of lenses, the superior archival stability of film and an extended range of contrast along with a wider palette of colors.

Russ Alsobrook, who photographed all but the pilot episode of Grosse Pointe, explains that advances in film, lens and telecine technologies have significantly enhanced the picture quality rendered in Super 16 format. He speaks from experience. Alsobrook launched his career shooting 16 mm “animal films” for The Wonderful World of Disney after attending the University of California in Santa Barbara. He subsequently compiled an array of TV commercial and 16 mm documentary credits including The Women of Russia PBS miniseries, before crossing over to narrative film during the late 1980s.

His narrative credits include such telefilms as Encino Woman, Escape to Witch Mountain, Freaky Friday, The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes and The Shaggy Dog.

“I shot 13 episodes of Austin Stories in Super 16 format for MTV in 1997,” he says. “It was all handheld, using the Aaton XRTprod camera, which I like because it has a bright, large viewfinder and is ergonomically designed for this type of use.”

It was also his camera of choice for Grosse Pointe. Panavision Hollywood provides the camera and lens package. Alsobrook generally shoots with one camera, though there’s a second body, occasionally used for additional coverage from different angles.

Grosse Pointe is photographed on three stages and the backlot at Sony Studios. “We have two different looks,” he says. “The Grosse Pointe soap opera sets are much more stylized and romantic. We designed sets with as many practicals as possible, and I asked for windows to motivate shafts of exterior light. The colors of costumes and props are rich on these sets. I use 75 mm to 135 mm lenses with heavy Pro-Mist or Gold diffusion on the glass, and sometimes a combination of the two. The camera is usually either static, tracking or being pushed on a crab dolly.”

Most of the sets for the show within the show have three walls. That gives Alsobrook room to maneuver the camera and set up lights on the ground. “While we try to motivate light with recognizable sources,” he says, “it's important for the actors, especially the women, to look good.”

Some of the lush soap opera look is created in digital post. “We really push the chroma in the telecine suite at LaserPacific (Media) to the max so the colors really pop,” Alsobrook says.

On the behind the scenes portions of the program, the colors are more sedate, and Alsobrook describes the look as “more naturalistic.” He uses 12 to 16 mm wide-angle lenses with no diffusion on the glass. Camera movement is much more aggressive. Most of these sequences are filmed off a Steadicam platform operated by Aaron Pazanti.

“The idea is to show the audience what it is like backstage on a TV show,” Alsobrook says. “David Knoller, our extremely creative line producer, listens to our suggestions, and he really understands the importance of aesthetics in our storytelling.”

Sets for the behind-the-scenes portions of the show have four walls for enhanced realism. Alsobrook creates soft sources by streaming light through 12x12 muslin diffusion, sometimes augmented with a 4x4 light grid.

The signature behind the scenes shot is a long, meandering walking and talking sequence with some of the characters who move through the back of the stage, onto the backlot and maybe continuing to the cast trailers. Later, he takes the audience on a journey in the other direction when the camera follows the characters back on stage.

“In the Super 16 format, we can shoot for up to 10 minutes without changing magazines, which is especially important with Steadicam shots,” he says.

The focal lengths of the Super 16 lenses are about half of an equivalent 35 mm lens. In other words, a 75 mm Super lens sees like a 150 mm lens in the larger format. Alsobrook composes shots in 16:9 format, protecting the image area for 4:3. LaserPacific processes the negative and converts it to DigiBeta format for offline editing. The show is finished in 16:9 format, and a 4:3 version is extracted for airing.

Alsobrook points out that the program can be aired in letterbox format on conventional screens without a need for re-mastering.

“The colorist was quick to understand exactly what we were shooting for with the two opposing looks,” Alsobrook says. “After we established those looks, she would send me a tape of the on-line edit of each episode, and I would go through it and make scene-by-scene notes for her. Once she understood my taste, it was simply a matter of me telling her to making a scene warmer or cooler or maybe a touch darker. She knew what I meant. When I had time, I’d go to the final color session and work with her.

“The relationship with the colorist is crucial for cinematographers,” he says, “because ultimately your work is judged by what is seen on the screen. A colorist who is out of sync with you can negate everything you’ve achieved.”

Alsobrook chose the Kodak Vision 320T film 7277, which is rated for an exposure index of 320 in 3200 degree Kelvin light, He slightly over-exposed it at E.I. 250, which rendered “a little cleaner look” and “a little extra edge in the shadow areas.”

“It shows you how far we’ve come,” he says. “In the early 1990s, I shot 13 episodes of The Ben Stiller Show with a 100-speed, 16 mm film. You couldn't get a nice clean, grain-free look with a faster speed. We needed 100 footcandles of key just to shoot at stop T-2.8. Now, with the new films and the (Phillips) Spirit (DataCine), we are getting a great look. I’m lighting it the same as I do with 35 mm film shows, and we are getting all the details and rendering subtleties in highlights and shadows.”