Bob Primes on thirtysomething Bending Fantasy Around Reality
by Bob Fisher

This article originally appeared in
International Photographer in 1988

Was it an interrogation scene lifted from an old war film? Or, did it come from some long-retired police serial? The answer: Neither. The scene was present day, and the setting, pure fantasy.              

Michael Steadman, husband, father and entrepreneurial advertising executive, and a principal character of ABC's thirtysomething, was suffering a nightmare over his pursuit of the yuppie lifestyle.

In a bare, smoke-filled warehouse, pierced by beams of light, Steadman sat strapped to a chair, surrounded by friends and associates accusing him of falling prey to the material temptations and status seeking rituals of the 1980s.

Trendy, yet sensitive, Steadman was waging an internal battle between his two halves: the one side, desirous of the "good life"; the other side, clinging to the idealistic morality and ethics of the 1960s.

thirtysomething, shot at CBS/MTM Productions, has completed a highly successful first season. And to know Bob Primes, the series' director of photography, is to understand that from a visual aspect, scenes like Michael Steadman's yuppie nightmare aren't accidents or afterthoughts. Coming from a diverse background that includes college studies as a math major and classical pianist, Primes has compiled a body of work marked by experimentation and fantasy.

Examples: In 1970, while a San Francisco-based freelance filmmaker, Primes made Jump Rope. This surreal, prize-winning film, revolving around the child's game, was shot at 400 frames per second. Later, Primes utilized optical montage to produce a film on the Nez Perce Indians. During the late 1970s and early '80s, he became involved in film techniques running the gamut from time-lapse photography to miniature and matte work. Other credits include extensive work in music video and commercials, plus some features such as A Great Wall and 2nd unit photography of Frances Ford Coppola's Rumblefish. In 1985, he served as a rotating director of photography on The Insiders, a television series noted for its bold use of color.

"It's safe to say the producers knew of my background and that accounts for some of the visual aspect of the fantasy sequences in thirtysomething," said Primes. "These sequences are my favorite parts of the show. They're where I can let loose, go crazy."    

As a series squarely focusing on the psyches of its characters – Steadman, his wife and child; business associate Elliot and his family; and assorted friends – thirtysomething relies on fantasy as a way of allowing viewers to understand the players' underlying emotions. From a photographic standpoint, orchestrating fantasy sequences has meant "stretching the limits" of what's seen in most conventional television programming.

"When I came onto thirtysomething,    we weren't searching for a strictly defined 'look,'" Primes said. "Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz, the show's creators and executive producers, only said they didn't want the show to look too perfect and they wanted it contrasty. They wanted to break the feeling of 'studio' cinematography, to let real-life imperfections occur... to get the feeling across of actual situations. So, if a shadow falls across an actor's face, chances are it'll stay."

Primes pushes hard to be faithful to light sources. For example, he wants viewers to "feel" the sunlight streaming through the Steadmans' living room windows is real.

"Remember, sunlight travels a long way before reaching your window," said Primes. "It's totally different in character than light from a source nearby. So, when we started the show, we ordered about 18 10K's. We were going with the idea of creating convincing daytime interiors by lighting from a distance, using a great deal of light.

"When we started working with all that light, people on the set weren't used to running that amount of power. I kept being asked, 'Why have all this lighting? Most shows use only two 10K's, and then add smaller lights as needed.' My reply was simple: 'We're doing this to create as real a look as possible. We want the feeling of sunlight going from wall to wall, possessing depth.'"

However, when Primes works on a fantasy sequence, he allows himself to go beyond reality – and into the epic. Visually, Michael's yuppie nightmare scene was a big jump for the series, he said.

"The scene came early on in the season, during our second or third show. Planning the scene was a collaborative effort, as is almost everything on the show. It helps working this way, as it tends to keep inflated egos off the set. Together with the director, assistant director, line producer and gaffer, I went into the warehouse where the scene was to take place, and we talked out the details. Since we were dealing with a dream, we knew we'd have to create a sense of mystery. Shapes, for instance, couldn't be too clearly defined, at least at the beginning of the dream." 

To carry off the scene, Primes suggested utilizing strong backlight coming from a single source.

"We hung one arc, and to achieve an even more eerie feeling, we covered it with a blue gel. We filled the room with smoke, and with the strong backlight, only beams of light and the silhouettes of the actors could be seen. We heightened the sense of drama by shooting the master scene with a 14 mm lens. Then as the action progressed, we brought in a bit of fill light so viewers could start discerning the characters. It turned out to be a very gutsy, exciting scene. That kind of experience encourages you to take more chances."

Primes uses ARRIFLEX Cameras because of a long standing relationship with Clairmont Cameras. "When we were concerned about camera noise because of the show's great amount of intimate dialogue – whispering almost – Clairmont and ARRIFLEX made sure we had the first Arri BL4s camera (s is for 'quieter') in the country," he said.

"Clairmont offers us tremendous service. For instance, when we needed a camera bracket for mounting an Obie light, Clairmont custom designed and built a very special versatile 'trick' bracket for us," he said.

Despite his success with thirtysomething, Primes' career didn't travel a straight road to the series. The path has been anything but smooth. He'll tell you disappointment has taught him much more than success.

Primes came to filmmaking from a background in still photography. His grandfather's Contax camera sparked his curiosity in photography, and salespeople at a local camera store furthered this interest. In high school, he worked as a yearbook photographer. By this time, Primes had acquired a Leica camera outfit, and also, a Linhof 4 x 5 view camera.

"Working with a view camera was a whole aspect of photography I didn't know anything about," he recalled. "That's why I decided to buy the Linhof; I wanted to learn and discover.

"This is an attitude I've carried all through life, and I think it fits in well with the philosophy of thirtysomething," Primes continued. "We always try to keep the show experimental. I feel more comfortable trying something new, than doing something familiar."

In the late-1950s Primes attended Reed College, where he majored in math. "I have a good, logical head for mathematics," he said, "and this helps me handle the technical end of cinematography." However, Primes eventually tired of numbers, coming to the realization he possessed the soul of an artist. He began pursuing literature, plays and music. His great love of classical music drove him to take up piano studies on the college level. For a time, he even pursued these studies in New York City.

Primes also traveled throughout Europe while in college, "bumming around" for several months. In Switzerland he attended the Casals Festival, the international music gathering, and photographed the musicians and happenings extensively. At the same time, he was giving serious thought to his future.

"Here I was, a 20-year-old hippie at the Casals Festival, carrying my Leicas, and the thought kept hitting me: I'd better get serious about something, I'm just frittering away time," Primes remembered. "So, I decided to dedicate myself to classical piano. In truth, I was only a 'one-piece' pianist – playing Chopin's Military Polonaise – but that was enough to get me into the San Francisco Conservatory of Music. I was there for over a year, and finally came to the conclusion I just didn't have it as a classical pianist. However, I did meet my wife, Theodora, who is a sensational pianist, while at the conservatory."

Primes had arrived at another crossroads. He realized the arts to which he felt closest – music, plays, movies, literature – all were linked strongly to the concept of time. He wanted to combine the time element with his love of imaging. Seen from that perspective, filmmaking was a logical path to take.

Enrolling in several extension film courses at the University of California, Primes, along with several other students and an instructor, formed a small company for the purpose of producing industrial films. Almost entirely self-taught as a filmmaker, Primes spent several years with the company. Ultimately he left, setting up his own film business in San Francisco. He was working in 16 mm format.

"I bought lights and a small truck, and moved into a three-story Victorian house," Primes recalled. "I converted the home's bottom story into editing rooms, a projection area and equipment shop."

It was during his 11 years as a San Francisco-based filmmaker that Primes shot Jump Rope, Legend Days Are Over and the piece on the Nez Perce Indians. In addition, he was commissioned to produce various other films, including an hour-long documentary on tennis player Arthur Ashe. In between, he shot commercials.

And always, he experimented.

"For example, in San Francisco I built a small optical printer," Primes recalled. "It was a crude instrument. But without much formal schooling in filmmaking, working with that printer was one of the ways I learned about craft."

Primes also started becoming increasingly frustrated with the level of craft he observed at that time in San Francisco. He felt standards weren't high enough. "I wanted to produce highly polished work, like what I saw coming out of Los Angeles -- movies and commercials.  But in the early 1970s, it just wasn't possible to do that in San Francisco. The technological and experience base was too small."

In September 1975, Primes took a job in Los Angeles as a director/cameraman, shooting commercials. However, that job lasted only several months. He then decided to try his hand at freelancing.

"When I took the director/cameraman job, I just wasn't sophisticated enough to handle it – technically, and in terms of dealing with advertising agencies," Primes said. 

"And when I started freelancing in L.A., my first attempts were disastrous. My samples weren't right. I got almost no work. I had come into L.A. without really knowing how to find work there. But with all this going on, something else was happening, too. Along the way, I was learning from my mistakes. And eventually, I started getting some work. One of these jobs, a documentary I shot in early '77 about a spiritual healer in Peru, was the key to helping me get my self confidence back."

In Peru for four months, working in a quiet, non-threatening environment, Primes was able to carefully assess his goals in life. Away from the pressures of Los Angeles, he came to the decision he wanted to pursue work on features.

Coming back to California more focused and sure of himself, Primes found himself working on a string of low-budget features. This led to work as director of photography on a television movie-of-the-week, Rescue from Gilligan's Island, and then, he branched out into commercials and music videos.

Shooting commercials is what eventually brought Primes to thirtysomething.

"Back in '85, I was shooting a commercial for a fast food chain, using clips from E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial," he said. "I wanted to match my footage to the movie clips, so I called Allen Daviau, ASC (director of photography for E.T.), for technical data. We had an interesting conversation. A few days later, the producers of The Insiders were searching for a director of photography and Daviau recommended me. He did this just on the strength of our phone call. So the producers looked at my work, told me they liked my use of color, and hired me as one of three rotating DPs on the show."

For a variety of reasons, Primes' stint on The Insiders was short-lived. But Scott Winant, a producer of The Insiders and now supervising producer for thirtysomething, recommended Primes to thirtysomething executive producers Zwick and Herskovitz. When Primes walked into the production offices for his interview, he got his first taste of the unconventional air that marks the series.

"I went into Marshall Herskovitz's office, and everybody's lying on the floor in their torn jeans," he recalled. "So here I am, prepared for what I thought was going to be a regular interview, and I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortable. I certainly didn't feel enough at ease to lie on the floor, so I just sat in a chair during the interview."

However, any discomfort Primes may have felt when he began work on thirtysomething quickly dissipated as he realized the series offered tremendous opportunity for experimentation.

"With no set rules to follow, the show constantly undergoes evolution," he said. "Nobody wants to sit still; the feeling is one of wanting to progress, to try different things. We take a lot of chances, and though I like working this way, it still gets scary sometimes. I'll be sitting in dailies, and a scene will come up where maybe I don't feel I used quite enough fill light. My first reaction might be, 'Geez, maybe I went a little too far.' But the producers usually come back and say, 'Bold choice.' It's that kind of encouragement that makes you want to take things further."                        

The "dirtiest" word on the thirtysomething set, said Primes, is "bland" -- and this especially goes for lighting. For example, consider how Primes lights faces.

"For years, the tradition in television has been to overlight faces, to see every nuance," he said. "Well, that's boring. I'd rather hide the face than see it 'too well.' Anytime I see full frontal lighting on a face, I get nervous. Instead, I try to use cross, back or rim lighting, or in the case of full frontal lighting, I'll break it up and create patterns on the face."

The pace on thirtysomething is intense, with an eight-day shooting schedule (six days on the lot, two days on location). But even though shot under tight time limitations, a thirtysomething episode often feels more like a "mini-feature" than a TV show. Primes credits a highly talented crew, with various members coming from feature film backgrounds.

Richard Walden, who was camera operator for Stephen Goldblatt on Lethal Weapon, is Primes' operator on the series. Gaffer Bob Jason has worked extensively with Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC. Gaffer Ron McLeish has done numerous films with John Bailey, ASC. And camera assistant Ross Judd, said Primes, "handles focus and zooms with great sensitivity."

"We're zooming all the time on the show. But you won't see the zooms because Ross is so careful with them. We're always finding a way to cover them."   

On the set, Primes' "workhorse" lenses are the fast 18-90 mm T-2.3 and 25-250 mm T-2.3 zooms. Besides offering high sharpness, the zooms allow Primes to make small corrections anywhere within the focal length range, enabling him to improve composition in a subtle manner.

"In keeping with the intimate nature of thirtysomething, I use longer focal lengths quite a bit," Primes said. "Many times, a scene is more about faces than it is about the setting. The longer focal lengths bring you into these scenes, obscuring the background."

CFI handles film processing for thirtysomething, while negative to tape transfer, timing and all other postproduction work goes through Pacific Video. In terms of film choice, Primes uses Eastman color high speed daylight negative film 5295 for exterior work, and Eastman color high speed negative film 5294 for interiors. The former film carries a recommended daylight exposure index of 250, while the latter film is rated at 400 in 3200 Kelvin tungsten light.

However, Primes rates 5295 at 250. "At 250, the film is less grainy, blacks are richer and color saturation is better. Also, I know in the back of my mind that I have a 'safety net' in terms of exposure. I know that I've got a stop, or more, latitude to underexposure. So many times, instead of bringing scenes up to full key – and having them print too bright on tape – I'll underexpose."

This practice worked particularly well in a fantasy sequence centering around Ethan, Elliot and Nancy's young son on thirtysomething. Suffering nightmares over his parents' impending separation, Ethan fantasized a monster lurking in his darkened bedroom.

In this scene, Primes' achieved a chilling, nearly bone-tingling effect by underexposing the 5295 film between 2 and 2-1/2 stops. In line with Ethan's fantasy, this kept detail murky.

"This film provides a broad range of exposure latitude, and the telecine unit will accept that," said Primes. "So, that means we can use the very bottom of the film's brightness range – that dangerous, murky, grayed-out area that's several stops under – and still end up with useable range when we transfer negative to tape."      

Creating a dramatic and different look, whether it's in a fantasy sequence or scene set in reality, is foremost in Primes' mind as he works on thirtysomething. But at the same time, he's keenly aware that the look, the photography, can't override a scene's drama.

"The photography must support the emotion or mood, not upstage it," he said. "I always have to keep in mind what's appropriate when visually planning a scene."