The Heist
Matthew Libatique,
ASC Shoots
A Game Of Cat And
Mouse For Inside Man
“I’ve been a fan of Spike’s work since Do the Right
Thing,” says cinematographer Matthew Libatique, ASC. “Despite
photographing commercials and a previous film, She Hate Me, with him,
I was flattered when he phoned about a new project. He wanted to do a
heist picture starring Denzel Washington. It was all I needed to know.
“After reading the Inside Man, I found it to be one of the better screenplays I’ve read over the past year,” he continues. “The imperfections in character give the story an unexpected and insightful reality.”
The Inside Man is the story of a tough cop, Detective Keith Frazier (Denzel Washington), who matches wits with a clever bank robber, Daulton (Clive Owen), in a tense hostage drama. As the dangerous cat and mouse game unfolds, a wild card emerges; Madaline White (Jodie Foster), who acts as a power broker with a hidden agenda, injecting even more instability into an already volatile situation.
“There is, of course, a deeper story playing out,” says Libatique. “Washington’s character isn’t just a cop on the job but a working-class detective struggling to make first grade and under investigation by the police department. Owen’s character is seemingly ‘just robbing a bank’ but in reality, he is trying to teach a moral lesson to the man, Arthur Case (Christopher Plummer), who owns the bank. It’s Spike Lee, so of course there is a hidden agenda!”
Like one of his past challenges, Phone Booth, the Inside Man takes place almost entirely in one location—a bank. “That’s 60 people in a bank in a hostage situation.
“Spike had a plan,” he adds. “Using the written relationships and the characterizations as a motivating factor, he wanted the images to support the characters’ differences. He wanted to make it more than just phone conversations between Denzel and Clive. We would create a world for each that would be identifiable to that character. Every cut would have to echo the character.”
For Libatique, that meant camera and lens choice would be critical. A cinematographer known for “mixing it up” as far as equipment is concerned, the choices have to support the story. “As usual, I like to look at the lenses that I want to use and then the cameras that best fit them,” he explains.
“Matty chose Cooke S4 lenses, then ARRICAM ST and LT bodies to support them,” says first assistant Aurelia Winborn. “I’m glad he chose these because of their ease in converting from studio to handheld to Steadicam and back again, which we did dozens of times over the course of a day. We were also able to use the new Arriflex 235, which was great for handheld action sequences. CSC has an extremely large inventory of cameras. We had several giant days where we had eight cameras with full crews and they were able to completely support the package.”
The flexibility of this system allowed Libatique and crew to follow Lee’s edict of supporting the characters by creating a distinct world. “First, we decided to create a disparity in the two worlds with a framing motif,” Libatique says. “To show the instability of Denzel’s Keith Frazier, we shot multiple handheld cameras using negative space to echo the forces of chaos around him.”
“Basically, in the beginning of the film, Denzel’s character
is out of his element, lost, and has no control over the situation,” explains
A-camera/Steadicam operator Stephen Consentino. “To emphasize this,
all the coverage on him outside the bank was handheld, using a short
shutter angle.
“It’s the same thing that was done in Saving Private Ryan, when the troops storm the beach at Normandy. We see the dirt and dust, and the short shutter angle gives the movement a frenetic look.”
“In lighting, we opted to make a language out of a mixture of color temperature with Frazier,” Libatique adds. “His constant state of imbalance motivated the use of highlights in the form of flashing police lights and exterior practicals. The addition of an 1/8th or 1/4th Tiffen Promist allowed these elements to bloom and crash in on him to create imperfections.”
The language created for Clive’s Daulton was meant to be the polar opposite. Libatique and Lee envisioned this as one with singular color temperature and graceful camera movement achieved through Steadicam to contrast Frazier’s handheld world. “These Steadicam shots were fun, but a challenge for the first assistants,” says Consentino. “We’d be on a 100mm lens, dancing around Clive and Steadicam first assistant Tim Metivier would have either his eyes or the bridge of his nose in focus. That’s the depth-of-field he was working with! And he did an incredible job!”
“The vision was to instantly transport the audience as we cut from one character to the other,” Libatique explains.
Lee and Libatique were fortunate to find a real building on the edge of Wall Street that was no longer a bank but still looked like one for their prime location. “Our production designer, Wynn Thomas, is a veteran of Spike’s films and his contribution to this picture is as strong as any,” says Libatique. “His knowledge of the director and his instincts in storytelling were evident in the choices he made in location and set design. He and location manager Joe White came upon the abandoned bank location and our future was clear.”
Since Lee wanted to use a minimum of three cameras in this location, Libatique and gaffer John Velez decided to light everything from above. “John found these unique square balloons that became our primary source of light inside,” says Libatique.
“These are Tungsten lights from Source Maker Lighting,” says Velez. “Because they break down into 2K, 4K, etc., we could reduce the levels quickly. And their square frame allowed us to put side panels on so we could control them even more.
“In the bank itself, we used three dimmable 4K Tungsten five-foot
cubes with side panels. Outside, for our day work, we had one 8K ten-foot
cube. For night, we used one Metal Halide ten-foot cube. By the way,
I requested the Metal Halide and Peter Girolami of Source Maker Lighting
created it for us. I think it’s the first one ever built.”
For the exteriors in the canyons of Manhattan, Velez brought Libatique another interesting tool, the LRX rig out of Toronto. “It’s a light that worked great on The Dukes of Hazard,” says Velez. “It is a totally self-contained aerial lighting unit that takes less than 15 minutes to move from one end of the street to another and be up and ready to burn.
“Unlike other units, it can be either HMI or tungsten outfitted, by simply switching out the bulbs and changing from ballast to dimmer pack. It has six lighting heads, gel frame holders, ballasts for 6K HMI – 12K HMI lamps and dimmer packs for 12K tungsten lamps, and more. What we really like about it is that it can spin backwards or up and down, and just about anywhere needed on a 120-foot stick. And, the neat thing is that it can be operated remotely by someone close to the camera, which saves on communication and time.”
“One of the most interesting things about shooting exteriors in Manhattan is the character of the sun,” adds Libatique. “It reveals itself at different times, creating an amazing disparity of light and shadow that we had no choice but to incorporate into the visual articulation of Denzel’s character.
“We would use the globes of the LRX and pound them into a wall for highlight or through the windows for interior highlights, as if the sun were ‘popping in’ at these moments.
“We then supplemented ambience with the cops’ lights and fluorescents from neighboring stores, to add to that chaos of this officer teetering on the edge of competence.”
Even though the team was in the same location for most of the picture, each day was difficult. It was the planning that took the time and became the creative challenge. Lee’s desire to use multiple cameras and do different set ups meant that lighting and blocking had to be able to play out virtually in 360 degrees.
“There is no choice but to make this part of the joy of the craft,” says Libatique. “For one scene, we might embrace top light or strong side light that pits the dark and light side against each other.
“Examples of this can be seen in the night interiors when Frazier’s desperate attempts lead him inside the bank for a confrontation with Daulton, so he can check on the safety of the hostages. The police have placed construction lights on all points, which motivated the interior light of the bank. The result is a mixture of disparate light from the Frazier side with the camera movement of the Daulton side.”
“This was really an amazing sequence to shoot,” says Consentino. “It began on our location bank and continued, seamlessly, on stage at Steiner. “We began in the real bank location. The Steadicam follows Denzel into the bank, up the stairs, and slowly circles him and Clive as they talk. It’s a beautiful shot that allows Denzel’s character and the audience to discover this sumptuous deco bank lobby. As we follow them through a door, we cut to the front shot, which is into the basement where the hostages are being held. By using a doorway as a cutting point, we were able to make a smooth transition from the bank location to Steiner’s huge basement set.
“That basement was meant to be a series of offices, about 10 feet
by 10 feet, and we went through about six rooms. Clive keeps opening
doors to show Denzel hostages gagged and tied.
“Spike’s interesting edge on all of this was that he had all the hostages dressed in similar garb to what Clive and his people are wearing. So, Denzel can’t tell who is really a hostage or who isn’t,” Consentino adds.
“For Spike, this was all about the audience exploring the bank and the emotions of the characters,” continues Consentino. “You can live or die by a long difficult one take shot. But shots like that always are for an operator. Once you gain Spike’s confidence in your ability and talent, and he likes what you are getting, he is willing to take that risk and your input.”
“Thank heaven we had an LCS (ARRI’s Lens Control System) and Preston here,” adds Winborn. “These sequences were difficult because the hallways were narrow and I couldn’t always be next to the camera.”
“It was a pleasure to work at the new Steiner Studios,” says Libatique. “The ability to shoot in proper stages in New York allowed us to actually shoot a New York film in New York! This is not a film that could have been made in Toronto, Montreal, or Prague. Part of Spike’s talent as a filmmaker is the atmosphere he creates through his familiarity.
Production design created a set that matched, which allowed the team to take advantage of “natural light.” “That meant, although we had soft boxes and bay lights inside the set, we hardly used them,” says Libatique. “John brought in construction lights and ARRI X-Lights on rigs, with green gels to match the metal halide of the ‘natural’ lighting.”
“Things had to move fast and be unified, whether we were inside or outside,” explains Velez. “Inside, in addition to the square balloons, we used six VariLite 1000s with shutters and dimmer accessories. We rigged them to the tops of the columns inside the bank, and were able to control them via a WiFi dimmer system that I use from LanBox (www.lanbox.com). Because they are tungsten based, there were no fans, so the noise factor was not a problem.
“Outside, for exterior shots and to pound into the interior bank sequences, we had the ARRI X-Lights,” Velez adds. “We had 12 X-Lights rigged as work lights on lighting towers to simulate emergency lights on the night exteriors. By sticking NYPD stickers over the ARRI name, we were even able to use them in the shot.
“One of the coolest sequences and toughest gags that Spike and Matty wanted to do, was to have lights turn on instantly, when night falls and the situation gets even more tense,” he adds. “In the real world, light powers on as it comes up to speed. But, Spike wanted instant light. So, it was off to CSC, and a simple adaptation and our X-Lights powered on to support the tension of the story.
“Despite the fact that we were in one location for most of the picture, this was an intense rigging job,” adds Velez. “I couldn’t have been able to give Matty and Spike what they wanted, without the support of my rigging gaffer, Bill Almeida, and best boy, Darrin Smith.”
Spike Lee’s creativity and trust in his cast and crew was steadfast on the Inside Man. It allowed director, cinematographer and crew to design very interesting and unique shots. “One of the most interesting was a phone conversation between Denzel and Clive,” recalls Consentino. “Denzel is in the emergency response vehicle and Clive at a desk in the bank. Both were sets at Steiner. And the sequence was shot simultaneously, with one operator on Clive and one 200 feet away, in the ‘interior’ of the vehicle on Denzel. It was great for the actors, and even better for editorial because the actors could feed off what was going on in each one’s minds and on the emotion of the moment.”
“Matty Libatique is definitely one of the most talented young
DPs in the business right now,” Consentino says enthusiastically. “His
visual approach to storytelling and his desire to craft a new lighting
vocabulary is truly refreshing. Matty is just so hard working—he
always found that great angle and sumptuous lighting palette for every
shot in the movie. He never just said throw the camera here or there
for some coverage, even on days when we had eight camera setups. I learned
so much being around him. He always pushed me to find that perfect frame
or angle in every shot we did.”
For Libatique, the making of the Inside Man was more than an intense project, with a talented director by the name of Spike Lee. It was a challenge that got his creative juices flowing. He worked hard to make the two worlds dissimilar, yet find a way where they could come together without “fighting” each other.
“The distinction of the two languages could not have worked if we hadn’t had the benefit of a conscientious dailies colorist (Sam Daley), who provided the results of our labors. Screening in HD at Technicolor New York, using their NEC DLP projectors proved production friendly and gave Spike the dailies experience he is accustomed to. The hard work had paid off, as we are using the HD conform as a color guideline in our D.I. with Steve Bowen (he’d worked with Spike on 25th Hour) at EFILM.”