When director Frank Oz called cinematographer Rob Hahn, ASC to shoot the remake of The Stepford Wives, he was excited at the prospect. “There were so many reasons to say ‘yes,’” says Hahn. “Our previous collaborations on In and Out and The Score were very enjoyable and rewarding.

“The fact that I would be filming locations very close to my home in Connecticut was also a plus. Lastly, my mentor Owen Roizman, ASC had shot the original. It just seemed like the stars were aligned for me to shoot the remake!”

Hahn’s first read of the script only enhanced his excitement about the project. Rather than being a horror film, the new version was more satirical and more tongue-in-cheek. “Because of the change of tone, it was clear that I couldn’t go as dark and sketchy as I had on The Score,” he comments. However, early on in the project, Oz and Hahn decided not to go with high-key comedy lighting either.

“I wanted the film to look very rich and elegant, with a lot of shadows,” he explains. “Even though the feel of the film was closer to black comedy, there would still be some horror aspects. It was important to ease into this part of the film so that, when we did go to a darker place, the visual change in tone wouldn’t seem too abrupt.”

According to Hahn, the teaming between director and cinematographer is an organic match. Oz puts the look of his project in Hahn’s hands. “The only thing we agreed on was not to reference the original Stepford Wives,” Hahn explains. “We didn’t want to subconsciously incorporate any of that look into our film because it would be so different.

“The only exception was the supermarket scene that ends the original,” Hahn adds. “We have a similar scene in the new Stepford Wives, but it doesn’t end the film. However, as an homage to the original, we semi-copied some of the long lens camera moves. They aren’t exact duplications, but anyone familiar with the first film will recognize the tribute.”

Fortunately, Hahn was brought into the project three months before principal photography began. Since he’d worked with production designer Jackson DeGovia on The Score, they had an open communication. “He knows what I like and what I don’t like,” Hahn explains. “We work very well together.

“The most important aspects for me in pre-production are window placements in sets that are built, and the position of windows on real locations,” he adds. And, of course, wall color. Being involved so early allows me to influence these aspects so that I can easily control the look of the film months later when I’m lighting.

“The art department checks with me on all the materials that they plan to use on every set, including colors and textures. Everything is interconnected. Costume designer Ann Roth checks with both Jackson and myself to make sure the look of the wardrobe coincides with the overall look we are trying to achieve.

“Ann and Jackson both know that I don’t like white, so they try to steer away from using white in their designs. I find having darker walls allows me to control the contrast of a scene. I can easily make a darkly colored wall brighter, but it takes a lot of extra grip work to take light off a white wall. Even so, sometimes it is appropriate to have a white set or a white piece of clothing.

“I always felt like that decision was well considered and I was always consulted beforehand.”

Although Hahn feels comfortable with Kodak’s 5279 stock, he decided to test 5218. “Especially since we were doing a lot of visual effects,” he explains. In comparing the stocks, he felt that 5279 had more of a red push and was more saturated than 5218. “The new stock is very neutral and very smooth looking,” he explains. “It has a very fine grain structure.

“Initially, I thought it would be good to have a little more saturation to the look, especially when the family moves to ‘idyllic’ Stepford. “But the promise of a new stock that would hold beautifully through release print was too good to pass up.

“Since we weren’t doing a digital intermediate, I decided to use 5218 for all interiors, day and night, and 5248 for day exteriors. I rated 5218 at 400 ASA and ended up printing in the mid to upper 30s.”

Although Hahn loves the anamorphic format, he decided to shoot in 1.85. “Truthfully, I would shoot every picture in 2.40 if I could,” he admits. “It is simply my favorite canvas and I think, with few exceptions, (like when you need height), it works for any story.

“I was prepared to fight that battle until Tippett Studios said they much preferred to work with a spherical image than an anamorphic one for all of the effects. That clinched the use of 1.85.”

The entire film was shot with prime lenses, using a Panavision Platinum camera. Hahn prefers not to shoot with two cameras, especially when he has to carefully light close up shots. “The women in this film had to look beautiful and trying to properly light Glenn Close, Bette Midler, Nicole Kidman or Faith Hill using multiple cameras wasn’t going to cut it. Fortunately, Frank Oz was completely supportive of this,” Hahn adds.

Hahn chose to use a 1/8th black Pro Mist and a 1/8th Classic Soft, at times going to a 1/4th Classic Soft on his close ups.

As with most films, the opening sequence of The Stepford Wives became a key to luring audiences into the story and an interesting challenge for Hahn and crew. In this version, Nicole Kidman plays a network executive who is showing the affiliates examples of their upcoming television season. “Since she is a business woman, very dedicated to her work, we decided to keep the opening of the film steely and cool,” Hahn explains. It is a contrast to when the character arrives in Stepford, where the colors soften and become more saturated.

The sequence was shot at the 3000 seat New Jersey Performing Arts Center. “I had to pre-light the location on the weekend because we had only two days to shoot everything,” Hahn explains.

“We had two major areas to deal with––the stage and the audience. On stage, we designed what looks like huge icicles flaring from the center of the stage outward in a sunburst pattern,” he explains. “At each end of the icicle was a wide-screen projection screen, which would show examples of the new television shows Nicole’s character would be introducing.” (Hahn shot the scenes on Hi-Def before principal photography began)

“The entire stage was lit with 54 Vari-Lites, hidden behind the structure and also hung from trusses above the stage,” he continues. “In keeping with our steely look, I chose to keep the colors cool with a lot of blues and pinks.

“All the Vari-Lites were controlled by computer, so they could be programmed to move in a predictable manner when each show was introduced. A touch of atmospheric smoke helped delineate the shafts of light.

“To highlight Nicole, we used a 10 degree Leko 150 foot spot, with a magnifying lens located in the second balcony. I kept her about three quarters of a stop over the key.

“For the audience, we used 5Ks and 10Ks throughout, for highlights,” he adds. “The overhead theater lighting was brought up on dimmers for a touch of room tone. And, on the back walls of the balconies behind the rows of seats, we used strip lights made of MR16s to give us a subtle wash of light. That way, the audience members were silhouetted against these walls to give us extra depth.

“Shooting with four cameras and a Super Technocrane, we were able to finish the sequence in the required two days.”

Hahn’s favorite sequence was an exterior garden set that was built for a scene where Nicole Kidman’s character seduces Christopher Walken’s. “This is the only scene in the film where I used a net over the lens,” Hahn explains. “For a more romantic feel.

“We placed candles in the background, out of focus, and I used a lot of dappled light on their faces, conjuring the look of the black and white films of the 40s. My goal was to make the lighting look rich enough with shadows and patterns so that you could drain all the color out of the scene and it would still look sumptuous.”

For Hahn, the most complicated sequence in the film was the night ballroom scene that he talked about briefly in last year’s On the Set piece. It was also his biggest scene. “Every actor appears in this sequence, which covers very important story points. And, special effects added to its complexity.

“There are columns on either side of the open air set that leads to an exterior garden. The columns have wrought iron connecting them and climbing vines attached to the wrought iron.

“Two large chandeliers hang from the ceiling, but I decided to use these lights only for warm room tone,” he explains. “The main lighting came from outside the ballroom, from the garden.

“I hung 20Ks and 10Ks on trusses that could be raised or lowered by pushing a button,” he continues. “They were placed at some distance from the set so that, when the light came through the wrought iron and the vines, they created a lovely dappled light on the actors and their colorful wardrobe.

“I also used many loose branches of leaves on multiple C-stands to create more dappled shadows when I needed to add more patterns,” he adds. “What made the sequence difficult was trying to light a room full of people without making it look busy. Using these large sources from far away (and by keeping them high enough), we were able to lessen the problem of actors shadowing the people next to them.

“We were in this set for a few weeks and that made it difficult to control lighting continuity,” Hahn explains. “In the best of all possible worlds, you want to shoot everything you can in the same direction. This just wasn’t possible. We might revisit a certain angle many times over a period of a month.”

To help keep continuity, Hahn used Panavision’s Kodak Preview System. He took digital photos, printed them on the Dye-Sub printer as a reference, then whenever he returned to the same area; he’d refer to the print to make sure he was matching the same direction of light and amount of room tone in the background.

“The system is so accurate that I’d send a print of each set up to Technicolor every night and tell them, ‘match this print.’ It also helped us ‘see’ our dailies on the spot, which took away some of the stress in shooting a big sequence like this. Additionally, we would use the Preview prints to help us match lighting when we had to recreate the same look on a green screen stage weeks later.”

As if this sequence wasn’t difficult enough, Hahn faced a bigger challenge while trying to recreate the Men’s Association scene from the original picture. This sequence had been shot at the Lockwood Matthews Mansion in Norwalk, Connecticut. “Although our version required a much longer sequence, we decided it was too expensive to build a set for this part of the movie,” Hahn explains. “So we decided to use the same location as the original film.

“Deciding to shoot in the real location caused many problems,” he continues. “The rotunda is almost three stories tall. Any lighting design I chose couldn’t be easily changed on the day(s) of shooting because of the height of the building and the difficulty of getting to the rig once it was in place.

“I wanted the Stepford men, who were going to surround Nicole Kidman, to each be bathed in their own pool of light. So, we pre-rigged Lekos and 5Ks on trusses attached to the ceiling. All lighting was controlled by a remote dimmer board. But the lighting rig was fixed. Once the patterns of light were aimed and focused, that was it.

“The last detail was to get the right overall room tone,” he adds. “For this, I floated a helium balloon.

“Again, the Preview System was invaluable. During our pre-light, we took digital stills and balanced the light based on the prints we developed. So, there were no surprises.

“I also played with colored gels in this sequence,” Hahn says. “The rotunda has adjacent rooms that we see and I decided to bathe some of the rooms using 5Ks with double Tough 50 Blue gels. I thought the dark reddish maroon walls and warm rotunda interior would look richer when contrasted with deep blue backgrounds.

“That, coupled with some lightning effects (because of the rainstorm raging outside), made this one of the most challenging sequences in the film. And one of the most fun to shoot.”

As if that weren’t difficult enough, the story called for a bier to ascend (and later descend) from the floor in the rotunda’s center. “Since there was no hole in the floor, we had to accomplish this digitally,” Hahn explains. “We built a duplicate floor on an elevated sound stage, which allowed us to photograph the real bier appearing and disappearing from the floor.

“We shot an empty plate of the floor in the rotunda and later the two pieces were digitally composited,” he adds.

“In the scene, when the bier descends, a shaft of light shoots upward into the rotunda. The shafts were added digitally, but the effect of the shaft of light onto the people in the room had to be done on the real location.

“I put a bare 10K on a dimmer in the middle of the rotunda floor on the exact spot where the bier would be,” he continues. “We shot a plate with all the men standing in a circle around the center of the room, while we brought the intensity of the bulb up to full power.

“When all the pieces are put together, it looks like the digital light is splashing light onto all the surroundings in the rotunda.”

Hahn had a lot of fun with several other sequences that were done in a manner quite different from the norm. “We had some interior car sequences that were challenging and fun because we decided to do them on stage using green screens for the background,” he recalls.

“Richard Edlund (Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark) shot the background plates first. He knew the exact angles to use for the plates because we rehearsed the set ups in advance, using a 35 mm still camera.

“When it came to shooting the car scenes on stage, we duplicated the camera positions we had rehearsed previously.

“For lighting, we made six wooden rotating drums, with cookie patterns cut out in the wood. Putting a bare 2K and 5K bulb in the center, these drums could be spun vertically or horizontally at varying speeds, creating dappled sunlight effects on Glenn Close, Nicole Kidman and Matthew Broderick while driving.

“To make sure the effects didn’t become too rhythmic, I also put each drum light on a dimmer,” he adds.

“In addition, I positioned a grip in front of the drum and he would intermittently block the light using a flag. The cumulative effect of spinning and dimming the drum at different speeds, and occasionally blocking the light, gave us the random dappled driving effect we wanted.

“It still wasn’t enough, though,” he admits. “For every other light used in the scene, I had someone passing a real branch in front of that light intermittently, while a second person randomly dimmed the same light.

“For fill, I used a 20K bounced into a 20-by muslin,” he adds. “Sunlight on Nicole’s shoulder was from a 5K, about one and three quarters stops over my shooting stop. Even this light and the fill were on dimmers.

“The final effect was digital,” he explains. “Richard and WhoDoo EFX applied reflections of the sky and trees into the windshield of the car. Then, they added the background plates to the green screen. The combination of all these effects, especially when randomly applied, made for a very realistic driving experience.

“This was my first time shooting driving shots like this,” he admits. “Although I was apprehensive at first, I am very pleased with the final results.”

For Rob Hahn, Stepford Wives was a labor of love, as well as a homage to his mentor Owen Roizman. It was a very different challenge, made easier by the cooperation of a team of talented people.

“My camera crew included camera operator Bruce MacCallum and first assistants Bobby Mancuso and Chris Silano, who did a great job during our long shoot. Gaffer Gene Engels and key grip Tommy Prate both worked with me on In and Out and they contributed an enormous creativity to the process.

“The film looks that much better because of their participation.

“Shooting Stepford Wives was enormously challenging, especially in finding the right tone. I hope the audience can find some fun in our version and be entertained by the tongue-in-cheek style that we intended.”