Today, instead of thoughts on strategy, life, and the ideas behind film and storytelling, I thought it might be fun to show some behind the scenes from a recent production we ran at the Supreme Court.
It’s been said that if you can light a beautiful interview, you can light almost anything. And over the years, I’ve found that there’s a lot of truth in that statement. Most of the incredible directors of photography I’ve worked with cut their teeth on interview lighting. Interviews demand that all the elements work together. The lighting has to feel cinematic without drawing attention to itself. The composition has to create depth and visual interest while remaining flexible enough to accommodate multiple camera angles. And because the subject often remains seated for an extended period, every detail in the frame has to hold up under close scrutiny.
Over the last decade, the team at Distant Moon and I have spent countless hours refining our approach to multi-camera interviews in every kind of environment imaginable, from corporate offices and museums to historic homes and warehouses. Every location presents a different puzzle, and solving those puzzles has become one of our favorite parts of filmmaking. And so I thought, in this week’s newsletter, I’d give a bit of a behind-the-scenes look at what goes into making a beautiful interview setup!
One technique we’ve relied on for the past few years is intentionally framing extremely wide shots that include our lights, C-stands, flags, and other grip equipment. At first glance, it looks completely wrong. But we know those elements won’t appear in the finished film.
(Bishop Barron talks with Justice Amy Comey Barrett in at the Supreme Court)
(The same shot before VFX/color)
The process depends on careful planning. After capturing the interview, we’ll remove pieces of equipment one at a time and photograph multiple clean plates of the room. Those plates become the foundation for our editorial and VFX teams, who seamlessly composite the room back together (i.e. paint away the equipment in photoshop before layering it into the final video). The result is a wide, immersive frame that would be nearly impossible to light conventionally without compromising the quality of the image.
For these particular setups, we captured at least four clean plates for every wide shot. It’s a little extra work on set, but it gives our VFX artists and editors the flexibility they need to preserve consistent lighting, maintain realistic shadows, and create a final image that feels effortless. Like so much of filmmaking, the best work is often completely invisible. If we’ve done our job well, no one notices the hundreds of small decisions that made the shot possible. They simply experience the story told through the interview.
(An alternate angle showing the behind the scenes.)
Let me know if you like the little looks behind the scenes. If so, I’ll mix in more of this sort of thing into future newsletter content!
Here’s to Human Flourishing!
-Ian
(Camera B – Justice Barrett’s Medium Closeup)
(Camera C – Bishop Barron’s Medium Closeup)
(Camera D – A medium two shot)