Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Creating the Look of Late Night

17/05/2022

A legendary talk show host employs a young scriptwriter and sparks fly in the new indie feature Late Night, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Written by and starring Mindy Kaling, and co-starring Emma Thompson, the set-up depicts them as poles apart in generation and culture, adding further twists in the comedy.

Cinematographer Matthew Clark on set.

The interplay between the two leads, as well as the desire to convey differences in the characters personalities and environment, led director of photography Matthew Clark to work closely with Panavision and Light Iron, who he had collaborated previously with on Set it Up and Little Evil.

Director Nisha Ganatra (Transparent) wanted to try and create as naturalistic a world as we could for the actors. That way, they would feel free to play around on set and location, explains Clark. I feel that with comedy especially, you want to allow your actors the freedom to move around physically and to improvise in order to find that true comic moment. So, we needed to keep our camera and lighting package small and our sets an open space. To be clear, we weren't aiming for the natural style of a documentary, but more of a heightened realism.

The film's three main locations are given a different tonal look. The parts of the story which cover Katherine's (Thompson) personal life at home in a town house in Brooklyn were given an elegant, rich, warm feel to which we added a little smoke haze to create some depth, notes Clark. The talk show studio (on a set in a Greenpoint Studio/Warehouse) was crisp and clean with a more neutral feel to it. The writers' room, which we shot in an office on the 17th floor in a building on Manhattan's east side, was given a cooler palette, more office or business-like.

Clark chose a Panasonic VariCam 35 to accommodate a tight budget and 25-day schedule. Sometimes, we had three or four locations a day. That means you have to move fast. I liked the ability to shoot at 5,000 ISO at night on location. I knew we would have a good base to start. Then, Ken Shibata (gaffer), Tommy Kerwick, Jr. (key grip) and I could use a minimal lighting package and still get our look while working at that speed.

For lens selection, he visited Panavision in Woodland Hills, and got his pick of 70s era Ultra Speeds and Super Speeds. Dan Sasaki presented me with two tables full of lenses from classic old Primos to new glass. I had the whole place to myself and was able to test shoot a lot of it.

Clark continues, I took the tests to Light Iron in Hollywood where colorist Corinne Bogdanowicz and I tried different looks, playing with saturation, shadows, highlights and even adding grain. That color prep really helped us move quickly and seamlessly when the production moved from L.A. to New York for principal photography where I collaborated with Light Iron NY colorist Sean Dunckley.

We tried out some pretty stylized filmic emulations, and then adjusted the levels of color in the blacks and highlights to create a more refined look, notes Bogdanowicz. The grain tests helped us add some subtle texture to the images.

Clark also worked with Light Iron Dailies Colorist Aaron Burns for a couple days to establish a LUT which Dunckley then finessed. I like to light for the LUT on location and I tend not to change it, says Clark, but if needed I will play around with it later. That's what Sean and I were able to do.

On finessing that LUT, Dunckley adds, I worked with Matt to create a LUT that was a bit more dynamic, pushing some cyan into the shadows and smoothing the skin tone colors. The LUT was used for dailies, and because Matt takes the time in pre-production to make the post process easy, we were a step ahead of the game when starting the DI.

Clark continues, One of the things you used to be able to do with film was pre-flash the raw stock. This opened up the blacks and allowed you to add color in the shadows depending on the percentage and color of the flash. It's a way to create an emotional effect. I wanted to do this digitally for our story. So, we mapped out the emotional change as we went through different scenes. The basic narrative arc is that the character's start out as individuals and wind up working together as a team. So, we start out with colder hues in the office, introducing a steely look in the shadows, and as the story moves forward we minimize blue for more rosy, warm tones with addition of some grain. There's a big juxtaposition between a scene in Katherine's bedroom, which is tonally rich, and the next day when she comes into the office and realizes she has to do something to get her job back. It's not a straight arc from blue to warm but changes according to the scene and context of the scene.

Lens choices included an 11:1 Primo Zoom the tried and trusted workhorse which is still beautiful and very creamy, Clark says. The older glass he chose helped break down the digital image in the way he wanted. The coating on the 40 delivers a warm glow which we mostly used for Katherine's personal world while several of the lenses had this rainbow flare which I felt gave us something different. These lenses are not perfect' which makes them perfect for this film. The aberrations, the older coatings, and the glass itself is less precise than most contemporary lenses and gives the digital image a softer look with more personality.

The two-camera, 4K production was lensed mostly on tripods and dollies with some Steadicam and occasional handheld.

A lot of the time, we were shooting close to wide open, maybe 2-2.8. That's hard on a 100mm with minimal lighting, so all credit to my A camera AC Pedro Corcega and B cam Adriana Brunetto-Lipman. Pulling focus on a Steadicam moving through a party is not for the faint-hearted. If you don't have tale
LINK: https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/creating-the-l...
See more stories from panavision

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

06/08/2026

Hisense Adds Dolby Vision 2 to Select Models

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

MediaKind to showcase one unified portfolio at IBC2026

At IBC2026, MediaKind will make its first major appearance as a unified global powerhouse in video, showcasing one of the world's most comprehensive video i...

06/08/2026

Big Blue Marble to unveil AI-assisted piracy detection an...

Big Blue Marble (#5.A63) will demonstrate how its integrated technology and operational expertise help media companies scale premium services with less complexi...

06/08/2026

NIH expected to award Scripps Research nearly $4.2 million over 5 years to advance tools for vaccine design

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research has received more than $500,000 in first-year fund...

06/08/2026

Improving vaccine design for Ebola, HIV and more

LA JOLLA, CA-Viruses are masters at invading our cells thanks to specialized proteins that coat their surfaces. When scientists design vaccines, they often crea...

06/08/2026

How a chemical reaction triggers brain inflammation in Alzheimer's disease

LA JOLLA, CA-The brain has its own immune system, which detects threats and mounts a defense. A growing body of evidence has shown that in Alzheimer's disea...

06/08/2026

Jin-Quan Yu elected to the National Academy of Sciences

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research chemist Jin-Quan Yu has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS), one of the highest honors a scientist can achieve....

06/08/2026

Scripps Research ranks third in 2026 Cure Innovation Index

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research ranked third in the inaugural 2026 Cure Innovation Index recognizing the top-performing institutes and centers across the United S...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research chemist Benjamin Cravatt elected to American Philosophical Society

Benjamin Cravatt, the Gilula Chair of Chemical Biology and a professor of chemis...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research immunologist Dennis Burton elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences

LA JOLLA, CA-Dennis Burton, professor and the James & Jessie Minor Chair in Immu...

06/08/2026

How changes to proteins can alter drug interactions for new precision therapies

LA JOLLA, CA-Inside every human cell, proteins are constantly being tagged with small chemical modifications after they're produced. Known as post-translati...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research establishes endowed chair honoring renowned structural biologist Ian Wilson

LA JOLLA-Scripps Research has established the Ian Wilson Endowed Chair, a new fa...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research's Skaggs Graduate School awards doctoral degrees to 34th graduating class

Scripps Research's Skaggs Graduate School of Chemical and Biological Science...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research chemist Jin-Quan Yu is named a Fellow of the Royal Society

LA JOLLA, CA-Professor Jin-Quan Yu of Scripps Research has been elected to the Fellowship of the Royal Society, the U.K.'s national academy of sciences and ...

06/08/2026

Experimental HIV vaccine achieves a long-sought goal

LA JOLLA, CA-For years, researchers have been hoping for vaccines that protect people against not just one strain of HIV, but every strain of the quickly mutati...

06/08/2026

Calibr-Skaggs advances CLF065, a regenerative GLP-2 therapy, into two Phase 2 IBD studies

LA JOLLA, CA-The Calibr-Skaggs Institute for Innovative Medicines, the nonprofit...

06/08/2026

Chemists snap together complex 3D molecules from highly reactive radicals'-without losing their shape

LA JOLLA, CA-Building the complex 3D molecules needed for new medicines has alwa...

06/08/2026

A fentanyl countermeasure that adapts to combat future black-market drugs

LA JOLLA, CA-Fentanyl and related variants of the synthetic opioid kill more Americans each year than car accidents and gun violence combined. In too-high doses...

06/08/2026

Two Scripps Research assistant professors named 2026 Baxter Young Investigators

LA JOLLA, CA-What do decoding communication between organs and reimagining the future of genome editing have in common? They're among the scientific questio...

06/08/2026

Calibr-Skaggs awarded $5.1M by NIH to develop long-acting hepatitis B virus therapy

LA JOLLA, CA-Of the 1.2 million people living with HIV in the United States, app...

06/08/2026

Lab studies explain how new cancer drug works as it enters patient testing

LA JOLLA, CA-For some people, cancer immunotherapies are life-changing. These treatments can turn the body's own immune system against a tumor, either elimi...

06/08/2026

Newly identified molecule strengthens the eye's response to damage in retinal disease

LA JOLLA, CA-Many conditions that cause vision loss share a common feature: the ...

06/08/2026

Molecular scissors caught in action: A structural blueprint for RNA therapeutics

LA JOLLA, CA-RNA interference is a natural mechanism for living cells to control whether specific genes are being used or not. Crowned with the 2006 Nobel Priz...

06/08/2026

Immune molecule may drive excessive drinking in alcohol use disorder

LA JOLLA, CA-The drugs that keep rheumatoid arthritis in check may one day help people stop drinking. A new Scripps Research study shows that an anti-inflammato...

06/08/2026

Back in action: Researchers make drug-resistant bacteria vulnerable again

LA JOLLA, CA-Antibiotic resistance is one of the most urgent threats to global health, linked to an estimated 4.7 million deaths worldwide in 2019 alone. As mor...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research scientists demonstrate a faster, cheaper route to making critical drugs using common table sugar

LA JOLLA, CA-Some of the world's best-selling diabetes drugs depend on a che...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research scientists awarded $2M to advance global disease surveillance

LA JOLLA, CA-Detecting infectious disease threats early and responding quickly can dramatically alter the course of an infectious outbreak. Technologies such as...

06/08/2026

Joan Pulupa joins Scripps Research faculty to study the organization of DNA in brain cells and its links to neurodegeneration

LA JOLLA, CA-Molecular biophysicist Joan Pulupa will join Scripps Research in Ja...

06/08/2026

Scripps Research scientists train the immune system to make antibodies against numerous HIV strains

LA JOLLA, CA-HIV is globally so diverse, consisting of hundreds of thousands of ...

06/08/2026

ASG Ups Michele Ferreira to Chief Business Officer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

WNBC and WNJU Expand New York Giants Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

Utah Scientific to Highlight NBOSS at IBC 2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

Disney, TikTok Ink Global Short-Form Content-Sharing Deal

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

Kane Peterson Joins QuickLink's North America Team

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

FCC Returns $881 Million in Unused TV Broadcaster Relocation Funds

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

06/08/2026

PlayBox Neo to highlight secure and scalable workflow del...

At this year's SET EXPO, PlayBox Neo will present recent innovations across its PlayBox Neo Suite and integrated range of broadcast media solutions. By show...

06/08/2026

Modern Streaming Solutions Private Limited Partners with...

Live demo at IBC2026 VisualOn Booth, Hall 5, Stand A55 Amsterdam, Netherlands Modern Streaming Solutions Private Limited, a rising force in India's dig...

06/08/2026

Screen Australia and YouTube Australia fund five new teams through eleventh Skip Ahead initiative

Screen Australia and YouTube Australia fund five new teams through eleventh Skip...

06/08/2026

How Karukera Studio Built a Media Production Hub with SNS EVO

How Karukera Studio Built a Media Production Hub with SNS EVO Melanie Ciotti August 5, 2026 0 Comments Hero images displays Karukera Studio in Sainte-...

06/08/2026

NHK drama series Rosanjin no Kamado shot on PYXIS 6K

NHK drama series Rosanjin no Kamado shot on PYXIS 6K Brie Clayton August 5, 2026 0 Comments Blackmagic PYXIS 6K and DaVinci Resolve Studio capture the...

06/08/2026

Camera Match: AutoSetup 3d Plugin / script for Photomontages- Cinema 4D

Camera Match: AutoSetup 3d Plugin / script for Photomontages- Cinema 4D Jamie Cardoso August 5, 2026 0 Comments If you do any kind of Architectural Vi...

06/08/2026

Documentary on the life and impact of Dnal Lunny to air on RT

In Time airs Monday 10 August at 9.35pm on RT One and RT Player In Time is the first film account of the life of D nal Lunny, one of the most influential Iri...

06/08/2026

Into the Omniverse: How Open World Models Push the Frontier of Physical AI

Editor's note: This post is part of Into the Omniverse, a series focused on how developers, 3D practitioners and enterprises can transform their workflows u...

06/08/2026

GeForce NOW Shakes Up August With 26 New Games

August is here, bringing 26 new games for GeForce NOW members. Command the seas in World of Warships: Legends and discover what's next in the GeForce NOW ...

05/08/2026

Thomson toolkit added to virtual hub built to strengthen climate storytelling

Thomson's Climate Crisis Toolkit for Media in Tanzania is being included in a new virtual library designed to ensure accurate and engaging storytelling arou...

05/08/2026

SVG Regional Sports Production Summit 2026: All Sessions Now Available to Watch on SVG PLAY

RSNs, teams, leagues, and streamers explore the present and future of local spor...

05/08/2026

SVG New Sponsor Spotlight: Hitachi Vantara's Lenny Khaitov on Building Resilient Data Infrastructure for Sports Production

As sports-production workflows generate larger volumes of unstructured data and ...