Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

DP Matthew Clark shoots Amazon Studios' feature Late Night with the Panasonic VariCam 35 Cinema Camera

31/05/2019

--

From Amazon Studios, Late Night, directed by Nisha Ganatra from a screenplay by Mindy Kaling, follows late-night talk show host Katherine Newbury (Emma Thompson) teams up with new writer, Molly Patel (Kaling), to help revitalize the program and her career. The comedy feature, which had its premiere at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival, was shot by cinematographer Matthew Clark (Pitch Perfect 3, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates) with the VariCam 35 camera.

Clark got involved with Late Nightthrough Ganatra, whom he had worked with on several projects since they both attended NYU Tisch School of the Arts years before. For Clark, one of the toughest tasks in shooting comedy is to make it look and feel natural for the audience while allowing the space for them to laugh. The visuals has to have some depth to them, but you need to let the actors work things out on screen, he explains. That was a big part for this film knowing the way Nisha likes to work. She's visual but she's also very actor oriented, so one of the things I wanted to do was make our technical footprint as small as possible to give the actors room to work and to find those comic moments.

For Late Night, Clark describes the look as heightened naturalism. He created a look book that contained images from still photographers Gregory Crewdson's artificial reality to Robert Frank's super naturalism images. He also worked with Light Iron colorists Corinne Bogdanowicz in Los Angeles and Sean Dunckley in New York to develop the look during prep. There were three distinct kind of looks we wanted, describes Clark. One was for Catherine's home, which was more elegant with warm tones. The television studio needed to be crisp and clean with more neutral tones and for the writers' room office, the look was more chaotic and business-like with blue or cooler tones.

Late Nightwas shot with the VariCam 35 with a small crew in a short 25-day schedule. During prep, Clark, gaffer Ken Shibata and key grip Tommy Kerwick, Jr. decided that if they went with a traditional lighting and grip package, there would not be enough man power to complete the days since they would be shooting sometimes three to four locations on the same day.

We didn't have the money to put up condors three blocks away with four generators, so we went with the idea of going with the VariCam because of its native 5000 ISO, explains Clark. The camera allowed us to move fast and have a good base when we moved out to those night exteriors and even the night interiors. For example, working with a China ball, we could light an entire room. It's a valuable resource to have if you need to shoot that way and in this instance we did. We were able to get that base and still have time to make it better on top of that, as well as allow for motion in and out of the light.

With the VariCam 35, Clark captured 4K 12-bit 444 AVC Intra files in V-log. With Bogdanowicz, he developed a basic 709 LUT. For any night exterior or interior, Clark utilized the VariCam's native 5000 ISO and for daytime sequences, he captured at native 800 ISO. For lenses, he used 70s era Superspeeds and Ultraspeeds from Panavision, which he feels added warmth and took some of the digital edge off. My ACs, Pedro Corcega and Adriana Brunetto-Lipman, were so on it, explains Clark. When you're shooting with a 100mm lens and you're on your fourth location of the day, people can get pretty tired, but they were always on top of things. Clark occasionally made use of an 11 - 1 Primo zoom, which delivered a similar look to his primes.

Clark and Shibata cut generators out of their lighting package and went with smaller instruments that they could plug into a wall socket or run off a portable Putt-Putt. They mainly lit with small LED lights and an ARRI M18 1.8K open faced lamp. We did it as lo-fi as possible, explains Clark. We had one day where we had a 4K and that was because we had a big window outside this house, and I wanted to light it from outside at night with no lights inside.

Perhaps the most challenging location to light was the writers' room office set, since they were several stories up and there were two half walls that were windows.

Whenever we wanted to have light come from one side, explains Clark, we put up ND 3 and ND 6 hard gels that we'd either stack on one side and then allow the light to come in clean from the other side. It gives you that contrast so instead of getting two sides with a lot of light, you can expose for the outside, open up, and the light is coming in from one side of the building giving you your key light. When we turned around and looked towards those windows then you could move the hard gels to the other side.

For shooting New York City night exteriors, Clark used a China ball for walk-and-talks. New York street lamps used to be orange sodium vapor but now they're changing everything out for these LED street lights that are super bright white and they're hard, reveals Clark. There's no romance about them. That was hard because they would sometimes overpower the 5000 ISO sensitivity and you'd have to figure out how to get something up on that light or when they walk under, you had to swing something out over them. We often picked streets based on the street lights they were going to walk under because we really couldn't fix that in the middle of the night.

At 5000, you see everything so it's about shaping what you see, continues Clark. You can shoot 5000 ISO at night under a street light, so your ratios have to be there. You still have to light it, but you don't have to pull out big instruments to give you a good exposure. It's more about figuring out where you need to be and then shape that exposure.

Proper pre-planning with post made the color grade more effe
LINK: https://news.creativecow.net/story/897162...
See more stories from creativecow

Most recent headlines

09/11/2025

Dalet Unveils Agentic AI Media Workflows at IBC2025

Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...

06/10/2025

France Tlvisions Wins Prestigious 2025 EBU Technology & Innovation Award in Groundbreaking Collaboration with Dalet

France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...

13/09/2025

Cox Media Group's Misti Turnbull Inducted into the NATAS Silver Circle

ATLANTA Cox Media Group has announced that the company's vice president of news, Misty Turnbull has been inducted into the National Academy of Television Ar...

13/09/2025

Shotoku Debuts Swoop Cranes for Studio Robotics at IBC2025

AMSTERDAM Shotoku Broadcast Systems, a major developer of robotic systems, has announced plans to take studio robotics to the next level at IBC2025 by debuting ...

13/09/2025

Riedel Unveils Ultra-Light Bolero Mini Wireless Intercom...

At IBC2025 in Amsterdam, Riedel Communications unveiled Bolero Mini, the company's lightest and flattest wireless intercom beltpack to date. Designed to del...

13/09/2025

Shotoku Takes Studio Robotics to New Heights with IBC Deb...

Shotoku Broadcast Systems, the international developer of dependable, userfriendly robotic systems, is taking studio robotics to the next level at IBC 2025 with...

13/09/2025

The Bitmovin Video Developer Report 2025-26 Reveals Cost...

Bitmovin, a leading provider of video streaming solutions, today released the 9th annual Video Developer Report 2025/26, offering an in-depth look at the evolvi...

13/09/2025

Bitmovin and StreamShark Partner to Deliver High Quality...

Bitmovin, the leading provider of video streaming solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with StreamShark, the trusted video platform for enterprise...

13/09/2025

Ikegami Announces VFE-P711AD 7-inch OLED Multiformat On-C...

Ikegami has chosen IBC 2025 in Amsterdam as the launch venue for a major addition to its range of viewfinders. The new VFE-P711AD is a 7-inch high resolution OL...

13/09/2025

KitBash3D and Greyscalegorilla Announce Merger

Founder-led Merger to Fast Track R&D, Asset Library Upgrades, Tools and More; No Disruption to Pricing or Support for Users Today, KitBash3D, a pioneer in 3D a...

13/09/2025

Mavis Puts Itself at the Heart of Mobile Production

With NDI certification, Atomos integration, Grass Valley collaboration, and a new Monitor app, at this year's IBC, Mavis is showcasing a series of powerful...

13/09/2025

Creamsource Expands Vortex Family with Vortex24 Soft

Creamsource, maker of artisan LED lighting for film and television, has unveiled the Vortex24 Soft (V24S), a 1950W native soft light and the largest soft source...

13/09/2025

DAZN streams 2025 FIFA Club World Cup to billions of fans...

When international sports streaming service DAZN secured the global rights to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup football tournament, it set out to deliver an unmatch...

13/09/2025

Riedel Communications Acquires hi human interface

Riedel Communications today announced the acquisition of hi human interface from Broadcast Solutions, bringing a powerful, vendor-agnostic control system to it...

13/09/2025

RTW chooses Calrec as technology partner for its AI ready...

Building on its long-term relationship with audio metering specialist RTW, Calrec has integrated the company's brand new TMxCore metering platform across it...

13/09/2025

Calrec unveils 48 fader Argo M at IBC2025 and demonstrate...

Calrec is expanding its family of future-ready self-contained Argo M control surfaces at IBC2025, with the addition of a brand new powerful 48-fader console. Co...

13/09/2025

SKY Perfect Modernizes Playout-to-Delivery with Harmonic

Harmonic's Software-Based XOS Advanced Media Processor Provides Unparalleled Efficiency and Unlocks New Business Models SAN JOSE, Calif. - Sept. 13, 2025 -...

13/09/2025

September 11, 2025

Researchers find brain region that fuels compulsive drinking Study by Scripps Research scientists shows how the brain learns to seek alcohol for relief, not jus...

12/09/2025

College Football Kickoff 2025: Fox Sports Ups Look as Canon, Sony Power Shallow Focus Coverage

College Football Kickoff 2025: Fox Sports Ups Look as Canon, Sony Power Shallow ...

12/09/2025

ABC/ESPN Excited For WNBA Postseason Coverage In Revamped Format

ABC/ESPN Excited For WNBA Postseason Coverage In Revamped FormatThe Finals moves to a best-of-seven series in 2025By Mark J Burns, SVG Contributor Friday, Sep...

12/09/2025

Rabbit Trap Pulsates With Folklore Dread

(L-R) Jade Croot, Rosy McEwen, and Bryn Chainey attend the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Rabbit Trap at Eccles Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park ...

12/09/2025

Spotify's The Drop Weekly' Brings You the Week in New Releases, Straight From Our Editors

For fans, we know how important it is to stay plugged into music culture and dis...

12/09/2025

Agama and Consult Red announce RDK Accelerator integration

Link ping, Sweden and Shipley, United Kingdom, September 12, 2025 - Agama, the expert in video observability and analytics for service quality and customer expe...

12/09/2025

IBC2025 Opens for Business

IBC2025 began on Sept. 12, with exhibits and conferences running through Sept. 15 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Center. Explore the full TV Tech coverage of t...

12/09/2025

The Best Fictional Bands (and the Artists Who Make Them Great)

The Best Fictional Bands (and the Artists Who Make Them Great) With Spinal Tap II: The End Continues hitting theaters and songs from KPop Demon Hunters ruling...

12/09/2025

Tom Baldassare Joins Advanced Systems Group

Industry veteran Tom Baldassare has joined Advanced Systems Group, LLC (ASG), a technology and services provider for media creatives and content owners, as a Se...

12/09/2025

Maxon Unveils a Brand New Look for its Growing Family of...

Maxon, maker of powerful, approachable software solutions for creators working in 2D and 3D design, motion graphics, visual effects, and more, today announced a...

12/09/2025

PlayBox Neo US Partners with AI-Media to Deliver Scalable...

PlayBox Neo, a leading provider of media playout solutions, has partnered with AI-Media, pioneering developers of AI-powered captioning technology, to integrate...

12/09/2025

Dalet Unveils Agentic AI Media Workflows at IBC2025

Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...

12/09/2025

Keepit and Ingram Micro launch strategic sales agreement...

New alliance strengthens the IT channel in Germany and Switzerland in protecting business-critical SaaS data. Keepit, the world s only independent, cloud-nativ...

12/09/2025

Mediaset selects Fincons Group AllRights to evolve rights...

Fincons Group, an international IT business consultancy and systems integrator company with more than 40 years of experience in the market, is proud to announce...

12/09/2025

EVS Acquires XD motion

Following its acquisition of Telemetrics, EVS continues its push into robotics with an announcement at IBC2025 that it is acquiring XD motion....

12/09/2025

Televisa Executive Joins NABA Board

TORONTO The North American Broadcasters Association (NABA) has announced the appointment of Eduardo Ruiz Sanchez, deputy director, broadcast operations at Telev...

12/09/2025

Ed Miller, Former SBE President, Has Died

Ed Miller, a longtime broadcast engineer in Ohio and a former national president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, has died....

12/09/2025

IBC2025: Dynamic HDR Gains Traction

AMSTERDAM At this year's IBC2025, the Advanced HDR by Technicolor initiative will be pushing broadcasters to adopt a more dynamic, frame-by-frame conversion...

12/09/2025

Granville opens up one last time for U&GOLD in Open All Hours: Inside Out

Feature-length retrospective from Studio Crook to air in 2026 Sir David Jason returns to the nation's favourite comedy channel, U&GOLD, for Open All Hours:...

12/09/2025

Bob Geldof to receive Lifetime Achievement Award at the Sky Arts Awards 2025

Friday 12 September 2025 The Boomtown Rats, Nyah Grace, Soweto Kinch, Royal Ballet and Madness also announced to perform at the ceremony on Tuesday Sky today ...

12/09/2025

Riedel Unveils Ultra-Light Bolero Mini Wireless Intercom Beltpack

Wuppertal September 12, 2025 Riedel Unveils Ultra-Light Bolero Mini Wireless Intercom BeltpackAt IBC2025 in Amsterdam, Riedel Communications unveiled Bolero M...

12/09/2025

Riedel Communications Acquires hi human interface

Wuppertal September 12, 2025 Riedel Communications Acquires hi human interfaceRiedel Communications today announced the acquisition of hi human interface fro...

12/09/2025

New International Crime Series Road (WT)' Explores Twisted Murders Across Borders

Back to All News New International Crime Series Road (WT)' Explores Twiste...

12/09/2025

First Look: Thai Crime Drama Everybody Loves Me When I'm Dead' Premieres October 14

Back to All News First Look: Thai Crime Drama Everybody Loves Me When I'm ...

12/09/2025

Netflix Marks 10 Years in Japan, Announces Three New Series That Will Keep You Hitting The Next Episode

Back to All News Netflix Marks 10 Years in Japan, Announces Three New Series Th...

12/09/2025

What Is CORE+ Technologyand How Does It Elevate Church Sound?

CORE+ virtually removes distortion, setting a new standard for church sound and giving worship teams the clarity and confidence they need. Read the full artic...

12/09/2025

Margot Robbie, Colin Farrell, Mary Robinson and Conor Murray amongst guests on Late Late Show season opener

The Late Late Show is back with a bang after the summer break, and Patrick Kielt...

12/09/2025

Another jam-packed weekend of live, free-to-air Sport across RT

The World Athletics Championships, Ireland v France in the Women's Rugby World Cup quarter-final, the Irish Champions Festival, and two Sports Direct Men...

12/09/2025

Katie Hannon explores the shelves of Ireland's National Archives in new series

The Records Show starts Sunday at 6.30pm on RT One and RT Player. Katie Hanno...

11/09/2025

Report: Busy Live Sports Streaming Execs Have Low-hanging Fruit' in Front of Them

Report: Busy Live Sports Streaming Execs Have Low-hanging Fruit' in Front o...

11/09/2025

Inside Game Creek Video's Big Week as Ovation, Flagship Make NFL Debuts

Inside Game Creek Video's Big Week as Ovation, Flagship Make NFL DebutsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director Thursday, September 11, 2025 - 7:00 am Pr...

11/09/2025

NFL Kickoff 2025: Prime Sports Starts New Season at Lambeau Field; Sets Sights on Holiday Matchups, Second-Ever Playoff Game

NFL Kickoff 2025: Prime Sports Starts New Season at Lambeau Field; Sets Sights o...