
--
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
Most recent headlines
05/01/2027
Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...
01/06/2026
January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026
Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...
02/05/2026
Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...
01/05/2026
January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...
01/04/2026
January 4 2026, 18:00 (PST) DOLBY AND DOUYIN EMPOWER THE NEXT GENERATON OF CREATORS WITH DOLBY VISION
Douyin Users Can Now Create And Share Videos With Stun...
16/03/2026
DAZN will allow fans in select international territories to watch the NCAA men...
16/03/2026
IDM and The Skate Board Association (SBA) have announced a partnership with Coop...
16/03/2026
Solid State Logic (SSL) will debut the Net I/O ST 2110 Bridge at NAB 2026 (booth C6907), a standalone unit that converts between ST 2110 and Dante audio formats...
16/03/2026
Marshall Electronics (Booth C8339) is introducing its first all-IP 4K POV camera, the CV574-WP, at NAB 2026. The camera carries an IP67 weatherproof rating for ...
16/03/2026
Sony Electronics' Camera Verify (beta), a feature of its Camera Authenticity Solution which enables news organizations to share content authenticity informa...
16/03/2026
FloSports has announced a partnership with Storied Sports, a content and IP studio founded by former espnW and The Players' Tribune executives, to develop s...
16/03/2026
Montreux Jazz Festival has announced a multi-year collaboration with Gravity Media, who will become the Festival's Audio Visual Production Provider followin...
16/03/2026
USSI Global, a provider of customized network, broadcast and digital signage systems and services, has announced Ralph Annunziata joined the company on Jan. 5 a...
16/03/2026
Boland Communications (booth C3519) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 in Las Vegas, ...
16/03/2026
Built in partnership with Diversified, the system
As the sports broadcast indus...
16/03/2026
Global FAST (Free Ad-supported Streaming TV) viewership grew 21% year-over-year ...
16/03/2026
Behind The Mic provides a roundup of recent news regarding on-air talent, includ...
16/03/2026
A still from Mr. Nobody Against Putin by David Borestein and Pavel Talankin, a...
16/03/2026
Promises studio-grade fidelity for the stage
Cloudvocal have announced the launch of a new instrument mic designed for professional live performers and engi...
16/03/2026
Popular MIDI/CV converter & interface overhauled
Kenton have announced the launch of the USB Solo Mk2, a new and improved version of their compact MIDI to C...
16/03/2026
Running from 16-29 March 2026
Starting from today (16 March) and running until 29 March 2026, Sonarworks are offering discounts of up to 40% across their ra...
16/03/2026
Dr. Robert H. Goddard and a liquid oxygen-gasoline rocket in the frame from which it was fired on March 16, 1926, at Auburn, Massachusetts. Credit: NASA....
16/03/2026
Precision-guided munitions shown in production illustrate one of many operational systems benefiting from modernized M-Code GPS, supporting assured positioning,...
16/03/2026
NEW YORK - March 16, 2026 - A E Global Media and Nielsen today announced a new,...
16/03/2026
aconnic AG (ISIN: DE000A0LBKW6), Munich, is delivering the first commercial 100-Gigabit systems following successful validation and certification for customer n...
16/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/03/2026
Shotoku USA, Shotoku Broadcast Systems' North American operation, will unveil significant additions to its platform at NAB 2026. Topping the list is the wor...
16/03/2026
Ikegami USA will demonstrate the latest additions to its wide range of broadcast-quality cameras, controllers and monitors on Central Hall booth C3819 during th...
16/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
16/03/2026
ELEMENTS launches GRID at NAB Show 2026
Brie Clayton March 15, 2026
0 Comments
North Hall, Booth N1717
ELEMENTS returns to NAB Show 2026, with an exp...
16/03/2026
Blackmagic Design Cameras Capture Artist Salavat Fidai's Micro Sculptures
Brie Clayton March 15, 2026
0 Comments
6K sensor and open gate capabilit...
16/03/2026
DHD to Introduce Latest Generation Broadcast Audio Mixers at NAB 2026, Las Vegas
Brie Clayton March 15, 2026
0 Comments
Hero image: Front of DHD RM1 P...
16/03/2026
16 Mar 2026
VEON Files its 2025 Annual Report on Form 20-F Dubai and New York, March 16, 2026 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital operator ( VEON'...
16/03/2026
Six Couples. 100 Days Apart. One Question: Does Absence Make the Heart Grow Fond...
16/03/2026
Monday 16 March 2026
Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and Riz Ahmed announced as first th...
16/03/2026
Back to All News
Netflix Has Released the Trailer for Love at Last, Starring Ed...
16/03/2026
The reporting option was introduced following extensive consultation with publis...
16/03/2026
After a nail-biting Grand Finale, Rose of Tralee Katelyn Cummins has been announced as the winner of Dancing with the Stars 2026.
The four finalists each dance...
16/03/2026
Welcome to Moore Street will begin on RT One and RT Player on Thursday 19 Marc...
15/03/2026
Visit ToolsOnAir at NAB Las Vegas 2026
More Details:From April 19-22, join us at NAB Show Las Vegas in the North Hall, Booth N1258, for an exclusive preview of...
15/03/2026
Latest dark drama, thrillers & tension library announced
The Very Loud Indeed Co.'s latest Kontakt library has just arrived, delivering a third instalme...
15/03/2026
Johannesburg, 14 March 2026 - On 13 and 14 March 2026, the 19th Annual South Afr...
15/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/03/2026
Combines mic, USB interface & wireless IEMs
Following a successful Kickstarter campaign, HISONG have announced that their innovative AirStudio S1 device is ...
14/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/03/2026
Share
Copy link
Facebook
X
Linkedin
Bluesky
Email...
14/03/2026
Yospace, the trusted leader in Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI), stitched 5.4 billion one-to-one addressable OTT advertisements across the 17 days of Milano Cortina 2...
14/03/2026
Telestream Advances Production-Ready AI Across Its Product Portfolio
Brie Clayton March 13, 2026
0 Comments
New AI capabilities drive smarter automati...