Calculated Moves

When Godfather of Harlem Season 2 begins, it's February 1964, and the series' eponymous gangster, Ellsworth Bumpy Johnson (Forest Whitaker), has been in hiding for three months while notorious mafioso Vincent Chin Gigante (Vincent D'Onofrio) and his men scour New York City for him. Titled The French Connection, the season's first episode opens with a disheveled-looking Bumpy driving headlong through nighttime streets with a carful of Chin's thugs in hot pursuit. It's a far cry from the powerful image Bumpy projected upon his return to Harlem after a stint in Alcatraz, but as he showed throughout Season 1, he's endlessly resourceful, and one never knows what tricks he might have up his sleeve or hidden in the trunk of his car.

Following his work on Episodes 2, 3, 6, 7 and 10 of Season 1, cinematographer Jack Donnelly returned for Godfather of Harlem's second season, which continues to dance between fact and fiction as it weaves a narrative involving such historical figures as Johnson, Gigante, congressman Adam Clayton Powell (Giancarlo Esposito) and civil rights leader Malcolm X (Nigel Thatch). Donnelly was behind the camera for The French Connection as well as Episodes 4, 6, 8 and 10 of the second season. The remainder of Season 2 was photographed by Jay Feather.

I knew Jay from when he was a 2nd AC, Donnelly shares. He used to second for me years ago, and we kept in touch as he moved up. He operated tandem days on different jobs that I was on, and then he moved up to being DP on Veep. That production also afforded the two a chance to reconnect when Donnelly came aboard to shoot 2nd unit for episodes of Season 2 and 3.

The cinematographers began preproduction for Godfather of Harlem's second season in October 2020, with principal photography commencing in November and wrapping in April, just a couple of weeks before the season premiered on Epix on April 18. For Season 2, Donnelly brought the show to Panavision New York and elected to work with Millennium DXL2 cameras and Primo optics. I've always been a Panavision guy, even when I was doing commercials back in the '80s and '90s, he says. When it was my choice this year, I wanted to go to Panavision for a number of reasons. I really like the DXL2 with its large Monstro sensor and the Panavision color science, and I've always liked the Primo lenses.

Cinematographer Jack Donnelly (left) and camera operator Sandy Hays.

DXL2's large-format 8K sensor can be windowed-down in-camera, with the 5K capture area matching a Super 35 gate. This allows the camera in combination with field-swappable lens-mount adapters from the camera's native SP70 to either PV35 or PL to be paired with Super 35-format optics. We actually went to 6K, and Panavision expanded a couple of the lenses on the wide end that needed it the 14.5mm and 17.5mm, Donnelly explains. We only carried one full set of Primos, but I'd say 65 percent of the time we shot two cameras, so we would occasionally step down to 5K on one camera just to match sizes if we were cross-shooting for example, with a 40mm and a 35mm, or a 50mm and a 40mm.

Within the prime range, the 27mm and 35mm focal lengths proved to be particular workhorses for the production. In coverage, we were often doing clean shots slightly off-eyeline with those lenses, Donnelly says. But we carried up to the 150mm, which made for good punctuation editorially. Across the range of primes, the cinematographer tended to keep his exposure between T2 and T2.8, but a lot of times I'd let it slide to full wide open, he adds.

Despite the changes in camera and lens systems from Season 1 to 2, Donnelly says the filmmakers were focused on preserving a consistent visual style for the series. I talked to [showrunner] Chris Brancato and [producing director] Joe Chappelle about wanting to keep pushing on the look we had started with Season 1, which was more or less wider lenses most of the time and covering scenes so we weren't just doing over-the-shoulders to get closer eyelines. For important moments of dialogue, we would sometimes get the off-camera player to be almost behind the camera. With a wider lens, you feel a lot of the background even if it's soft, which places the actor and makes it feel more personable.

The visual consistencies also included a penchant for moving the camera on dollies and cranes stable platforms that echo the grounded sense of command that Bumpy exudes. Joe Chappelle [who directed The French Connection'] specifically asked for that again, Donnelly says. So we used the wider lenses, and we moved the camera and the people around to make the scenes play out. That makes a big impact visually.

We also used Steadicam a bit more this year, about 10 percent of the time, the cinematographer continues. Handheld, too, had its place. For example, Donnelly says, Later on in Season 2, there's a bunch of handheld stuff with Chin who, in contrast with Bumpy, can seem dangerously unhinged. By limiting handheld to those specific story points that called for its particular energy, the technique stands out more, Donnelly says, which makes it more effective for the viewer. It puts them in it.

For both seasons, Donnelly's key references have come from still photography of the early 1960s, including the work of Gordon Parks and material from old magazines, the cinematographer says. These references have helped the filmmakers recognize both period-accurate and anachronistic details when they're working on location around New York City. We find blocks in Harlem, in the Bronx and in parts of Brooklyn that look like Harlem would have looked from the second story up, but the retail floor and the street are all wrong, Donnelly notes. Even the crosswalks don't look right. The art

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