Steven Meizler Composes Visual Language with ZEISS Supreme Primes in White House Plumbers

Steven Meizler Composes Visual Language with ZEISS Supreme Primes in White House Plumbers

Brie Clayton June 30, 2023

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Emmy Award-Winning cinematographer Steven Meizler ( The Queen's Gambit, The OA, Godless, and the upcoming The Beanie Bubble ) brings his penchant for meticulous thought and planning to David Mandel's White House Plumbers. The MAX limited series showcases Meizler's determination to execute the best consistent visual language in the re-telling of 1970s Watergate break-in perpetrators E. Howard Hunt (Woody Harrelson) and G. Gordon Liddy (Justin Theroux). The cinematographer is known to plot out lighting, composition and tonality patiently and scrupulously across his work. To help him prepare the visual language of White House Plumbers, Meizler once again relied on the ZEISS Supreme Primes.

How did you become involved with White House Plumbers?

Meizler: This project became a victim of the pandemic at first. The original DP attached was Sal Totino. He was already prepping when the pandemic hit, and they shut down the show. When production started up again, Sal was shooting a show in New Orleans. We are friends and he recommended me to the producers.

Steve Meizler at ZEISS

I interviewed with David Mandel and we hit it off due a mutual love of '70s political espionage thrillers.

The look had not been established yet. In the original prep they had only just started to look at locations. David had a really good look book but it was mostly different photos of the era Still that helped give an idea of what our look was going to be.

Director of Photography Steven Meizler, left picture editor Roger Nygard and director David Mandel, on the set of White House Plumbers. Photograph by Phil Caruso

What is the show about?

It's about two central characters, G. Gordon Liddy and E. Howard Hunt, who masterminded the Watergate break-in. They were handpicked by Egil Krogh, a member of Nixon's administration, not just to break into the Watergate, but to also commit underhanded tactics including espionage.

These people were involved in some really, really bad stuff on behalf of the government. Howard Hunt had a background in the CIA invasion of the Bay of Pigs and was connected to the Kennedy assassination. Our story follows Hunt and Liddy through the four break-ins at the Watergate. It goes through each break-in, showing how they formed the group of perpetrators. It also shows their family lives and how the consequences of their decisions affected their families.

We kind of walked a tightrope between comedy and drama; what they were doing is so crazy and so silly that it's very easy to find humor, but then the consequences are obviously where the drama comes in. It's a tricky line to juggle. Hopefully we did an okay job.

Still Photograph by Phil Caruso/HBO from behind the scenes of White House Plumbers

There are so many locations involved, where did you film the show?

We filmed most of it- almost 90% of it-in Upstate New York in the Hudson Valley. Everything was shot there except for about three weeks at the end when we went down to Washington DC. We shot and even stayed at the Watergate, which was fun. The architecture is such a big part of the show. Specifically with Watergate, I'm so glad we shot at the real location, because one of the things the show does well is really show the geography of the different break-ins. To me Watergate' was just the name, a part of our culture, but seeing the actual Watergate building and understanding it was an important part of this whole show.

One thing I learned was I'm sure everyone in DC knows this already, but the Watergate is really close to the DC Mall. It's right next to the Kennedy Center and within walking distance of the Lincoln Memorial. It very much is part of DC and it has such a unique, almost Gaudiesque architecture. It almost has a life of its own.

By really showing the break-ins and the geography of the break-ins, you understand what they went through. You understand the hubris of what these men did and how they were able to do such stupid things in broad daylight. [laughter] It also shows how much that you could get away with back then. It was a very innocent time then compared to the heightened security that was in place when we went to scout because of the January 6th attack on the capitol. But Hunt and Liddy were free to commit these crimes in broad daylight basically.

Still Photograph by Phil Caruso/HBO from behind the scenes of White House Plumbers

What did it take to get your look for the show? What was the gear package?

I had two RED Rangers as my A&B cameras and a DSMC2 as my C camera, all Monstro Sensors. I paired those cameras with ZEISS Supremes as my prime set and Ang nieux as my zooms. One of the reasons I use RED cameras is because of the convenience.

I like that I can break it down to a really small body and take it on location scouts before the show. That way I can shoot stuff and actually go into RED Cine and start coloring myself at the end of the day.

I didn't test any other lenses. I've always liked ZEISS and David was open to us using them, so I just brought those lenses. I personally feel that the cinematic signature I bring to projects are the lenses. I don't necessarily bring a lighting or composition style of my own. I want that to fit the story.

But at least the lenses can be more of a signature flavor.

To me, so much about getting a period show right comes down to production design and costumes. I'm not a huge believer in putting a heavy LUT on to denote historical period. Personally, I want to see and feel the era, but as if we've been thrown back in time, not necessarily that we're seeing that through whatever the film stock or lens of the time was.

That said, when Ian Vertovec, the c

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