American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 26

apartments, so it'll be exactly the same
[layout] but flipped. That's what we did." To
create the effect without actually building
another set, the filmmakers used mirrorimaged labeling on props and reversed
hairstyles on the cast, then completed the
trick by flopping the image in post.
Another key interior was an elevator
car in which senior art director Frank Walsh
mounted end-to-end mirrors on all four sides
to create infinite reflections. Rose recalls that
Walsh "had done an exhibition design at the
Beatles museum in Liverpool, [including] this
glass box that had three sides of see-through
mirror and one side of solid, bright mirror.
[For High-Rise's elevator,] we built a big
version with working doors and put Tom in
it." The camera remained outside the set,
26

June 2016

shooting through the see-through mirror. The
results, says Rose, were spectacular: "We
shot on that set for a few hours. We could
have shot for days; it was incredible."
Digital-imaging technician Phil
Humphries used a Flanders Scientific CM250
monitor for final on-set review, and Rose
employed a viewing LUT that was close to
Rec 709. "We sometimes tweak [the LUT],"
says Rose, "but I find it doesn't always put
me in a good place. I know that if I shoot Rec
709, the log is going to hold everything."
The crew worked without a large
video village. "Ben tends not to like a village
that's too far away," Rose explains. "He likes
to be close to set, and often that involves a
7-inch [monitor] on a stand. We're still quite
a small team up front." The cinematographer
American Cinematographer

TECHNICAL SPECS
2.39:1
Digital Capture
Arri Alexa XT Plus
Cooke Varotal, Zeiss Super Speed

➣

Bottom photo courtesy of Laurie Rose.

Above: Director
Ben Wheatley
(left) and
cinematographer
Laurie Rose
discuss a scene.
Bottom: Camera
operator and
2nd-unit
cinematographer
Nick Gillespie
shoots with
a custom
kaleidoscope rig
mounted in front
of the lens.

adds that he's not overly concerned whether
the on-set monitoring perfectly represents his
final intent. "I don't need everyone to look
at [the monitor] and know that this is how
it's going to look on projection," he offers.
After the seven-week shoot, Rose
supervised the digital grade at Goldcrest Post
Production in London, where he reteamed
with his Sightseers colorist, Rob Pizzey; Pizzey
and Rose have since collaborated on Free
Fire. "It feels like a genuine relationship that
we've got with him," Rose enthuses. "It's
ongoing; it's great."
Pizzey worked with Blackmagic
Design's DaVinci Resolve. In keeping with
other Rose-Wheatley collaborations, the
cinematographer speaks of "a normality" in
the film's look. "We've not done anything
that's too fantastic in terms of the world," he
says.
"I like tungsten," Rose continues. "I
like warm light. A lot of the High-Rise story
was about power failure, so we did use a lot
of candlelight. Later on, there's a feeling of
low-voltage practicals." He adds that this
contrasts with Royal's office, which was "a
lot cooler, quite spacey, and had a very
simplistic color scheme in that sense. Rather
than being too crazy, it was about a sense of
normality."
Rose adds that "Super Speeds on the
Alexa often come up a bit green," so he and
Pizzey spent time pulling green out of the
image as necessary.
With High-Rise already released in the
U.K. at the time of this writing, Rose's
calendar remains full; in addition to
completing Free Fire, he has wrapped the
third season of Peaky Blinders and just
wrapped production on Paddy Considine's
Journeyman. But the cinematographer
remembers the production of High-Rise with
particular fondness. "You could say that you
need to know Ballard in order for you to
accept the world that you're presented
with," he muses. "For the world to work,
you do have to accept the human study and
the social study from the outset."
American Cinematographer - June 2016

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