American Cinematographer - June 2016 - 32

Right: Catherine
Vernon (Emma
Greenwell) reads a
letter as her
brother Reginald
DeCourcy (Xavier
Samuel) looks
over her shoulder.
Below: Director
Whit Stillman
(center) discusses
the scene with
Greenwell.

under a winter sun, the crew controlled light
with Ultrabounce on 12'x12' and 20'x12'
frames placed on Genie booms. "These were
mostly sun blockers, but they also had the
ability to reverse quickly, so we could use
them in conjunction with our HMI as
bounce," explains gaffer Tim Fletcher.
The majority of setups positioned 6K
and 12K HMIs outside the windows,
bounced and/or direct through frames.
According to Fletcher, "On large setups like
the Golden Room - a long, linear room with
multiple rooms off into the deep background
- we augmented our larger heads with 4Ks
and M18s to pick out specific areas, on
occasion with some quite saturated color:
134 Golden Amber, 147 Apricot or CTOs. In
32

June 2016

all, we used two 12Ks, three 6Ks, three 4Ks
and three M18s at any one time.
"Internally, we complemented the
lighting using Richard's own BBS Lighting
Area 48 LEDs and smaller 400 and 200 HMI
units combined with 3-by-3 frames with Lee
216 White Diffusion," the gaffer continues.
"We used the window shutters to control
and shape light using silk textiles and
diffusion filters. The Golden Room lent itself
particularly well to this because of its linear
nature and many windows. It was quite a
satisfying environment to react to, particularly
with the quality of light the weather
conditions blessed us with: bright and
golden. It inspired us to mimic, re-create and
enhance what the natural world was doing."
American Cinematographer

Following Bresson's maxim, van
Oosterhout didn't hesitate to grab a shot
with actual sunlight. "We were blocking a
scene in the Golden Room and had beautiful
sunlight coming in. I decided that, okay,
maybe we'll have this light for half an hour;
we could do one angle with no added light
at all," he says. "I like that combination of
things. If you're at the moment of shooting
and have a beautiful light, it's nice if you can
shoot right away, thus serving the [actors'
performances]. Then, for the reverse, you
have to light completely, but you got the first
part for free in a very short time."
For close-ups, Fletcher notes, "we
used a combination of poly boards, often
complemented with a 19-inch Jem Ball with
CTB correction, plus a 3-by-3 216 diffusion
frame, which allowed us to create natural
texture and fill."
If there's a defining look to Love &
Friendship, it's the simultaneous use of
daylight and candlelight. Double-wick
candles were tested, "but for us, the
difference was not much," says van
Oosterhout. Single-wick candles sometimes
did their own work and sometimes were
augmented with Lowel Rifa 44s or 55s,
dimmed low. "We also had some Chimera
Triolet fixtures with a 24-by-32 Video Pro Plus
soft box, which I really liked," says Fletcher.
"Very durable!"
Fireplaces were always outside of
frame. "We didn't have the money to have
a proper firelight we could control," says the
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