bROaDCaST Tv
by Michael Fickes
Shooting Greek The goal of shooting the ABC Family series Greek is to enhance the fun and joy of youth.
P
art of the Disney-ABC Television Group, the ABC Family network has brought its Greek series back for another semester about college kids being college kids. Ten new episodes slated to air through November will bring the show’s total run to more than 50 episodes. The goal of the show, according to Jules Labarthe, the director of photography, is to create a world with “some amount” of wish fulfillment. “We try to enhance the fun and the joy of youth – where that is appropriate,” Labarthe says. Labarthe goes on to say that shooting Greek is an activity that is filled with discoveries about youth that help to keep him young. “By discovery, I mean the evolution of a scene from what you see when you first read it to what you see when it is blocked out and to still another idea when you light it,” he says. “In addition, we’re all collaborating as we move through the process and the director, the gaffer, the actor and everyone else may make a contribution that makes the scene better.” Even so, the hour-long show has a sevenday shooting schedule, without a second unit. By comparison, hour-long network dramas take eight days to shoot, with the 8th day devoted to second unit work.“We try to shoot 7 or 8 pages a day,” Labarthe says. “It’s a fast clip, but it is a series and we’re familiar with the sets.” Not including LaBarthe, the crew includes two camera operators, two assistant camera operators, grip and electric. Depending on the plans for the day, LaBarthe will have eight or 10 people working scenes. LaBarthe keeps two cameras at work most of the time, although some moving shots use just one camera – too avoid the problem of one camera shooting another camera. Unlike many shows that have moved to high-definition, Greek shoots remain loyal to film. LaBarthe shoots Super 16 film with Arriflex 416 cameras and Cooke S4 lenses, principally prime lenses.“We try to stay on the long side with longer lenses instead of wider lenses,” LaBarthe says. “I think it gives more of a feeling of our wish fulfillment idea.” Camera executions aim for beautiful shots that cast the camera as an actor within
6
the scene. “The camera is choreographed by the way a scene is blocked,” LaBarthe says. “The choreography hides the camera from the audience, while making it into an active participant in the scene. For example, we use Techno cranes in each episode to reach into scenes. Unlike most cranes that go up and down and sideways, Techno cranes also telescope and enable elaborate moves. We also use dollies constantly to enable actors to complete entire scenes rather than cutting to move the cameras around.” The lighting package aims for a wish fulfillment mood with standard MoleRichardson lights including Fresnels and beam projectors. Specialty lighting products that contribute to the dreamy mood include Jem Balls, a fabricated paper lantern made of fabrics, and Kelvin TILEs, which provide a mix of six LEDs that deliver a high-quality, broadspectrum white light.
Enhancing The Romance Of Youth LaBarthe points to a scene from the show’s third episode, called The Rusty Nail, as emblematic of the shows treatment of the romance of youth. The scene takes place at a party and moves to a hotel room. College kids in the era of Animal House (1978) held toga parties. Today’s generation as portrayed on Greek hold military theme parties, and the men come in full dress military uniforms. In a scene at the party, two of the characters are dancing. LaBarthe enclosed the characters inside a column of light reminiscent of romantic 1940’s cinema lighting. “We centered a 6K space light above the actors and overexposed the film by four stops,” he says. The actor
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2009
wore a white military dress jacket, and the light bounced off of him and onto the girl. We used a dolly to move the camera in a circle around the dancers. “The effect was a bloom of light around the dancers that also created silhouettes of the extras dancing around them on the floor.” The romance of the moment gets to the kids, and they head off to a hotel. At the door of the hotel room, the couple remains bathed in soft 1940s cinema lighting. “The feelings ultimately deteriorate as they begin to think about what they are doing,” LaBarthe says. As the girl steps away from the entrance into the room, she steps out of the romantic lighting into the harsher lighting of the present day. As both face the reality of what they are doing, the aura of romance disappears. And parents viewing the scene all across the country breathe a dramatic sigh of relief. n Editor’s Note: In early August, Broadcast TV reported that the Los Angeles-based production company Lead Balloon was marketing its online episodic Coma, Period to distributors. It didn’t take long. On August 13, Lead Balloon inked an exclusive distribution deal with online network Strike.TV. Congratulations.