Life of theMind - liveBooks... · 50 July 2018 American Cinematographer camera logistics were...

46 July 2018 American Cinematographer

Dana Gonzales, ASC and Polly Morgan, BSC employ a

broad array of tools and techniquesto plumb the depths of a

super-powered mutant’s anguishedpsyche for the FX series Legion.

By Iain Marcks

•|•

B ased on the Marvel Comics character created by ChrisClaremont and Bill Sienkiewicz, Legion is the story ofDavid Haller (Dan Stevens), a troubled young manwho’s been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Or maybe he’s

one of the world’s most powerful mutants. Season 1 opens on a psychiatric institution, where wemeet David and his burnout bestie, Lenny (Aubrey Plaza),whose rote existence is upended with the arrival of a newpatient named Syd (Rachel Keller), a mysterious woman whodoesn’t like to be touched. As it’s later revealed, Syd’s aversionstems from her involuntary mutant ability to swap mindswith anyone whose skin comes into contact with hers — apower that leads to a traumatic supernatural exchangebetween her and David, which results in Lenny’s demise (shecomes back) and the revelation of David’s nascent abilities.After David escapes from the hospital, Syd guides him to asecret facility for mutants called Summerland, run by Dr.

Lifeof theMindLifeof theMind

www.ascmag.com July 2018 47

title for the name of the show’s quasi-sci-fi retro-’70s mental facility:Clockworks Psychiatric Hospital.)Sorrentino’s influence — which itself isinfluenced by the likes of Scorsese,Spike Lee, the Coen brothers andAntonioni — is evident in the aspects ofLegion that hew closely to its characters’troubled emotional lives. Gonzales notes that the startingpoint of any creative discussion about anepisode of Legion is that “the visuals andthe storytelling must work seamlessly,

Commercial Television. “We’re putting art on the screento tell our story — pop art, Bauhaus,modern art,” Gonzales says. “Thesedefined what came to be the style of theshow.” Cinematically speaking, heplaces Legion on a spectrum betweenthe films of Stanley Kubrick and PaoloSorrentino. Specifically, the filmmakersstudied A Clockwork Orange, with itspseudo-futuristic Brutalist milieu andJohn Alcott BSC’s wide-lens framing.(Hawley even appropriates the film’s

Melanie Bird ( Jean Smart), a telepathictherapist who helps David discover thathe has been haunted his entire life by anevil parasitic mutant known as the“Shadow King,” aka Amahl Farouk(Navid Negahban). The Shadow King ultimatelydeparts from David’s body, and inSeason 2, a mysterious orb appears andteleports David to an unknown place.With Farouk on the loose, David’s asso-ciates form an alliance with their erst-while enemy “Clark” (HamishLinklater) and his government shadoworganization, Division III. Legion, developed by Fargoshowrunner Noah Hawley, is a co-production of FX Productions andMarvel Television. The series isphotographed by Fargo cinematogra-pher Dana Gonzales, ASC, who estab-lished its look and shares a credit inSeason 1 with Craig Wrobleski, CSC,then in Season 2 with Polly Morgan,BSC and Erik Messerschmidt. Theshow’s pilot received nominations forthe Camerimage International FilmFestival’s First Look competition, andfor an ASC Award for an Episode forUnit photography by M

ichelle Faye Fraser, P

rashant Gupta and

Suzanne Tenner, courtesy of F

X.

Opposite: Afterescaping apsychiatrichospital, DavidHaller (DanStevens) and SydBarrett (RachelKeller) take refugeat a secret facilitywhere Daviddiscovers that hemay be one of theworld’s mostpowerful mutantson FX’s Legion — aseries set inMarvel’s X-Menuniverse. Thispage, left:CinematographerPolly Morgan, BSC(center) discussesa scene withdirector EllenKuras, ASC (left).Below:CinematographerDana Gonzales,ASC on set duringSeason 1.


one not overshadowing the other.” Avaried roster of directors — includingHawley, executive producer JohnCameron, Hiro Murai, Sarah AdinaSmith, Ana Lily Amirpour, Gonzaleshimself, and Ellen Kuras, ASC — withunique skills and talents seems appro-priate for a show in which the maincharacter experiences the symptoms ofschizophrenia. A particularly remarkableelement of Legion is its depiction ofmental illness as woven into the narra-

tive and its visuals. From episode toepisode, the reality in which David andhis friends find themselves seems toshift and alter ever so slightly, as if onefalls asleep on a square and wakes upon a circle. According to Gonzales,none of the filmmakers could truly relyon what someone else did in a previousepisode, because each new episode“goes places [that the story] has notbeen before in tone and time period.Each director works with the cine-matographers to showcase and high-

light the differences, while integratinginto the show as a whole.” With this in mind, Gonzales laiddown some loose ground rules for theother filmmakers to follow goingforward: use little coverage, use widelenses, move the camera but don’t use aSteadicam, tell the story visually,consider new possibilities. Shooting adialogue scene with David and Sydlying in bed? Instead of a two-shot, try ashot-reverse-shot with the cameras at a90-degree angle, so that it looks like theactors are standing up. It works. The reasoning behind thisapproach is another remarkable thingabout Legion, which depicts the effectsof mental illness with shockingly casualsuddenness. The projections and doubleexposures that flash in blink-and-you-miss-them jump cuts aren’t so muchscares as they are a poke in the side tokeep you focused on the details. Camerasmove in disorienting fashion. Thingswe’ve seen in the past are misremem-bered by characters, their details shiftingever so slightly and replayed as fact. “It’s a cinematographer’s dream towork on a show so dedicated to visualstorytelling, and it’s always an adventure

� Life of the Mind

Right, from left:David is

examined byCary Loudermilk

(Bill Irwin) andDr. Orwell

(Christine Horn)in Season 2.

Below: David sitsalone in anostensibly

abandonednightclub.

www.ascmag.com July 2018 49

trying to figure out how you’re going topull everything off,” says Morgan. “Thescripts are so dense and heady, and therelationships between the differentcharacters are complex. It’s like trying topick apart a puzzle.” The pieces that comprise thepuzzle that is Legion are many, and theylock together in surprising ways. In“Chapter 7,” Dr. Bird’s cryogenicallyfrozen husband, Oliver ( JemaineClement), returns to meet our heroes onthe Astral Plane and bestows uponthem special black-framed spectaclesthat reveal the truth to their wearer.Gonzales and director Dennie Gordonleaned into the They Live reference,depicting “truth” as black-and-whitebefore a segue into a silent-filmpastiche, complete with title cards. In Season 1, the production wasbased in Vancouver — on warehousestages and at various locations in andaround town. The production relocatedto Los Angeles for Season 2, settlinginto four stages at The Lot in WestHollywood, as well as other locationsthroughout Southern California. The production operates on a

nine-day schedule, with no overlappingdays between episodes. Gonzales andMorgan use what little prep time theyhave to scout, shot-list, hold meetingswith various department heads, andmake equipment requests. Directcommunication between a given cine-matographer and the crew during this

process is sporadic, as the crew does notwork on a rotating basis and is offshooting whatever episode is currentlyin production. “Your approach isconceived in prep, but often your dreamshot is one of those things you just haveto work out in a five-minute conversa-tion on the day,” says Morgan. Season 2

Top: Fitted with an Optex Excellence Probe, the camera frames the eye of actor Jemaine Clement(portraying Oliver Bird). “We used [that lens] many times to do dolly push-ins into and out ofcharacters’ eyeballs,” says 1st AC David Edsall. “It’s a great tool that really helped the show.”

Bottom: Gonzales and crew set their frame.


camera logistics were handled by A-camera 1st assistant David Edsall and2nd assistant Jason Alegre, who relayedthe cinematographers’ camera and lensrequests to Keslow Camera in LosAngeles — which supplied cameras andlenses for Seasons 1 and 2. Legion is captured with Arri’sAlexa Mini, and though the productioncarries three camera bodies, no morethan two are usually in play at once. InSeason 2 — which begins with“Chapter 9” — the A-camera team ledby operator Mitch Dubin handled whatwould be considered main-unit photog-raphy, while the B-camera team led byoperator John T. Connor often splin-tered off to pick up shots and scenes, orassist with prep and testing for anupcoming episode. “It was often a smallaffair, but at times developed into a fullunit with additional ADs and a fulllighting and grip crew,” Morganexplains. Footage was captured inProRes 4:4:4 XQ in Alexa Log C for23.98-fps material, and ProRes 4:4:4Log C for 48 and 60 fps — in UHD forspherical and 2.8K for anamorphic.Anything above 60 fps was captured at2K. The Minis recorded to 256GBCFast 2.0 cards. A separate aerial drone unit

employed Freefly Alta and DJI Inspire 2drones piloted by Michael-RyanFletchall and camera-operated by JasonKay. One of Legion’s key visual motifsis the way its aspect ratio shifts through-out the show (from 1.78:1, to 2.39:1, to2:1) in a representation of the characters’shifting perspectives and, as Gonzalesexplains, of “timeline changes in thestorytelling.” The change can happenslowly, with bars around the framecreeping in and out, or in the cut. InSeason 1, anamorphic lenses were intro-duced as David’s powers begin toexpand, and again in Season 2 for thenarrative elements dealing with themutant Farouk, as well as all of the“educational segments.” What is consid-ered everyday life at Division III wascaptured spherically and framed for1.78:1, as were a fair portion of thescenes in the Astral Plane. “Some of theAstral Plane [material] was shotanamorphic 2.39 in Season 2,”Gonzales notes. Edsall adds, “We[framed] a large portion of the show for[the] 2:1 aspect ratio. All of the 2:1scenes are photographed in anamor-phic.” All told, more than 50 differentkinds of lenses were used to make

Legion. Lenses have included Arri/ZeissMaster Prime, Canon K-35, Bausch &Lomb Super Baltar and Kowa CineProminar Spherical primes; NikonNikkor 400mm and Clairmont1,000mm telephoto primes; andspecialty spherical lenses such as aKinoptik 9.8mm (the “Kubrick lens”),Arri/Zeiss Ultra Prime 8R, Kowa CineProminar 15mm, Petzval 85mm,Clairmont Squishy Lens, Arri/Zeiss100mm and 200mm macros, OptexExcellence Probe and ClairmontSwing/Shifts. Anamorphic primes haveincluded Canon K-35, Vantage HawkC-Series and V-Lite Vintage ’74, Todd-AO, Arri/Zeiss Master Anamorphicwith and without Flare Sets, and EliteAnamorphic primes. Zoom shots wereexecuted with a Fujifilm/FujinonPremier 18-85mm (T2) as well asAngenieux’s Optimo 28-340mm(T3.2), Canon’s 7-63mm S16 (T2.6),and Vantage’s Hawk V-Plus 45mm-90mm Anamorphic Zoom. “Master Primes were our mainlens package for the main storyline,”Edsall says. “[They] were used about 50percent of the time, with anamorphicbeing used about 40 percent; theremaining 10 percent were the variety of[other] lens sets.”


The cameracaptures Navid

Negahban(portraying Amahl

Farouk, aka thenefarious “Shadow

King”) for asequence including

Aubrey Plaza(portraying LennyBusker) in which

the two charactersconfer within thevillain’s dreamlike

domain.

�


Gonzales and Morgan strove todo as much of their work as possible in-camera. Though visual effects by JohnRoss for Season 1 and Zoic Studios forSeason 2 abound, “we don’t start there,”Gonzales asserts. As an example of the show’sbespoke creative spirit, he points to ascene in “Chapter 9” in which “FutureSyd,” who is unable to speak, uses amoving point of light — whose residualtrail lingers in the air — to “write”messages to David. To help achieve this

“light-writing” effect, Gonzalescaptured Keller against a black back-drop with two Red Epic Dragons —fitted with Arri/Zeiss Ultra Primes —shooting 6K 3:1 at 24 fps and 3 fpssimultaneously through a 3AlityTechnica Atom 3D rig sourced fromCinesail 3D Systems. The smearyfootage of Keller’s light source from the3-fps camera was used by Zoic Studiosto generate the finished effect, whichwas then merged with the normalfootage from the 24-fps camera.

Morgan employed this technique laterin the season, for “Chapter 12,” inwhich a defiant teenage Syd goes club-bing without her protective gloves on.When she allows her bare fingers tobrush against the other dancers, the twoimages are blended together to evoke animpression of essences intermingling. “With a show like Legion, everyepisode is so unique that you are oftentelling a different story each time. Thismeans that you need a new approach,”says Morgan. “The merry-go-roundscene [shot in Griffith Park] that opens‘Chapter 10’ was written as a simpledialogue scene between Dave, Lennyand Oliver, but we chose to film thewhole thing with the 9.8mm Kinoptikto give it this weird, offbeat quality thatworked well for that episode.” Later in that episode, which wasdirected by Amirpour, David is placedinto an isolation tank at Division III,and sent through, as the script describesit, a “pink energy field” into the AstralPlane. The energy field was createdwith laser effects captured as separateinserts by projecting two 20-wattKVANT Spectrum OPSL laser projec-tors around the lens through severallayers of scrim and haze. The mind-


Right: The crane-mounted cameracaptures David’s

metaphysicalmeeting with

Farouk. Below:David sees what

he can divine fromthe crystal ball.


bending head-trip was intensified byflashing pixel-ribbon practicals insidethe tank, while the camera dipped anddove around Stevens on a Technocraneand Libra head. A Squishy Lens with itsspecial flexible element was used to addan even more distorted vibe to theaction. The majority of Legion’s cameramovement has been accomplished withremote heads, such as an Arri orLambda head with Hot Gears, a Librahead, or a Power Pod on a Fisher 21 jibarm or a GF-8 crane. Key grip MannyDuran of Killer Grip Co. and his team

equipped the cinematographers withTechnocranes, a Freefly Movi, DJI’sRonin 1 and 2, and FlyLine cable-cams.“The days are daunting in that way,because not only do you have these hugetechnical challenges, but when you’removing the camera the way we do, yourmove has to land with the perfor-mance,” Gonzales says, citing the resultsas “a testament to the amazing operatingskills of Mitch Dubin, SOC and JohnConnor, SOC.” Duran notes, “Time and budget[were] a factor in determining what wecould achieve. With the full support of

our producers and cinematographers,we as a department had the capabilitiesto pull off some extraordinary work. Iam so proud and amazed at theoutcome of our team effort.” By all appearances, the Legionfilmmakers mindfully adhere to a coreimperative of narrative cinematography:The camera is an element of the story.“When you move the camera or choosea lens, it has to mean something,”Gonzales observes. The cinematogra-phers have thus approached Legion’semotionally charged dramatic scenes “ina more meaningful way,” as Kurasdescribes, so that the audience canbetter understand the characters’ rela-tionships and challenges. The Season 2 episode “Chapter12,” directed by Kuras, is an example ofthis approach, as David jumps back andforth in time through Syd’s early life,searching for a critical moment in herpast that may hold the key to saving herin the future. Morgan relied on a varietyof different diffusions, colored filters,and lenses to tell “the emotional story ofa woman and the choices that made herwho she is.” She used Super Baltarprimes with Black Pro-Mist andTobacco filters to create a feeling ofnostalgia and texture for Syd’s birth andtoddlerhood, and then switched to aTiffen Antique Suede and vintageCanon K-35 primes for Syd’s tween andteenage years. “The shots emote andenhance this young woman’s journey,and also help the viewer know wherethey are in time,” says Morgan — whoalso wanted to distinguish Syd’s narra-tive from the simultaneous one takingplace within Division III, which wasclean, sharp and shot with MasterPrimes. For Season 1, Gonzales workedwith production designer MichaelWylie, art directors John Alvarez andMichael Corrado, and gaffer JeffPentecost to light the sets almostentirely with LEDs, which offered thecinematographer a high degree of qual-ity and control. This strategy remainedin place when Jeff Webster was broughton as gaffer for Season 2.


Top: Syd’s mother, Joan (Lily Rabe), visits her in an institution. Bottom: Kerry Loudermilk (AmberMidthunder) looks on as David and Syd link minds.

�


At the beginning of Season 2,Wylie approached Webster with theidea that the Division III facility wouldfeature a kind of hexagonal architecture:soffits in the apartment ceilings, over-head fixtures in Cary’s lab, and otheraccents including walls and windowsaround the facility. “We added a lot of practicalfixtures, depending on what Wylieasked for, and what Dana or Pollythought might add to the scene,” saysWebster. Practical lamps in ‘the Boat’[Division III’s surreal, boat-themed

cafeteria] were rehoused gas lampsequipped with large Edison bulbs “for awarm glow and on-camera sparkle.” One of the most-used spaces onthe show was The Lot’s Stage 5, amultipurpose set with a 30'x200' back-drop curtain rail for greenscreen,Ultrabounce or black velvet. This iswhere David gets trapped in his coffin,where Syd does her light writing, whereLenny dances — where anythingoutside of time and space happens. FiftyArri S60 SkyPanels were hung in twooverhead 20'x30' soft boxes and skinned

with intermediate 1⁄2 Soft Frost andFull Silk underside for ambience. Thegreenscreens and seamless Ultrabounceswere lit with Kino Flo Image 87s.“Rigging grip Eddie Gutierrez andrigging gaffer Bobby DeChellis builtthis amazing setup,” Gonzales enthuses. The lighting package for Legionhas included Arri LEDs, DigitalSputnik DS1s and DS6s; ETC SourceFour LEDs (Tungsten HD, DaylightHD, Lustr+); Astera AX1 WirelessPixelTubes; battery-powered LiteGearLiteMats; and Outsight CreamsourceDoppio+ and Micro units. “Dependingon the episode, we threw in 200KParabolic Lightning Strikes byLuminys, and [open-faced] K5600Alpha 18Ks for ultra-hard shadowsthrough windows, and even DS1smounted on drones with wirelesscontrol,” Webster notes. Their movinglights have included the Clay PakyScenius and Mythos, Ayrton Ghibli,GLP JDC1 strobe, and Robe BMFLBlade. Whenever the filmmakersneeded a light that didn’t come with thetruck, or if a practical or special neededto be built, Webster and fixtures fore-man Mike Beckman were on hand witha few hundred rolls of LED hybrid


The crew readiesthe upside-down

set for Lenny’ssurreal

interrogation.


four Legion stages were networkedtogether “by gigabit connection withcontrol data transmitted via sACNDMX protocol, as well as an extended5G Wi-Fi network,” Webster specifies,allowing for immediate exposure andcolor control over any fixture on anystage, from any point on any stage, be itvia a GrandMA2 Light console or aniOS device. “Legion has such a colorfulaesthetic, it would have been a major

disadvantage if we didn’t have the abilityto choose our colors this way,” Websteradds. For the rare but still-importantmoments where something crazy orupside-down isn’t happening, Gonzalesand Morgan would ask Webster to setup a soft, natural key and negative fill onthe camera side. “LiteMats through 400LeeLux diffusion for close-ups andsmall sets, then S60s through 8-by and12-by frames of Light or Full Grid forthe larger sets,” Webster details.“Sometimes we just used bounce cardsto wrap the overhead lighting into theeyes.” Gonzales also designed the postworkflow for both seasons of Legion.There is no dailies colorist. The pipelinebegins with a slightly altered Arri K1S1LUT. Digital-imaging technician ChrisCavanaugh assists Gonzales with creat-ing the look on set in Pomfort’sLiveGrade. Encore Hollywood appliesGonzales’ or Morgan’s CDL to the

ribbon from LiteGear in Burbank, andRGBA and pixel ribbon fromEnvironmental Lights in San Diego. “We tried to give our built-infixtures the ability to change color at amoment’s notice,” Webster remarks. Heand Season 2 art director NickRalbovsky packed hybrid ribbon along-side RGBA ribbon into any fixture thatwould accommodate it, designatingthese full-color units as “Cine6.” The

Cary visitsOliver’s icy

accommodations.

58

transcode, which becomes the offlineeditorial deliverable. Encore colorist Tony D’Amore,who also graded Fargo for Gonzales,performs the final color grade by goingback to the 4K camera original andbuilding his own LUT with BlackmagicDesign DaVinci Resolve. “I created myown custom LUTs to closely matchwhat Dana and Polly saw, but with awider color gamut than the Rec 709SDR LUT they used on set, becausewe’re finishing the show in HDR,” heexplains. To ensure that the production’sfootage was future-proofed for 4KHDR viewing, Gonzales was compelledto alter his technique for maintainingexposure on set. “You don’t want toshoot full range,” he advises. “Crushyour highlights, because when you addthe HDR color space onto the digitalnegative, it takes your highlights upanother 10 to 20 IRE.” Posting in HDR comes with its

own unique challenges — and being arelatively new way to view a movingimage, it can trick the untrained eye intoperceiving a sense of exposure latitudethat might be difficult to match inSDR. Says D’Amore, “It’s easier andmore reliable to color the SDR first,knowing that you will only gain latitudein the HDR color space. I look at bothHDR and SDR as I work to ensure thatthe look will hold up throughout theprocess. The key is to be mindful thatyou’re not ignoring one for the sake ofthe other.” The characters in Legion areconstantly examining their past andcomparing it with the present in orderto find answers for the future. It’s notoften that a television series spends somuch time in its own head, but that’sanother quality that sets the show apart.As for Gonzales, his experience withLegion has certainly influenced the wayhe thinks about his other projects.“Photographing Legion has let me flex

my muscles with camera movement andactive lighting, giving me an importantnew commodity in my toolbox,” he says. “To be given the opportunity tobe as imaginative as possible, to betrusted, and to collaborate with so manytalented artists was a phenomenal expe-rience,” says Morgan. “Working on thisshow has really expanded my vision ofwhat I can achieve.” �

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TECHNICAL SPECS

1.78:1, 2.39:1, 2:1

Digital Capture

Arri Alexa Mini, Red Epic Dragon,Zenmuse X7

Arri/Zeiss, Canon, Bausch & Lomb, Kowa, Kinoptik,Zeiss, Petzval, Clairmont, Optex Excellence, Vantage Hawk,Todd-AO, Optica Elite,Fujifilm/Fujinon

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