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BRINGINGTHE DEADTOLIFE
DP MIKE SPRAGG ON WAKING THE DEAD ONE OF BBC ONE’S MOST POPULAR AND LONG-RUNNING CRIME SERIES
We’ve shot series eight of Waking The Dead mainly on ETERNA Vivid 160T, ETERNA 250D and Super F-
“64D. The question of HD comes up every year but the reason we want to stay with film is because the show has a really cinematic look, and we chose the Fujifilm stocks because of what they give us in terms of extra saturation.
I came onto the show in series three, and the aim then was to make it more like the American cop shows. It was a design thing, through costume and everything, so lighting-wise I probably push things more to the American style than the conventional British way.
At the time we had a new Pro- duction Designer, a new Editor, new Directors and me. We all sat down and we made a conscious decision to get rid of the forensic suits that the characters used to wear. We tried to avoid the background of police cars and ambulances; this is very much a unit that nobody else in the Metropolitan Police wants to have anything to do with, because they get all the horrible jobs.
That’s fun for us to play around with, and something that makes the show look distinctive. We try and make it as stylish and good- looking as we can, sometimes at the expense of the reality of police procedure, but for us it’s about how you tell a story in the most interesting way.
Because it’s a dark show in terms of content, we try to reflect that in its look. Before I started working in drama, when I was doing documentaries and commercials, that film noir look was always the style that I enjoyed watching.
I use a lot of backlight, that classic rim light for the artists, and I light the shot and the artistes in two different ways. It would be very easy just to light everything in one go, but I’m keen to get that separa- tion between artiste and set, and then play around with the levels within that.
It’s always important to be con- scious of what the scene is really about. You become very aware that excessive camera movement is not always conducive to what the scene is trying to convey, so it’s important to try to find that balance between
what’s appropriate to the scene and what’s also visually stylish.
We like to keep the camera mov- ing; we constantly have Steadicam with us so that’s always an option, but doing a Steadicam shot is not necessarily always the right way to go. Other than that, our constant challenge is thinking of a different way visually to portray the flash- backs, because you just don’t want it to just go to black and white, or use a particular filter.
Each time we try and come up
with something that is different or is
a combination of techniques that
bring something new to it, rather
than revisiting the same old areas.
But in the end, everything – the composition, the lighting, the
way the camera moves –
needs to be complementary
to the performances and the
content of the scene. ”
Waking The Dead – Series 8 was originated on 16mm Fujicolor ETERNA Vivid 160T 8643, ETERNA 250D 8663 and Super F-64D 8622
FIRST PERSON
Photo top: DP Mike Spragg; above l-r: stills from Waking The Dead including star Trevor Eve (far right)
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