DRAMA | DRACULA
The shadows had a velvet, silky look. We pushed for the feel to be quite monochrome softboxes, which Slater Ling used to add a cool ambience to contrast with the gold candles below. Because normal lighting rules don’t apply to vampires, Slater Ling had to create shadows or block direct sunlight for Dracula’s daytime appearances. In episode 1, Dracula takes Jonathan to the castle’s rooftop at sunset. He is stood in the shadow; Jonathan is laid in the light. Slater Ling reveals: “The rooftop was a set extension, built by Arwel, and the sunset plates were made by Matt. For that scene, I used a single
daytime again, but all the curtains are shut. The curtains are a mixture of pastel pink, green and orange, and are visibly weighted to soften the light that is coming in from the Mac Vipers on the outside. “The Vipers are traditionally a theatre light,” says Slater Ling. “But I like to use them, because they create a strong beam that can be controlled by colour, angle, width, brightness and density. I used a lot of LEDs in that episode, actually. I used Skypanels, Digital Sputnik DS1s and DS3s and Astera Titan Tubes, and I did that because I wanted it to feel heightened and colourful. The idea being that Dracula is seeing the new world with fresh eyes, so everything sits up.” FLARES ARE BACK Along with the selection of lights, Slater Ling opted for Arri Master Primes to exaggerate all the new light information and colours of 2020. He switched between coated and uncoated depending on the shot, because although the coated lenses gave a clean image – which helped emphasise the modernity of episode 3 – they were
24K Fresnel for the sun, with the set creating that all-important shadow line. Above and at the side of the set were softboxes with the usual Skypanels that I used to control the ambient light on Dracula.” In episode 3, Dracula is invited into the home of a drunken, trusting fool. It’s
IMAGES As part of Dracula’s nightmare, a trough was filled with real blood to reflect the trees and actors
CHIAROSCURO EFFECT TECHNICOLOR’S KEVIN HORSEWOOD DESCRIBES THE APPROACH HE TOOK TO GRADING DRACULA
Dracula ’s main delivery was HDR, which allowed me to find a greater tonal range in the colour palette. This was especially important for episode 3, where magenta was used as a stylistic choice. Having a greater range and therefore more control in the highlights made a huge difference to the show’s dark scenes, where candles are the only source of light. The approach we took for the look was brave. But, by using all the tools in the grading suite, alongside the talent of Tony and Julian, I think we succeeded in bringing the drama, tension and horror of the story vibrantly to life.
had a velvet, silky look. We also pushed for the feel to be quite monochrome, but for the light sources and, in particular, the candles to give off vibrant pods of colour. The director of episode 3, Paul McGuigan, wanted to push the magenta lighting that Tony had introduced. This was something Paul liked when we worked together on Sherlock , so it didn’t come as a surprise. The pre-shoot tests gave us a LUT to work with that the DIT could use on-set and in the dailies pipeline. This was useful for the main grade as everyone in the room was on board with the strong look.
Before production started, I went to Bray Studios to chat with Tony Slater Ling and Julian Court [DOP for episode 2]. Being on-set and seeing first-hand what they are trying to achieve with their lighting and lenses is an important part of my process. We did some reproduction grade tests for all three episodes and Tony and I spent time looking carefully at the costume and makeup tests, finessing them in conjunction with the cinematic references he supplied. We achieved a grade with a contrast range that was developed from Tony’s photography, with some tweaks in post. The shadows
16 DEF I N I T ION | MARCH 2020
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