THE CROWN | PRODUCTION
ABOVE Beryl (episode 4, Season 2) was the start of something new for The Crown thematically, but also visually
In Season 4, this is a lot more obtrusive, with viewers transported not to the homes of privileged photographers, but to the homes of the less fortunate. Goldman notes that this is likely why the way in which I, as a viewer, think the show has changed. He elaborates: “It’s because not only are we stepping into a world, away from the palace, we’re stepping into a world that we don’t want to see.” This applies particularly to episode 5, entitled Fagan, which is about an impoverished man, victim to Margaret Thatcher’s benefit and public services cuts. His council house is falling apart around him, and the council are seemingly unable to do anything about it. Goldman says: “This location is unlike any other we’ve seen on The Crown .” Nonetheless, lighting and framing rules remained the same. “I lit from the outside in, so it still feels elegant, precise and very much like The Crown . It’s just the location and characters that feel different, because they’re more removed from the royal side of the story and are much more familiar to the audience,” he explains. Though for Fagan, he admits, the lighting was slightly toned down. Instead of using light sources outside the window, he relied on natural light as this helped him “separate the two stories”. But this also made sense in the interest of practicality. Goldman notes: “The location was smaller than the palace locations and several building blocks high.” Another change that’s enhanced by the new locations is the behaviour of the camera in certain scenes. In Fairytale for example, which is episode 3 of Season 4, a young and carefree Diana Spencer spends an evening in a nightclub with her friends. “While she’s there, the camera dances with her, which it has never done before,” says Goldman. “The team are always trying to shake things up a little bit, never resting or settling into the idea that we know how to shoot it, because the show evolves with every season.”
It was never our intention to depict the royals as living in a fairytale
GEAR TO MATCH THE ERA As part of The Crown’s evolution, namely its cast switcheroo, Goldman changes his glass. For Seasons 1 and 2, set in the fifties and sixties, he used Cooke Panchros, rehoused by TLS UK. Plus, he made use of Tiffen’s Glimmerglass filters to add glow in the highlights and haze to the atmosphere. “This helped make the visuals less naturalistic, and a tiny bit more romantic,” he says. For Seasons 3 and 4, set in the seventies and eighties, Goldman transitioned to Zeiss Super Speeds. He explains: “These are still vintage, but more modern and sharper than the Panchros.” There is going to be one more cast change before the series draws to a conclusion and, therefore, one more lens change. But what that will be has yet to be decided by Goldman and the team. “If I want to change, I need to present my reasoning, because it ultimately influences the look of the cast, set design, costume and makeup. I have to research, try out different lenses and do camera tests, before bringing it to the crew to see if it works. It’s a long process,” he says. For Seasons 1, 2 and 3, the lenses were attached to a Sony F55 camera, rated at ISO 800. “If you went to ISO 1250, it got a little too noisy,” adds Goldman. For Season 4, the camera body has been changed to the Venice, which Goldman rated at ISO 500 for day shots and ISO 1000 for night shots. While he doesn’t describe himself as a ‘technical DOP’, he says: “The ISO 500 base preferred a little underexposure,
whereas the ISO 1000 base preferred to be overexposed by a stop and a half to kill any noise.” And while Goldman explains that he fell in love with the Venice, in general, he doesn’t get too nostalgic about cameras, always ready to embrace something new or go back in time and try something vintage. From the beginning, the visual vision for The Crown has always been to deliver something that looks less like TV and more like film. This meant taking an elegant and minimalist approach, avoiding unnecessary cuts and camera movements. “It should feel and be watched like a single-camera show, an author sort of filmmaking style, where it’s just me, my camera and my cast, as this helps deliver a different quality of product, and distinguishes it from other period dramas,” says Goldman. He has an A and B camera on set, but when you consider how they are put to use, the B camera doesn’t act in the traditional way. “It’s not a tool for the editors to help increase the pace, it has a purpose. It either opens or closes a sequence – or captures a profile moment. “For example, if it’s a scene with lots of dialogue, maybe the A camera can shoot over the shoulder, while the B camera captures the profile. If you save the profile shot until the end of the scene, it looks more like a dedicated shot than a B camera shot,” explains Goldman. This way, each shot looks like a dedicated shot. “I think the editors of The Crown celebrate the fact they have another angle, but they resist using them unless it’s appropriate,” he adds.
JANUARY 202 1 | DEF I N I T ION 07
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