THE SOCIAL RECKONING PRODUCTION
created,” comments Cronenweth. “Whenever possible, I try to work with production designer Jon Hutman and get a lot of sources into the environment – oftentimes too many to start with – and then turn off what seems like an overpopulation. When you’re doing a newsroom at night and it’s semi-closed down, some desk lights are left on, some off, giving you pools of light. Then it gives you places to motivate light from that needs to carry broader areas in the frame.” For Cronenweth, one of the most challenging parts of the story to shoot was the congressional hearing, during which Zuckerberg testifies in front of the US Senate in Washington, DC. Shot in a university building, the crew built in some practical hard lights and let that motivate most of the source on him. “I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that there were about 45 pages of dialogue that took place in this room – and there’s a lot of tension and movement in there,” he shares. “So keeping that believable, but keeping the drama in there in terms of light and light direction, was a challenge. “We also wanted to keep the characters mysterious sometimes, in terms of their emotions, by contrast. Flares and atmosphere were part of that
too. It was a tiered amphitheatre with rows ascending up, and whenever we tried to do moves in there, it was very laborious. You need a lot of effort from the grips and removal of seats from the art department, and you get stuck with a crane arm there for hours just to get some movement. So we had to be very creative about when and where and how we utilised that room and the tools in it.” Reflecting on the project, Cronenweth describes it as an enjoyable experience, which he credits to the team and the quality of the writing. “I just loved Aaron’s script and I loved the cast that he put together,” he concludes. “I used a crew that I’d used on Tron , so there were a lot of familiar faces there, plus we had our producer Stuart Besser, as well as Aaron and Jon Hutman, the production designer. We’d all done projects together before, and so it was very comfortable and family-oriented. “I also got to use a great partner of mine, the camera operator Łukasz Bielan – and it was fun to take on that challenge of keeping that camera moving as much as possible when motivated, especially during the rapid-fire dialogue that’s traditionally in Aaron Sorkin scripts. It was just a really great experience. It was really nice moviemaking.”
FACE OFF Cronenweth (left) had a variety of environments and locations to light
Network . But in all of his movies he has this style of letting the actors motivate the movement as much as possible.” On the lighting front, with varied environments to contend with, including hotel rooms, apartments and Facebook HQ, plus a variety of location work that saw Vancouver standing in for San Francisco (and Puerto Rico at one point), the team deployed a mix of LEDs and practical sources. “It was a combination of Astera Titan Tubes, ARRI SkyPanel S60s and S30s, and some soft boxes that we
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DEFINITIONMAGS
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