PRODUCTION CAUGHT STEALING
VISUAL TIME MACHINE Libatique enjoyed capturing the essence of nineties New York, even to the point of recreating old iconic store fronts
light, but that’s completely untrue. When you look at one of our sets, there‘s largely practical lighting, naturally streaming through windows in the day or through practicals at night. There’s also always augmentation to extend the effects of practical lights. We had small lights in front of Hank’s apartment, but bigger ones for our night exteriors. However, I don’t generally like the lighting to show itself, especially in this film. I wanted it to feel how I remember walking the streets of New York in the nineties.” Libatique and Aronofsky wanted a location-based shoot, and to place themselves in different neighbourhoods throughout New York City. One of the
THE THING ABOUT NEW YORK IS THAT so much of it is timeless ”
locations included the iconic Coney Island, which has previously featured in both Pi and Requiem for a Dream . “We shot both those films in the late nineties, and so there was that extra element of nostalgia going into this,” says Libatique. “It was a question of how we articulated our memory of it into cinematography.” The two looked at the films of Sidney Lumet as a reference point, including Dog Day Afternoon and The Verdict . “Lumet was a master of subtly capturing the environment he’s in,” he explains. “We also looked at Scorsese’s After Hours , as there were similarities in the vibe and tone. It was important for us to construct the look and the coverage based on the
characterisations that evolved. What I love about Caught Stealing is how many characters are in it and how each and every character shares the screen and frames with each other at some point. That’s something Darren hadn’t really done before. His films are usually extremely subjective, but this one isn’t.” Despite the film seemingly having few visual effects, the VFX team were tasked with helping to recreate the time period by removing modern elements. “For example, one of the very first shots is facing the Twin Towers. The thing about New York is that so much of the city is timeless,” says Libatique. “A lot of the VFX involved painting out Grubhub and
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