SHOOT STORY | VAN I TY FA I R
I used more of a fashion lighting design for Becky
lighting, it was just an idea to use Tungsten light more outside. But you could put a big light on her from far away as a catch light, and even though it wasn’t lighting her she would catch it in her eyes. She was lifted by this, amplified in to something larger than life.” CAMERA MOVEMENT Another rule from Director James Strong was not to put a camera where a human couldn’t go; like having a top shot for instance. “He really hated the top shot or in any camera traps that didn’t make sense. As far as moving it is concerned we used the Steadicam a lot but hopefully not in a floaty way. We always shot the Steadicam with a zoom on it so even if it was moving across the scene, the use of the zoom in it prevented it feeling floaty. We also used confident track and dolly, I would say, with the expressive Steadicam.”
wouldn’t allow us to build fires in the huge fireplaces.” As well as the directional lighting pushing in to the lens there was always a beauty lighting feel for the character Becky. “I used more of a fashion lighting design for Becky. I concerned myself less with the other characters in that a particular key light which was more ‘on the nose’ in a fashion sense with a bit of lift from the bottom. There was also a feeling of the light touching around her neck. It was more of a directional China Ball – sometimes traditional China Balls overfill for the interiors. I would also try and light her outside as well, if its was a contemporary show or a more traditional period show you wouldn’t be lighting the exteriors as such. I tried to get a big light, a big Fresnel, I tried to get away from HMI the light would wrap around them and be nice. Becky had
soft, we’d just have a feeling of the light pushing in to the camera. I would do that with lighting off-camera and away from he characters but I would push the light into the lens a bit but certainly keep dark tones in the background with the feeling of the light pushing in. On location we would generally put big machines up and smash light through the windows.” The saviour for some DOPs to help them deal
DID YOU KNOW? Vanity Fair was first adapted for the screen as a silent movie in 1911
with the depth in big rooms in listed buildings is to use some atmosphere or smoke, but the director had already told Ed that he didn’t want to
see any smoke; another baulk at the traditional way of shooting period drama. “However I did use smoke lots of times, I just always made sure he didn’t hear it running! But we were hindered by using listed buildings as in a lot of the locations they didn’t want smoke and they
Vanity Fair begins on 2 September at 9pm on ITV.
36 DEF I N I T ION | SEPTEMBER 20 1 8
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