Arri-news 2014

Inspired by the Coen brothers' 1996 film of the same name, Fargo is an Emmy® Award- winning U.S. comedy drama series about a hapless insurance salesman in northern Minnesota who gets drawn into a world of violence and crime. Director Adam Bernstein and cinematographer Matthew J. Lloyd, CSC, worked together on the first two episodes, setting the visual tone for the rest of the season. Lloyd spoke with ARRI News about how daylight fixtures from ARRI’s M-Series helped him create the signature look of the show. How did you and Adam set about crafting a look for Fargo ? The look the Coens set out in the movie was an important reference, but mainly as a stepping stone to move us into a more contemporary aesthetic, because Adam had a vision for the show that was a little bit darker. Underlying everything was the snowy bleakness that exists in the movie and would obviously have to exist in the show as well. We wanted to see as much of this world as possible and to set everything against that overcast backdrop. What lighting challenges did the consistently overcast look present? Ultimately it became a fairly traditional exposure question of how to balance our rather dim interior locations against the atomic white backgrounds outside. We decided early on not to have windows clipping and highlights that were out of range, but to maintain detail throughout the image. We also didn’t ever want to see the sun, which in Alberta, Canada is not an easy proposition. You end up with these massive setups where you’re shooting out of windows and using a lot of bounced light, always having to match to existing daylight, so HMI became the only way to go. Can you give an example of how you used M-Series fixtures for these setups? There was a location where I ran 80 feet of Ultrabounce all the way down a building to block the sun and create a surface for bounce light. By spreading six or seven M40s down the building I got enough punch to achieve the level I wanted inside. Being small and lightweight, the M40 was really easy to work with on location, allowing us to light the broad Matthew J. Lloyd, CSC, relies on ARRI M-Series lampheads while shooting the opening episodes of hit TV series Fargo LIGHTING FARGO DP Matthew J. Lloyd, CSC Photos: Matthias Clamer/FX ©2014, FX Networks. All rights reserved. 10 ARRI NEWS