Newsletter No. 008: Stuart Dryburgh, ASC, NZCS: Lighting East of Eden by Oil Lamp and Candle
Stuart Dryburgh, ASC, NZCS read all seven of Zoe Kazan's scripts for East of Eden in an afternoon at the beach. He photographed episodes one through four for director Garth Davis, and Sam Chiplin photographed five, six and seven. He and Davis did not want a stylized period film. They chose the ARRI ALEXA 65 and DNA lenses, and took the crew to the high country of Central Otago, on New Zealand's South Island, for the Salinas Valley.
Stuart Dryburgh, ASC, NZCS: Lighting East of Eden by Oil Lamp and Candle
Stuart Dryburgh, ASC, NZCS read all seven of Zoe Kazan's scripts for East of Eden in an afternoon at the beach. He photographed episodes one through four for director Garth Davis, and Sam Chiplin photographed five, six and seven. He and Davis did not want a stylized period film. They chose the ARRI ALEXA 65 and DNA lenses, and took the crew to the high country of Central Otago, on New Zealand's South Island, for the Salinas Valley.
Oil lamps and double-wick candles were the key sources indoors, helped by Astera tubes and a dimmed Chinese lantern hidden behind a table. Dryburgh shot at 1600 and at times 3200, which let him shoot dusk for night. "It does add a little bit of noise into the picture," he tells host Jared Levy. "But that kind of becomes textural." A twilight conversation between Samuel Hamilton and Lee took two evenings. The opening crane shot, across a plowed field to Cathy's hand, he operated himself, "on the principle that I'd have no one to blame but myself if I got it wrong."
David
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