'Show Us Your Jewels!' was such a fun project to work on, thanks to a great camera team and especially writer/director Oliver Mills! I was so pleased to see my good friend and long-time collaborator come up with this anthology type short film which could subvert expectations, and I'm really looking forward to seeing the final product.
At its core, the film is made up of three vignettes that present very different characters, with the common element being the daytime antique TV show, 'Show Us Your Jewels!'. I was immediately drawn to the idea of turning three mundane stories and environments into something visually interesting, and that's how I came on board as Gaffer. DoP Charlie Price staged these three single perspective shots, where the camera only pans and tilts while the audience is invited to take the space in as a whole, as an extension of the characters. For me, this meant I was limited to where I could hide the lighting fixtures, so I had to be very intentional with my choices. The kit I used for this project was an Arri 750W, two Arri 300W, an Arri 150W, a KinoFlo Freestyle and a pair of BlindSpot LEDs. The film was shot with an Arri Alexa Plus, and each segment was shot with different glass: Samyang, Xeen and Sigma respectively.
As far as lighting went, the running theme was using the KinoFlo's built-in TV effects, motivated by the TVs themselves which never emitted light, in fact, as they were never on.
The first vignette was the most complicated one, as it involved about 5 lighting cues, including powering the TV on and switching channels, faking a corridor light as the door opened, the character turning on a lamp and a kettle. I also took advantage of a fake window and put an LED panel behind it to make it look like daylight was coming through, just as a nice background accent.
The second vignette was shot in a smaller space so I used a plain wall to bounce light and create the illusion of a window, while the on-screen window was actually filling in the kitchen area. This was still controlled through the angle of the blinds and used as motivation for the hair light hidden on camera right.
The third vignette had an even more restrictive space, which meant crew numbers had to be limited, as well, so I also took over focus-pulling duties from 1st AC Lucia Clements. Because this was shot at 18mm and the camera saw almost every corner of the room, I was only able to put a light on top of the cupboards, and another outside, on the balcony. I brought down the brightness of the window which was on screen using some ND gel, which allowed me to balance the lighting ratios.
All things considered, the best part about this was Oliver describing his excitement over the fact that he was finally able to see this project materialised just as (if not better than) he had imagined it! And even on a personal level, it was really enjoyable to work on a short film with such a unique concept that provided me with such interesting challenges.