Even though Chavez's English is limited and the Star Maps crew did not speak Spanish, the cinematographer found a way to communicate with the grip and best boy through hand signals and special whistles. Arteta submits, "Chuy understands that filmmaking is an actor's medium, and he's very respectful of the actor's work. But he also worked well with everyone on the set."
When Chavez had ideas that differed from the director's, Arteta always listened, and often incorporated them into the film. For one tense dinner scene, Arteta had chosen a dark dining table, which Chavez lit from the top with a single HMI. "Chuy looked at the dark decor and said, 'Do one thing for me, Miguel.' He wanted a white tablecloth which would made the light bounce. It was so sinister, yet so simple. You could see that white cloth shining from the actor's eyes, and the closer the camera got to the table, the more you could feel the tension coming from their hands."
Chavez also helped build tension by using a handheld Arriflex BL4 for scenes involving Carlos' father, Pepe, who represents instability. "He's a bad guy who breaks up the peace in the family home, and I thought it was important to show that with camera movement," says Chavez. "I talked at length with Miguel about the need to keep the camera moving when Pepe was in the room, and to keep it fixed when the other actors were in the frame."
To further accentuate the difference between the tension of Carlos' home and the outside world, Chavez encouraged the use of lighter colors when Carlos finds the escape he's dreamed of in a film studio. "This is a dark, moody film, so Miguel tended to go with dark versus light colors, but I wanted the studio to be brighter and more colorful. He liked the idea, and we went with it."
Chavez had expected a larger lighting package on his first American film than the two Par lights and one HMI he had at his disposal. "In Mexico, we don't have big budgets, but we have many, many lights," he explains. "In this case, it was a good experience for me, because I had to think, 'Okay, how can we make this scene work with just one light?' I had to be resourceful, and I think the film came out better than it would have if I'd had unlimited equipment." However, Chavez was concerned at first when he asked what he would use to shoot night exteriors. "They said we had no generator, so we lit all of the night scenes with just two Sunguns," he says. "But that footage came out looking very nice."
Producer Matthew Greenfield knew that a small budget could mean sacrificing production quality, but he had confidence in Chavez's cost-saving decisions. "We could have gotten a dolly," says Greenfield, "but Chuy said we didn't need one, and he shot the whole film using only a doorway dolly, a wheelchair and a skateboard." For one particular bar scene, Chavez mounted the camera on a skateboard and rolled it down the bar. "Chuy was always thinking about what was important and what wasn't, and I trusted his priorities," the producer adds.
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