"Television has changed quite a bit in the last six years with the success of series like The Sopranos," Holzman continues. "Of course, you can’t get away with pushing the drama that way on network TV because of Standards and Practices. Therefore, it’s important to create some sort of identifying characteristic that will draw an audience into a show; once you do, it’s up to the writing staff and the actors to keep them interested. If we can display some sort of individuality in this vast sea of sameness, then we’ve at least grabbed viewers a little bit in the hopes of keeping them hooked for the remaining 23 weeks of the run. That’s a big goal. Spyglass and ABC were in favor of the anamorphic idea as long as it didn’t hurt their possibilities for foreign distribution and post costs were in line."

A unique aspect of the C-series anamorphic lenses is the horizontal blue flare associated with a hard-light kick on the lens. On the pilot episode, Reeves and Holzman embraced this aberration and integrated it into their approach. "We were enamored with the flares because they have an almost spiritual quality that played wonderfully in certain scenes," offers Reeves. "There’s a sequence where a young boy is asking Callan about what happens when you die. While we were lighting the scene, we accidentally got that flare, and we saw that it was a perfect [complement to the dialogue]. The way the flare plays into the scene is really wonderful; it almost seems as though there’s a spiritual presence in the room while the two characters talk about death and the idea of heaven. It was one of those great moments when we caught this accident on set and said, ‘What if we leave that in? It looks great!’"

"That flare plays almost like an angelic mist hovering over the boy’s body," Holzman agrees. "But the anamorphic lenses are even great for soft-light flares. It almost looks as if we’re fogging or flashing the film a bit, which works wonderfully in certain scenes. The flare basically becomes another means of manipulating contrast."

When it came time to choose his lenses, Holzman had a bit of a challenge. "There are some cinematographers who swear by the Primos and won’t shoot with anything else," he says. "Others swear by the C-series lenses, and still others won’t touch anything but the E-series lenses. Personally, I like them all and I’d carry them all if I could. Every anamorphic lens, especially within the different series of lenses, is constructed differently. When Panavision first manufactured the C-series lenses they were basically homemade, so each lens had its own unique visual personality. Even lenses within the same series will have different flare and focus qualities.

"The C-series lenses flare differently than the other anamorphics," he continues. "They don’t have the modern lens coatings that the Primos and Es have, so they have a certain built-in diffusion and are very sharp. They have a glow that you don’t get with Es or Primos. They’re also more lightweight for use with the Steadicam, which is why a lot of guys rely on them. But I love them for their expanded flare characteristics.

"It wasn’t easy to get a whole set of C-series anamorphics to use long-term on a TV series," he adds. "I had to get them piecemeal as we were prepping the show. At first, I could only get the 75mm C and the rest were Es. Then I was able to get a 30mm. Finally, as a big show came in, I was able to get a 35mm, 40mm, 50mm and 100mm as well. Then I finally had my set."

Holzman and Reeves made focus a key part of their visual storytelling, using it as a narrative device in nearly every scene. Many sequences and shots begin completely out of focus, and the characters then step into the plane of focus. After he goes on a sabbatical to find his faith, Callan is called back to investigate a potential "real deal": a young boy with an incurable blood disease who has the ability to heal other people. Callan discovers that he has been dreaming about this boy for some time, and during an intimate conversation with the dying child, he discovers that the boy has been dreaming about him as well. This moment of clarity is accentuated by Holzman’s use of the limited-focus concept, which takes the scene to the next level. "In a very broad sense, this is a detective story," the cinematographer maintains. "Callan is looking for the truth behind this kid’s special qualities. When they have this meeting of the minds, I thought it would be very interesting to [increase] the depth of field to create the antithesis of the limited depth we’d been using in every other shot. We wanted to show that a moment of clarity was taking place."

To achieve this, Holzman lit the scene to an aperture stop of T11, but he began shooting the scene at a T2.8 with an 11.2-degree shutter; this made the boy clearly focused in the foreground, while Callan was completely out of focus in the background. As the shot continued, Holzman utilized a pair of interlocked FTZSAC controls to slowly open the shutter angle and close down the T-stop. By the end of the scene, he had progressed to a T11 and a 180-degree shutter, which slowly brought Callan into clear focus while maintaining sharp focus on the boy. "I loved that the overall effect was extremely subtle," enthuses Reeves. "We had it happen over a length of time so that as the truth is dawning on the character, we’re slowly bringing him into focus. You don’t notice the depth change and you’re not losing focus on the kid. It’s very subtle."

"Almost no one has noticed it," Holzman adds. "But that’s how I approach my photography – I like it to be very invisible. It’s like a musical cue that really works: you feel it, you experience it, it helps you understand the story, but you’re not really aware of it being there. That’s what I’m striving for.

"Toward that end, I treat every stage set as though it’s a practical location," Holzman continues. "None of my stages or sets have greenbeds around them; I prefer to work with hard ceilings. The real problem with having greenbeds is the tendency to light everything from overhead; suddenly you have a lot of toppy backlight from 10 to 12 feet up that just doesn’t look real. It’s important for me to maintain that location reality onstage so that you don’t feel like you’re on a set. Even when I’m lighting from the floor, I’m very meticulous about keeping the key source on the opposite side from the camera. I then put my fill source on the same side as the key to give the light a very natural wrap. If you’re filling from the side opposite your key, the lighting starts to look forced – it’s not natural. If you fill from the same side as the key, then the wraparound and fall-off of the light has a very natural look."