Shooting Griselda, actor Ernesto Alterio, director Andrés Baiz, actor Alberto Guerra, and Armando Salas, ASC review a take. (Photo by Elizabeth Morris, courtesy of Netflix)

News

January 26, 2024

February Issue of AC Offers Focus on Lighting

Cover story features Armando Salas, ASC and director Andrés Baiz on their crime drama Griselda.

ASC Staff

American Cinematographer

Our February 2024 issue of American Cinematographer presents a special focus on lighting.

Print subscribers will soon receive their copy of this edition and our digital edition is now live.

Inside this issue:

President’s Desk: ASC President Shelly Johnson considers the unique qualities of the ASC family that make the Clubhouse a true home.

Cover Story: Armando Salas, ASC and director Andrés Baiz discuss their work on the period crime drama Griselda, and Salas details his lighting strategy for the nightclub that serves as the epicenter of the action.

On Our Cover: Ruthless cocaine dealer Griselda Blanco (Sofía Vergara) becomes Miami’s most feared drug lord in the limited series Griselda, shot by Armando Salas, ASC. (Image courtesy of Netflix.)

Feature: Cinematographer Ari Wegner, ACS, ASC, director/co-writer Ethan Coen and co-writer/editor Tricia Cooke offer their perspectives on creating a B-movie aesthetic for the action-comedy Drive-Away Dolls — and Coen and Wegner also share how lighting factored into the approach.

Feature: Jonathan Ricquebourg, AFC explains how lighting key spaces in Trần Anh Hùng’s A Taste of Things contributes to the period drama’s tactile quality, and he and gaffer Georges Harnack reveal how they approached an especially romantic sequence.

Shooting *The Taste of Things,* Jonathan Ricquebourg, AFC (at camera); director Trần Anh Hùng (center) and actor Benoît Magimel prepare to photograph portions of the film’s opening cooking scene. (Photo by Stephanie Branchu, courtesy of IFC Films)

Feature: Six-time MTV Video Music Award nominee Christopher Probst, ASC introduces a look at the art of the music video that includes interviews with ASC cinematographers Crescenzo Notarile, Natasha Braier and Marcell Rév. Notarile and director Meiert Avis recall creating a spontaneous look for U2’s classic video “Where the Streets Have No Name”; Braier discusses how she emphasized naturalism in Ed Sheeran’s “Eyes Closed”; and Rév explains how he shot Miley Cyrus’ “Flowers” at a singular L.A. location.

Feature: AC visits Kyiv to explore how the Ukrainian cinematography community is navigating the war.

Cinematographer Evgeniy Usanov and crew stage a dramatic sequence for a documentary shot in Kyiv about people helping to treat and evacuate wounded civilians. The project was shot in a neighborhood near Hostomel Airport, where a major battle took place during the first days of the Russian invasion.

Shot Craft: An overview of high dynamic range — including interviews with ASC members Craig Kief, Armando Salas and Erik Messerschmidt — illuminates why cinematographers must understand the technology.

The VFX Perspective: Visual-effects supervisor Todd Perry explains how his team created a teenage giant and situated him in downtown Oakland, Calif., for I’m a Virgo.

Clubhouse News: The latest bulletins from the Society feature new member Eben Bolter, ASC, BSC; the Society’s bicoastal holiday gatherings, including the unveiling of a vintage Pathé Studio camera used by Billy Bitzer; James Neihouse’s election to the Giant Screen Cinema Association board of directors; Clubhouse Conversations on Oppenheimer, Napoleon, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest; the Society’s lighting demo for the IATSE Latinx Caucus; an ASC panel at Cine Gear Atlanta; and an Education & Outreach event with Loyola Marymount University.

Wrap Shot: Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), shot by Joseph B. Walker, ASC and directed by Frank Capra.

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