The cinematographer is directly responsible for the image.  Light and shadow and framing are the core essentials of  any image:  lens choice, filters, lighting instruments, scrims, reflectors, shades are just some of the tools to paint those essentials… And each camera has different capabilities, weaknesses and strengths to be adapted to.  In Chicken’s case, our main camera was a Canon C100 augmented by  an Atomos Ninja Recorder.

Matt Cooper at the camera – photo by Swati Srivastava

Additionally is the camera active or passive… or more specifically, is the camera using a fixed prime lens or a zoom and/or is the camera body moving or not?   And of course, focus changes with movement… and that’s not just about staying in focus, but choosing what is in focus, i.e shallow or deep focus.  Different choices about the same content changes both how the content is perceived and how the viewer feels.

Why bring up such basic concepts?

Why to reinforce the accomplishments of Matt Cooper, who under rather imperfect conditions – sometimes what is commonly called “guerrilla” filmmaking – pulled the proverbial rabbit out of the magician’s hat.  As producer, I made sure to rent Cooper the lighting and grip equipment that he absolutely, minimally needed, for after all, we had interiors and outdoor night shooting to accomplish.  BUT the budget simply didn’t allow for the full wish list that would make things easy, let alone easier.  A hundred dollars here, a hundred dollar there, suddenly that added up to “real” money.  While I relatively splurged by agreeing to rent the Cineped Rotational Slider, I dearly would have wanted to give Cooper another gaffer for faster set-ups and an assistant  camera person so he could have a focus puller, and especially rent a Steadicam instead of the simple shoulder rig he used for his hand-held shots, and so on.

But Cooper found solutions to the limitations:  an example of Cooper’s ingenuity was how to shoot the “road trip” dialogue in a moving  car.  A studio production or even an indie with a sizable budget would have put the car on a trailer, a flat bed truck  or used a large crane like apparatus attached to the outside of the car.  Alternately, I could have bought a small GoPro camera, but he saved me money and kept our equipment – and thus the image – more consistent, by using a suction cup rig to attach the camera upside down into the corner of the car window. (* see note below)

In regards to that road trip footage, in the script, it’s a continuous scene occurring at dusk during cloudy weather.  In real life, because of pragmatic reasons, it was shot in 5 different locations, all at different times of the day, and only once truly at dusk, and never under cloudy conditions.  Cooper had to shoot all of these knowing they would be edited together as a whole, and thus had to use all of the tools mentioned above to create a coherent visual narrative.  Furthermore, as he also acted as the film’s Colorist too, he completed the process by grading all of this disparate footage to match together.   (Note:  there were some brief coverage shots taken during cloudy skies filmed after principle photography that I did with a Nikon 7000 DSLR, and also added in one short piece of licensed footage, which of course, he also had to make seamless.)

Most people don’t realize that movies shot digitally are in Log Format, which basically means that the footage is initially in a gray scale, dull image, but (hopefully if shot well) there is a range of digital information inherent in the image where dynamic values of color, as well as whites and blacks, can be brought out in post-production processing.  Here is an example of before and after:

Another example of the cinematographer planning the look of the film:   I discussed with Cooper my idea that each of the main characters had their own environmental, symbolic, color scheme: amber for Ray, red for Dave (so clearly seen in the split screen shot in the banner above), a balanced look for the nature scenes (which is the film is thematically are the location of possibility and redemption) with specialty looks for the movie theatre, the memory bunny hopping scene and fantasy bunny hopping scene.

Each of these looks had their own challenge to both film and to color grade. For instance, red is a particularly difficult environment to film in, especially when one’s lead actors are both very fair skinned… so getting a vibrant red, red background while maintaining a healthy looking skin tone on those two actors is an unsung accomplishment of subtlety.
Here is a full array of screen shots from the film:

Cinematography

These Scenes Had To Be Shot And Directed To Appear As If They Were Talking To Each Other

Matt Cooper At The Camera On Top Of The Cineped Slider - Photo By Swati Srivastava

One Of The Reddest Parts Of The Room - Very Hard To Get Skin Tone Right In This Scene, Photo By Swati Srivastava

1st Bob's Big Chicken 99 Scene - That Comet Hasn't Been Around For Like 4,000 Years

Don't Touch My Food, Says Ray

2nd Bob's Chicken 99 Scene - Welcome To Bob's (Drew Nye, Matt Mercer, Valerie Suter)

Matt Mercer, Drew Nye, Valerie Suter

Angel: Seat Yourself Anywhere... Ray Mumbles

Dave Ignores The Waitress - Bob's Big Chicken 99

This Is A Cell Phone Image From The Director's Scout, But A Good Representation Of The Actual Reds In The Locaton

Julius Galacki And Matt Cooper, Camera In The Cineped Slider Set On Top Of A Tripod, Photo By Swati Srivastava

Bob's Big Chicken 99 - Where's The Waitress, Dave Asks

Reflecting Light Into The Car So The Actors Will Be More Visible - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Drew Nye, Waiting In A Hot Car - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Notice That The Reds Are Brought Out In The Movie

The Narrowness Of Available Filming Space Is Clear In This Location Shot, Also The Real Orangier Tone Of The Fabric

Classic Over The Shoulder Shot

The Director's Own Car As The Movie's Car, Bright Mid-morning For A Scene That's Supposed To Be Occuring At Dusk - Photo By Swati Srivastava

A Good View Of The Canon C100 - Jose Luis And Matt Mercer - Photo By Swati Srivastava

I Loved The Suds (a Visual Sex Joke) - Cooper Is In The

I Wanted The Score Timed To The Car Washing Brushes, Etc.

5th Day Of Filming - Brian And Elizabeth's Backyard Used As An Emergency Location To Complete The Stone Skipping Scene Which Follows - Location Scout By JG

5th Day Of Filming - Notice The Tomato Plants In The Far Background - Cooper Used That As The Backdrop With Shallow Depth Of Field In Order To Match The Suicidal Thoughts Scene To The Stone Skipping - Location Scout By JG

3rd Day Of Filming - Cottonwood Creek Park, Julius Galacki Approving The Framing Matt Cooper Selected For The Stone Skipping Scene - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Setting Up The Stone Skipping Scene - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Matthew Cooper, Cinematographer - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Matt Mercer And Drew Nye, Background, Alex Ojeda And Jose Luis Foreground - Photo By Swati Srivastava

3rd Day - About To Film The Stone Skipping Scene - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Julius Galacki Giving Matt And Drew Some Adjustments - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Cottonwood Creek Park, Matt Cooper Preparing The Camera - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Matt Cooper, Cinematographer - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Oakcrest Park, Encinitas - Too Much Sun This Time - Here Trying To Create Some Shade So The Actors Won't Be Washed Out - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Setting Up The Angle For The Bocci Scene - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Screen Shot Of The Bocci Game (Oakcrest Park)

Ray:

Ray:

Ray Tosses The Ball Which Dave's Will Knock Away - Screen Shot

A Good View Of The Set Up In The Park - Photo By Swati Srivastava

The Set Up For The Last Bob's Big Chicken 99 Scene - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Phil Bladh, Julius Galacki, Matt Cooper, Jose Luis - Opened The Curtains To Augment Our Minimal Lighting Supplies, Photo By Swati Srivastava

A Curious Matt Mercer And Matt Cooper Watching A Replay Of The Bunny Footage - Photo By Julius Galacki

The Set Up For The Bar Scene - Photo By Swati Srivastava

Because Of The Configuration Of The Room And The Mirrors, Camera Placement Was Highly Limited For The Bar Scene, Photo By Swati Srivastava

Location Scout Photo By Julius Galacki Of That Bar Area, Dark, Yet Lots Of Reflective Surfaces And Right Next To The Dining Area

Coverage Photo By Julius Galacki Given The Ken Burns Treatment In The Movie, I.e A Slight Movement Across The Image

Cooper Used A Point And Shoot Still Camera To Replicate What's Onscreen When They Take The Picture Of Themselves With The Comet, I.e. Pointing At That Piece Of Sky Where The Comet Would Be If Taken With A Proper Camera And Timer

Setting Up For The Cafe / Ice Cream Eating Scene (a Deleted Scene From The Finished Movie) - Photo By Swati Srivastava

A Screen Shot Of The Cafe (deleted) Scene

Another Screenshot Of The Cafe Scene - This Is One Of The Shots Right Out Of My Story Boards, With A Nice Rack Focus

The (deleted) Exercise Scene

Photo By Matt Cooper Of Julius Galacki, Taken In Between The Pitch Video Shooting

A Still Photo By Julius Galacki - Taken During The Pitch Video Filming - I Used A Brief Shot From It In The Actual Movie

(* That upside down image in the car was flipped right side up in the editing process.   I was the only person in the car with the actors, hidden and scrunched up a back aching ball in the backseat looking at the monitor.  Camera and sound rolled continuously for 20 minutes twice, without separating action and cuts for re-takes;  the car wash scene was handled completely differently – in that case, Cooper was alone in the back of the station wagon filming the actors from behind as I wanted the suds in the image.  Because the best acting take was actually a rehearsal before the camera rolled, that was sound editor magic getting that unsync’ed sound to match the image. )