The Gymnastics of Cinematography: DTF St. Louis

The Quality Garden Inn and Suites

In the cramped confines of this motel room — a space in which Clark (Jason Bateman) and Carol (Linda Cardellini) navigate the complexities of an extramarital affair, while Floyd (David Harbour) and Carol's attempts at reconnection ultimately falter — the cinematography had to navigate a unique logistical hurdle. At times, these scenes would be observed from a voyeuristic perspective, through the slats of a closet, and my primary challenge was to maintain the continuity and emotional weight of those intimate moments without our technical crew constantly needing to visit the set between takes to make small adjustments.

Series creator Steve Conrad, a collaborator of mine for more than a decade, emphasized the need for a laser-focused environment that minimized interference. The nature of the blocking was inherently vulnerable; Steve was asking the actors to perform in unconventional and often awkward positions. While the gymnastics of the scenes provided some levity with Jason Bateman and Linda Cardellini, their professionalism was certainly a factor in making the process far more manageable for the crew.

The standard workflow — rehearsing, then lighting the set using stand-ins — felt insufficient here. Stand-ins, as great and helpful as they are, rarely capture the precise physical nuances or the specific emotional geometry of the lead actors. I wanted to use the photography and lighting to actively heighten the scene's emotional resonance. Specifically, I was chasing a very particular visual beat: a lens flare cutting through the motel window, positioned precisely between the actors' heads to emphasize their distance or connection. I needed the ability to find and refine that aesthetic choice in real time, while the cameras were rolling.

To achieve this, I asked our gaffer, Dan Cornwall, and key grip, Kurt Korneman, to mount an Arri T24k fresnel onto a 50' Technocrane positioned outside the window to serve as our primary simulated sunlight. By using a modified Z-head, a dedicated operator could pan and tilt the massive fixture, while the crane allowed us to telescope the light in, out, up or down with silent, mechanical precision during the take. This setup granted me surgical, real-time control; we could adjust the light's position by mere inches as Jason and Linda shifted their blocking, ensuring the flare remained perfectly exposed and compositionally perfect without ever breaking the actors' momentum. There was other low-impact lighting within the room — primarily Astera Titan Tubes in Light Socks, or a couple of Litegear Lite Mattes through diffusion frames. All of this was quietly controlled by our brilliant programmer Elton James.

The St. Louis Sheriff’s Department Lobby

The brutalist police station in downtown St. Louis was the brainchild of production designer Laura Fox. Our creative intent was to use light to emphasize the oppressive, monolithic nature of the architecture, transforming the lobby into a space defined by stark geometry rather than traditional transparency.

The design evolved from early discussions about exterior views. Building a set on a soundstage always presents the challenge of what to put outside the windows; whether using bluescreen, translights, or traditional backings, the costs are significant and the technical demands can be high. Laura decided to circumvent this by creating a set that largely avoided direct window views, relying instead on ambient cues to suggest the world outside.

In the police bullpen, for instance, we kept the floor area dark and windowless. Light only enters from high-angle sources out of frame, creating a sense of being buried within a larger, impersonal structure. This established the visual language of the station: Light was something that filtered in from an inaccessible distance.

For the lobby area, Laura constructed an intricate slatted wall. This feature acted as a proxy for windows, looking out into a generic workspace within the sheriff's office. The goal was for any light penetrating the slats to feel like "painterly sunlight" — a source that felt distant, natural and dramatically directional, diving deep into the room to create high-contrast textures.

Achieving this look presented a significant technical hurdle. We wanted the sunlight to create slightly diffuse, parallel shadows that reinforced the brutalist lines of the set. However, creating a single sun source on a stage is notoriously difficult, because you can never place the light far enough away to simulate near infinity. With a single point source, the vertical shadows from the slatted wall would diverge: They would appear straight only at the center, while every shadow further from the axis would angle outward. This divergence would immediately shatter the illusion of distance, betraying the proximity of the studio lamp. Gaffer Dan Cornwall and I realized we had to abandon the single source and instead construct light arrays that ran the entire length of the wall to maintain parallel shadow lines.

Dan suggested exploring SumoLight SumoMax arrays, noting his previous experience building large Sumo arrays on the 2025 film Superman for a single night moon source, believing it would be an excellent option for the scene. (See our lighting plot below.) Ultimately, the SumoMax approach was the clear winner for our specific design objectives. Our array of 63 SumoMaxes delivered a hard and painterly quality of light. This starkness was essential for supporting the overall aesthetic: It produced the aggressive, oppressive lines and deep, clean shadows we needed to accentuate the brutalist textures.

The resulting light didn't just illuminate the space — it carved it into a series of harsh, rhythmic gradients that mirrored the intensity of the police environment. It was not a replacement for the sun. Recreating that distant, infinite light is something I am still chasing.

Behind-the-scenes photos by Dan Cornwall and Gabe Lopez. Images courtesy of HBO and the filmmakers.