The day cinematographer Christian Sprenger found out about Donald Glover’s new show Atlanta, he was working on the set of a Wendy's commercial. “I remember getting the phone call while I was with my gaffer Cody Jacobs. My agent soft-pitched it to me and I was like, 'holy shit that sounds incredible.' When I came home and read the script, it exceeded my initial excitement.”
After having watched the first handful of episodes, my sentiments are nearly identical. Atlanta is fantastic television. Honest. Profound. Addictive. It follows Earn (Glover) who’s essentially a homeless, broke father balancing his life with his girlfriend Van (Zazie Beetz) while hustling to manage his cousin Alfred aka Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry), an up-and-coming rapper.
Glover created and wrote the pilot, with Paul Simms and Dianne McGunigle executive producing, but it was the directing of Hiro Murai that gave it its distinct flavor. “I interviewed over the phone with Donald and Hiro on my lunch break. I thought it went terrible. I didn’t think I was going to get the job, but an hour later they called to offer it to me. I was over the moon.”
“Embrace the imperfections and let those things shape the reality of the show.”
Earnest Marks (Donald Glover), Alfred Miles (Brian Tyree Henry) and Darius (Keith Standfield)Credit: Guy D'Alema/FX
While the two wanted the series style to come from the story and the emotional plot, they did use an underexposing technique for the visuals. Shot on ARRI Amira cameras using Kowa Cine Prominar lenses, Sprenger bumped the ISO to 1280 or 1600 and underexposed up to three or four stops. “We definitely had the idea to muck up the image as best as we could without being too detrimental to the final quality. We did quite a bit of camera testing with help from A camera 1st AC Justin Watson, and sent those tests to our incredible colorist Ricky Gausis at MPC Los Angeles for his thoughts to make sure we were in a good place,” Sprenger explains.
"The real trick during shooting was trying to see what was in the eyepiece. Sometimes it was almost completely black."
On set, they lit using light meters and mounted Teradek COLR boxes on the cameras for real-time color grading control. “We were pushing the ISO and underexposing so far. The real trick during shooting was trying to see what was in the eyepiece. Sometimes it was almost completely black,” describes Sprenger. “It was very challenging in terms of digital cinematography. We were shooting dark complexions and a lot of times night exteriors so our DIT Chris Hoyle would live grade the images back up those three or four stops to normal exposure to see what it was going to look like. Being able to see our noise floor and see where the bottom was without completely destroying the image was very helpful.”
Credit: Guy D'Alema/FX
Pace and tone was another topic of conversation for the visual storytellers. “The pilot read in a very interesting way where I couldn’t quite nail down the tone. The whole show has this fluid tone identity where there were these goofy elements, these dreamy-realism elements and then this harsh reality,” says Sprenger.
The mood of it reminded the cinematographer of the film Memphis directed by Tim Sutton. “I saw a midnight screening at Sundance a few years ago and had a borderline religious experience watching it. It was so experimental in the way it was shot, in the way it was covered, in the way it was edited. As an audience member you felt like you were dreaming watching the film,” says Sprenger. On day one of prep he wanted Murai to watch it. “We didn’t want to rip the movie off or copy it in any way, but how Tim captured the emotion and energy rang very true to me when first reading the pilot.”
Van (Zazie Beetz)Credit: Guy D'Alema/FX
The majority of the series was shot with a single camera by operator Jarrett Morgan who also was on steadicam. When a second camera came into play Sprenger would hop on, with heavier two-camera days bringing in Danny Ekler as a B camera.
The location heavy production looked to make the city of Atlanta a main character as well. “Our line producer Alex Orr drove us around to these great neighborhoods which were radically different than Los Angeles. We wanted to delicately include the city as a character without making it feel like we were cramming it down the audience’s throat,” says Sprenger. “To treat it as fresh as we could in an unbiased way without the visuals being a bunch of landmarks. It was more about capturing the texture of the city without being obvious.
Alfred Miles (Brian Tyree Henry)Credit: Matthias Clamer/FX
"It’s very much like NASCAR. You rely on an incredible pit crew that can shave a few seconds off throughout the day."
One moments when they tossed aside the shot list was in the third episode where Earn is arguing with his girlfriend after a very arduous date. “When the couple returns home and Earn is standing outside the bedroom door, we had all this coverage planned but, after our first rehearsal, Hiro pitched that it could be so much more elegant to cover the scene instead as a one take dolly shot,” says Sprenger. After figuring out how to make the scene work, it plays out with Earn telling Van behind a closed door that he shouldn’t have to sacrifice his dreams to become a family man. It’s simple. Clean. And the story takes center stage instead of the camera work.
Credit: Guy D'Alema/FX
“Even to Donald’s credit, he directed two episodes later on and has such an incredible eye, especially for finding unique and interesting people. The level of depth and flavor we found with even the extras or someone with maybe only one line was unbelievable. I remember going to the table read for the second episode and my brain exploding from the unexpected greatness of the talent that was in that room. I thought to myself, 'What is this show we’re making? It’s incredible.' I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s reaction.”
Atlanta premiered September 6, 2016 on FX.
