“The day a sound man shows up on this show I’m gone.”
Anthony Bourdain
This is Part 7 of a string of posts of the show Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, but technically we’re looking at a quote about Bourdain’s other show The Layover. Those shows are a great example of nimble, small crew storytelling. In other posts I’ve mentioned where Bourdain not only doesn’t like the whole shotgun mic/boom thing for audio—but he doesn’t use an audio person. What else doesn’t he like? Lights!
“Scouting a restaurant has us looking like wayward mental patients. Slowly wandering around the dining room staring at ceiling, whispering and subtly gesturing. Determining the best table to shoot presents a dilemma: maximize the depth of the restaurant, making for nice backgrounds, and we have to sit in the darkest spot. One founding principal of Layover is no lights. I don’t mind things being low key and under-lit; we’ve shot some very dark spots. I have a hard time accepting no eye-light. Need life in the eyes. As a rule, Bourdain hates lights. No time to use them on “Layover” and he likes that. I sit in his seat and my eyes wander around the room looking for a place to hide a small lamp.”
Director of Photography Zach Zamboni (Parts Unknown, The Layover)
Huffpost article
Food for thought, especially for indie filmmakers. Want a feature film example shot without lights? Here it is—The New World. (Embrace your limitations.)
