Behind the Scenes

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THE ANGEL LOOK

Adam at work with the crew.

As the series has progressed, the overall look of the show has gotten richer and more seeped in the noir look reminiscent of the hardboiled, detective era films of the forties. "Ross likes a classic, three quarter lighting," Adam details. "He likes to underexpose or shadow the side of someone's face, which has the noir look he has been going for." Another key factor in the overall look is the letterboxed format in which they now frame and shoot the series. We changed up on the third episode of the third season. They had to go back before they aired the first two episodes and re-transfer the other footage to the wider format. We generally tried to frame for it anyway to be safe so they were able to transfer to the 16x9 letterboxing easily. We were really happy to do it because it made everything a lot more cinematic."

This season, there is a new centerpiece set. The Wolfram & Hart offices allow for the introduction of more daylight on the show but it hasn't changed Berryman's overall approach. "The new Wolfram & Hart set has given us more flexibility and movement of the cameras," Adam offers. "We have a bigger set so we can do a lot of dolly shots, 360's and tandem shots with the A & B cameras together. But Ross still likes to work at a lower light level to give a different look for the show. We operate at a 2.8 aperture, which is at the bottom of most lenses. It's pretty much the staple for the show to be dark, moody, with edgy lighting, which is his signature."

"Sometimes our Friday nights are long. We'll shoot night exteriors all night and see the sun come up." ~ Adam

Another change for the camera department has been the advances in technology for a very effects-heavy series. "A lot of times we're stymied by the constraints of effects shots," Adam explains. "Four years ago, when we had effects shots like dusting [a vampire], we had to lock off the camera and get height, angle, distance, and inclination of the camera measurements. But thanks to the innovative genius of the special effects houses [in this case Radium], they have been able to progress past those limitations so we can move the cameras now. We use memory heads, which hold the camera in position and we can recreate the entire move of a camera identically," Adam clarifies. "Instead of static frames when there is a morph or a dusting, we are now able to move the camera in such a way that keeps the motion of the show. Ross is always trying to keep the camera moving, even if it's a small creep."

But by far, the biggest challenge for the crew all season is the brutal pace in which they churn out episodes. Every eight days, production starts on a new episode, which means translating roughly fifty plus pages of script, with multiple locations, set-ups, special effects shots and run of the mill crises, into the necessary shots needed to make a complete episode. "One-hour episodics are, pardon the expression, just a shit fight to get done on such a tight schedule," Adam laughs. "We have to buckle down and work like a tight knit team to get things done. It's daunting at times but it's amazing how much we turn out in a day. A lot of times, we'll have an eight or nine-page day. On a feature film, they are going to do maybe one or two pages a day. We accomplish a lot in a short time.

Adam ascends to a higher plane..

But then it's kind of a catch 22," he continues. "We do better on the Wolfram & Hart sets because we are in a controlled environment. The problem then is that we may do a nine-page day and then the producers know that we can accomplish that so we've kind of bit ourselves on the tail by doing such. It becomes a norm so then your game steps every time you are on a set location, it's exponential as far as our progressive levels."

Despite the pressure, Adam says the Angel set is wonderful in comparison to others. "Our hours are pretty decent because our producer, Kelly Manners is such a crew-oriented producer. He likes to keep the workday at twelve hours and give us a life unlike other shows that have fourteen plus hour days. Sometimes our Friday nights are long. We'll shoot night exteriors all night and see the sun come up. But it's such a bear to break into this industry as an outsider because the unions make it difficult to get into the training programs. So we realize that when we are tired in the eleventh hour, we are shooting TV or a movie and we are lucky and really enjoy what we do," Adam admits. "It makes twelve hours go by like an eight-hour day. We wouldn't be half as far along as we are if we didn't have such a great cast David, Amy, J. August and Alexis are beautiful people...even though David is a Philadelphia fan," Adam laughs. "You get a lot of prima donnas in Hollywood and we are fortunate to not have any on our show. Plus, we have a couple great additions to our cast. James Marsters (Spike) is fantastic. It's always unnerving when you get a new cast member because you don't know what to expect but he is just the most down to earth, humble guy and everybody appreciates that."

CALLING THE SHOTS

An interesting element the camera department must deal with each and every episode is adapting their skills to the needs of the individual directors. "Each director has a different vision," details Adam. "Some are very green and new and they don't know how to get what they want visually so Ross is always there to co-direct for them. They are always smart enough to listen to the wisdom of Ross and get their vision across and we are always there to help them." Speaking of which, a new director debuts on the tenth episode this season (airing January 21st, 2004) and he has a very familiar face, actor David Boreanaz. "David did a phenomenal job," Adam raves. "He was also down with reconstructive surgery on his ACL of his left knee during his entire directing debut. Imagine the task of that, directing and acting! Kudos to David because he came through with flying colors and did a great job. He didn't have the cinematographer's vernacular but he could convey his feelings to Ross very well and that is paramount in TV directing. He did very well."

A definite perk for the team each season is the chance to work with creator, Joss Whedon on an episode. "It's always fun to have Joss around and he is around quite often whether he is directing or not. He does know exactly what he wants and he does know technically how to achieve the shot and he is versed in everything - The Wonder Boy," laughs Adam. "He knows everyone by first name and it's great to be around a person who can convey the vision that he does."

Hey Adam! Watch out for that traffic!

Joss has also made a point to allow his writers the chance to bring their words to visual life, which means the camera crew gets to work closely with the people behind the pens - a rare occurrence in television. "We are fortunate to have brilliant writers on the show that periodically get to come down and direct and it gives them a real idea of what the limitations of their vision are - whether they have to scale it down a bit or sometimes they are happy to get more than they expected. It's nice to get fresh, new breath that comes in with the happy zeal of a schoolboy excited to see their vision created. I think it's a smart thing the producers have allowed this because you don't get the same pigeonholed aspects of twenty-year directors. With new people coming in, it's fun to get their vision on film. It's never the same what we do from one episode to the next so there is no monotony," Adam continues. "You don't know what you are going to do until you get the script. Jeff Bell's "The Cautionary Tale of Numero Cinco" was a fun one to do and Ross really enjoyed it. It was very difficult because we has an entire cemetery scene, which we shot over at Hollywood Forever Cemetery, that we had to shoot in all these different directions and then turn cameras and re-dress."

Episode eight, "Destiny" also gave the crew another major unexpected challenge in the form of the abandoned Opera House. "That was a hell of a thing," Adam confesses. "It's one thing to see it on camera and another being on location in this theater that hasn't been used other than for film shots for decades. You get in there and the matter that floats around looks great on camera but you just don't want to breath it in," he chuckles. Season five has already provided a plethora of visual delights for fans and the camera crew achieving them. As for Adam, he shares, "This season, I really liked Steve DeKnight's, "Hell Bound." I really liked the style of that show and I'm a horror fan from a young age. It was a very difficult challenge for me as focus because everything was wide open. I had no depth of field because it was very dark with tight lenses. I got to use my infrared laser focus unit that I had patented last year. It's called "The Sniper" and it's a laser that I match on the camera in tandem with the lens and it gives me constant readings of whatever the camera is pointing at with an accuracy of a quarter of an inch. It helped out tremendously because we were doing some crazy stuff that would have been impossible anywhere else."

With long hours spent together during the week, Adam reveals the crew hangs out together after work too. "We've got a tight knit family on the film set. This season we had the Angel softball team that bats Saturdays and Sundays against the other primetime networks. We also do a lot of golfing. The weekends are ours and we cherish them," he continues. "I do anything I can to get out and clear my head and try to not think about the dailies coming in on Monday." As for the end of the season, Adam says rest is relative for the crew as well. "Our hiatus at the end of the season lasts about two and a half months and most of us do other projects during the summer hiatus because we are so wound up to work. Sitting on your butt for two weeks, you get cabin fever," he laughs. "We try to center projects around that time like a ten-week feature or day work to fill in time but some of us take a month off and that's nice too." With only half the season complete, Adam and the crew have a long time before they can drink those cocktails by the pool, but there's no doubt shooting Angel is where they'd rather be.

Written by CoA Staff Writer, Tara DiLullo

CityofAngel would like to Generously thank Adam Ward for squeezing this interview into his insane schedule. Many thanks from CoA to the entire Angel camera crew.

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