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OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A MULTI-CAMERA SERIES

Peter Smokler
Sports Night
"The Cut Man"

Peter Smokler's credits include the faux documentary This Is Spinal Tap and The North Shore. He received a Cable Ace nomination for The New Leave It to Beaver and HBO's Sessions. He previously received Emmy nominations for episodes of Pee-wee's Playhouse and The Larry Sanders Show. He currently directs the photography for The Drew Carey Show.

Smokler mixed a variety of media for "The Cut Man," including an on-air and off-air look for the show within the show. A live video feed of a fictitious boxing event was filmed off of the various studio monitors. The set included a three-camera video setup in the news area of the set, and four or five film cameras at the same time. "Having all these different media going at once made for a very dynamic and interesting look," Smokler says.

The cinematographer says he differentiated the film and video material by giving the video segments a more generic lighting style. "When you see ESPN-type sports news shows, they usually have a very full, overlit kind of feel," he says. "If we give it that look, then it's believable. 'The Cut Man' of the episode's title is a commentator who is completely lame. We lit him as if we were shooting with an ENG camera that had a light on top of the camera. We did everything we could on the tape side to make it look generic, because then you would believe it was happening. Then, on the film side, we tried to light with more of a realistic and expressive mood. There were several subplots that called for a darker and moodier look. We used a wide variety of photographic styles in this episode."

— D.H.