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While mounting the big source for night work is a major undertaking, lighting the actors' faces is usually fairly simple. "If we can just use a board to bounce the light back to their faces, we will, but often we end up using a Griffolyn — anything from a 4' by 4' to a 12' by 12' — and hit it with a nine-light, from which we'll add or subtract light as the actors move closer and farther away," Makris details. "It's another example of how you can dramatically change the lighting during a scene. We'll bring down a single in front of some of the nine-light's bulbs as the actors get closer to the Griffolyn. We've found that you can change the lighting during a scene a great deal. As long as you have a moving camera and moving actors, the changes are invisible."
The cinematographer says that he employs a wide range of lighting instruments, including "everything from an 18K to a Kino Flo the size of a pencil. In fact, I once lit a scene with just those two lights; we had the 18K through the window and used the pencil-sized Kino as a minuscule eyelight.
"I favor direct light through diffusion rather than bounce light," he adds. "I rarely hard-light anymore. The shadows from hard light disturb me, because you don't see them in real life. Using deep dark shadows can amplify the drama, but I try to do that sparingly."
To a great extent, the show's signature low-contrast look is dictated by the production and costume design. "We rarely have anyone wearing anything bright or garish," Makris says. "When you see a woman in a purple dress on Law & Order, it really jumps out. The show is actually somewhat monochromatic in its overall design, which is fun and challenging. We have a very limited palette; it is often a study in browns, grays and blues. Some people tell me they turn down the color and watch the show in black-and-white!"
The series is also known for having an overall bluish-gray cast, which Makris says comes from the production design, costumes, postproduction and, sometimes, from his penchant for gelling lamps, depending on the mood of the episode.
Makris does not operate the camera, except for the occasional special shot that he feels he can do best. "It would be too much for one person to light this show and then haul around a Panaflex on his shoulder for half the day."
Surprisingly, the show does not feature as much handheld work as people assume. Makris recalls, "When I took over from Ernest Dickerson [ASC, whose credits include Do the Right Thing and Malcolm X], they were going to amazing lengths to do handheld work. Remember, this is 35mm, not 16mm, so everything is heavier. There was a big counterbalanced cantilever with bungee cords so they could handhold shots with a 150mm lens. They would try to film these 2 1/2-minute courtroom speeches that way, which was a little difficult using a 400-foot magazine! They were constantly changing magazines because each 400' load — which runs about four and a half minutes — only allowed for one take per roll. And changing mags that often slows everything down exponentially."
To counter this, Makris devised a clever and subtle solution that helped speed up production appreciably while maintaining the handheld feel throughout the show. "I said, 'Let's use 1,000-foot loads,' which are, of course, too heavy to handhold for any length of time. But the producers didn't want a static frame. So what looks like good handheld work is often my operators constantly panning and tilting the Panahead very, very minutely. People ask if we use a Steadicam, but we don't. We'll lay dolly tracks and use a butt-dolly for low handheld shots."
This is not to say that the cameras on Law & Order are static. Makris enthuses, "Ed Sherin, who devises challenging shots when he directs, spurs us on. For one show, we did a single, long take that started in a cubicle in a YMCA. In this particular sequence, some detectives are looking for a key in a man's room. They find it, go down a hallway and open doors on a karate class and other athletic activities. Finally, they open a door to a big gym, where the guy they're looking for is playing basketball by himself. When they call his name, he throws the ball at them and runs. As we were shooting the chase, my camera operator, Christopher Misiano, was running as fast as he could with the Panaflex. As soon as the cops got the suspect to the ground, my operator, who was wearing knee pads, slid in close on his knees. The shot gets very rough during the slide, but it has great energy!"
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