Giorgio Scali, ASC had worked with Debora Cahn and Alex Graves on Homeland, and when The Diplomat moved to New York for its third season they called him. He is credited on four episodes of that season. Three are shared with Julian Court, who shot the England scenes, and Scali lit the New York work to match, with more fill than he would use by habit. The sixth episode, "Amagansett," is his alone. He asked Cahn if he could shoot it on K35 lenses, which the show had never used. "Do you think it'll look cool?" she asked, and then told him to do it.
Most of his conversation with host Jared Levy is about Season 4, where Cahn wanted the picture to turn darker after a shooting early in the season. Scali filmed that sequence with a 90-degree shutter, passages at six frames per second, and bellows and tilt lenses from ARRI that leave the corners of the frame soft. A 13-page scene for Keri Russell and Rufus Sewell was rehearsed the day before and blocked between cold window light and warm chandeliers. For the president's study, Cahn's reference was The Godfather. On a training ship whose overhead fixtures were either all on or all off, his gaffer cut neutral density and blackout covers for them one by one. "Shutting off lights is more important than adding lights," he says.
CREDITS
Giorgio Scali, ASC
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Jared Levy, host
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David Kruta, producer
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Topher Hammond, producer
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MUSIC
Original music by One Wave.
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