How House of Cards achieves its signature look
posted Monday, March 3, 2014 at 2:52 PM EDT
With everyone in a state of frothing excitement over House of Cards season 2, here's a chance to get some insight into how the show achieves its distinct, and naturalistic look. The Go Creative Show podcast had a chance to talk to DP Igor Martinovic, and how he achieved the look and feel of the second season of the widely acclaimed show—but also how he worked with the first season having been shot with a different director of photography.
The second season of the show has been marked by cool, naturalistic lighting in the majority of scenes. Apparently, Martinovic attempted to use the windows on the sets as the basis of the scene lighting, replicating what natural illumination in the space would be, primarily through the use of large tungsten lamps, with the addition of a small kicker light.
Martinovic also broke from the previous season's shooting by using less overhead illumination, and putting more of an emphasis on symmetrical and centered framing, often with an isolated main subject.
It's an interesting interview, and if you have a spare hour where you can listen to the discussion, it's well worth your time—especially if you're both a cinematography fan, and a watcher of House of Cards.
(via NoFilmSchool)