A couple of months ago, we put out a call for Rosco Ambassadors, and we received many fantastic entries! In the coming months, we’ll introduce more of our new Rosco Ambassadors and share some of their projects.
First up, is Emmy® Award-winning Producer and Cinematographer, Graham Sheldon. Based in Southern California, Graham has produced and shot documentary and narrative projects on six different continents. His most recent project was a piece of branded content that he created for Nerdist to promote the new Mafia: Definitive Edition video game from 2K Games.
The video features an interview with Colombo Family ex-mob boss Michael Franzese. In the video, Franzese uses his life experiences to describe five things that the game gets right about mob life. Below, Graham shares how he created the "gangster film" look for the interview.
Graham and his gaffer, Heath Gresham, set out to create a gritty/seedy mood for the interview. Their inspiration was Rodrigo Prieto’s excellent cinematography for The Irishman and the feel of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather. They ended up creating their desired look using our DMG Lumière MIX LED fixtures and a Rosco V-Hazer.
Graham paired an SL1 MIX with a parabolic LED fixture from Hudson Spider to effectively light Franzese as he explained his Top-5 list. He knew that a rich, warm color of white light was key for this setup. He also knew that our MIX LED lights were his best option for creating it. “If you’ve been working in entertainment for any length of time, then you understand the color accuracy you’re getting out of Rosco products in general. That was one of the great things about using the MIX light on this shoot. The color and quality of light it produced was superb.”
In addition to the lighting, another key factor to Graham’s setup was the atmosphere in the air. “Haze is always a great way to lower contrast and create a little drama,” he noted. “But the general quality of hazers is all over the map. Not so with Rosco Hazers. Their quality is always great, and I turn to Rosco Haze most often for their reliability and their ability to repeat specific looks from shoot to shoot.”
If you’d like to learn more about Graham Sheldon and his projects, follow him on Instagram – @grahamtesheldon – or visit his website: grahamsheldon.net. To learn more about the Rosco products he used to create the "gangster film" look in this project, be sure to explore the SL1 MIX and the V-Hazer product pages.
Photo Credit: Graham Sheldon/Nerdist