How DoP Sam Levy Studied Light to Achieve

Lady Bird’s Aesthetic

Cinematographer Sam Levy talks about his process to understand the light and achieve the aesthetic

filmmaker Great Gerwig and himself were looking for Lady Bird

Sam Levy’s process to understand light is a beautiful reminder that there are some parts of the creative process can’t be skipped. No matter how good, fast and cheap the technology becomes, you will always need to show up, stand still and look with your eyes. That time spent repeating the same actions (showing up, standing still and looking with one’s eyes) is one of the overlooked steps that will give life and personality to a film.

It’s not enough to know how you want a film to look, or what you’re trying to say. To make these two wishes appear on screen you need skillful, dedicated and passionate collaborators who understand the importance of taking the time to show up, stand still and look with your eyes.

Here is Sam Levy’s process:

I immediately made my first light studies. I took Greta around to all of the rooms and photographed her and Jonas standing in for our actors. I did this with my Fuji X-T1 still camera. I took hundreds of shots and made diagrams of the sun’s trajectory throughout the day. I came back several times at different points in the day with my Fuji and made more tests. Just still photos. I tried to spend as much time in that house as possible to live with the light. Then we came back two weeks before principal photography and shot all kinds of tests with our Arri Alexa camera and Panavision lenses. My still photos and time spent at the house informed how I tested. We brought the actors to the house and shot them in every single room. Here, I worked very closely with production designer Chris Jones and costume designer April Napier. It was important that the rooms and costumes have color synchronicity. We worked very carefully to focus our tests in a specific area. I’ve learned the hard way to be disciplined in testing. I try to have a clear goal in mind. For Lady Bird, I was trying to transform the sometimes-harsh Sacramento sunlight into a radiant glow that takes your breath away. How to do this? By spending time with the light and really looking at it. Stand and observe. Part of the discipline of testing has to do with turning off your phone and contemplating light. Not just through a viewfinder and especially not on a TV monitor. I want to look at the real thing, not a facsimile. Little by little, the answers come, and then shooting the film becomes an expression of this.

—