Giving the Pentagon a
Face-Lift on E-Ring

Due to strict security measures, NBC’s Pentagon drama E-Ring was denied access to shoot on location. However, the Bruckheimer production was permitted a walkthrough a week before shooting began. After the tour, the question for DP Adam Yatsko (CSI: Miami) was whether to adhere to the confines of reality or create a visually compelling environment.

"The Pentagon is the ugliest building on the planet," says Yatsko, and the team’s challenge became capturing its monolithic feel while losing its institutionalized look. Yatsko went for dramatic lighting, keeping certain open areas dark but lit with interesting set pieces. Because windows are sparse in the Pentagon, he would encourage the production designer and director Taylor Hackford (Ray) to architecturally create pieces, like a fluted glass frame, to serve as sources of light.

The sets became grander in scope and more elaborate in detail. For instance, there’s the National Military Command Center – Yatsko describes a space with six 8×8-foot rear-projection screens on one wall and a Dr. Strangelove-inspired conference table with its own overhead lighting. "Though I haven’t seen the real version of this space, I’m sure it’s not as grand and high-tech as our set," Yatsko says. "It’s a large space with lots of motivating sources. It’s the one set where you know, over the course of a season, you won’t run out of interesting shots that keep you inspired."

The immensity of the sets added to budget pressures. "Episodic television is filmmaking boot camp," says Yatsko. "Everyone should go through it, because you learn how to be resourceful and work with less. We had to simplify as many aspects of the production as possible. We originally considered shooting the action sequences on reversal stock, the way Three Kings mixed media, or treating the film radically different, but the budget prevented us from shooting on Ektachrome or any reversal stocks. It came down to two film stocks [Kodak 5274 for day exteriors and 5279 for interiors and night exteriors] and a pretty basic two-camera package."

The cameras, a Panavision Platinum 35mm camera and a Millennium XL B-camera, which converted to Steadicam when needed, were almost always used simultaneously. "TV also teaches you how to use two cameras in as many set-ups as possible even though you’re usually compromising one shot or the other because you’re trying to get two in there."

Yatsko hopes to offset the grim look of the Pentagon with the show’s signature missions, where being in the field will let him experiment visually. For instance, in the pilot, the mission takes place in Shanghai. To simulate that city, Yatsko shot with a very narrow shutter angle for an electric feel and staccato action on the streets of LA’s Chinatown.

Sometimes, Yatsko turns to effects house Zoic to remove the landscapes of LA and replace them with more exotic visuals. "Right now, we’re shooting at a mausoleum that has minarets on it, and that’s going to be a location in Uzbekistan," says Yatsko. "We’ll use the architecture of the building and, beyond that, matte in the landscape of Uzbekistan over Compton."

Yatsko relied heavily on his dailies colorist, freelancer Ralph Eck, to achieve certain looks on E-Ring yet, to this day, has never met him. "We spoke on the phone nearly every night, and I would call after work and give him some bleary-eyed messages about what I wanted. Less than a week into the shooting he had it dialed in, so he did a great job," says Yatsko. "We had [another] dailies colorist, Level 3′s George Manno, who did a pass at the final timing, and then Company 3′s Stefan Sonnenfeld, who does all of Bruckheimer’s movies, would do the final pass. That’s three people who are coloring the work I did, none of whom I’ve ever met."

The slick feel of the show is part of what drew Yatsko, a Bruckheimer veteran who will also shoot the series, to E-Ring. Does his experience give him status on set? "It gives you a little more juice as a DP to try to pursue and back up what you need. Along with that, there’s a lot more pressure to succeed. If you get more than a few days of dailies that don’t have something special in them, you should probably get a little scared."