PRODUCTION • Steven V. Silver | Research

Steven V. Silver is the main cinematographer on The Big Bang Theory, working on a total of 247 episodes as of right now. Due to him having worked on so many episodes, this allows me to identify his style of camera work and lighting that he creates on the show.

Steven is well known for working on multi-camera sitcoms including ‘Two and a Half Men’ and ‘The Big Bang Theory’, ‘Mom’, and ‘How I Met Your Mother’ to name a few. He has also been nominated and won multiple Primetime EMMY Awards for ‘outstanding cinematography’ from 2004 to 2016.

Lighting Style in The Big Bang Theory (TBBT)

• Shadow from the window

In the set design, there is a window located on the right-hand side of where the characters sit on their sofas. To add to the effect of the window they have added in a light outside of the window which creates a shadow on the inner wall of a tree or plant that is supposed to be outside. This makes the window feel like it is real and gives these scenes a slightly natural lighting feel. This makes the set feel and appear more realistic like a real apartment.

• Overhead lighting – typical sitcom

Sitcoms filmed on a set like Mrs Brown’s Boys and My Family using overhead lighting where the lights are attached to a grid on the ceiling, lighting from above. This is typical of sitcoms and allows for every section of the set to be lit and makes room on the floor for cameras to move freely without getting the way of lighting. This style of lighting can be identified by where the highlights are on the characters and props. From the position and angle of the light hotspots, we can see that the lights are coming from above. I would like to imitate this style of overhead lighting in our production - although we do not have the capability of an overhead rig, my aim is to have our lights from a high angle pointing down onto the cast and the location to give the look of overhead house lights. 

• All round lights

The overhead lighting covers almost all of the set, with lighting from behind the characters above and key lights in front of them. There is also lights to light the background. This creates a very high key lighting which is traditional of sitcoms. For Young & Famous, my aim is to have the background lit separately to the actors, in order to make sure I am able to do this I will need a lighting test shoot and to work out the position of the lights and how many I will need for the shoot. 

Camera Movements:

• Movement

The show uses pans and tilts often and generally when characters are moving around a location or if characters are in the same room and relatively close to each other, the camera sometimes will tilt and pan from one character to another. This breaks up the static shots and in the edit, they switch between using some still shots to then adding in a movement. These camera movements allow us to follow the characters around and direct the audience as to who they should be paying attention; it also allows for the sets and locations to be seen more. So far, our plan for Y&F is for most of the hots to be static as that is what the director has suggested they want, however, when we get more into the production side and complete some tests shots in the locations we choose, we will be able to see what works best for the show and if there are any points where we could have some camera movements. 

Multi-cam

• Shot Sizes & Framing

The shot sizes vary from mid shots to wide shots depending on what is happening in the scene and how many people. If there are only 2 people in a scene then Silver films singles of both characters as well as a wider shot, such as Mid Long Shot or a Long Shot, this allows the audience to see the characters up close and for certain sections of dialogue to be emphasised as well the location and set to be established. At this point in time, there are a few scenes in the script that have just two characters so this style of filming is something that I think will work nicely in our production and will be something that I test out. 

2 shots are used where there are lots of people in a scene, they often switch between different characters and series of 2 shots and with some singles of important lines of dialogue and the to mid-long shots to show the location. For our first scene we have 4 actors and plan to have lots of extras in the background, this gives me the opportunity to try this silver's style of filming 2-shots what there are quite a few people in a scene. This scene will be filmed multi-cam with three cameras which should give me the option to film a few different shot sizes as there are enough cameras to work with. 

Overall, I think that Silver's style of cinematography uses traditional sitcom styles of filming and lighting such as the overhead lighting and the multi-cam aspect which are two things that I like the outcome of and want to try and incorporate into our project.