Colin in Black and White

American Cinematographer goes in depth on the immersive LED gallery PRG provided for Colin in Black & White, a six-part hybrid narrative series from Netflix and director/EP Ava DuVernay, photographed by Matthew J. Lloyd, ASC.

Present-day civil rights activist Kaepernick is the Greek Chorus in a gallery-like space where scenes from his life play out on the walls, allowing him to step in and out of the scenes to comment and provide context on the story.

One half of the gallery set was created with 30' x 16' walls of 3mm LED screens provided by PRG Brooklyn, for displaying the scene plates stitched together by visual effects artists at Fuse FX in New York City. “The effect is similar to an LED volume, but more like an installation,” says Lloyd. “We wanted you to feel the physical dimension of the space.” Getting too close to the LED screens revealed individual pixels and produced a moire effect, so Lloyd had New York 1st AC Keitt slightly de-focus the background whenever pulling focus toward the screens.

Lloyd, DuVernay, dolly grips Rashad Clinton and Yancy Rodriguez, Epps, Cox, AD Karen Radzikowski and talent were physically present on set, while lighting board operator Herrick Goldman, DIT Thomas Wong, PRG video technician Brad Peterson, and camera operator Christine Ng worked from a remote command center elsewhere in the facility. From here, Ng controlled the camera with a Libra head in conjunction with an Aerocrane jib and Fisher 10 dolly.

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