Louis C.K.'s new show "Louie"

[C.H.Haskell]

Hey folks, I would like to welcome DP of "louie", Paul Koestner to the conversation. He is a fellow reduser...although maybe not by choice. ;)

[Zakaree Sandberg]

how long was your shooting season?
length of each episode?

[Paul Koestner]

Hello Everyone,
First, let me apologize for any format/policy issues that may follow. This is my first post.
Clay Haskell, my DIT and babysitter on “Louie”, has made me aware of the general interest regarding Louie’s choice of the Red for his television production. And to risk the disdain of this august group, the camera was Louie’s choice, not mine. In fact, I was his DP for “Hilarious”, the concert project shot with six Reds in Milwaukee that played at Sundance, and which to my added shame I have yet to view. That project was my introduction to the Red.
I do not consider myself a Luddite, but I did not think the Red to be the proper tool for Louie’s series (which I should add may be seen Tuesday Nights at 11 on FX), and I believe the argument is still a moot one, as properly defined. Louie (no technological slouch himself), after considering my suggested alternatives, stuck with the Red, so that was that. We made it alive through Season One.
Having thus stirred up the beehive, I place myself at your disposal for inquiries and discussion. Don’t be surprised if I defer to Clay for technical considerations. I was busy on set with other details, and I don’t think the project suffered too terribly for my wanton ignorance of Jim Jannard’s baby. That’s why Clay was there, as well as my extremely competent AC, Alex Martin.
Whatever quick opinion you may have formed of me thus far, I’d now hope to utilize this forum to further educate myself for that hopeful day when Louie begins Season Two.

[Paul Koestner]

To answer Zack, I believe we did around forty-five shoot days, right Clay? It's a bit confusing for a couple reasons. First, we were in and out of production on a number of occasions based on Louie's availability. For instance, he left us for a period to attend the previously mentioned Sundance Festival. Our schedule was further juggled based on his commitment to his children (his fatherly duties were frequently depicted in the series). And finally, we did not receive show scripts so much as sketch scripts, some of which were quite short, others being long enough to carry an entire show. This made for an interesting mental puzzle. Louie ultimately assembled thirteen full shows from these elements, each show typically running in the twenty-two minute range.

[Petri Teittinen]

In fact, I was his DP for “Hilarious”, the concert project shot with six Reds in Milwaukee that played at Sundance

Hi Paul, and welcome to the forum. It's great to have another voice from this wonderful show here. I had no idea Hilarious was shot with RED cameras, but now that I do, I'm looking forward to seeing the film even more! I think Louis C.K. tweeted about some recent developments wrt the film's home video release, but I haven't seen any further information on the matter. All I know it can't happen too soon =)

[Paul Koestner]

You know, Petri, as I've said, I myself have not seen that finished project, which is a sad commentary. Obviously "Hilarious" is a rare project on several levels. Louie always imagined for it a possible theater run (which in my mind makes it a suitable Red project) and I know he's pursuing that pathway. But he's also a canny businessman who knows the odds and the options.

[Jason Madeja]

Paul, I read a few articles where Louie discussed having a very small budget for the show. What kind of sacrifices did you have to make due to the budget? Also, is there an overall look for the show that you strived for?

Come on, Paul. Whip it out ...

[Paul Koestner]

Whip it out, Jason? Let me ask you, how much real estate do I have to work with here?

First let me state that I’ve never been much of a moneyman. Rarely does a producer on any project share with me the specifics of the budget. I’m simply and commonly given the stern imperative to make it look as good as possible despite obvious financial handicaps. What else is new? That having been said, I do believe that an important part of my job includes honoring budgetary limitations. It does no good to bankrupt the company in the name of pretty pictures. Art, as they say, does not exist in a vacuum.

The thing is, I’ve become quite at home in an environment where there is little time, little money, and skeleton crews prevail. On this job I was frequently pissing off my crew as they caught me touching their stuff. That’s the environment in which I was raised.

To the meat of the question. Both Louie and I like small production. In fact I think he now trumps me in that area. Our crew was the minimum required by the union. Our G&E package was light. Our camera package was likewise. If we were paying for something we weren’t using, we got rid of it. I wouldn’t know what to do with a Louma crane (Oh yes I would. Trade it for more weights for the Seven Jib, and Oreos). My imperative was to do as little fiddling as possible so as to offer as much time for Louie to hone his scenes as possible. Because in the end, and I truly believe this, your audience will forgive you for your chosen technology as long as you entertain them Big Time with content. Witness the continued popularity of VHS footage of golfball contact with the gonads.

One concession to Louie’s vision was his desire to use prime lenses, and then only the best glass (he continues to shoots stills using a Leica M3, I believe it is). Now this could spawn a whole other discussion: we were using Master Primes. These are big, expensive, fast chunks of technology, which Louie loved. We tried hard not to carry lenses we weren’t using regularly. We occasionally had to make do with what was available from our chosen rental house. These things are not as common as floor sanders.

Louie loves simplicity, hates phoniness, and treasures a natural, minimally invasive look. I truly respect what he’s trying to achieve, even while I catch myself trying to doll up the lighting on one of his occasional love interests. If available light worked, we used it. I’ll be even more enthusiastic next season, when the Mysterium sensor becomes standard equipment on a Red package. With the present pace of technological change, it damn well better be.

This may sound ridiculous, but my main goal was to guess what Louie might want before he appeared on set, change it when I found I was wrong (74% of the time), keep him in frame and in focus (No mean feat at T1.3 with no rehearsal: Thank you, Alex!), not piss him off (he had a lot on his plate, if you read the credits), expose properly (again no damn mean feat given the astounding range of opinions on the topic) and keep us on schedule. Oh, and make it look like real life.

I feel like I’ve already taken up too much space. How am I doing?

[Jason Madeja]

Fantastic! Really informative. Did you do a lot of scenes without rehersal? I assume you light those scenes to allow the actors to move where ever they see fit in the moment. Ricky Gervais especially seems to be riffing and improving with a pretty long leash.

Are the scenes ever tightly scripted or written more as a general overview, like what Larry David does?

[C.H.Haskell]

We came to work with a tight script and thats what we stuck by...Louis knows what he wants and always leaves a little room to play. I found him changing things up on the fly, specially if he is working with talent like Gervais then they really had fun with it..."lets try this, lets do that" kind of thing. Lines would change from time to time but for the most part we stuck to the script.

If you work for Louis then you know he demands the 35mm "look", he loves to be sitting at 1.3...how Alex kept this show in focus is beyond me. I supported Paul, made sure we had pretty pictures coming down the pipe and into louies hands, where he would edit! Madman. If there were fires, I would douse the flames...and yes we had a few meltdowns. EPIC could not come sooner.

Last I spoke with Louis, he is very keen to be shooting season II (crossing my fingers) with EPIC and wants to test out the (smaller!) Leica cinema primes.

MOving fast was key in the camera department, Paul was always cracking the whip.

Paul you would like the EPIC, much smaller, lighter, faster...and the new leica primes would be a match made in heaven in my opinion. Paul always would say "its comedy, its not suppose to be pretty" But if you watch the show, it looks so damn good...specially in HD. I Am pretty amazed how small a crew we were, how low our budget, but in the end it looks like fantastic and there are some very cinematic moments...better then most shit I see on tv.