{"id":11100,"date":"2021-04-28T08:56:50","date_gmt":"2021-04-28T15:56:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.icgmagazine.com\/web\/?p=11100"},"modified":"2021-05-28T16:33:05","modified_gmt":"2021-05-28T23:33:05","slug":"long-live-the-king","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.icgmagazine.com\/web\/long-live-the-king\/","title":{"rendered":"Long Live The King"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime operator Joe “Jody” Williams makes his studio feature debut as Director of Photography on a beloved comedy classic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

by Pauline Rogers \/ Photos by Quantrell D. Colbert & Annette Brown \/ Amazon Studios<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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African monarch Akeem (Eddie Murphy) lives an idyllic, lavish life in<\/strong> Zamunda, where he\u2019s brushed, bathed, and wiped by others, as elephants march around freely. But with King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) mortally ill, and time marching on, Akeem begins pondering succession. A traditionalist, he severely resists his grown daughter Meeka (KiKi Layne), who wants an opportunity to rule the kingdom. When Akeem learns he has a long-lost son in the United States, he and his friend, Semmi (Arsenio Hall), decide to return to America and bring Akeem\u2019s male heir back to Zamunda as the king-apparent.<\/p>\n

It was the late 1980s when Eddie Murphy and Director John Landis debuted the outrageous comedy that imprinted upon Coming 2 America<\/em>\u2019s Director of Photography Joe \u201cJody\u201d Williams \u201cthe idea of seeing so many people that looked like me in this fantastical setting. Whether you got caught up in the comedy and the fantasy of Coming to America<\/em>, there just weren\u2019t a lot of Black movies coming out at the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thirty-three years later, Murphy tapped director Craig Brewer (Dolemite Is My Name<\/em>, Black Snake Moan<\/em>, Hustle & Flow<\/em>), who then brought in his Director of Photography from Empire<\/em>, Williams (in his studio feature debut), to take Akeem and Semmi to America and back. Brewer says, \u201cJody and I had built such a strong relationship on Empire<\/em>; there was no question that he was my best and only choice for this film.<\/em> Over the 10-plus episodes we did on that series, we both began to think alike. It started with being \u2018cool,\u2019\u201d he laughs. \u201cThere was a moment when Jody came over to me and said, \u2018They should teach a class on what you are doing.\u2019 He got it: the full vision, the wrangling of a bunch of personalities, and the stress involved with making Empire<\/em> gorgeous on the schedule we had.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams says he and Brewer looked at the original, \u201cand it was dated, for sure. We both realized that some of the elements just weren\u2019t funny to an audience today.\u201d\u00a0Brewer says his goal was to find a happy medium between Airplane<\/em> and Anchorman<\/em>, adding in more characters, outrageous sets, and musical performances.\u00a0The first camera system that drew Williams\u2019 interest was the Panavision DXL2. \u201cI wanted to learn how much surface area the frame line and eyepiece were going to see,\u201d he adds. \u201cAs an operator, you look for the space outside the frame.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Director of Photography Jody Williams (above) says he was drawn\u00a0to using the Panavision DXL2 capture system because he wanted to learn how much surface area the frame line and eyepiece were going to see. \u201cAs an operator, you look for the space outside the frame.” \/ Photo by Quantrell D. Colbert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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The idea of large format also intrigued 1st AC Baird Steptoe Sr.,<\/strong> who says he was \u201cexcited\u201d to film in 8K. (The picture was ultimately shot in 7K due to Amazon\u2019s concern with a high data rate vis-\u00e0-vis fast dailies turnover.) Steptoe shares that \u201cPanavision assembled an incredible team. It started with Zoe Iitsopoulos and Lori Killiam, as well as Katie Fellion from Panavision\/Light Iron. Dan Sasaki sent a few lenses to Chicago for Jody to view. Once Jody decided on the large-format Artiste lenses, customized by Dan Sasaki, I went through the calibrations in L.A., and we had our package \u2013 DXL2 and Artiste, with old-school Primo lenses [a nod to the original movie] for the flashbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams says the Artiste lenses had \u201ca subtle softness and intimacy while still holding this necessary sharpness. They performed as if there were beauty filters in front, as some shots we did had none.\u201d Adds DIT Stuart Huggins: \u201cThe DXL2 was a perfect fit from a skin-tone perspective, as it exploded with color. We managed everything using LiveGrade and ASC color decision lists [CDL\u2019s] and lookup tables [LUT\u2019s]. During production, I captured over 1000 still frames, which Jody was able to reference during his remote color sessions with Light Iron.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams and Steptoe sought out a diverse camera crew, including veteran camera operators Billy O\u2019Drobinak, SOC, and Will Arnot, SOC, along with a strong Atlanta-based team. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought it vitally important for Black actors to see Black people behind the cameras as assistants, operators, and DP\u2019s,\u201d says Williams. \u201cWe were blessed to have such representation with operators Alfeo Dixon [SOC], Brig Foster-Owens; AC\u2019s Justin Noel, Dwayne Green, Rome Will, Najee Rawlins, and Unit Still Photographer Quantrell Colbert. Though they aren\u2019t Black, I can\u2019t not <\/em>mention AC\u2019s Torey Lenart and Blair Winders.\u201d<\/p>\n

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DP Williams (front row, green shirt) and 1st AC Baird Steptoe, Sr. (holding slate) sought out a diverse team that included camera operators Billy O\u2019Drobinak, SOC, and Will Arnot, SOC (back row). along with a strong Atlanta-based crew. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought it vitally important for Black actors to see Black people behind the cameras as assistants, operators, and DP\u2019s,\u201d Williams reflects. \/ Photo by Quantrell D. Colbert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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As to lighting all the varying skin tones in the film,<\/strong> Williams credits the DXL2.\u00a0\u201cI was surprised and blown away by the color spacing of its sensor. Black skins are rendered beautifully all across the spectrum,\u201d he states. \u201cSeeing how naturally awesome Eddie, Arsenio, Shari, and Wesley came into the camera test, I was reminded that \u2018Black don\u2019t crack,\u2019\u201d he laughs. \u201cI tried, in general, to stay with bounced and ambient light whenever possible. One of the goals in the movie was to highlight the wardrobe. In the camera test, I wanted to look at combining classic \u2018book lighting\u2019 with incandescent sources for skin tones and direct soft-source lighting through much diffusion for the wardrobe. Sometimes we did a little of one and a little of the other \u2013 then both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scheduling was set for a little over 70 days. But with rewrites, budget changes, and location challenges, \u201cevery time we started to talk about something, it became something different,\u201d smiles 1st AD Mark Little. \u201cHow do you get the feeling of Madison Square Garden but shoot in Atlanta? Do we do big sequences in Atlanta and capture New York tie-ins? Because of his health, we needed to go to New York to shoot James Earl Jones. How much do we take with us? What do we do there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Even a relatively small sequence (compared to the lavish dance numbers) in a key location for the original movie, a barbershop in Queens, presented challenges.\u00a0\u201cEddie and Arsenio as different characters in one small room,\u201d Williams describes. \u201cIconic location that everyone remembers \u2013 same \u2018set,\u2019 just characters that are older.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams admits that he hasn\u2019t worked on a lot of FX-heavy projects. \u201c[The barber shop] was motion control with one main camera making programmable moves with a second camera doing critically specific shots,\u201d he recalls. \u201cAlso, Eddie didn\u2019t want to be in one character for more than two hours and couldn\u2019t do more than one character in a day.\u201d<\/p>\n

That meant VFX Supervisor Jon Farhat had to study the boards and, with intimate knowledge of Murphy\u2019s process from past projects, sought to \u201cembed\u201d the actor\u2019s unique way of working into the pipeline. \u201cEddie is the best at it,\u201d Farhat explains. \u201cBut it\u2019s not an instinctive flow to scheduling and standard setup logic. Once past that, the crew gets to rehearse a pass or two. It\u2019s quite freeing for the performer. But it can also go pear-shaped fast, and you need to have a backup plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Describing a scene in the iconic barbershop, VFX Supervisor Jon <\/span>Farhat says they tried to set the environment up so Murphy could perform six days in multiple roles \u2013 in sequence. \u201cWe had to pre-program every position into the track,” Farhart explains, “and jump back and forth to the same positions as it would be cut. Then we would record live the head-iris-focus from the camera operators.” \/ Photo by Quantrell D. Colbert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Farhat says they tried to set the right environment up so Murphy c<\/strong>ould perform six days in multiple roles \u2013 in sequence. \u201cThat meant all camera angles, in sequence against a \u2018cut,\u2019\u201d he explains. \u201cWe essentially had to pre-program every position into the track \u2013 and jump back and forth to the same positions as it would be cut. Then we would record live, the head-iris-focus from the camera operators. We would do this in story order.\u201d\u00a0 Farhat and Brewer chose one character (Clarence) to lead and to be moving, and the others were stationary. \u201cTracking, of course, was with tennis balls,\u201d Farhat adds. \u201cAnd you can\u2019t play off camera because Eddie interrupts himself. So we had a special earwig for Eddie so he could play-back the dialog and talk and step on his own lines.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Drobinak describes operating with the motion-control track as \u201cinteresting and fun. You don\u2019t get a lot of takes,\u201d he says. \u201cI had to be proactive. It was all about timing and setup. I had to make sure I left enough time \u2013 but not too much \u2013 for Eddie\u2019s lines. I also had to anticipate how long he would take and when to make the next move. In the end, with Jon\u2019s guidance \u2013 because he had done this before with Eddie \u2013 and a lot of rehearsals, we got exactly what was needed with few takes and no problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arnot was tasked with getting coverage shots for the scene that did not involve multiple characters in the same shot (and would have required motion control). \u201cI sometimes had to creatively work around the mo-co track to get the exact angles we needed to isolate each character,\u201d Arnot recalls. \u201cUsing my 28-inch offset Original Slider enabled me to do this regularly.\u201d<\/p>\n

With lighting also needing to marry motion control, Chief Lighting Technician Jarred Waldron used LED panels of his design. \u201cWe call them \u2018snow panels,\u2019\u201d Waldron explains. \u201cThey are soft and don\u2019t emit any heat, which was wonderful because of all the prosthetics Eddie and Arsenio had to wear. Even though we were only shooting certain parts of the barbershop each day, it had to feel like one lighting setup.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The massive ballroom set, dressed and shot for a coronation, a funeral, and a dance sequence called \u201cSexual Chocolate,\u201d required extensive conversations between Williams, Chief Lighting Technician Jarred Waldron, and Lighting Programmer Matt Klann \/ Photo by Annette Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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At the other end of the spectrum was the massive ballroom <\/strong>set, dressed and shot three times for a coronation, a funeral, and a dance sequence called \u201cSexual Chocolate.\u201d The large lighting setups, all different and challenging, required extensive conversations between Williams, Waldron, and Lighting Programmer Matt Klann.<\/p>\n

The challenge was to create a versatile lighting plot that could work around the set pieces and rigging that would move in and out during changeovers. The team used Vectorworks to build the stage, scenery, truss, and lighting in 3D to help them find and avoid issues with set layouts. They then created a series of base looks and palettes using Vision previsualization software to help speed up programming for the various performance numbers.<\/p>\n

Five long, 4-by-30-foot softboxes filled with ARRI S60-C fixtures were installed and remained for all three setups. \u201cThis allowed an even, soft light over the entire set while still leaving room between the boxes for extra rigging points, truss, and taller set pieces,\u201d Klann describes. \u201cWe also lined the perimeter of the set with moving lights and color-changing Pars: the PRG Bad Boy HP and PRG Best Boy HP for moving, and Martin Rush Par 2 Zooms for the Pars.\u201d That allowed the team to have a quick backlight for any camera angle while also having enough to punch through the haze during the dance numbers \u2013 with vibrant colors, gobos, and air effects. The Rush Pars gave them the option of creating washes of CCT light for regular scenes and infinite choices of colored light for the funeral-scene performance numbers and Sexual Chocolate.<\/p>\n

In the story, King Jaffe Joffer knows he is dying. But, in a fantasy \u201cyour wish is my command\u201d style, he insists he wants to see his funeral. Williams explains that the sequence goes from \u201ca somber march as Joffer, in his casket, is brought in, to his life celebrated by massive dance and musical numbers. Morgan Freeman comes in to eulogize the King, as dark goes to light, night to day, with the sun rising \u2013 all cued for a transition, as King Joffer is feted by En Vogue, Salt-N-Pepa, and Gladys Knight, each a massive lighting show.\u201d<\/p>\n

The flash and scope of such scenes show the team\u2019s intense planning and coordination. But it was one seemingly simple moment that stands out for Brewer \u2013 when Akeem approaches the casket to talk to his father. King Joffer turns his head and asks: \u201cSon?\u201d Akeem returns a gentle, \u201cYes, Father.\u201d As King Joffer\u2019s voice fades, he says, \u201cHave a wonderful evening. Remember what I told you,\u201d sighs, and, with his last breath, says, \u201cI\u2019m going to die now\u201d and passes away. Brewer says capturing those moments with James Earl Jones was one of the greatest of his career.<\/p>\n

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A complex scene where King Joffer (James Earl Jones, above) sees his own funeral was shot in New York and Atlanta, in various stages and locations. \u201cWhen we looked at the finished project,” Director Brewer marvels, “you couldn\u2019t tell [Jones] wasn\u2019t in the same room with our cast. That\u2019s how great a team we had \u2013 they made it seamless.\u201d \/ Photo by Quantrell D. Colbert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhen we looked at the finished project,” Brewer marvels, <\/strong>“you couldn\u2019t tell he wasn\u2019t in the same room with our cast. That\u2019s how great a team we had \u2013 they made it seamless.\u201d\u00a0Due to Jones\u2019 health, the team broke down set pieces from Atlanta and transported them to New York to shoot against green screen. As Brewer elaborates: \u201cAD Mark Little and I spent a day acting with [Jones], and it was the honor of my life. When the king has his final words with Akeem, I was sitting on an apple box not two feet from James Earl Jones. I was concentrating on the scene, but in my mind, I couldn\u2019t help drifting back to my father\u2019s passing at 49 from a heart attack. The two tied together, and I got so emotional, I couldn\u2019t say, \u2018Cut.\u2019 Neither could Mark or even Jody. We all connected.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams notes that they needed to shoot two scenes with James Earl Jones.\u00a0\u201cBaird\u2019s and my initial concerns were that there wouldn\u2019t be any available DXL2s for us to use, and we weren\u2019t going to pull ours off the show because we would have to travel back to Atlanta and continue shooting. Fortunately, Clifford the Big Red Dog<\/em> [shot by Peter Lyons Collister, ASC] was finishing, and we got their cameras. All we had to bring was a few selected Artiste primes and the 20-80 zoom. DIT Lewis Rothenberg helped assemble a New York crew for us. Key Grip Joe Czerw traveled, and Gaffer Jarred Waldron sent Jeff LaBaume, one of the film\u2019s set electricians. Jon Farhat and Jeff Sage recreated the sets from Atlanta.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first setup was for a scene that had Jones, Murphy, two Arsenios, and Shari Headley in Joffer\u2019s bedroom. \u201cIt only required [Jones] to lie in bed looking in a couple of directions,\u201d Williams continues. \u201cWe used the two DXL\u2019s on dollies, as we did in Atlanta. We had shot the entire scene without Mr. Jones and Baba [Arsenio], but we had all of our positions marked that we needed to capture Mr. Jones in New York. Jeff Sage and his team disassembled the King\u2019s bed, a few furniture pieces, and some tapestries from the bedroom and transported them to New York to set up a few days before.\u201d<\/p>\n

For King Joffer\u2019s funeral, Williams used five RED DRAGON cameras in a locked array almost 180 degrees around Jones to catch as many looks as possible. \u201cIt required [Jones] to lie in an upright coffin looking in multiple positions,\u201d Williams adds. \u201cThe trick was that we hadn\u2019t shot the scene in Atlanta yet, so I had nothing to match to. Luckily, they were fairly tight shots on the array, so I didn\u2019t stress too much about the rest of the environment. It required only a single spotlight \u2013 Source Four Leko on a dimmer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams says it all came together \u201cpretty seamlessly in the edit,\u201d considering the many challenges. \u201cWe shot Friday in Atlanta, got up Saturday morning to fly to New York, met the new team, lit the shot and James Earl Jones, then traveled back to Atlanta Sunday to be ready for work Monday morning,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBack to our normal circus.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Williams worked closely with Costume Designer Ruth Carter (first photo) to ensure fabrics and colors always enhanced the story. “The train of [the wedding dress] Ruth created weighed 80 pounds and was 20 feet long,” he recalls. “A seamstress had to ride down the aisle under the dress, on a flatbed dolly, holding the train up, as wires [removed by VFX in post] guided it.\u201d Above: Jermaine Fowler and Nomzano Mbatha \/\u00a0Photos by Annette Brown<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

What\u2019s notable is Brewer and company did not <\/em>repeat the style of the<\/strong> original, leaning more into character than physical comedy, as in an argument between Akeem and his wife, Lisa (Headley), that Williams calls \u201ca delicate balance. In comedy, you don\u2019t want to make the audience angry with the characters. But, here, we wanted to show the real emotions between them. It was set in their massive bedroom, with a lot of movement between them. We wanted to keep it a little dark, not just the look but in the story [but not so dark that the studio or the audience would be concerned]. As they moved through the different areas of the bedroom, we still showed off the pageantry. But in keeping with the story, we used small pools of light, not everything top-lit, and gave them eye light for where they moved.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the story\u2019s fantasy aspect, set in Zamunda, the approach had a modern feel. As Akeem becomes an enlightened father, accepting that his daughter is the proper heir to the throne, he cements his relationship with his son by throwing the most outrageous wedding for him and the love the young man found when he came to Zamunda.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challenges [for the wedding sequence] were similar to the other big sequences throughout the picture,\u201d Williams says in a practical voice. \u201cSo, sometimes it\u2019s fun to talk about the challenges you don\u2019t expect. For example, Ruth Carter did an incredible job on the costumes. We worked together to make every color pop, and have the fabrics lend subtlety to each shot and enhance the story. The red wedding dress Ruth created was exactly what we needed, as it fit the stature of the moment. But the problem [dramatic pause] is that the train of the dress weighed 80 pounds and was 20 feet long! We had to have one of our seamstresses ride down the aisle under the dress, on a flatbed dolly, holding the train up, as wires [removed by Farhat in post] guided it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams, only half-jokingly, says he believes \u201cin divine order, and it feels like the alignment of the planets\u201d presented an opportunity for him to be the right prism for this movie. \u201cSo much of the process on big shows is wrapped up in technology, budgets, time, personalities, and egos that sometimes humility and attentiveness are lost,\u201d he concludes. \u201cI attempted to bring that while allowing other smart artisans around me to do their thing. As a cinematographer, I feel these are just a few of my responsibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Brewer (far left) and Williams (far right) diverged from the original 1998 film (shot by Woody Omens, ASC) by emphasizing character over physical comedy. \u201cSo much of the process on big shows is wrapped up in technology, budgets, time, personalities, and egos, that sometimes humility and attentiveness are lost,\u201d Williams concludes. \u201cI attempted to bring that while allowing other smart artisans around me to do their thing.” \/ Photo by Quantrell D. Colbert<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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Local 600 Camera Team \u2013\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>Coming 2 America<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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Atlanta Unit<\/u><\/p>\n

Director of Photography: Joe “Jody” Williams<\/p>\n

A-Camera Operators: Billy O\u2019Drobinak, SOC<\/p>\n

A-Camera 1st<\/sup> AC: Baird Steptoe Sr.<\/p>\n

A-Camera 2nd<\/sup> AC: Baird Steptoe II<\/p>\n

B-Camera Operator\/Steadicam: Will Arnot, SOC, Alfeo Dixon, SOC<\/p>\n

B-Camera 1st<\/sup> AC: Emil Hampton<\/p>\n

B-Camera 2nd<\/sup> AC: Blair Winders<\/p>\n

C-Camera Operator: Brigman Foster-Owens<\/p>\n

C-Camera 2nd<\/sup> AC: Dwayne Green<\/p>\n

Additional 1st<\/sup> AC: Rome Williams<\/p>\n

Loader: Najee Rawlins<\/p>\n

DIT: Stuart Huggins<\/p>\n

Digital Utilities: Tony Fallico, Torey Lenart<\/p>\n

Still Photographer: Quantrell Colbert<\/p>\n

Publicist: Staci R. Collins Jackson<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

New York Unit<\/u><\/p>\n

B-Camera Operator: Jack Donnelly<\/p>\n

B-Camera 1st<\/sup> AC: Gavin Fernandez<\/p>\n

B-Camera 2nd<\/sup> AC: Mabel Santos Haugen<\/p>\n

Film Loader: Wyatt Gregory Maker<\/p>\n

Array Technician: Toshiro Yamaguchi<\/p>\n

DIT: Lewis Rothenberg<\/p>\n

Still Photographer: Phil Caruso, SMPSP<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime operator Joe “Jody” Williams makes his studio feature debut as Director of Photography on a beloved comedy classic. by Pauline Rogers \/ Photos by Quantrell D. Colbert & Annette Brown \/ Amazon Studios   African monarch Akeem (Eddie Murphy) lives an idyllic, lavish life in Zamunda, where he\u2019s brushed, bathed, and wiped by others, as elephants march around freely. But with King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) mortally ill, and time marching on, Akeem begins pondering succession. A traditionalist, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11135,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLong Live The King - ICG Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.icgmagazine.com\/web\/long-live-the-king\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Long Live The King - ICG Magazine\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Longtime operator Joe “Jody” Williams makes his studio feature debut as Director of Photography on a beloved comedy classic. by Pauline Rogers \/ Photos by Quantrell D. Colbert & Annette Brown \/ Amazon Studios   African monarch Akeem (Eddie Murphy) lives an idyllic, lavish life in Zamunda, where he\u2019s brushed, bathed, and wiped by others, as elephants march around freely. But with King Jaffe Joffer (James Earl Jones) mortally ill, and time marching on, Akeem begins pondering succession. 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