Being a spin-off of one of the most beloved TV shows of all time
"Better Call Saul" had big shoes to fill.
- "God damn right."
- Over the course of the series, Saul has proven itself to be a worthy successor.
Thanks in no small part to its visual style.
"- May I suggest you widen the frame."
- A style that is part western.
Part noir.
And part comedy.
"- I really like your hair."
- Which somehow all blend together
to make one of the most visually sophisticated shows on television
"- Lightning bolt shoot from my fingertips."
- This is the cinematography of "Better Call Saul."
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"- Cut. Great."
- Warning there will be spoilers and a bit of violence ahead.
"- No!"
- There are many elements to appreciate in "Better Call Saul".
"- It's all good, man."
- From the superbly written scripts.
"- You've never mattered all that much to me."
- To the gripping performances.
"- I should have stopped them when I had the chance."
- And highly sympathetic characters.
But today let's focus on the visuals
and how the directors and cinematographers
create the show's unique style.
Including the noir lighting,
playful camera angles.
"- Chào các cô, ladies."
- And the overall cinematic presentation.
"- You rolling? - Yeah.
- Start the dolly.
And action."
- When you watch "Better Call Saul",
you can tell that it doesn't quite look like TV.
And according to cinematographer Arthur Albert,
this was the intent of co-creators Vince Gilligan and Peter Gould.
They stressed repeatedly that they felt tv shows were all starting to look the same.
And that they wanted 'Saul' to look like nothing else on television.
In fact, DP Marshall Adams
explains how Gilligan insisted on shooting the series like a film.
"- Vince from the very beginning of "Breaking Bad"
really shot that show as a feature in a feature film style.
That he wasn't going to pander to small screens."
According to Peter Gould one of the main cinematic influences
was Bernardo Bertolucci's "The Conformist".
There are some very unusual striking compositions
where characters will not be framed the way one would expect.
It's not classical good composition
but the compositions all had good meaning.
In the season one finale,
Gilligan points to this influence in one shot in particular.
"- We put Jimmy Low and to the far right of the frame,
so you've got this wide frame
of the big building in the background.
It fits the character's mood and inner turmoil in that moment.
Another source of influence was classic Hollywood westerns.
In particular, the use of wide shots could capture
how the landscapes engulf the characters.
"- I don't have enough of this for the both of us."
- In addition to capturing the iconic western landscapes
holding on the wide shots also became the preferred way to shoot scenes
as inspired by "The Godfather".
Coppola had the confidence to hang back wide
and not cut until it was damn well time to cut.
"The Godfather" teaches you restraint.
We try to emulate that on "Better Call Saul".
We like to stay wide and keep the cutting pattern slow.
"- You want me to wait?
- Nah, they'll be here.
Really. Go."
- According to cinematographer Paul Donachie,
there is an additional benefit for these wide shot dialogue scenes.
"- Well, so this is my fault?"
- You actually listen to the dialogue more intently watching these wide shots...
Rather than cutting from close-up to close-up to close-up
like you would in a regular show.
"- Employee of the month over here. Yeah.
Hooray. Give him a medal."
- These cinematic western-inspired wide-shots
are aided by the camera and lens choices.
"- Okay, just keep rolling.
Tights, wide. Just give me some good angle."
- According to Adams, the cameras changed from season to season.
But the cameras were Panavised meaning modified to include Panavision accessories.
Together with various lenses from Angenieux, Zeiss and Panavision
the result is widescreen images that are clearly cinematic.
Another prominent visual element in the show is its noir-inspired lighting.
Film noir is a sub-genre from the 40s
and 50s that often focused on the
criminal underworld
with a striking approach to lighting.
Built with high contrast between bright lights and deep shadows
the combination of which accents the moral struggles of its protagonists.
According to Gilligan, "Nighthawks" by Edward Hopper was a clear inspiration.
We love that image of an island of light surrounded by an ocean of darkness.
Two lonely people sitting at a counter drinking coffee
surrounded by loneliness and gloom.
We've emulated that shot a great many times.
But as the show progressed
and the subject matter itself got darker
so did the lighting.
"- There's really no need to...
- Oh, my god."
- As such the cinematographers will often rely on ambient light and practical lights
as the primary sources of illumination.
Ambient light is any light that isn't brought onto set by the crew.
Practical lights are any lights that are seen in a shot
like a lamp or a neon sign.
"- I've really gravitated towards much more kind of natural looking stuff.
Things that feel like they're driven by a practical in a much more naturalistic way."
- Relying on these forms of lighting often means working with less light.
The crew was able to overcome this issue by choosing more
and more advanced digital cameras as the series progressed.
"- One of the things that I've discovered along the way with the digital
I can light practicals mostly on the street, adding street lights
rather than bringing big condors up and stuff like that
which I find look much more natural.
Kind of embracing the natural imperfections of street lights.
"- Don't be scared.
I ain't gonna bite."
- Of course, relying on natural light is even harder at night.
But by using Panasonic's Varicam 35
which can shoot at 5000 ISO without much grain
the team was able to pull it off.
As Peter Gould put it,
this technology enabled Marshall
to use a combination of our lights
and the light out in the world to create a beautiful available light look for night.
A look that wasn't like anything we'd seen before.
A low-light camera with high ISO
was especially crucial when shooting the show's signature wides at night
when they couldn't hide lights anywhere.
Adams further embraced darkness by using highlights or catch lights
which occur when the reflection of a light source can be seen in the eyes.
"- I feel like you can get away with a lot less light on somebody's face
if you have a little twinkle in their eye.
- Big talk."
- The film noir darkness cultivated by Adams and his team
helps to underscore the dark subject matter of "Better Call Saul".
But the show also balances a good deal of comedy with all this darkness.
And one of the ways this balance is achieved is with playful shot choice.
"- Here's Johnny."
- Much of the comedic elements in the show
emerge through the performances, situations, and dialogue.
"- It's me. I got a new car. You like it?"
- But the camera work is also employed to help give the show a visual levity.
- Saul's origins in "Breaking Bad" provided a good deal of comic relief.
"- What are you doing detective?
What are you doing talking to my client without me present?
- You, sneaky Pete."
- Which is a dynamic that carries over into a "Better Call Saul".
"- What's the difference between a tick and a lawyer?
- Oh, no. - The tick falls off when you're dead.
- Love that one. You like that?"
- The mixture of drama and comedy are designed
to play off each other as Peter Gould notes.
There's a comic element to both shows
and we always say that it's a little bit like peanut butter and chocolate.
They make each other taste better.
The drama makes the comedy funnier.
And the comedy certainly makes the drama more dramatic.
"- Can I help you?
- Howie. You know.
- Uh, no. I don't know."
- One way this is done is through camera placement.
"- As a storyteller, Vince has always wanted to get into places
that you wouldn't normally be able to put a camera."
"- For example, mailboxes.
Cup holders.
And talking toilets.
"- Fill me up, Chandler. Put it in me.
- Chandler's my youngest. Loves it."
- By placing the camera in unlikely locations,
it adds a layer of playfulness to the imagery
that balances the more overt dramatic moments.
"- Which one will it be?"
- To pull these types of shots off,
the crew used more compact cameras like the Sony A7R II.
Or Blackmagic Pocket Cinema cameras.
We can also see the framing help accent comedic moments.
Like framing Saul tiny at the bottom of the image during his outbursts.
"- It's nothing to me.
- It's a bacterium. I travel in worlds you can't even imagine."
- Or the low angles that gave him sardonic heroism.
"- Oh, crap."
- "Better Call Saul's" visual palette is a love letter to the western genre.
To film noir.
And to visual comedy.
"- Because I'm not giving up... - Holy sh*t!
Dude! Dude!"
- But at the same time the show never is tied solely to its influences.
"- What do we three have in common with the greats?
- Welles. Fellini. Bergman. The biggies."
- "Better Call Saul" look is so unique
because it's a fusion of classical cinema
and cutting-edge 21st-century movie-making tools.
"- Whatever happened to showmanship?"
- Vince Gilligan has his shots clearly visualized before even arriving on set.
"- Vince has envisioned every moment that he wants."
- Make sure you have your project fully visualized
by using StudioBinder's storyboard software.
What are the visual motifs have you picked up on in "Better Call Soul"?
Let us know in the comments.
Until next time.
Keep stealing from the best.
"- Say nothing! You understand? Get a lawyer!"
Get a lawyer.
- As*hole."