Jeff Cronenweth: Separation and Underexposing Faces

From American Cinematographer, Anarchy in the U.S.A. by Christopher Probst (November 1999)

"The general game plan was to make sure that the actors separated from their environment and then play the actor's edgelight off of the practicals as much as possible without actually 'lighting' them. For this film, we didn't necessarily want to be able to see directly into their faces. It was more interesting and appropriate to the story to force the audience to pay attention. Faces were generally underexposed 1 1/2 to 2 stops, though it depended upon the scene. If the scene called for the audience to really be able to see them, I'd make the faces closer to 1 1/2 stops under. In either case, it was still important to feel the presence of their eyes, so we often played with eyelights-- everything from obie lights to Kino Flos taped to the matte-box-- which we usually kept three stops under."

- Jeff Cronenweth, ASC

"We lit faces mostly with Kino Flos covered with 1/4 CTO and muslin. The angle and direction of that depended on where the practicals were. If it was a door shot, the key may have to come from the top, or if a pillar got in the way, we might bring it in from the side. David and Jeff wanted everything to be as natural as possible and allowed areas to go dark. We then played with creating blacks that you could just read into with hints of reflections for texture."

- Claudio Miranda, Gaffer for Cronenweth on Fight Club