Jen Graham's "Beverly": The Making of a Life-Size Barbie

Archive article, originally written May 6, 2009

I'll soon be going into Lustre color correction for Jen Graham's "Beverly," a story about the disenchantment of a child's doll as she comes to terms with her inability to learn and develop as long as she stays at the dream house. Photography for the project wrapped at the end of November; editor Alex Fortunato is now working hard to develop the comedy of blissful ignorance.

An ambitious project on a tight schedule with limited crew, "Beverly" had locations in Beverly Hills, Anaheim, and on a stage at Marion Knott Studios, where we shot greenscreen to place Beverly (Anais Feirweather) at a doll's scale in plates shot on location. The plates were photographed after the greenscreen coverage, so thorough notes on the part of 2nd Assistant Camera Josh Wolk were key in acquiring the shots we'd need in post.

Creating the Barbie world was as involved a task on location as it was on the stages: each morning Makeup Artist Jenny Hou would transform our wonderful lead actress, Anais; the makeup read wonderfully, and I accented the rosy look with Lee Cosmetic Hi-Lite on each character light. For camera diffusion, I found and tested Tiffen's Glimmerglass set; the filters provided smooth skin tones with a slight shimmer, far less recognizable than a pro mist or other typical diffusion.The footage is being processed at Fotokem and will be given a one-light 1080 scan for editing followed by a best-light 2K scan with Marion Knott Studios' Spirit 4K; at that point I'll have the project in Autodesk Lustre for color correction.1:1.85Arriflex Super 16mm SRIIZeiss Super Speed PrimesPhotographed on Kodak Vision2 7212, Vision3 7219Rentals from Otto Nemenz International, Mole Richardson, Wooden Nickel LightingDir Jen Graham

1st AC Nicholas Dunakin WiesnetGaffer Robyn Buchanan, Jay K. RajaKey Grip Matthew PerezProduction Designer Mandy NoackMakeup Artist Jenny Hou