‘Gilded Age’ Cinematographer Lula Carvalho On the Power of Motion, Lighting in Season Two

Now wrapping its second season, HBO’s The Gilded Age remains one of the most beautifully lavish series on television. Its below-the-line crafts transport the viewer directly to the late 19th century where New York society divided itself into the old and new money. The worlds of the Russells and the van Rhijns aren’t strictly outlined within Sir Julian Fellowes and his writing team’s scripts. Rather, the differences between the two camps are underscored by the crafts themselves.

The series’s cinematographers partner with each episode director to capture Emmy-winner Bob Shaw’s brilliant production design and costume designer Kasia Walicka Maimone’s parade of period-authentic designs. There exists here a delicate balance of reveling in the visual splendor but finding ways to relate specific plot details and character traits through lensing. Filming The Gilded Age is more than pointing the camera at beautiful things; it’s finding a way to tell the subtext of the story through imagery, lighting, and camera movements.

Cinematographer Lula Carvalho joined the creative team on The Gilded Age for season two, partnering with the returning Manuel Billeter. Here, in an interview with Awards Daily, Carvalho talks through several key details of the four season two episodes he lensed. He talks about camera movement within the larger estates of the new rich and establishing visual differences between the three churches that open the season. He also talks about lighting dinner sequences, most specifically the Duke’s dinner in Nantucket held by the Russell family. Finally, he talks about the differences in filming the working class compared to the upper class elites.

Both seasons of The Gilded Age stream exclusively on MAX.

Awards Daily: How did you come to The Gilded Age? Was there anything in your resume that prepared you for the need to capture the actors and their dialogue, the lavish costumes, and the stunning production design equally? 

Lula Carvalho: I came to TGA after a great interview with [director] Michael Engler and [producer] David Crockett. I had just moved to New York City, and the timing was perfect! Even though I had shot a period movie in Argentina in 2008, I believe that the reason I was chosen was more because of my general work and experience and a good chemistry in the interview!

Awards Daily: Did you ever think in your career that you’d be filming a montage of Easter bonnets?

Lula Carvalho: Well, one of the greatest things about our job is you never know what are you going to portray in the next opportunity! Sometimes, you get involved with something that is close to your personal life experience or history and sometimes you end up involved in some unexpected part of the history of the world. It is a really interesting and beautiful profession!

Awards Daily: The opening of the second season also features a montage of sequences set in three different churches. Were these moments filmed in unique ways to underscore the social / economic differences of the period? 

Lula Carvalho: The approach of the lighting combined with the production design, incredibly done by Bob Shaw, is what differentiates and build the unique characteristics of each of those economics social groups/places. The churches are very different in size, and all of their individual interiors are lit with different colors and temperatures. From those unique combinations, we develop a different visual narrative for each situation even though the camera keeps a somehow similar approach.

Awards Daily: There’s a stunning shot in episode one that introduces us to the Russell’s Newport home. How was that achieved? 

Lula Carvalho: That shot was very important to establish the Russell’s home by the ocean in Newport. It was fundamental to show how grand their palace was so the audience could understand how rich and powerful they were growing. We had an Alexa Mini camera flying on the drone to have the best match with our non-drone footage. VFX did a great job to built the ocean right at the back of their property. The VFX in the show does a incredible “invisible” job.

Awards Daily: Can you talk about lighting the elaborate banquet table scenes across the series, most specifically in episode five at the Duke’s dinner. There’s candlelight, but I assume there’s some sort of subtle supporting light as well. 

Lula Carvalho: Yes, we used the candles as our source. That motivates how the characters are lit and sets the tone of the important occasion for the history, but we have a top soft box with Titan Bulbs inside and a Light Grid diffusion underneath the bulbs to soften the light. For the shots that are not wide open, we used light mat boxes to continue what the top box was doing and wrap the actors faces so we could reach their eyes. Being able to see their eyes is a key element in the drama. This scene is one of my favorites in this season.

Awards Daily: Episode three features the early Oscar Wilde play. Tell me about the challenge of lighting and filming both the audience watching the play in a darkened theater and the stage itself. 

Lula Carvalho: At the period of time, there were only gas lights or fire to light people’s lives and the environments. As our tremendous production designer Bob Shaw always said “those people lived in the dark.” So, we needed to reproduce that kind of environment, but leaving some space for the tone of our show which is not dark. We had to respect the reality of the elements of that time while giving the life that our characters needed. That theater is a real theater in Troy, New York, and it was another part of the challenge to work on a real location and deal with its dimensions, limitations and beauty!

Awards Daily: The series doesn’t often feature action sequences, if ever. However, at the end of episode five, you lens the flight of Peggy and Mr. Forture from being attacked in Alabama. The sequence is set at night. What challenges did you encounter filming these scenes? 

Lula Carvalho: I really like the whole story of Peggy. Her adventure to the South adds a great depth to the whole universe of the show. A great element to the visuals we decided to use was the handheld camera. It was one of the very few situations we did that way. It was great to help the narrative with some sense of urgency and reality they were facing in Alabama. Also, we had to flirt with the dark a little bit to be more committed to reproduce reality.

Awards Daily: I loved the shot of Agnes walking into Ada’s wedding while in silhouette, backlit by the windows at the back of the sanctuary. Really beautiful shot there with a lot of depth that also captures the line of pews. How did you film that scene? 

Lula Carvalho: That was a mix of our own idea of keeping some mystery to reveal who that character was and the opportunity we had in that location once we had that crystal/glass entrance. These elements combined gave us the cinematic and interesting  phenomenon of something the evolves during the shot, something that gets revealed during the shot, something that is being transformed in front of the camera. It might sound obvious or pretentious, but I honestly guess this is the reason why it ended up being an interesting shot.

Awards Daily: Episode six opens with the striking laborers. The scene looks completely lit from the windows with very little lighting on their faces. Talk to me about how that lighting supports the scene. 

Lula Carvalho: I am glad you interpreted this way because that was the goal, but in reality, we had some lighting inside to help shaping people’s faces and also to fill in the ambience and complete the lights that was coming from the windows. It is a very dramatic situation that will build tension throughout that episode and those workers were somewhat hidden for that gathering, so it demanded that approach from us.

Awards Daily: Episode six also features some gorgeous shots of the cast at the botanical gardens. What opportunities does the wide-open space give you as a cinematographer? 

Lula Carvalho: I feel that most of the time we are portraying the interiors of the houses. Yes, some incredible interiors, but still interiors, so when you go out and specially to a location with such a special and natural environment that we don’t see much throughout the show, we immediately feel the difference and naturally share a delightful moment with our characters.