Where’s Waldron?
If you are wondering where Gaffer Jarred Waldron has been over the past two years, the correct answer would be everywhere. From Chicago to Berlin, Waldron has had his hands full with a series of projects taking him all over the globe. In February 2017, he began working on Rupert Wyatt’s new feature Captive Statewhich premieres March 2019. Principal photography took place over the course of a few months mostly in the Chicago, IL area. After production wrapped, Waldron flew back to Los Angeles, CA to begin working on the new Jodie Foster action thriller, Hotel Artemis. From there, Waldron flew to Europe to begin working on the much anticipated Sense 8series finale special. With the Sense 8 finale premiering this week, I reached out to Waldron to catch up and discuss some of the ways he utilized LiteGear products to illuminate this Netflix original hit series.
Waldron has been working on Sense 8 since its first season began filming back in 2014. The Netflix original series has brought Waldron to many fascinating locations such as Malibu, San Francisco, Chicago, Seoul, Mumbai, São Paulo, Mexico City, Scotland, London, Iceland, Amsterdam, Malta, Positano and most recently for the finale— Paris, Berlin, Naples and Brussels. The plot has always called for a global shooting schedule as it follows eight strangers around the world who find themselves linked mentally, who must find a way to survive being hunted by a mysterious organization that sees them as a threat to the world’s order. With that in mind, Waldron made a set of lightweight custom panels fabricated with LiteRibbon and coroplast heading into the series.
Waldron would continuously use these panels along with LiteRibbon itself for Season 1, 2 and the series finale special as well. “We were going to need to move fast and light to locations all over the world with little to no rigging crew,” says Waldron. He adds, “We could tape them up anywhere and everywhere. We also used some Chroma RGB LiteRibbon for effect lighting such as brake lights and night club backdrops.” For controlling the LiteRibbon, Waldron heavily relied on LiteGear 4×4 v3 controllers and LiteDimmer Hybrid. He would then use a DMXit with Ratpac’s Cintennas to control most of the custom panels he built.
He first showed cinematographer John Toll the custom panels he built early on during pre-production. “We had used LiteRibbon back on Iron Man 3in the background of scenes but never to light actors,” says Waldron. He adds, “This was before the color corrected ribbon had come out. He liked the idea very much and we have used the panels on every project since then.” Lana and Lilly Wachowski (the directors, showrunners, and writers of the show) also appreciated the flexibility and sleekness. “The Wachowskis fell in love the the quality of light but also the speed and versatility,” says Waldron.
Where is Waldron now? If you are wondering what Waldron has been up to recently, he is currently in Atlanta working on the new Ang Lee feature Gemini Man starring Will Smith and Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Waldron and Lee previously collaborated together on Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk. Be sure to catch the series finale of Sense 8 on Netflix June 8th!