‘Black Bird’ cinematographer Natalie Kingston reveals her inspiration for the look of the show’s prisons [Exclusive Video Interview]

Kingston also used her camera to communicate the confined space that Jimmy found himself in both physically and mentally. “I wanted to create this feeling with the visual language through the lens and through a format of not being able to escape and immersing the audience into Jimmy’s perspective.” She also wanted to make sure that this was shown regardless of what setting Jimmy was in for a scene. “I wanted to really just plant the audience inside of those conversations whether they’re in the cells themselves or in the wood shop.”

In shooting inside an abandoned prison, Kingston did find a number of challenges, especially with the fluorescent lighting. “Every single fixture is bolted shut because it’s a prison, so all the bulbs were changed out before we started shooting so they were all consistent, but I didn’t have individual control over them.” That issue was able to be worked around with grips and the use of gels but shooting inside the actual cells presented a whole new set of issues. They were able to get a camera portal to utilize another angle but it was still immensely time consuming. “We really had to plan around the time it took to open up the portal, get the camera in and then put it back so we wouldn’t see it on the other shots.”