Silo cinematographer Mark Patten, BSC

Cinematographer Mark Patten, BSC's most recent project, Silo, is a
post-apocalyptic science fiction drama that's been a huge success
for AppleTV+. The thousands of people who live in the silo don't
know why the silo exists, who built it, or why the world outside is
uninhabitable. Citizens who express a desire to go outside, or are
convicted of a crime, are sent outside to “clean” the cameras and
never survive. After being recruited as the new silo sheriff,
engineer Juliette starts to uncover shocking secrets and the truth
about the silo. Silo was shot in Essex, England in a huge former
cold storage facility. The set had to be completely built out,
retrofitting the space into a working film stage. Lighting rigs
were hung even before the sets were built so that the set building
and production design crew could see in such a huge dark space. The
production crew built three working levels of the actual silo set,
complete with the spiral staircase. Mark found the richness of the
set decoration created a lived-in, worn down place that made the
silo itself seem like a character. Everything is very analog or
“lo-fi sci-fi” in this dystopian world. It was interesting to think
about how society would act together, in a closed vessel, and
maintain their sanity in a locked in culture, especially after just
coming out of the pandemic. Mark thought of the Silo as a slow ship
moving through time, and it felt like shooting a submarine film.
The central staircase acts as a helix through the society of the
silo, and Juliette is climbing her way up through the layers of it
to solve a mystery. Mark worked alongside production designer Gavin
Bocquet to visualize the Silo's society, honing in and letting the
visuals sing. He decided to subtly use different color palettes for
each level. It was a great way to add texture to the images, with
the mechanical level becoming very desaturated, except for some
touches of bright yellow and orange glow from the heat of the power
generators. Since the silo is a mile down into the ground, there is
no natural light at all, and Mark needed to figure out what would
motivate the light all the way at the bottom. He decided the
lighting in the top of the silo would be strongest, and the light
would filter down from there. Practical lights were built in
everywhere throughout the set and as characters descend to the
lowest level of mechanical, the practical lights are the only
source. Since every light source was designed and built in, there
was no hard light anywhere to manipulate, so for Mark it was an
exercise in restraint manipulating reflective light. Mark recently
finished shooting Season 2 of Andor on Disney+. Silo is available
to stream on AppleTV+. Find Mark Patten: https://www.markpatten.tv/
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