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Mindhunter Season 2 (2019)
DP: Erik Messerschmidt
Director: David Fincher (Ep. 1-3), Andrew Dominik (Ep. 4-5), Carl Franklin (Ep. 6-9)
Camera: Red Helium 8K S35
Lenses: Leica Summilux-C

Here’s Erik Messerschmidt on his use of mixed color temperatures on Season 2 of Mindhunter, from an interview I did with him for Filmmaker Magazine.

Messerschmidt: I often worked with mixed color temperatures because I believe the lighting should be motivated from the set. Mixes of fluorescent, sodium vapor, mercury and neon were common sources, but I wouldn’t describe any of them as “sickly” or “less than pleasant.” I take the natural lighting of every set and historical context into consideration before deciding a lighting approach for each scene. It is also, of course, intrinsically important to consider how our lighting and color palette supports the themes, atmosphere and story of the project. David and I take the color palette very seriously, with tremendous purpose and careful planning. Our production designer Steve Arnold and I spent an enormous amount of time discussing paint colors, lighting fixtures, windows and practical lights in every set, specifically in terms of how those sets would exist in reality. Our color palette is supported by costumes, set design, lighting and ultimately the grade. Lighting is just one part of a holistic aesthetic approach to the look of the show.
In terms of working practice, I didn’t use any “colored” light per se, with the exception of some Sodium Vapor colored light in distant backgrounds. In most cases we were working with natural “white” light, endeavoring to use full spectrum sources. In scenes predominantly lit with incandescent lamps the light is warmer. In office scenes lit with fluorescents the light is slightly cooler and greener. Day interiors were either overcast and blue or brightly lit with hard sunlight. It all depends on the context of the scene, the location or set. Lighting is all story and location driven for me.