Cinematography World issue 011

THE ART AND CRAFT BEHIND THE CAMERA WWW.CINEMATOGRAPHY.WORLD ISSUE 011 SEPTEMBER 2022 CHAYSE IRVIN CSC•LARRY SMITH BSC•KK SENTHIL KUMAR ISC•FREDRIK WENZL FSF•KIM JI YONG•EVELYN VAN REI•ASHLEY CONNOR•JOHN SEALE AM ACS ASC MATTHEW LIBATIQUE ASC•JASPER WOLF NSC•TIM SIDELL BSC•ARSEN SARKISIANTS FSC•PAULINE EDWARDS SOC•DAVID NOWELL ASC•POLLY MORGAN BSC ASC INSIDE THIS ISSUE

© 2022 Kodak. Kodak, Vision and the Kodak logo are trademarks. HBO® is a service mark of Home Box Office, Inc. #SHOOTFILM Learn more at Kodak.com/go/motion WESTWORLD, SEASON 4 Photography courtesy of HBO® BETTER ON FILM. ON ANY SCREEN SIZE. 35MM KODAK VISION3

You can subscribe to the print, digital, or print and digital, versions of Cinematography World. This will cover you for the six issues delivered over a 12-month period. Your email will also be added to our monthly newsletter update, unless you decide to opt out of these news feeds.

Art Direction & Creative Kinda Stuff

CONTACT US News hello@cinematography.world Ad sales & Subscriptions +44 (0) 1428 746 377 Artwork artwork@cinematography.world +44 (0) 1428 746 375 www.cinematography.world

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank our many advertisers and industry partners around the world for your faith and belief in what we are building. We are growing, our figures and statistics are all on the rise, and we have many plans to boost this upward trajectory even further in the weeks and months and years. It’s a wonderful time to be reporting on the world of cinematography and there’s much more to come.

Social Media & Comms KAZ PEARMAN kaz@cinematography.world Web Manager IAIN iain@cinematography.worldHAZLEWOOD

United Kingdom BA2 2PP Tel: +44 (0) 1428 746 375

Darek Kuźma is a film and TV journalist, translator/interpreter, and a regular collaborator/programmer of the EnergaCamerimage Film Festival. He is an ardent cinephile who has a lifelong romance with the visual language of cinema.

Cover Image: Ana de Armas as Marilyn Monroe in Blonde. 2022 © Netflix.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 3

Cinematography World is part of Rascals Publishing & Media Ltd! The publishers emphasise that opinions expressed within Cinematography World Magazine are not representative of Rascals Publishing & Media Ltd!, but are the responsibility of individual contributors.

We’re looking forward to visiting Toruń in Poland this November, armed with our 12th edition, for the special 30th jubilee edition of the veritable Energa Camerimage Film Festival, to absorb even more of the cinematographic good stuff in what is bound to be a wonderful celebration. And, we send our thanks to Marek, Kazik and the team for their stellar support over many years – this will be our 18th visit to the show.

Take care, may the force be with you!

I’m somebody who’s very geared towards doing things in-camera

Ashley Connor, cinematographer

Cinematography World is created using responsibly sourced materialsRECYCLE

Dylan Bruce is a cinematographer based in London working primarily on narrative shorts and music promos. Beside his love for simple, humanistic storytelling, he is a keen street-photographer too.

EDITORIAL TEAM

Rascals Publishing & Media Ltd!

Oliver Webb is a film graduate/freelance journalist based in the UK, and is the founder/editor of CloselyObservedFrames. His interests include screenwriting, British New Wave cinema and the works of Ingmar Bergman.

Welcome to the 11th edition of Cinematography World. With this publication we are moving ever-closer to completing our second annual cycle of six editions, and it is my dearest wish that you find the articles within our book inspiring and informative, as we continue to spread our wings and fly among the community of cinematographers around the world.

Red Lion Yard, Odd Down, Bath

Natasha Block Hicks is an artist/designer/maker, who spent a decade as a freelance film and TV camera assistant, and indulges her love for cinema and cinematography through research and writing.

“Count” Iain Blair is a British writer/musician who lives in LA and writes extensively about film/entertainment for outlets including LA Times, Variety and Reuters. He interviews movie stars, as well as Hollywood’s top filmmakers..

SUBSCRIBE

JAM CREATIVE tim@jamcreativestudios.comadam@jamcreativestudios.comSTUDIOS

Ron Prince Editor in Chief

Editor-in-Chief RON ronny@cinematography.worldPRINCE

Special Consultant ALAN alan@cinematography.worldLOWNE

Advertising Manager CLAIRE SAUNDERS claire@cinematography.world

Editorial Assistant KIRSTY kirsty@cinematography.worldHAZLEWOOD

WORLD

ISSUE CINEMATOGRAPHY

Ron Prince has over three decades of experience in the film, TV, CGI and VFX industries, and has written about cinematography for 20 years. In 2014, he won the ARRI John Alcott Award from the BSC. He also runs the international content marketing and PR communications company Prince PR..

011•

David Wood is a freelance journalist covering film/TV technology and production He was a former technology editor at Televisual, and is a regular contributor to Worldscreen, TVB Europe and Broadcast.

MAY THE FORCE BE WITH YOU

www.joeshort.comShortJoebyphotoPrinceRon Official Media Partners

Cinematography World is created using responsibly sourced paper. All inks used during the printing process are vegetable based and virtually free from volatile organic compounds. Waste, paper, ink and consumables are recycled. Where this is not possible waste is sent to specialist centres for safe disposal.

Kirsty Hazlewood has over two decades of editorial experience in print/ online publications, and is a regular contributor to folk/roots music website Spiral Earth.

With 14 focal lengths from 15 mm to 200 mm, the ZEISS Supreme Prime lenses unite coverage up to Full Frame and beyond with high speed in a small, lightweight lens. Their look is characterized by a gentle sharpness and a very smooth transition between the in-focus and out-of-focus areas. The Supreme Primes give the creator absolute control over the image by revealing subtle nuanced details in deep shadows and bright highlights.

Lenses

Meet the final puzzle piece.

ZEISSzeiss.com/cine/supremeprimeSupremePrime

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 5 ISSUE 011•CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD 56 DON’T WORRY DARLING 54 DECISION TO LEAVE 28 THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING 36 TRIANGLE OF SADNESS 48 BLONDE ISSUEINSIDE011 SEPTEMBER 2022 6 VIEW FROM THE TOP•GARETH ELLIS UNWIN, CEO, SCREENSKILLS 8 PRODUCTION NEWS 16 WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE 28 JOHN SEALE AM ACS ASC•THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING 30 ASHLEY CONNOR•TRUE THINGS 32 LARRY SMITH BSC•THE FORGIVEN 34 K. K. SENTHIL KUMAR ISC•RRR 36 FREDRIK WENZL FSF•TRIANGLE OF SADNESS 38 EVELYN VAN REI•BAD SISTERS 42 SMOOTH OPERATOR•PAULINE EDWARDS SOC 44 FOCUS PULLER AT WORK•TIFFANY AUG & AMBAR B CAPOOR 46 STUDENT UNION• CENTRO SPERIMENTALE, ROME, ITALY 48 CHAYSE IRVIN CSC•BLONDE 54 KIM JI-YONG•DECISION TO LEAVE 56 MATTHEW LIBATIQUE ASC•DON’T WORRY DARLING 60 POLLY MORGAN BSC ASC•THE WOMAN KING 62 JASPER WOLF NSC•BODIES BODIES BODIES 64 TIM SIDELL BSC•FLUX GOURMET 66 ARSEN SARKISIANTS FSC•THE WOODCUTTER STORY 68 INDUSTRY LENS•DAVID NOWELL ASC 70 TAKE SCENE SLATE•ARRI TEXTURES 72 SPOTLIGHT•SUMOLIGHT 74 ON TOUR•ROSCO LYON & DMG 76 GAFFER’S CAFÉ•FRANS WETERRINGS III 78 SHOOTING GALLERY•IBC 2022

But it isn’t just about the money. It’s about providing opportunities too. Offer paid placements on your productions – whether you are a producer, a director or an HoD. We know that nothing beats the practical experience of being on a film or TV show even for those who have undertaken vocational learning at college or university.

Outside the workplace, there are other ways in which you can share your experience and passion, whether through volunteering as a mentor, directly with us or through one of the partner organisations we support, or speaking at careers events or acting as an industry assessor for ScreenSkills Select courses – college and university screen-related courses seeking the endorsement of ScreenSkills as recognition that those courses are relevant to working in the sector.

Nothing beats the practical experience of being on a film or TV show

The experts who prepared this research for us described this return on investment as “compelling” – and acknowledge that the personnel needed to meet demand “may be understated”. But in a way, the data masks what we are really talking about – more jobs in an industry that people want to get into, creating greater wealth for the UK

GETINVOLVED

And there are many ways productions can help. Although in recent years ScreenSkills has received National Lottery investment from the BFI, that is in its final year and is now, in any case, exceeded by the voluntary industry contributions to the ScreenSkills Skills Funds – what old hands still call the levy. (We changed the name because the Government’s introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy rather confusingly meant there were two “levy” lines on big Productionsproductions.)of all scales – whether low-budget shorts or multi-million pound blockbusters – are

When I arrived at ScreenSkills in February 2018, I was a producer determined to do my bit for an industry which has given so much to me, and which I love. Four years on, training is certainly higher on the agenda as film and television battle skills gaps and shortages and the competition for crew looks set only to get fiercer.

All receive an induction that includes set etiquette and advice on everything from health and safety to managing their finances as a freelancer, so that they can hit the ground running when they join you. But there are other programmes too. In film, for

This is almost certainly no surprise to many of you. You know production is busy. You know it’s big business. What I would like you to think about is how you might be able to play a part – as I am proud to say I think I’ve done – in helping encourage the next generation of talent and support existing crew to progress.

example, we run Film Forward, which is a career progression programme for experienced Black, Asian and minority ethnic crew.

Recent research we commissioned forecast that film and high-end television production in the UK could be worth £7.66 billion – up from £5.64 billion in the last full year. The latest figures show film and high-end television currently generate the equivalent of 122,000 full-time jobs. The new research, which was supported by the BFI, awarding National Lottery funding under the Future Film Skills strategy, estimates that continued growth will require the equivalent of between 15,130 and 20,770 additional full-time crew within three years.

Finally, let’s all work together to make this a better, more welcoming industry in which to work. Alongside the work on practical and technical skills, we have been developing a range of training to help create behavioural change. Free e-learning modules are available in unconscious bias, tackling bullying and harassment and mental health awareness alongside further training in areas such as leadership and management and inclusive recruitment. Do them. Ask your teams to do them.

VIEW

encouraged to pay-in. For film and high-end TV, the contribution is based on a certain percentage of UK budget spend, capped.

Gareth Ellis-Unwin Head Of Film & Animation ScreenSkills

Separately, ScreenSkills runs skills transfer programmes, for example, for the Armed Forces veterans whose logistical skills I became aware of when I made my film Kajaki: The True Story (2014, DP Chris Goodger) and which translate well into the logistics and marshalling demands of locations and unit management. This year we have been also running a transfer programme for people accustomed to working with Black hair and makeup for people of colour due to experience working in Black hair salons, department store beauty counters and music videos.

I would like you help encourage the next generation of talent and support existing crew to progress

If we are genuinely concerned that people are not joining or are leaving because the screen industries don’t always have the best of reputations, then let’s change that. It’s something everyone can help do.

FROM THE TOP•GARETH ELLIS UNWIN 6 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

ScreenSkills runs a number of programmes where contributing productions receive a subsidy to offer paid placements across a wide range of skills shortage departments. Trainee Finder, our flagship new entrant paid placement programme, currently has more than 300 individuals – a great, diverse mix of talent – waiting to be placed across film, high-end, children’s and animation productions.

Chad Orororo | Sound

Mari Yamamura | DoP

Lorene Dewett | Edit

You can’t make great films without investing in the people

Contact Naomi.Joseph@ScreenSkills.com to discuss the funding we have available to support these crew members or other Film Forward talent on your next film www.screenskills.com/filmforward

Akhilesh Patel | Camera

Harfun Li | Edit

Film Forward is a programme for experienced Black, Asian and minority ethnic crew looking to step up into a more senior role – all chosen through a competitive process. We’ve sought them out because busy productions tell us they want to extend their networks but don’t always have the time. So meet the crew –and hire them

Aamir Riaz | Lighting

Carmen Poulton | Costume

Abid Kahn | Edit

Williams will be the honourary guest of the EnergaCAMERIMAGE Festival, which celebrates its 30th edition this year. The Lifetime Achievement Award this year will go to Stephen H. Burum – the cinematographer of Mission: Impossible, Carlito’s Way and The War Of The Roses. German avantgarde director and icon of feminist cinema, Ulrike Ottinger, will receive an Award for Avant-Garde Achievements in Film. Vance Burberry, who shot music videos for Guns N ‘Roses, Cher, Pearl Jam, Backstreet Boys, Enrique Iglesias, Britney Spears, Ozzy Osbourne, and The Weeknd will receive the Award for Achievements in the Field of Music Videos.

“Our new Spacebeam accessory, specifically designed and manufactured for our Alpha product line, makes the Alpha the most versatile large HMI on the market,” said K560’s Marc

This year’s Euro Cine Expo welcomed over 100 exhibitors and almost 2,000 visitors from around the world, and delivered an international platform for the film, TV and cinematography industry, including an exhibition and seminar programme.

Williams will be this year’s recipient of the Camerimage Award for directing achievements in music videos. Williams is an avant-garde visual artist and filmmaker, whose frequently cutting-edge work has ignited the imagination of people around the world. The many artists and bands he has worked over several decades include Notorious B.I.G, 2Pac, Missy Elliot, Mary J. Blige, Busta Rhymes, Jay –Z, Dr. Dre, Beyonce, DMX, Pharrell Williams and Jennifer Lopez.

On

including the Cecil B. DeMille Award. Connery was knighted in the 2000 New Year Honours for services to film drama.

Lighting is launching a range of Spacebeams, designed to attach to different fixtures in its product line, from the Alpha 300W LED up to the powerful HMI 9kW. This new accessory delivers a 3-degree beam angle that has four times the output of the spot beam of the Fresnel.

One of the most influential and successful actors of his generation, Connery was the first actor to portray 007 James Bond on the big screen in Eon Productions’ Dr No, shot at Pinewood Studios in 1962 on Pinewood Studios’ original A, B, C and D stages, and on-location in Jamaica. Connery starred in a further five James Bond films, all shot at Pinewood Studios – From Russia With Love (1963), Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), You Only Live Twice (1967) and Diamonds Are Forever (1971).

Galerne. “Its phenomenal, intense and narrow beam effect, ideal for use with mirrors, is simply an accessory, not a big, expensive mono-purpose unit. In addition to long-throw lighting effects, a space light effect can also be produced using Alpha 4k Quartz Reflector Technology, which allows for use of the fixture in the straight down position. By inserting the Spacebeam on to the Alpha 4K while in this position, a space light effect can be created generated by wrapping the Spacebeam with its soft, white diffusion fabric.”

PRODUCTION & POST NEWS 8 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

August 26th, Pinewood Studios announced a new sound stage, named in honour of the late Sir Sean Connery on what would have been the Academy Award-winning actor’s 92nd birthday. Officially called, The Sean Connery Stage, the 18,000sq/ ft purpose-built sound stage is one of five new stages opening on the Pinewood Studios lot.

Hype

K5600

PINEWOOD NAMES NEW SOUND STAGE IN HONOUR OF SIR SEAN CONNERY

DIRECTOR HYPE WILLIAMS TO RECEIVE CAMERIMAGE MUSIC VIDEO AWARD

The sale of entry cards for the special, jubilee edition of the festival has begun, and these can be obtained online at the main Camerimage website. Tickets for single film screenings, seminars

EURO CINE 2023ANNOUNCESEXPODATES

Following a successful inaugural event in July 2022, the organisers of Euro Cine Expo have announced that next year’s event will take place on 30th June – 1st July, once again selecting the Motorworld in Munich as the venue.

Backed up by a wealth of positive feedback from exhibitors and visitors, as well as on-going support from industry supporters and associations, Euro Cine Expo will return in 2023 with an all-new layout to improve the flow and experience for all attendees.

Connery’s extensive services to the film industry were reflected in the many Awards he received over his illustrious career, including an Academy Award, two BAFTA Awards (including the BAFTA Fellowship), three Golden Globes,

K5600 LAUNCHES SPACEBEAM

and workshops will be available for sale online during the Festival. Further details of the festival programme will be released soon.

AVAILABLE IN: 4:4 4:1 3:2 Soft Light. Precise White. Createdbyandonlyavailablefrom WWW.PANALUXSONARA.COM

The V-Raptor XL features the same multi-format 8K sensor found inside the compact and modular V-Raptor body, allowing filmmakers to shoot 8K large format or 6K S35. Cinematographers have the ability to always capture at over 4K, even when paired with S35 lenses. The company says the sensor boasts the highest recorded dynamic range and cleanest shadow performance of any Red camera. The V-Raptor sensor scan time is 2x faster than any previous Red camera and lets users capture up to 600fps at 2K.

1/3 or 1/4 stop increments. It has dual-power options with both 14V and 26V battery compatibility, an interchangeable lens mount, wireless timecode, genlock, and camera control for remote and virtual production readiness. The XL incorporates a fully robust and integrated professional I/O array with front-facing 3G-SDI, 2-Pin 12V and 3-Pin 24V auxiliary power outputs, and a GIG-E connector for camera control and PTP synchronisation. The unified XL system packs all of the above into a 7.5”x 6.5” body, weighing just under 8lbs.

filmmakers’ hands,” said Jarred Land, Red Digital Cinema president. “The XL builds on our mighty V-Raptor and adds more outputs, additional power flexibility and an incredible internal ND system. The entire Red team is so proud of the advancements this brings to cinematographers, and we can’t wait to see what they create.”

270°focusscales,ofcineasmountwillserviceability.” importantly ThelenseshaveanLPLaswellthetraditionalorientationfocusandirisexpandedscaleswitharotation,and

“The XL is one of the most innovative cameras we’ve launched, and I’m excited to get it into

Red Digital Cinema has announced the availability of the V-Raptor XLTM 8K VV camera. The new V-Raptor XL system leverages the current flagship V-Raptor 8K VV + 6K S35 multiformat sensor inside of a large-scale-production ready XL camera body. The all-new unified XL body is designed to support high-end television and motion picture productions.

will have readily-available parts and replacement elements. Lens technician training will ensure reliable and consistent use for many years. Existing M 0.8 lenses will be eligible for a conversion to Hugo lenses in the future. Pricing and availability to be determined.

greatly increased close focus ability. They remain compact and lightweight starting at 1.78lbs/0.81 kg, and between 2.7 - 4.4” (68 - 112 mm) in length.  As with other Leitz cine lenses, the Hugo series

PRODUCTION & POST NEWS 10 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

RED DIGITAL CINEMA LAUNCHES V-RAPTOR XL 8K VV

LEITZ LENSESFRAMEHUGOLAUNCHESPRIMEFULLCINEMA

the same iconic Leica M optics, whilst elevating the housing design and build quality to match existing Leitz cinematography lenses in durability, usability, and

The new XL system features an internal electronic ND system of 2 to 7 stops with precision control of

For more information, filmmakers can visit any one of the Red Premium Dealers across the globe to schedule a demo and learn more about the products. CVP is Red’s only premiere reseller and Red Certified Service Centre in the United Kingdom.

The V-Raptor XL continues to feature Red’s proprietary Redcode Raw codec, allowing cinematographers to capture 16-bit RAW, and leverage Red’s latest IPP2 workflow and colour management. As with the Red Komodo 6K and standard V-Raptor system, V-Raptor XL will continue to use the updated and streamlined Redcode Raw settings (HQ, MQ, and LQ) to enhance the user experience with simplified format choices optimised for various shooting scenarios and needs.

The news lenses are designed to be small, fast, lightweight, and as close-focusing as possible, with the full personality of the Leica M lens glass creating character at capture. The initial set of seven full frame lenses ranges from 21mm to 90mm, all T1.5, with 18mm and 135 mm focal lengths to follow soon. A 50mm T1.0 lens will also be available. The initial seven-lens set is priced at €107,300 with the 50mm T1.0 at €18,900. “Every lens we create is, in some way, an interpretation of the Leica M look,” said Rainer Hercher, managing director at Ernst Leitz Wetzlar. “The Leitz Hugo lenses are a more literal implementation that builds off the popularity of the Leitz M 0.8 series by using

The Leitz Hugo lenses take their name from esteemed engineer Hugo Wehrenfennig, whose work for Leica Camera (then Ernst Leitz GmbH, Wetzlar) included creating the classic Leica M bayonet mount still in use today as well as many of the early M series lenses.

Ernst Leitz Wetzlar, premium lens manufacturer for the motion picture and television industry based in Wetzlar, Germany, has announces the development of a new line of cinema lenses, the Leitz Hugo prime lenses.

Now you can set up a local cache of your Dropbox or Google Drive files!

No Subscription Costs

www.blackmagicdesign.com/uk Now you can share your media files globally, in minutes! £2,475 CloudBlackmagicStore Mini SRP is Exclusive of VAT. Learn More!

High Performance for Large Files

One of the big advantages of the Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini is that it’s private storage that you fully control. There are no subscriptions to sign up for. There are no monthly license fees. There is no tracking of your usage or data. That means it’s perfect for private network use, disconnected from the internet. With Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini, you get high performance and total freedom.

This makes working faster because files are locally available without needing to be downloaded from the internet. Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini constantly works to stay in sync. This means you save space on your computer by offloading files to the Cloud Store Mini so everyone on your network can share them.

Sync to Dropbox or Google Drive

Now you can share your media files globally and eliminate the high cost of collaborating with talented editors and colorists around the world!

With a separate very high speed 10G Ethernet connection, Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini is very fast. The internal memory core has been designed to saturate the 10G Ethernet port to its theoretical maximum speed, even with multiple users connected. It’s so fast, most computers cannot keep up! Plus file access is very low latency, so responsiveness is fast. Even at maximum speed, the Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini is extremely quiet with virtually no cooling fan noise.

The Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini is storage that syncs and shares media with Dropbox and Google Drive. It even understands proxy workflows, so a whole timeline and its media can be shared in minutes. Plu s, its high performance is perfect for large media files!

Designed for Film and Television

Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini is the perfect network storage solution for film and television where large media files need to be shared between multiple users for editing, color correction, audio and VFX work. That means it’s perfect for DaVinci Resolve! Dropbox and Google Drive sync allows multiple cloud stores to be synchronized in different locations globally. It’s fast, easy and totally confidential.

CVP Belgium was established earlier in 2022 with a significant investment in new sales, engineering and warehouse infrastructure, establishing a physical foothold to support the company’s continued growth.

configuration, DedoLight Lightstream Table Top consists of 2 × 8W Ledzilla focussing lights, which can be mono or bi-colour. These lights can be fitted with the parallel beam intensifiers designed to work in combination with a choice of reflectors.

He brings over two decades of extensive industry experience to the company, and was most recently international sales director at Netherlands-based reseller Aspectra B.V, where he was instrumental in elevating the brand to international recognition, as well as building valuable relationships with a host of leading brands in broadcast and cinema.

“I am delighted to be joining CVP Belgium at this important time in the company’s history,” added Van Der Reiden. “CVP’s reputation continues to flourish, and we look forward to being able to bring the same price-competitiveness and reputation for excellence in customer service that have made CVP such a success to new customers across Europe.”

PRODUCTION & POST NEWS 12 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

arms, different variations of magic arms, clamps and other accessories.

Sony has announced new updates and developments for its Venice 2 motion picture camera system, including the release of the Venice Extension System 2, also known as the Venice Rialto 2.

“European growth is a central part of our future strategy, and we are confident that René has the combination of skills and experience to lead the business through its next strategic phase, actively supporting our customer base as we continue to expand across the continent.”

NEW KF4 4-LIGHT TRAVEL KIT FROM FIILEX

cinema cameras plus versatile connectivity and efficient multi-camera workflow support.

The range of tools included with DedoLight Lightstream Table Top was originally conceived to serve traditional table-top tasks, such as product photography, filming of miniatures, animation and other table top Inwork.itsbasic

As managing director, Van Der Reiden will play a pivotal role building on CVP’s mission to ensure the vital supply of production equipment and to deliver exceptional service for customers and partners.

CVP, one of Europe’s leading solutionsproductionproviders, has appointed industry veteran René Van Der Reiden to the newly-created role of managing director of CVP Belgium.

In other news, Sony has also announced the latest addition to its Cinema Line of cameras, with the ILME-FR7, an E-mount interchangeable lens camera with a full-frame image sensor and built-in pan/tilt/zoom (PTZ) functionality. Of interest to cinematographers, the FR7 also offers the cinematic look and operability of Sony digital

The Venice Rialto 2, showcased for the first time at IBC 2022, is an updated version of the original Venice Extension System. The Venice Rialto 2 is a tethered extension system that allows the image sensor block and accompanying lens to detach from the camera body with no degradation in image quality.

“René brings a wealth of sector knowledge, excellent strategic leadership skills and a strong client-centric mindset to CVP, his addition to the management team enables us to provide Europe with a dedicated focus, clarity and structure” commented CVP group MD, Jon Fry.

has introduced DedoLight Lightstream Table Top, completing the Lightstream family, made up of Lightstream standard, Lightstream LITE and now the Lightstream Table Top.

DEDOLIGHT COMPLETES LIGHTSTREAM RANGE WITH LIGHTSTREAM TABLE TOP

Norbert Paquet, head of live production at Sony Europe commented, “The cinematic look and feel is fast becoming the norm in broadcasting and live production as it opens up new ways to tell a narrative. In parallel, especially in the last two years, we’ve seen a steep rise in content created remotely or in small locations where access is difficult. The new FR7camera answers both these trends in the market with its PTZ and cinematic features.”Anumber of Cinema Line features are built into the camera to deliver a cinematic look-andfeel. These include: a sensitivity setting allowing the ISO to be expanded up to ISO 409600 when shooting in low light; 15+ stops of latitude, that help to prevent blown highlights and blocked shadows; pre-set scene files, such as S-Cinetone for natural mid-tones that are essential to healthylooking skin colour, plus soft colours and attractive highlights.IntheCine EI mode, base sensitivity can be set to either ISO 800 or ISO 12800 to match lighting conditions and to minimise noise whilst maintaining a consistent look. This mode is helpful for postproduction, as it allows the use of Sony’s original S-Log3 gamma, wide S-Gamut3 and S-Gamut3 cine colour spaces. Slow-motion shooting in up to 4K 120p is possible with the FR7.

The front end of each Ledzilla, can also be exchanged for projection attachments which allow for a high degree of precision lighting with defined, razor-sharp accents.

Fiilex has launched new KF4 4-Light Travel kit, which comes with (4x) 90W P3 Colour lights, protected by laser cut foams, in a 22” x 14” x 9” hardshell rolling case.

The basic DedoLight Lightstream Table Top system comes with a range of 15 different reflectors and holding devices. The system works with the same rail used on the back of standard DedoLight Lightstream reflectors, which can now be used with a multitude of different holding devices, including bendable

The Venice Rialto 2 adds important enhancements over the original, including compatibility with both the Venice and the Venice 2 cameras, and it can transmit wide bandwidth sensor data over longer distances. In addition, the Rialto 2 offers greater mobility and compatibility with either a 3m or a 12m cable – without the need for a repeater. The Venice Rialto 2 is nearly the same size of the original system, measuring 158 x 147 x 126 mm, and weighing around 2.2 kg.

DedoLight Lightstream Table Top can also be used for the lighting of larger spaces and does not need to be limited strictly to table top work. Entire studios have been lit for music videos using only DedoLight Ledzilla lights.

DedoLight

The KF4 kit also includes (4x) 5” Fresnels that can spot-flood each P3 Colour from 15 to 45 degrees. Both 3” and 5” barndoors are packed into the kit to give users more light shaping options. The custom KF4 travel case also has three zippered pouches for storing power supplies and other accessories. The delivery of the KF4 4-Light Travel Kit will start in Q4 2022.

SONY ANNOUNCES VENICE RIALTO 2 & FR7 CINEMATIC PTZ CAMERA

CVP RENÉAPPOINTSVANDER REIDEN AS CVPDIRECTORMANAGINGOFBELGIUM

MIS T E R B E AM The new SPACEBEAM range will turn your existing Alpha up to 9 Kw into a highly efficient 3° Beam Projector. With 4 times the output of the maximum spot, the Spacebeam adds another great feature to the already versatile ALPHA Series. CONTACT YOUR LOCAL DEALER OR K5600 LIGHTING EUROPE info@k5600.eu or tel:+33 1 30 90 56 00

Tiffen, known for its renowned line of professional glass filters, is introducing 39mm round sizes to accommodate the proliferation of lenses with 39mm lens fronts for cameras from Leica and Fujifilm.

The Orbiter Projection Optics provide precision and allow for crisp projection of a light spot, as well as gobo projection and precise shutter cuts. The field of light is even and without colour aberration. The projection has no visible hot spot or drop to the edge and the depth of field is outstanding. Both optics have a standard iris slot.The four manually-adjustable shutter blades of the Projection Optics 25° and 35° produce a beam where the shutter blade cut projection and the beam’s edge are simultaneously in sharp focus. Both optics have a motorised focus adjustment which allows for great precision and repeatability.Withthelatest update of Orbiter’s Lighting Operating System, LiOS2, the focus can be controlled locally via Orbiter’s Control Panel or remotely by DMX/RDM or IP based (ArtNet or sACN). Once set, the focus is kept in place and not subverted by locking the lens tube into place.

ARRI’S NEW ORBITER PROJECTION OPTICS RENDER CRISP AND ACCURATE LIGHT

VeeBoxx

Projection Optics are compact in size: Orbiter Projection Optic 25° with 287 mm x 287 mm x 331 mm (11.3 in. x 11.3 in. x 13.1 in.) and Orbiter Projection Optic 35° with 287 mm x 287 mm x 284

PRODUCTION & POST NEWS 14 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

ARRI

VeeBoxx dimensions are 43” x 6” x 5.5” (109cm x 15cm x 14cm), with a wight of 2.7lbs/1.2kg. A sear zipper opening runs the length of the body, and allows for offset mounting and access to tube controls. The kit also includes small rag bag and The Claw for complete mounting system.

Furthermore, a standard B-size metal or glass gobo can be added. The genuine ARRI gobo holder is made to keep the gobo securely in place and the produced gobo pattern is clearly visible. Any focus adjustment between gobo and shutter is barely necessary; focus adjustment between gobo and open gate is not necessary at all. Additional ARRI accessories like a snoot or colour filter frames can be added in front enabling fine tuning when needed. The Orbiter Projection Optics are a great addition to the already existing Orbiter Fresnel Lens 15-65°.Both

mm (11.3 in. x 11.3 in. x 11.2 in.). The weight of the Projection 25° is at 5,45 kg (12 lbs) and of the Projection 35° at 4,35 kg (9,6 lbs).

kit from Matthews Studio Equipment is a new, portable soft box enclosure that works with The Claw to quickly transform the Astera 40” Titan tube into a diffused lighting source. The Claw and VeeBoxx form a safe, practical, solution to bring delicate tubes into the hefty world of grips and gaffers. VeeBoxx was designed by Sci-Tech award-winning key grip Richard Mall with gaffer Jeremy Launais. Key features include: three removable front panel diffusion options – Voodoo Cloth, 1/2 Grid (Lite) and 1/4 Grid; strategically-placed internal external hook and loop fasteners to secure the panel to the body and allow for control grid attachment; a reflective silver interior that maximises light output and black Ripstop body to prevent light loss.

TIFFENINTRODUCES NEW 39MM FILTER SIZE

THEPRESENTSEQUIPMENTSTUDIOMATTHEWSVEEBOXX

The first in the lineup is Tiffen’s Black ProMist, which has long been a staple with digital cameras due to its delicate control of highlight flares for a soft light pastel effect. It is offered in strengths of 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, 1, and 2, for an MSRP of $65.00 Also available is a round 39mm UV Protector filter at $10.99 and a Circular Polariser at $20.00 MSRP. Most Tiffen filter varieties can be made to order upon request.

Tiffen’s extensive array of professional filters is made from optical glass with waterproof Tiffen’sdealerviascratch-proofandmulti-coating,whichreducesreflectionwhilemaintainingclarityandcolourfidelity.ThesenewfiltersareavailableTiffen’sauthorisednetworkorfromwebsite.

Orbiter’s unique Quick Lighting Mount (QLM) system allows the Projection Optics to be mounted safely and quickly but still enabling a 90° rotation. The LiOS2 update ensures an automatic recognition of this new optic and its latest feature, Optics Auto Adjust, offers 100% colour stability with any focus and any optic. The optic’s cooling fan can be controlled via Orbiter’s Light Control setting through the Control Panel. Both Orbiter Projection Optics will be available in black as from October 2022.

has launched Orbiter Projection Optics 25° and 35°. Combined with Orbiter’s ARRI Spectra light engine, the high-end optical system provides a state-ofthe-art LED profiler designed for theatre and cinematic applications, as well as broadcast studios and live productions.

From top down: Konstantin Mazov on a Mercedes A-Class ad, with director Jonas Vahl; Andreas Neo shooting Neeyat; and Emma Dalesman on Rambert

LOOP TALENT:

Friis DFF is lighting on Fear The Walking Dead S7. Murren Tullett is prepping Daniel Reisinger’s feature & Mrs Ben Magahy shot days on The Ballad Of Renegade Nell Gary Shaw is grading His Dark Materials S3. Molly Manning Walker is prepping a feature. Carmen Pellon Brussosa shot the short Take Care, directed by Katherine Stocker. Arran Green is prepping an embargoed drama. Sverre Sordal FNF shot with director Jamie Delaney, Fede Alfonzo with James Brown and Theo Garland with Jake Dypka. Will Bex shot with Chris Balmond, and Joe Douglas with Joseph Mann. Karl Oskarsson IKS shot with Sara Mirandi and Franklin Dow with Toby Dye.

Congratulations to Tim Sidell BSC and David Procter BSC, both awarded BSC status recently, and also to Susanne Salavati who was named a ‘Screen Star Of Tomorrow’. Congratulations also to Chas Appeti who was named one of ‘10 Europeans To Watch’ by Variety, and who recently shot Amazon Original Jungle, directed by Junior Okoli. The agency welcomes Darius Shu, Henry Gill and Dmytro Nedria to its roster. Darius recently shot the drama Queer Parivaar, directed by Shiva Raichandani. Henry’s directors include Myles Whittingham, and Dmytro’s director’s include Sam Preece. Oli Russell continues shooting The Ballad Of Renegade Nell Aaron Reid is lighting the opening episodes of Supacell Antonio Paladino has graded James Marsh’s feature Dance First Steven Ferguson continues on Fifteen Love alongside director Eva Riley. Nicola Daley ACS has wrapped The Handmaid’s Tale S5, shooting for director Elisabeth Moss. Luke

The agency welcomes DP Tania Freimuth to its roster. Tania’s credits include the Sky Original series Little Darlings, and the acclaimed shorts Cyn and A Birthday Party Rik Burnell has wrapped on a Sky Arts project with Rangabee and is prepping a project with Film4. Bertrand Rocourt is attached to a feature. Matt North has wrapped on the HETV series The Diplomat with World Productions in Spain. Tom Watts is shooting a film and has recently been featured in a book discussing identity and career. Emma Dalesman is about to start prep on a feature. Martyna Knitter is shooting a TV Drama for the BBC. Ali Asad is shooting a feature. Jon Muschamp is shooting a feature with Fred Films. Congratulations

thirty years into the future destined to unfold across TV drama, digital platforms and live events in three Welsh locations— Blaenau Ffestiniog, Merthyr Tydfil and Swansea over seven days. Andreas Neo has wrapped Motive, a feature film directed by Anu Menon, developed with the BFI. Mark Patten BSC - shot days on Jake Scott’s documentary through RSA. Stephan Pehrsson BSC has finished Red Book with Toby Haynes. James Rhodes is shooting the feature film Femme, a development of the award-winning short film of the same name, with directors Ng Choon Ping and Sam Freeman. Chris Ross BSC was on a Barilla ad with director Xavier Mairesse. George Richmond BSC is prepping the feature film Pain Hustlers with David Yates. Alan Stewart BSC is shooting Our Man From Jersey with Julian Farino. Carl Sundberg is prepping Halo 2 Mark Waters is lighting Mystery At Sea with Gordon Anderson. Erik Wilson BSC is lensing Michael Gracey’s Better Man. Maja Zamojda BSC is shooting block 1 of My Lady Jane, based on a book by Brodi Ashton, Gemma Burgess, Cynthia Hand and Jodi Meadows.

THETHROUGHLIFELENS is shooting what and where

Our regular round up of who

INDEPENDENT TALENT: Chas Bain has graded A Town Called Malice, directed by Jamie Donoghue. Darran Bragg is shooting a block of The F*Ck It Bucket with director Dionne Edwards. Bjorn Bratberg is lighting Annika S2 in Scotland, starring Nicola Walker, with director Philip John. Caroline Bridges is shooting block 2 & 4 of The Great S3. Jordan Buck lensed a Champion shoot in Canada with Riff Raff director Keane Pearce Shaw. Miguel Carmenes has been non stop shooting documentaries, TVCs and promo’s, most recently Central Cee with director Cole Bennett. Chris Clarke shot with Tom Noakes at Prettybird for Amazon Books, for JP Morgan with Adam Wells, and Game with Joe Giacomet. Oliver Curtis BSC is on Debutante, directed by Susannah White. Anthony Dod Mantle DDF BSC ASC shot an Amazon Prime spot with directors Traktor, before embarking on recce’s in South America for a special future project. Kit Fraser is shooting Kaos with Georgi Banks-Davies. Sam Goldie recently wrapped on the comedy drama, Sisters, with director Declan Lowney. Catherine Goldschmidt is working on block 2 of The Ballad Of Renegade Nell with Amanda Brotchie. Stuart Howell is prepping A Small Light with Susanna Fogel. Rick Joaquim lit a Lexus job with director Ricky Williams. Suzie Lavelle ISC BSC is shooting The End We Start From, based on Megan Hunter’s novel, directed by Mahalia Belo. John Mathieson BSC is shooting a high-profile documentary with Jake Scott at RSA. Seamus McGarvey BSC ASC is prepping Joe Wright’s Mussolini series. Bani Mendy is enjoying great reviews of Pru which recently landed on BBC iPlayer, and is on recce’s for Galwad, a story set

Bryant has wrapped The Full Monty Ryan Kernaghan has graded The Hunt for Raoul Moat. Nick Dance BSC continues shooting Dr Who alongside director Tom Kingsley. Matthias Pilz has graded Una Gunjak’s feature Excursion Patrick Meller did the DI on I Hate Suzie Too Christophe Nuyens SBC is prepping an embargoed drama, as are Seppe Van Grieken SBC and Adam Gillham Charlie Goodger has wrapped Silent Witness alongside director Max Myers. Hamish Anderson has graded George Jaques’ feature Black Dog Jan Richter-

16 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

WIZZO & CO:

www RED COM

“With the 8K sensor and small size of body, RED makes cameras you can really count on and shoot every movie with confidence.”

Don Burgess, ASC Director of Photography

OFPOWERTHERED

18 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

Dea Kulumbegashvili on her sophomore feature Historia Mauro Chiarello has shot an NDA TVC with director Megaforce. Adolpho Veloso ABC is shooting Os Enforcados with director Fernando Coimbria. Piers McGrail ISC is lensing On Record for Netflix with Nash Edgerton. James Laxton ASC is filming the new Lion King movie with director Barry Jenkins. Olan Collardy collaborated with Salomon Lightelm on a Kia ad. Benjamin Loeb is prepping for Dream Scenario with director Kristoffer Borgli.

From top down: Rob Hardy BSC ASC on Civil War; Tom Turley in Nepal; Arseni Khachaturan on Luca Guadagnino’s Bones And All; Eira Wyn Jones on a Booking.com ad; John Lynch shooting Truelove; Erik Henriksson with an Arricam LT and Cooke S4 lenses on an Ebay ad in Slovenia; and Maceo Bishop on the viewfinder

Operator Ruth Woodside worked with DP Laurie Rose BSC shooting pickups for I Hate Suzie 2, starring Billie Piper. Operator Ashlea Downes was main unit B-camera with DP Alicia Robbins on block 1 of Bridgerton S3.

RA AGENCY:

WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

LUX DariusARTISTS:Khondji AFC AFC is shooting Bong Joon Ho’s new feature. Kasper Tuxen DFF shot a Pinterest TVC with director Kim Gehrig. Ruben Impens SBC collaborated with director Jonas Lindstroem on a Hermes spot. Benjamin Kracun BSC is filming Coralie Fargaet’s new film The Substance Jonathan Ricquebourg AFC is collaborating with director Jean-Bernard Marlin on Salem Krzysztof Trojnar is lighting Richard Gadd’s series Baby Reindeer with director Weronika Tofilska. Jackson Hunt has finished shooting Inheritance with director Neil Burger. Michael McDonough BSC ASC is filming the Apple TV series The Last Thing He Told Me Arnaud Potier AFC shot an Asos ad with director WAFLA. Adam Newport Berra has wrapped on P Island, with director Zoë Kravitz. Henry Braham BSC is shooting Road House with director Doug Liman. Jakob Ihre FSF is prepping an Untitled Project with director Johan Renck. Monika Lenczewska PSC collaborated with Emma Watson on a Prada ad. Matyas Erdely HCA is shooting The Iron Claw with director Seam Durkin. Maceo Bishop has finished filming the TV series The Curse, directed by Nathan Fielder. Guillermo Garza has shot an Intel TVC with director Ian Pons Jewell. Eigil Bryld is working with director Gene Stupinsky on No Hard Feelings Jessica Lee Gagne is lensing the Apple TV+ series Severance S2. Steve Annis has finished shooting The Crow with director Rupert Sanders. Justin Brown worked with Guy Ritchie on an NDA commercial, and with Seb Edwards on an Orange commercial. Arseni Khachaturan is working with director

to Aman K Sahota whose project, Harry Potter: Return To Hogwarts, has been nominated for two Emmy Awards. The agency is delighted to welcome Alistair Little to its roster. Alistair is an NFTS graduate whose credits include Cradled, directed by Chloe Wicks, the C4 pilot Unfair, plus commercials, for Babbel and Hitachi. In commercials, Kyle Macfadzean has been shooting in the US and Europe. Tom Turley lit several ads for brands including Amazon. Chris O’Driscoll has been filming for fashion and beauty brands. Matt Gillan has also been shooting for beauty brands, plus music promos for artists including Rae Morris. Olly Wiggins and Nicholas Bennett have been shooting commercials, and Paul MacKay lit projects for Greatcoat and Stellar London. Laura Seears, who works on short form and TV projects has joined Loop Talent’s Diary Service. Michael EshunMensah recently wrapped on Black Ops for BBC 1 as B-cam/Steadicam operator. James Anderson ACO is working on The F**k It Bucket for Left Bank Pictures as A-camera/Steadicam operator. Sebastien Joly ACO has been working on a project with Stigma films. Gary Kent and Jack Smith have been shooting commercial projects.

Michael Carstensen ACO is still filming for DP Scott Winig on The Witcher – ‘Everyone’s Enemy’, a Netflix fantasy drama web series at Longcross Studios.

BERLIN EdwardASSOCIATES:Ames is shooting Waterloo Road, for Wall To Wall/BBC for series producer Chris Clenshaw. Al Beech shot a block of BBC’s Silent Witness S26. Will Baldy is shooting Dalgliesh 2 in Belfast for New Pictures with director Jon Wright. Sarah Bartles Smith is lensing Gangsta Granny Strikes Again for King Bert Productions, with Dan Zeff directing. Harvey Glen is filming Jerk 3 for Roughcut TV with director Tom McKay.

In features, Dave Miller has been lighting T.I.M and Gareth Munden has been prepping the Italian extravaganza, The Opera. Malcolm McLean has been operating and 2nd unit on Tin Soldiers. Shaun Harley Lee shot the feature Norah in Saudi Arabia Michal Sobocinski was in Paris shooting the Christian Dior bio-pic The New Look for Apple TV. David Liddell wrapped up the final shooting on Commonality before returning to shoot the first block of Crime 2 James Mather ISC has been lighting Kin 2 in Dublin. Rasmus Arrildt DFF finished Wolf in Wales then went home to start Sommerdahl Murders in Denmark Tom Hines finished his block of Casualty before starting Galwad also in Wales. Nic Lawson continues on Outlander Stephen Brand has been shooting 2nd Unit on Dodger Bebe Dierken is lighting Call The Midwife Jorge Luengas AEC has been operating in Morocco and at Longcross on Everyone’s Enemy, and Gabi Norland has been operating on The Great and The Ballard of Renegade Nell Lynda Hall shot the documentary The Other Mendelssohn Simon Hawken FNF, Martin Roach, Dave Miller and Lynda Hall have all been busy with commercials, trailers, idents and corporate films.

Thomas English GBCT is filming Steadicam dailies on Strangers, a horror film from Blueprint Pictures, directed by Andrew Haigh, starring Jamie Bell and Claire Foy, with DP Jamie Ramsey. Matt Fisher ACO did B-camera dailies on The Old Oak , Ken Loach’s next, shot by DP Robbie Ryan ISC BSC, plus a commercial with Megaforce and DP Hoyte van Hoytena NSC FSC ASC. Rob Hart ACO shot on Rain Dogs in Bristol with DPs Carlos Catalan and Wojciech Szepel, and directors Richard Laxton and Jenifer Perrott, and filmed dailies on Sexy Beast, a Paramount+ series, with DP Guilio Biccari. Tony Jackson ACO is filming on the Apple TV+ drama series Debutante in Scotland, with director Susanna White and DP Laura Bellingham. Tony Kay ACO recently finished shooting on Red Book – Mazey Day, a series for Netflix, with director Uta Briesewitz and DP David Luther. James Layton ACO has finished shooting on the Apple TV+ series Wool with director Morten Tyldum and DP Hagen Bogdanski. Nic Milner ACO wrapped on Lionsgate Television’s mini-series The Continental, directed by Albert Hughes, starring Mel Gibson, Peter Greene and Colin Woodell, and is shooting dailies with splinter unit as DP on Marv Quinn Production Tartan Dan Nightingale ACO is

2 for the BBC, with director Meg Campbell. Pete Rowe has concluded on Dodger S2 for NBC Universal. Simon Rowling has wrapped on the feature film, Duchess, with director Neil Marshall. James Swift shot a block on Grantchester S8 with director Tim Whitby. Simon Walton is shooting Beyond Paradise for Red Planet with director Sandy Johnson. Matt Wicks worked on block 3 of Debutantes for The Forge Entertainment, directed by Charlotte Regan. Phil Wood is shooting The Bay S4 with director Sebastian Godwin.

PRINCESTONE:

WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

DP Diego Rodriguez has been filming Poised, a feature length documentary about Steven France, ex-MMA champion, directed by Toby Robson and produced by Two Yanks and a Brit UK. Of the agency’s camera/Steadicam operators… Junior Agyeman ACO has finished on ITV’s mini-series You And Me with director Tom Vaughn and DP Michael Filocamo, and worked in Birmingham on Netflix series for Netflix with director John Ogunmuyiwa and DPs Christopher Sabogal and Robin Whenary.

Alvaro Gutierrez filmed on One Day for Drama Republic. Nick Martin recently finished shooting Pack Of Lies block 2 for Sister Pictures, with director Nicole Charles. Toby Moore is shooting Alexander for Lion Television in Morocco. Trevelyan Oliver recently shot on Mrs Sidhu Investigates for Monumental Pictures. Tom Pridham has wrapped on Royal Mob with Nutopia. Andrew Rodger shot The Beaker Girls

UNITED AGENTS:

shooting on Sexy Beast, w ith director Dan O’Hara and DP Guilio Biccari. Peter Robertson Associate BSC ACO worked on Without Blood in Italy with Angelina Jolie directing, and DP Seamus McGarvey BSC ASC the cinematographer. Joe Russell ACO has finished on the Netflix series The Diplomat with director Simon Cellan Jones and DP Julian Court BSC. Sean Savage Associate BSC ACO SOC has wrapped on Netflix’s sci-fi blockbuster Straight Shooter, with DPs Jonathan Freeman ASC and PJ Dillon ISC ASC. Fabrizio Sciarra SOC Associate BSC GBCT ACO has been shooting in Greece on My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, a directed by and staring Nia Vardalos, with DP Barry Peterson. Peter Wignall ACO is shooting on Marv Quinn Productions’ feature Tartan with DP Ed Wild BSC.

Søren Bay DFF has wrapped on Darkness: Those Who Kill S3 with director Jesper W. Nielsen for Miso Film/Acorn TV. John Lee BSC is shooting World On Fire S2 for Mammoth Screen/BBC1. Mark Nutkins completed on World On Fire S2 as 2nd unit DP, and is shooting The Fuck It Bucket for Left Bank/Netflix with director Laura Steinel. Donna Wade is shooting an episode of Vera S12 with director Paul Gay. Philippe Kress DFF is prepping The Turkish Detective with director Lynsey Miller for Miramax/Paramount+. Danny Cohen BSC is shooting Slow Horses S2 for Apple TV. Damian Paul Daniel is working on a new feature documentary with Stefan Stuckert. Martin Fuhrer BSC is shooting the third block of Palomino for Left Bank Pictures. David Higgs BSC recently concluded on Anand Tucker’s latest feature The Critic Matt Lewis is lighting Malpractice for World Productions/ITV. Kieran McGuigan BSC is reading scripts. Laurie Rose BSC is testing for his next job. Bet Rourich AEC is shooting the second block of Nacho Vidal: Una Industria XXXL for Bambu Productions/StarzPlay). John Sorapure is on Warner Bros’ Barbie as 2nd unit director/DP. Simon Tindall shot pick-ups for Lawrence Gough’s episodes of The Gold. Ollie Downey BSC is in Canada shooting Sister Pictures/Amazon Studios’ The Power Laurens De Geyter SBC is prepping the Cary Grant biopic, Archie, directed by Paul Andrew Williams Sam Heasman is prepping block two of Supacell for Netflix. David Rom has wrapped on Ted Lasso S3 Simon Stolland is grading Adam Deacon’s

INTRINSIC:

GowingLen oncompletedrecently MovieKidsAwkwardSoCamp and is BBC’sshootingnow No.Inside9

20 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

From top down: top two pix of Simon Rowling on The Duchess; Tony Kay with director Uta Briesewitz and DP David Luther; and Pete Rowe on Dodger with Harry Peacock holding the cane Opposite: Ed Rutherford BSc and crew on TheLongShadow; and Richard Mott at the camera on Maternal

MCKINNEY MACARTNEY MANAGEMENT: Ben Butler recently completed 2nd unit work on The Pact S2 for BBC. Stuart Biddlecombe is shooting Black Cake for Hulu in Wales and Jamaica, with Andrew Dosunmu directing. Mick

& WHERE

Congratulations to Tim Sidell, BSC for serving up a visual feast of cinematography in Peter Strickland’s FLUX GOURMET. +44 1753 650007 movietech.co.uk CAMERA | LENS | GRIP | ENGINEERING | LOGISTICS

A trading name of Sunbelt Rentals Limited

feature Sumotherhood. Si Bell BSC is shooting Woman In The Wall for Showtime/BBC with director Harry Wootliff. Sam Chiplin is reading and meeting. Charlotte Bruus Christensen DFF ASC is shooting Retreat for FX with Britt Marling and Zal Batmanglij. James Friend BSC ASC has accepted an offer to shoot a block of the Star Wars franchise Paradox for Lucasfilm. Anton Mertens SBC worked with director Steffen Geypens, lighting Noise for Netflix in Belgium. Milos Moore worked on You S4 for Netflix Neus Ollé AEC BSC is shooting commercials David Raedeker BSC is attached to Sally El Hosaini’s upcoming feature film Unicorns Niels Reedtz Johansen is set to light Something In The Water for director Hayley Easton Street. Kate Reid BSC is on AMC’s Invitation To A Bonfire with director Cherien Dabis. Ed Rutherford is lighting director Lewis Arnold’s The Long Shadow for ITV. Juan Sarmiento G. is lighting Madame Luna for director Daniel Espinosa in Sweden. Anna Valdez Hanks is reading and meeting for projects. Ben Wheeler is with director Paul Whittington on Two Tone for Kudos/BBC. Barry

Ackroyd BSC is shooting The Old Guard 2 in Rome for director Victoria Mahoney Philipp Blaubach is in Europe shooting Culprits for Jay Blakeson Daniel Bronks shot a First Bank ad in Solvenia for directors UBIK via 1st Avenue Machine. Simon Chaudoir was also in Slovenia shooting a Monster.com TVC with director Benji Weinstein for Smuggler LA. Sara Deane has wrapped on Whitstable Pearl S2 for director Jon Jones. Tim Maurice-Jones BSC shot an Aldi ad for director Vaughan Arnell in Bulgaria via Merman, London. Matias Penachino recently shot an Asahi commercial via Canada, London. Sebastian Pfaffenbichler AAC has shot a Honda spot for director Fernando Livschitz through The Mill. Simon Richards lit an Ocado commercial for director Gus Filgate via Bite, plus a Santander ad with director Declan Lowney through Merman, London. Joost Van Gelder shot an Army commercial for director Nicolai Fuglsig in Cyprus, via MJZ. Haris Zambarloukos BSC GSC is still shooting The Meg 2 for director Ben Wheatley. Daniel Vilar is working on Heart Of Stone as 2nd unit DP in UK and Europe.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 21

WHO, WHAT, WHEN

Director, Peter Strickland and Director of TimPhotography,Sidell,BSC-FluxGourmet

Laura Bellingham is shooting block 2 of Apple Tv’s Debutantes. Matt Gray BSC is lighting The Killing Kind with director Zara Hayes. Zac Nicholson BSC is shooting One Life for See-Saw Films with director James Hawes, is based on the true story of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton. Simona Susnea is lensing Netflix’s Heartstopper S2. Annika Summerson BSC has wrapped up Hør Her’a with director Kaveh Therani in Norway. Tim Palmer BSC has concluded on The Blue for New Pictures with director Hans Herbots.

StuartARTISTS:BentleyBSC

VISION ARTISTS:

Coulter BSC and Alessandra Scherillo have been shooting commercials. Sergio Delgado is filming Domina S2 for Epix/Sky in Rome. Michael Filocamo recently wrapped ITV’s You And Me with director Tom Vaughn. Jean Philippe Gossart AFC is shooting the Godzilla vs Kong spin-off series Hourglass for Apple TV+. Steve Lawes recently wrapped on Beacon 23 S1 for AMC in Toronto. Dale Elena McCready NZCS BSC is shooting The Burning Girls for Paramount+. Sam McCurdy BSC is prepping a number of episodes in the Godzilla vs Kong spin-off series Hourglass for Apple TV+. Andy McDonnell is filming Sex Education S4 for Netflix with director Dominic Le Clerc. Richard Mott just finished on Maternal for ITV in Liverpool. Chris Seager BSC is prepping a number of episodes in the Godzilla vs Kong spin-off series Hourglass for Apple TV+. Mike Spragg BSC recently finished filming on The Witcher S3 for Netflix. Robin Whenary is filming Champion for BBC1 in Birmingham and Jamaica.

This page: Sergio Delgado

WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

shooting an NDA Disney+ series in the Middle East. Ryan Eddleston is prepping a C4 opera film with Avanti Media, directed by Marc Evans, and is also prepping on Alice Lowe’s next feature, produced by Western Edge Pictures/BFI. Will Hanke has graded the comedy series Everyone Else Burns for C4, directed by Nick Collett vis JAX Media.

ACO is confirmed on Hulu’s Black Cake, shooting in Wales and Jamaica. James Frater ACO SOC continues in South Africa on Invasion Ilana Garrard ACO worked on a Red Book episode for Broke and Bones. Zoe GoodwinStuart ACO is on The Burning Girls w ith DP Dale Elena McCready BSC. James Leigh ACO is A-camera/Steadicam the series The Lazarus Project Will Lyte ACO is operating on Project IV (aka Bodies) for Moonage Pics/Netflix. Vince McGahon ACO is on the new series of Apple TV’s Slow Horses as A-camera/Steadicam. Aga Szeliga ACO is confirmed on the Ferrari project shooting in Italy. Tom Walden ACO continues on The Ballad Of Renegade Nell. Rick Woollard ACO worked on commercials for Iconoclast, Lucky Strike, Riff Raff, Stink and a Louis Vuitton project for North Six.

SARAH PUTT ASSOCIATES:

22 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

recently shot Beyond The Sea, part of the upcoming season of Netflix’s Black Mirror Nicolas Canniccioni has started the feature How To Have Sex , directed by Molly Manning-Walker. Nadim Carlsen DFF is prepping for Kayak with director Isabella Eklöf. Federico Cesca ASK has wrapped on Netflix/ Cowboy Film’s final season of Top Boy, with director Myriam Raja. David Chizallet AFC has finished Arnaud des Pallières’ upcoming feature. Rachel Clark is shooting Lucy Cohen’s feature Knockers, for BBC Film. Andrew Commis ACS is prepping for two episodes of Halo S2 for Paramount+. Nick Cooke is shooting Netflix series One Day, with director Molly Manners. Ruben Woodin Dechamps recently shot the documentary Underland, directed by Robert Petit. Bonnie Elliott ACS is shooting Mirrah Foulkes’ feature Runaway for See-Saw Films. Lachlan Milne ACS NZCS ASC is shooting Apple TV+ series Lady In The Lake, directed by Alma Har’el.

Opposite: (clockwise from top) Will Lyte on Bodies; Emily Almond Barr on The Lovers, photo by Peter Marley; and Korsshan Schlauer on Mai Jeourme.

Jonas Mortensen’s lighting work on Trying S3 premiered recently on Apple TV, and Jonas recently returned from Kenya shooting the documentary feature The Shadow Scholars, and is now prepping the queer coming-of-age feature Flotsam, Jetsam and George, directed by Julia Jackman. Dan Atherton has wrapped block blocks 1&2 of Great Expectations, directed by Brady Hood for Disney/FX. Nick Morris has concluded on the Netflix series The Fuck It Bucket for Left Bank, directed by Alyssa McClelland. Anna MacDonald travelled to Iceland with director and long term collaborator Jess Bishop to shoot a documentary on climate change called Pufflings. Kia Fern Little continues on an Apple TV music documentary about a highprofile British star. Jack Wilkinson has begun

Emily Almond Barr was in Belfast shooting The Lovers for Drama Republic/Sky alongside director David Ireland, and is prepping on the new series of Cobra Giulio Biccari is prepping Chapter One/ Paramount+’s new series Sexy Beast, a prequel to the 2000 feature. Jan Jonaeus is working on Challenge for Apple TV and STV. David Mackie is with director Chris Foggin on the Film Walk Out Yo Winter for Vertigo Films/Sky. Sashi Kissoon has wrapped on a Sky Shorts project called Lemons George Amos has started as 2nd unit DP on Warrior S3 in South Africa. Andrei Austin ACO has joined The Witcher team for a block as A- camera/Steadicam. Andrew Bainbridge ACO is A-camera/Steadicam on One Day, a new series based on David Nicholls’ novel. Danny Bishop ACO has been operating on numerous dailies and commercials. Ed Clark

ECHO

CASAROTTO RAMSAY & ASSOCIATES:

WHO,

director Tim Kirkby for Showtime/C4. Kanamé Onoyama wrapped on Get Millie Black for C4/ HBO with director Annetta Lauffer in Jamaica, and shot on the final block Top Boy with director William Stefan Smith for Netflix. Jamie D. Ramsay SASC continues on Strangers for BluePrint Pictures and Film4 with director Andrew Haigh. Joel

WORLDWIDE PRODUCTION ASSOCIATES: Ruairi O’Brien ISC BSC continues principal photography pick-ups on The Power for Amazon in Vancouver. Catherine Derry continues on The Great S3 for Starz. Mattias Nyberg BSC continues principal photography on 4-parter Six Four with director Ben A. Williams for House Productions/ITV. Baz Irvine ISC BSC has wraps principal photography on Invasion for Apple TV+ with director Brad Anderson in South Africa. Ed Moore BSC continues on Hijack for Apple TV+ with director Jim Field Smith. Richard Donnelly has started on Monumental Pictures’ Sanctuary for AMC. Arthur Mulhern is shooting with Tom Dumican on Road To A Million. Nathalie Pitters lit the BFI short Essex Girls, and worked with Park Village director Elliot Simpson on Google spot. Anna Patarakina FSF has concluded

principal photography on the feature The Tutor with director Alice Troughton, in Hamburg. Joel Devlin continues on Project IV for Netflix with director Marco Kreuzpaintner. Paul Morris has joined Project IV with director Haolu Wang. Vanessa Whyte continues on Ted Lasso S3 for AppleTV+. Andy Hollis is shooting Entitled with

Bartosz Swiniarski is lensing Alireza Khatami’s latest feature. Niels Thastum DFF is shooting series Veronica with director Jonas Alexander Arnby. Maria Von Hausswolff has recently wrapped on Annie Baker’s feature Janet Planet for A24/BBC Film. Carlos Catalan, Edgar Dubrovskiy, David Gallego ADFC, Charlie Herranz, Jo Jo Lam, Macgregor, Anders Malmberg, Lorena Pagès, Michael Paleodimos, Will Pugh, Korsshan Schlauer, Noël Schoolderman, Chloë Thomson, Evelin van Rei, Felix Wiedemann BSC and Sean Price Williams have all been busy shooting commercials.

WHAT, WHEN & WHERE THE MAGIC +500% UK and Ireland Rental and Sales Distribution: www.cirrolite.com Visit the dedolight website: www.dedoweigertfilm.de ANZ_CineWorld_02-22.indd 1 21.02.22 13:14CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 23

From top down: Thomas Hole and Matt Allsop on an Anthony Joshua vs Oleksandr Usyk promo; Greatest Days UK crew (l-r) Eddie Caldas (camera trainee), Lorena Pagès (2nd Unit DP) and Murat Alkiraz (Focus Puller); Greatest Days crew in Athens including Lorena Pagès (2nd Unit DP), Mike Eley (DP), Coky Giedroyc (director), Non Hughes (script supervisor) and Will Lyte (Steadicam), alongside local crew

WHO, WHAT, WHEN & WHERE

Honeywell continues principal photography on Grime Kids for BBC/Mammoth Screen with director Abdou Cisse. Kolja Brandt is lighting Beirut for Showtime with director Greg Barker. Stephen Murphy ISC BSC continues principal photography on Mr. & Mrs. Smith for Amazon with director Amy Seimetz in the US. Patrick Murguia has wrapped on the feature Mafia Mama with director Catherine Hardwicke in Italy. Stephen Windon ACS ASC continues on Fast X for Universal Studios with director Louis Leterrier. Scott Winig shot on The Witcher S3 for Netflix with director Alik Sakharov. Larry Fong ASC has concluded principal photography on Damsel for Netflix with director Juan Carlos Fresnadillo. Thomas Hole lit spots for Fifa with director Keane Shaw via Riff Raff, plus a spot for Aston Martin with Kode director Laurence Dunmore. Beatriz Sastre was in Barcelona for Abreva’ latest ad by Darling Films’s director Irene Baque. Adam Singodia lit a music promo starring Louis Theroux with director Stanley Brock through My Accomplice. Pieter Snyman was in Amsterdam on a Nestle spot with Winneker and director Josh Cohen, and shot Robbie Williams’ latest promo

Matthew Fox shot an M&S TVC with director Mark Ingram via Chief, and an O2 spot with Rogue director Alex Boutell.

24 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

with director Alex Southam in Marseille through OB Management. Benjamin Todd lensed a Prague McDonalds spot in Prague with Stink director Dan Streit. Matthew Emvin Taylor shot with director Jack Cole and My Accomplice for Dazn Canada and the NFL, and lensed a Sainsbury’s spot with Biscuit director Clay Weiner. Matthew J. Smith shot with Mental Films’s director Giacomo Boeri in Istanbul for Malfi Gin. Stefan Yap lit a promo with Bold director Greg Davenport for Paul Londra and Ed Sheeran.

WWW.LEITZ-CINE.COM OPTICALOUTSTANDINGPERFORMANCE LEITZ ZOOM

Introducing the new ARRI ALEXA 35

The ARRI ALEXA 35 features a brand new 4.6K Super 35 sensor capable of capturing 17+ stops of dynamic range while delivering the fantastic image quality ARRI have spent years refining. The camera features ARRI’s new REVEAL Colour Science pipeline, an enhanced sensitivity mode for improved low light performance, 19 different recording formats, the ability to shoot 4K 120p and a new textures mode for detailed image control.

Learn more cvp.com/arri Book a demo demo@cvp.com Get in touch +44 (0) 208 380 7400

T

Starting Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba, Three Thousand Years Of Longing, concerns Alithea Binnie, a lonely scholarly narratologist, who, during a trip to Istanbul, encounters a djinn who offers her three wishes in exchange for his freedom. This presents two problems: first, she doubts that he’s real, and second, because she’s a scholar of story and mythology, she knows the cautionary tales of wishes gone wrong. The djinn pleads his case by telling her fantastical stories of his past. Eventually, she’s beguiled and makes a wish that surprises them both.

However, it was delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and production took place entirely in Australia in November of that year, chiefly on sets constructed in a voluminous warehouse on the outskirts of Sydney, and at locations that doubled for those in Europe. Whilst most of the action takes place within the confines of a hotel room, several flights of fantasy in the djinn’s storytelling transport the visuals into the realm of VFX, which meant the sets had to be meticulously LIDAR-scanned and photographed for post production purposes.“Thechief thing for me was that with 65% of the film taking place two between people, over a period

visuals,” recounts Seals. “He’s implicit about what he wants, and his storyboards are reasonably gospel, and I knew I could follow those pretty well.”

AMAKEWISH

“I really thought Mad Max: Fury Road would be my last film, but during all the excitement of production George popped in that he had a little ensemble film coming along, a two-hander for the most part, and was keen for me to shoot it,” Seale recalls. “He is so lovely and charming that I simply could not say no, and I’m delighted that it turned out to be a such a fascinating and intriguing film to end on. That said, he mentioned

that it would take a couple of years to get it up-andrunning, but that actually turned into seven.”

Miller wrote the screenplay with Augusta Gore, adapting the 1994 short story “The Djinn In The Nightingale’s Eye” by A. S. Byatt. The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, where it received a six-minute standing ovation from the audience, and critics lauded Seale’s luscious and inGeorgetheandwithpreferredisonreadtale.modernforphotographydazzlingvisually-thefairy“Ididn’tthebookwhichthefilmbased,andtogothescriptlistentoideasthathadmindforthe

Originally, production was due to take place between locations in Australia, Turkey and the United Kingdom, with filming beginning in March 2020.

The legendary cinematography is the visual author of some of the most exquisite images you’ll ever see at the cinema, having lent his considerable talents, not to mention his affable camaraderie, to such Hollywood blockbusters as Witness (1985, dir. Peter Weir), Rain Man (1988, dir. Barry Levinson), Dead Poets Society (1989, dir. Peter Weir), The English Patient (1996, dir. Anthony Minghella), for which he won the best cinematography Oscar, The Talented Mr Ripley (1999, Anthony Minghella), Harry Potter And The Philosopher’s Stone (2001, dir. Chris Columbus) and Cold Mountain (2003, Anthony Minghella). Three Thousand Years Of Longing marked Seale’s third collaboration with Miller, following Lorenzo’s Oil (1992) and Mad Max: Fury RoadSeale’s(2015).standing is such that he was appointed a Member Of The Order Of Australia in the 2002 Australia Day Honours in recognition of his “service to the arts as an Australian and internationally acclaimed cinematographer.”AlthoughSeale had intended to conclude his cinematographic canon with “a big one”, namely Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, it was the director’s invitation to shoot Three Thousand Years Of Longing that kept him in the game.

By Ron Prince

28 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING•JOHN SEALE AM ACS ASC

“But I have a new career to keep me occupied,” he reveals. “My wife, Louise, and I have five beautiful grandchildren, and I want to spend time with them, going on holidays and travelling. Regrettably, I wasn’t able have much time with my children because I was frequently overseas for very long periods. So it’s definitely time to move over and watch the younger generation make movies. There are some fabulous talents out there.”

“

hat’s it, I’m not far off 80, and I’m officially retired now!” declares the great John Seale AM ACS ASC, at the start of our conversation about his work on director George Miller’s phantasmagorical feature, Three ThousandYearsOfLonging.

of about an hour and 17 minutes, the lighting wasn’t going to change particularly, but it would involve a lot of movement and framing, as George was adamant about avoiding any repetition of shots,” says Seale.

“It was seven years since I shot Mad Max: Fury

gear in his trucks, but I was particularly taken by the smaller, battery-operated fixtures that we could fit into practical, or hide in nooks and crannies around the set, which could all be controlled in colour and intensity from an iPad. We used plenty of these for the fantasy flashbacks scenes in old castle windows and stone corridors, to create little shafts of lights, all without a single cable or a gel on them.”

“I moved to zooms a hundred years ago, when lot of the die-hards said they’d never use a zoom because of the marked drop in quality if you ever switched from a prime to a zoom,” Seale explains. “I got the idea that if I could shoot a whole move on zoom lenses there wouldn’t be a quality change – the result would just looked different, a little softer maybe.

Seale was offered the use of a Fujinon Premista 19-45mm –the third model to join the Premista series of cinema zoom lenses along with the 28-100mm T2.9 and 80-250mm T2.9-3.5 – which was then not officially released commercially.

“Eric has an incredible eye, and helped to grade the dailies during the early part of the production and made sure the shots from the Alexa Mini LF and Red cameras matched. As the latest editorial versions and VFX composites of the fantasy sequences came in

“The team at Fujinon were doing a promotional world tour with the Premista 19-45mm at the time, and very kindly offered it to us for three days,” says Seale. “We actually designed a shot around it combining crane movement with a zoom, shooting on the ARRI Mini LF. It was a long-range crane shot in the castle, that travels down through a group of people partying, into a close-up of the princess, who then turns and gets lifted up to the balcony above and goes on with the djinn ending-up in the skylight.

first AD. Not only are Tilda and Idris two of the most unbelievably talented actors you could ever hope to film, they are also the most extraordinarily modest, patient and humble people you can imagine on a film set. They, and the great professionals on my crew –including Michelle Pizanis, the co-ordinating camera assistant, Ricky Schamburg our first AC, Michael Adcock my gaffer, and key grip Adam Kuiper –all helped make the last production I’m going to be involved with the most enjoyable experience I could have wished for.”

“I found the quality of that lens so lovely. It didn’t enhance the incredible crispness that you can get shooting digitally, rather it took the edge off the pixels, and somehow softened the picture to a point where it almost looked like a really good old-fashioned film lens, and I loved it for that. Although that lens then went back on tour, they very graciously gave it back to us for the last six weeks of our shoot, and I used it a lot of the time for the remainder of the shoot.”

“These days the quality of zoom lens optics is amazing, so good that you would be hard-pressed to tell the difference between a zoom and a prime. They can help you get out of a lot of bother, such as when the director might want to go little tighter. They also really help the pace of production, and the focus of the actors, because there’s less downtime involved in changingDuringlenses.”production,

“To begin with, I tried to work out a way of keeping the numbers of crew down to a minimum, with a remotely-operated camera and focus-pulling, and monitoring outside the room. But the more I considered the script and the storyboards, and the more I discussed things with George, it became obvious that we needed coverage from multiple angles and it became a three-camera shoot. Thanks to the LIDAR scans and photogrametry, any filmmaking paraphernalia in the hotel scenes, like mics and boom arms that crept into shot, could be removed invisibly in Framingpost.”inwidescreen 2.39:1 aspect ratio, Seale’s shooting package, supplied by Paul Jackson and the team at Panavision in Sydney, comprised of ARRI Mini LFs and Red Komodos, with the large format cameras variously deployed on a mini jib, Steadicam and Trinity rigs, dollies and cranes, to help deliver gliding camera moves and shot variety.

Although he had a selection of ARRI Signature Prime lenses at his disposal, Seale admits to being “a zoom lens addict”, and Fujinon Premistas, Tokina Cinema ATX and Sigma Full Frame zooms, were his go-to optics for the vast majority of the production.

The final grade was conducted in Toronto by colourist Eric Whipp, with Seale and Miller viewing remotely in realtime on the big screen of a DI theatre in Sydney.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 29

Images: Photo credits, Elise Lockwood. © 2022 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures Inc. Rights Reserved

All

Regarding the lighting set-up on the film, Seale says “I tend to light 360-degrees because I found on the earlier films that it’s a way of speeding-up the production, and that downtime is detrimental to the actors. With three cameras on this shoot, lighting 360 was the obvious thing to do.

JOHN SEALE A M ACS ASC•THREE THOUSDAND YEARS OF LONGING

That’s premise behind the widely-praised True Things, directed by Harry Wootliff, and stylishly shot in 4:3 aspect ratio with a variety of intimate, boldly-expressionistic and psychologically-textured camerawork, by New York-based cinematographer AshleyTheConnor.filmwas originated from the 2011 novel True Things About Me by Deborah Kay Davies, and stars Ruth Wilson, who also optioned the book and co-produced, alongside Tom Burke. The screen adaption was cowritten by Wootliff and Molly Davies, with production though The Bureau, BBC Films and the BFI.

feel the same way Kate does at any one moment, be it real or fantasy, conscious or subconscious.”

Connor remarks, “I enjoy working with boutique-style camera rental houses, such as Pixipixel, as they can really become a partner to cinematographers. On this project, I really appreciated the friendly and responsive support they gave me, especially when it came to finding lenses.

TRUE THINGS•ASHLEY CONNOR

“I think my activated and experiential style of handheld operating on Madeline’s Madeline resonated with the intimate, character-based storytelling Harry had in her mind for True Things, and we were on the same page from our very initial discussion,” says Connor.

XQ and framing in 4:3 aspect ratio, combined with a Nikon AI-S lens set, rehoused by Zero Optik.

“I think Owen Tanner, the camera floor manager at Pixipxel, had seen Madeline’s Madeline and really took on-board the funkiness Harry and I wanted to bring to the image. He suggested the Nikon AI-S’s, which were really appealing as they offered good contrast, strong colour, modest flares and gentle halation when shooting wide open. As soon as I tried the 58mm, I knew it was the right lens for this film. It was just beautiful. We fell in love with how Ruth looked through those lenses, how they rendered the light, together with the texture and the softness they brought to the image.”

30 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

“I hadn’t worked with Harry before, but she was aware of certain films I had shot, such as Madeline’s Madeline (2018, dir. Josephine Decker), which has a certain woozy, strange-looking visualisation through the camera,” says Connor who grew-up in Los Angeles and studied film at Ithaca College in upstate New York, where she reveals she divided her time between studying experimental filmmaking and shooting projects for fellow students.

As for the optics, Nikon’s AI and AI-S lenses became hugely-popular amongst 35mm SLR photojournalists and fine-art photographers during the 1970s and ‘80s, for their technical excellence and soulful rendering, and they proved an attractive proposition as Connor and Wootliff considered the raw and candid looks they were after.

ECSTASYANDAGONY

However, it’s the start of an emotionally precarious journey that slowly begins to consume her, despite pressure from friends and family to see sense and find stability.

Living in a sleepy seaside town, and working in a dreary benefit claims office, Kate finds herself seduced by the cheeky grin from a swaggering, charismatic ex-con with peroxide blonde hair. High on infatuation, and with a string of failed relationships behind her, she is drawn to this mysterious man and dives headlong into romance, hoping he will provide the escape she so tediousdesiresdesperatelyfromherexistence.

Part of my career is about shifting the way that we look at women and complex female characters

Principal photography on True Things commenced in March 2020, in-and-around the seaside town of Ramsgate, and the district of Thanet in East Kent, England. However, things ground to a resounding halt after just one week, due to the imposition of UK Covid-19 lockdown. Consequently, Connor flew back home to New York and was not able to return to the UK until August. After a tenday quarantine on UK soil, Connor was able to resume

viewed women, and how, as a cinematographer, I want to shift the way that we look at women and complex female characters. So I always approach my film work through that lens. It’s about bringing that into a contemporary space that gives women a different integrity in narratives.

“So the cinematography on True Things was really aimed at showing the vulnerability of a female character in an authentic way. Harry and I went through the script page-by-page and emotionally shot-listed the whole movie, talking about what each line and each scene meant to the character and how to make the audience

During her seven-week prep period, Connor says she and Wootliff, who was in the early stages of pregnancy at the time, shared many cinematic references. These included character-focussed films by Lynne Ramsay and Claire Denis, that explore fragile connections between people and the ways in which seemingly inconsequential relationship can have life-changing effects. Music, by such recording artists as PJ Harvey, was also an aural backdrop to their creative deliberations.

By Ron Prince

Connor’s camera package for the production was supplied by London-based rental house Pixipixel. This included an ARRI Alexa Mini, shooting in ProRes 4444

“The camera choice was very straightforward,” Connor says. “I usually shoot using the ARRI family because I like the workflow and the ergonomic build of the cameras. This film was very much about intimacy and the Alexa Mini was the best option for us to rig in cars and operate around small spaces. We shot 4:3 as we wanted Kate’s world to feel boxed-in and claustrophobic and, although wides can become a little complicated, it really lends itself to portraiture.”

Explaining her attraction to want to shoot the film Connor notes, “I was really moved by Harry’s script and Kate’s character. I felt this was a very honest interpretation of what infatuation feels like, and that to me was very important. I think we can all identify with the shifting emotions as you throw yourself off the ledge into a relationship that you know is not healthy for you, but one that you still want to engage with, until you reach the point of realisation.“Also,part of my career is about being inconversation with the history of how we have traditionally

shooting in September, which also included a two-week stint in Malaga, Spain, for the film’s denouement, before wrapping in late October.

“I like working with directors who are open to being a little playful or experimental, and Harry is all of this. We wanted to be audacious with the camera work and colour, to show the ecstasies and agonies, the dizzying highs and depressive lows, of Kate’s emotional experiences, and sometimes veer into almost surreal directions for the fantasy scenes, without it being too on the nose.

ASHLEY CONNOR•TRUE THINGS

“During lockdown, Harry and I had a lot of time to review and edit the footage we had shot, mainly scenes at the benefit claims office, which were purposely staged to look steady, formal and cheerless,” says Connor. “This gave us a fresh perspective and inspired us to be much bolder and crazier when production restarted. Although it was hard waiting to come back, it was great when I eventually reconnected with Harry, who had a five-week-old baby by then, and the crew with a brand new energy.

“I love operating the camera, and the physical aspect of that is something I particularly enjoy,” says Connor. “I don’t use an EasyRig or anything like that, it’s pretty much on my shoulder. I might dip down, go on my knees, drag myself across the floor and then stand back up again. I’m processing the image, I’m processing story, and have to move with the performance. So my relationship and communication with the focus puller and the grips is so important when I am activated, because I know it’s not easy for them.

“I’m somebody who’s very geared towards doing things in-camera. Harry gave me the freedom to experiment – and the luxury of failure – to introduce all sorts of filters, mirrors, prisms and diopters to distort or funk-

“I think the first couple of days were a little bit shocking for Dave and Llewellyn, watching me dance around Ruth, and were even more of a challenge because of all the Covid distancing protocols and PPE being worn. But we found our rhythm and our step really quickly, and they responded to my camera work in a way that I found really beautiful and emotional. Sometimes the focus was just about me gently rocking the camera back-and-forth in and out the focal plane for emotional purposes to challenge the eyes of the audience.”

Connor also appreciates the work of gaffer Ben Manwaring. “The plan behind the lighting was to create spaces where the actors could move freely, and was pretty far-removed from the scenario where you have time to block, light and fine-tune everything. Our approach was pretty simple, to play towards naturalism, to let most locations speak for themselves, but to heighten that, either with more intensity or colour, for the fantasy and frenzied moments.

and S60s, plus LiteGear LiteMats and Astera Tubes, to variously deliver colour or supplement areas that neededConnorillumination.”completed the DI grade on True Things inperson alongside colourist Jody Davidson at Technicolor in London, (now a Streamland Media company), with whom she had created basic LUTs for day and night work on the“Wefilm.captured the looks we wanted in-camera, so the DI was really about matching, and making sure the tones, colours and saturations would sing and speak cohesively together, rather than pushing the pictures in otherConnordirections.”concludes, “I’m proud of this film because I’m always invested in creating new kinds of visuals and it certainly involved my more experimental side. Also, I really enjoyed working with Harry and Ruth, and think we accomplished what we set out to achieve – to portray the very emotional experience of a multi-layered character, and add to the changing landscape of female stories at that are so vitally needed.”

“I had not worked with Ben before, and he was game for the challenge of working with limited lighting resources. I think the biggest lamp we had was an 8K to push light through a window, with ARRI SkyPanel S30s

Images: Courtesy of The Bureau © All Rights Reserved

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 31 NOW IT’S RABBIT-ROUNDER THE ALL NEW, ALL ROUND SOLUTION FOR LED COB FIXTURES COMPATIBLE MOUNTS BowensNanlux(Aputure)Fiilex www.dopchoice.com

up the lenses. It was always about bringing people on the emotional journey with our main character.”

Quite often this would also involve extreme close-ups in combination with sinuous and highly-kinetic camera moves, which called upon the considerable skills of first AC David Pearce, often pulling focus remotely, and key grip Llewellyn Harrison.

“There are areas that, whichever way you look, all you can see is this sandstone yellow-ness, mostly without any contours to the land, and the desert looks more sublime and hypnotic in low light. We didn’t have the luxury to shoot that early, so I was grateful for night scenes where I could recreate the right light,” he recalls.

As McDonagh was adamant about shooting in the same area as featured in the Lawrence Osborne novel

“I have shot in Egypt and the Middle East, but there’s something distinctive about Morocco. The landscape is biblical. Once you get off the roads, you’re in the desert, no sand dunes – just millions of little stones and sharp rocks. Sure, it gets bumpy and risky when you travel too fast, but it served this story perfectly,” says Smith.

“We had a lot of high mountain scenes, where you look over an endless desert, and that’s a humbling

probably 5-6 hours away, so we had to piece the vil la-partying scenes together in two hotels, one of which was where the cast and the director were staying. We had to travel long distances to reach some locations, up to 50 kilometres through the desert. Adding in a tight shooting schedule, there was a lot of pressure on the technical crew to deliver.”

experience. Not that different from what David feels on his way to the burial, I guess. We also shot in a quarry and in a very cinematic oasis. There were definitely some interesting locations.”

“We had logistical problems with getting Condors on location, but I knew that shooting with Sony Venice’s 2500ISO, I could really manage with minimal lighting to an amazing effect. I mostly used 18Ks for exposure and lit the rest with small sources and practicals.”

THE FORGIVEN•LARRY SMITH BSC ASC

A fossil-selling Arab teenager dies on a desolate road somewhere between Tangier and Azna, in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains. Hit by the speeding car of a jaded white couple, David and Jo Henninger, he becomes a thorn in the side of a group of filthy rich Westerners partying hard in a lavishly renovated ksour to which the Henningers were recklessly heading. The police are bribed, and consciences are silenced with al cohol, yet when the boy’s Berber father arrives to collect the body, he demands the culprit to go with him to atone during a burial rite. Grudgingly, David agrees and gets a glimpse of the world behind the toxic stereotypes that had been determining the confines of his perception.

“Whenmarvels.Davidstops, I had some local lights around the vehicle and a bit of fill to keep that isolation of the brightness of the car and the mountains in the background. As with many other scenes, I wanted it to feel authentic.”

Authenticity was a crucial factor in choosing Sony Venice, especially that McDonagh likes to storyboard and Smith had to work within the given parameters. It was also the reasoning behind picking Cooke Ana morphic/i Prime Lenses.

SINSNOCTURNAL

Part excruciatingly poignant morality play, part cinematic vivisection of the West’s inebriation with crooked value systems, The Forgiven is not an easy film to digest. Especially as there are no moustache-twirling villains, just a bunch of dismal people who were led to believe they are special by their own kind. Yet it is a truly captivating one to watch due to Smith’s evocative lensing and lighting. This is the cinematographer’s third collaboration with McDonagh, after The Guard’s delicious blend of dark comedy and grim drama and Calvary’s sombre exploration of guilt, yet undeniably the broadest in terms of both moral and visual scope.

As much as he admired the arid vastness, Smith preferred shooting at night.

By Darek Kuźma

The Sony Venice is amazing in low-light conditions, and its colour reproduction is unparalleled

“We were in a mountainous area, I could only get one Condor with 18K just around the bend and one 600 metres further down the road to give a bit of shape to the peaks in the dark. The rest was illuminated by the car’s headlights, always a beautiful visual tool at night,” he

32 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

he was adapting for the screenplay, and Smith had to make the best of what he was presented with.

ASC captured a clash of worlds and worldviews in John Michael McDonagh’s TheForgiven.

At first, all appears perfectly Instagrammable, but a storm is brewing. Heavy seasickness hits the passen Cinematographer Larry Smith BSC ASC captured a clash of worlds and worldviews in John Michael Mc Donagh’s The Forgiven.

There’s something distinctive about Morocco… the landscape is biblical

Still, he found a lot to be thankful for in visual terms.

Cinematographer

Larry Smith BSC

One of the story’s most emblematic scenes comes when David loses control of his car when the boy jumps on the nocturnal road to sell them a fossil, which afflu ent Westerners love to collect.

“It was challenging,” he explains. “These days Mo rocco is often visited by film crews, but the area we shot at had inferior infrastructure. The nearest studio was

“I usually work with Panavision E-series Ana morphics, but the focal lengths I wanted weren’t readily available then.

“I’m not a fan of handheld and I used it only for some travelling shots in car. I think handheld is overused because many directors believe it adds more dynamic if you keep moving the shaky camera all the time. Here, we used everything, we had Steadicam, Ronin, cranes, drone work, dolly and track, whatever the given scene needed to make it the best it could be,” he evokes. “I have to say I particularly liked the drone shots and I think they should be considered as cost-effective alter natives to some crane work. It’s a brilliant new tool.”

He is currently shooting in Japan. “I can’t say I thoroughly enjoyed working on The Forgiven, because we had tough times to do everything on time and had to work in risky locations. But my job is to find solutions, create compelling worlds, leave the viewers with some thing more than just pure entertainment. And I strongly believe we achieved that with this film.”

“One thing I can’t deny is that they both had a per sonality, thus the only heavy lifting was bringing a load of paper lanterns up. The rest was mostly lit with practi cals. There’s a lot of going on at these parties, there are candles, underwater pool lights, guys spurting petrol out of their mouths. The Sony Venice is amazing in lowlight conditions, and its colour reproduction is basically unparalleled.”

I had never shot with Cooke Anamorphics before, but I had worked a lot with Cooke Sphericals and knew they help the digital format immensely with their softness, taking the kind of TV harshness out of the picture. It was precisely what they gave me during the shoot.” Smith’s lens package was rounded out with two Angénieux Optimo Zooms, namely the 15-40mm and 24-290mm.

That was also the case with exteriors, even though piecing the ksour together from two optically divergent hotels proved a challenge.

LARRY SMITH BSC ASC•THE FORGIVEN CIN EMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 33

Unfortunately, Smith was not able to put the final touches in the grade as the subsequent Covid waves distorted the post-production schedule, and when the DI eventually came about he was contracted to shoot a new film. It was a disappointing end to an interesting adventure, yet Smith is fond of The Forgiven and awaits new challenges that will send him on personal and professional journeys all over the world.

Which was yet another essential aspect of infusing The Forgiven’s high-moral drama with just the right amount of substance.

before the on-set of the pandemic halted the produc tion in “Aftermid-March.thehiatus, we went back for five days in Sep tember to shoot various scenes, including the mourning father bringing his son back home, but we had to work in different places. And our hotel had Covid problems, so we had to relocate and thus travel even longer. We lost a day because of that, which translated to even more pressure on the technical crew. We delivered what was expected of us, and I was happy with the re sult, yet I can’t help but wonder what we could’ve done if we’d been given a week more to shoot?”

“The rest of the lighting were candles and Dedos, as the only other sources I used in those scenes,” says Smith. “I had SkyPanels at my disposal too, but used them only a couple of times in really dark interior areas when I couldn’t get an 18K in to penetrate. No more than two at a time, just a complimentary source. The rest I covered with practicals, a range of Dedo lights and a little bit of warm fill here and there. It was all carefully planned to create a specific atmosphere that mixes well with camera movement.”

Smith went to Morocco in January 2020 and, after finalising prep work, he shot for less than five weeks

“Again, I tried to keep it as simple as possible,” he says. “With most of the interiors, both day and night, I shot mostly with practicals because the sets already offered a wide range of visual opportunities. In all honesty, I think these enabled me to get the real colours of Morocco more than the desert scenes did. I was grateful for that.”

David’s journey into the unknown is interspersed with scenes from the ksour where the jaded expats and their guests indulge themselves with luxurious hedonism and Jo Henniger is tempted to commit adultery with a charming hustler. Smith had to find a way to depict the extrava gance and excess without losing the authenticity.

During the fancy dinners Smith augment ed the practicals with a pair of 18Ks on Con dors to hint at the desert looming behind the characters and lend some romanticism to the dialogue-heavy scenes.

RRR was a big responsibility. We had to give something better than ever before

34 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

A fictionalised adventure imagining a friendship between two historical revolutionaries who rebelled against the British Raj of the 1920s, RRR – Rise Roar Revolt – is a large and lusty tiger of a film, leading the charge in Indian filmmaking. Made on a budget of 5.5 billion INR ($69 million USD), RRR is the most expensive Indian film to date. Released theatrically on 25 March 2022, the film took $30 million worldwide on its first day, and went on to gross $160 million worldwide, setting several box office records for an Indian movie. The film reportedly also had 44-million viewing hours on Netflix over a 24day period when it launched on the streamer.

When principal photography finally wrapped on the epic Telugu blockbuster RRR (2022), nearly four years had passed since director S. S. Rajamouli first called “Action” on day one.

“In the pre-production stages I had long talks with director Rajamouli, production designer Sabu Cyril and VFX supervisor Srinivas Mohan, about how the film would be done. Certain sequences were storyboarded and pre-visualised, plus we did lots of test shoots. Based on this preparation it was decided what worked for us and what did not.”

a film that could be screened in a wide range of formats: IMAX, Cinemascope, 3D and Dolby Vision.”

“I don’t like to compromise on my lighting,” he reveals, “plus there is a particular way of capturing an emotional content which, for me, is better achieved shooting with a single camera.”

RRR•K. K. SENTHIL KUMAR ISC

Aside from action and stunt sequences, where additional cameras and specialist operators are employed, Senthil prefers to utilise a single camera on his movies, which he operates himself.

Cinematographer K. K. Senthil Kumar ISC relates how he kept track of such a long and intensive shooting schedule.

“We essentially deal with characters, emotions, drama et cetera,” he philosophises. “The process of creating an emotionally-stimulating image using these things is very organic and intuitive. No certain movement can translate directly to a certain emotion, it’s about the personal choices we make.

Around two-thirds of RRR ’s storyline occurs during the hours of darkness, with many nighttime action and fight sequences involving thousands of supporting artists. Lighting the huge set pieces involved 20ft x 14ft x 10ft truss boxes skimmed with Chimera cloths, packed with Dino lights and drawing more than 1250kV of power, hung on cranes at over 120ft. Real fire was utilised to illuminate the action sequences, “to give the feel of fire all around,” describes Senthil.

CAMERA!ROLLROAR…RISE…

By Natasha Block Hicks

“Our collaboration really pushes the boundaries of Telugu cinema with every film,” states Senthil. “RRR was a big responsibility for us, there were so many eyes watching. We had to give something better

The production team on RRR had a huge range

“I loved the image quality of this combination,” he reveals, “the clean and sharp definition created a whole new look with a three-dimensional feel which was truly immersive. It would also allow us to deliver

RRR is Rajamouli and Senthil’s eighth project together, the Telugu director having initially noticed the DP’s debut movie, the low-budget action adventure Aithe (2003, dir. Chandra Sekhar Yeleti). The creative partnership between the two has deepened over the last 18 years, as the movies in their shared filmography have been growing in both scope and budget. RRR, released five years after their last hit Baahubali 2: The Conclusion (2017), which also broke box-office records.

than ever “Bringingbefore.”visual authenticity to RRR was more important than stylising the film,” he continues. “I had a fair idea how I wanted the film to look, but I didn’t lock the look of the film at the time of shooting. On my films I generally like to shoot clean, then take my time in digital imaging.”

of grip, crane and stabilisation equipment at their disposal, however as Senthil says, “I don’t like to move the camera without a reason.

While RRR was in pre-production, ARRI launched is Alexa LF camera and ARRI Signature Prime Lenses. Senthil wanted to explore large format aesthetics, so he tested the combination for RRR

“I did try to keep it as simple as possible,” he confides. “We were shooting a very complicated film which unfolds on a grand scale, so I didn’t want to complicate my job. I trid to follow the KISS principle: ‘Keep It Simple, Stupid’.”

“I record very detailed notes of every shot,” says Senthil, “lights, diffusion, camera position, camera height, exposure, focus, everything. Sometimes, if we have to revisit a sequence much later for some pick-up shots or to take some CG plates, I only have to glance through my notes, and I know exactly what we did.”

Despite moving in the upper echelons of the Indian filmmaking industry and being committed to long shooting schedules, Senthil’s family help him keep his feet on the ground.

“In certain shots, I used specular lighting,” he details. “In one scene, where the British police are having a meeting, streaks of light created in the studio helped to heighten the drama. Then there was a meeting of all the revolutionaries who were planning their next move; I used hard light and contrast to heighten the emotions in that scene.”

K. K. SENTHIL KUMAR ISC•RRR

One of Senthil’s favourite sequences is when Ram, one of the film’s two principal characters, is first introduced. Thousands of dissidents are agitating outside a police station, and Ram – at that moment an officer guarding the imperial rulers – is emotionallydriven to arrest a particular stone thrower.

This sequence is loaded with powerful slowmotion imagery such as Bheem leaping from a moving truck surrounded by a halo of wild and fierce animals, Ram entering the palace in a burning chariot and the two standing-off, with one framed by water gushing out from the broken fountain verses the other with fire crackers bursting in the background, all loaded with close-ups of the lead actors, “not to miss the emotions,” as Senthil stresses.

challenging,” he confides. “We used various techniques to help the cast know where the CG animals existed virtually. For instance, radiocontrolled cars were used to replicate the movements of the animals, and with Ncam visualisation technology, I could see the CG animals in my monitor. This aided the production with real-time cameraThoughtracking.”nostranger to VFX, having shot effectsheavy movies like Arundhati (2009), a horror fantasy film about a brave queen who battles an evil mystic, and Eega (2012), in which the murdered protagonist is reincarnated as a housefly, the interval scene in RRR still tested Senthil.

Theatre audiences watching RRR in Indian cinemas would typically be treated to a 10-minute interval, halfway through the film’s three-hour run time. The script is sculpted to deliver a cliff-hanger ‘Interval Scene’ to conclude the first half, involving a confrontation between Ram and Bheem, the two lead“Wecharacters.wanted it to be a grand affair with wellchoreographed action and spectacular visuals,” describes Senthil.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 35

“Since RRR is a commercial film and the audience have come to see Indian superstars, I wanted the actors to look – if not glamorous exactly – then at the least extremely pleasing, especially in close-up,” he confides. “Large, super-soft sources of light were my preferred way of lighting the stars.”

“Previous experience certainly helped me,” he concedes, “however it was still extremely challenging, and we shot for nearly 70 nights. I’m very happy that we pulled it off. It is now one of the most talked about sequences in the film.”

Interior lighting was largely source-inspired, although Senthil did allow some augmentation of the light for dramatic purposes.

“To achieve this, we used a lot of handheld shots based on the pre-visualisation of stunt choreographer King Solomon, combined with carefully-planned

wide shots and dramatic movements of the camera. That sequence was extremely challenging, but it came out really well and is a completely unique experience for cinemagoers. They won’t have seen anything quite like that before.”

“Then every morning, first thing, I pray to God,” he confides, “and ask that everything will go according to plan, and that I will deliver to the best of my ability.”

Senthil’s next film sees him supporting secondtime writer/director Radhakrishna on an emotional family drama. Before shooting commences, Senthil and his team will perform the traditional ritual of breaking a coconut, to mark the auspicious occasion.

“With ever-changing technology the role of a cinematographer is becoming extremely

“When Ram goes inside the crowd the camera follows,” Senthil describes. “I wanted the audience to experience his point-of-view, to feel the claustrophobia of being surrounded by an unruly mob.

My wife and my children are very supportive… the moment I am with them I begin to unwind

These strategies must be balanced with how Senthil prefers to light the principal cast.

“My wife Ruhee, and my children Ryaan and Dhruva, are very supportive,” he says warmly, “the moment I am with them I begin to unwind. They make sure I don’t think about what happened that day so I can properly relax. Then I am ready to go again.”

“My first collaboration with Ruben was on Force Majeure (2014),” recalls Wenzel, who lives and works out of Stockholm, Sweden. “We decided to do a week of location scouting together in the French Alps on that film and that afterwards we could both walk away from it no strings attached if we chose to. After that week he asked me if I wanted to shoot the film, and that was it. From there we started collaborating. It’s three movies now and it has been a great“Rubenexperience.isvery influenced by the Swedish director Roy Anderson, in the sense that he has always valued long collaborations with people. It is quite interesting when you start to know each other on other levels. After the third movie, the process becomes very direct and intimate.”

in rich and vibrant hues bySwedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund’s longtime cinematographic collaborator, Fredrik Wenzel FSF, TriangleOfSadness navigates the world of fashion and the boundaries of relationships, as the fashion model couple Carl (Harris Dickinson) and Yaya (Charlbi Dean) are invited for a luxury cruise with a rogues’ gallery of uber-wealthy passengers – a Russian oligarch, British arms dealers and an idiosyncratic, alcoholic, Marx-quoting captain.

In terms of specific creative references, Wenzel says that he and Östlund rarely talk about influences and never do mood boards.

“I prefer clean lenses generally, I don’t want them to have too much character,” he says. “I did some tests with the Zeiss Supreme lenses and I loved the way they looked. I want to have a clean eye to look through and that’s what the Zeiss Supremes gave me.

“Also, they have a very subtle flaring, which I appreciate because we were shooting a lot of campfires at night and I didn’t want any excessive flaring. And, they are super lightweight too. I almost thought there was no glass in them when I held them for the first time.

TRIANGLE OF SADNESS•FREDRIK WENZEL FSF

When it came to initial conversations about Triangle Of Sadness, Wenzel and Östlund didn’t focus on the aesthetics. “It’s not like we have a mood board, or lots of influences or anything like that. Usually, we start by having a text that is very much like prose, it’s more than a script in a sense,” says Wenzel.

whole social media thing was a way to play with an arranged relationship because it’s a relationship beneficial for both, but it’s not love in that sense. It’s economics and that’s what gets Ruben going. To play with that idea of a transaction.”

“I think our approach together is always that the film will find its language as we go along. With that said, of course we have inspirations or things that we draw from. We looked at Fellini’s And The Ship Sails On (1983, DP Giuseppe Rotunno AIC) and were inspired by the confidence of the filmmaking.

Expertly-shot

SHIP OF FOOLS

By Oliver Webb

Sometimes I have this feeling the set is like a self-playing piano and the movie more or less makes itself

“We start to break that down into images. Rubens’s first draft of the script is more like a novel. You have the thoughts and descriptions of the characters, and we spend a lot of time together, just the two of us in a room, improvising, blocking the scenes, making a sort of preliminary storyboard.

“That’s where the form gets created, or at least it’s a starting point for it. We worked for 35 days breaking it down like that for Triangle Of Sadness. We don’t have locations at that point or anything, and I can’t

36 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

At first, all appears perfectly Instagrammable, but a storm is brewing. Heavy seasickness hits the passengers during the seven-course captain’s dinner, and the cruise ends catastrophically. Carl and Yaya find themselves marooned on a desert island with a group of billionaires and one of the ship’s cleaners. Hierarchy is suddenly flipped upside-down as the tawdry economic value of beauty is unveiled, and the housekeeper is the only one who knows how to fish.

“I selected the Alexa Mini LF because Ruben works like a VFX artist afterwards himself in the edit, comping images together, adding stuff, moving stuff around, and I just wanted to give him as many pixels as possible for that. We decided early-on that the

“However, it’s not about creating a 100% realistic scenario of a storm or life on a deserted island, it’s about finding that sweet spot where the audience accepts the premise. From there you are free to venture into “Weform. also talked about Tintin. We wanted to make an adventure movie and there is something about Hergé’s approach that makes it archetypical rather than symbolic the way he draws it.»

Östlund’s absurdist and humorous satire picked-up the prestigious Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival, marking Östlund’s second Palme d’Or after having previously claimed the prize in 2017 for The Square, also shot by Wenzel.

Wenzel selected the Alexa Mini LF with Zeiss Supreme lenses to shoot Triangle Of Sadness

draw so it’s just a text document at that stage.”

The original idea for the movie came from Östlund’s wife, who is a fashion photographer.

“She told Ruben stories about the fashion industry and that’s sort of what sparked his interest and imagination to start doing the movie,” says Wenzel. “Right from the start it was decided that the protagonists would be a model couple. I think the

I prefer clean lenses generally, I loved the way the Zeiss Supremes looked

FREDRIK WEN ZEL FSF•TRIANGLE OF SADNESS

of the shoot, the very first day the actors did a scene together. That one was definitely tricky and it’s such a long one-take scene, but I’m really proud of it. It’s quite beautiful, the way the camera movement enforces and plays with this ping-pong between the genders of the characters. You are not a spectator sitting in front of them watching them, you are in-between them, turning your head, moving in to get a closer look.”

camera was going to rock with the ship, so it was always mounted to the actual boat even in the storm. We wanted the camera to always be with whatever happened, but afterwards Ruben wanted to control that tilt afterwards in postproduction.”Wenzel chose to work with Martin Knispel as a DIT on-set. “With Ruben it’s special because we have so much time on each set-up, so I can really get the look done the way I want to get it done in-camera, and there’s no need for extensive corrections really. There might be some small tweaks getting things together, but its very simple on-set colouring.”

When it came to post, Wenzel had a broad ambition for the colour on the movie. “Every evening when I came out of the darkness in the suite, the world outside looked so incredibly rich, varied, sprawling, chaotic yet harmonious. And it depressed me that we were sitting in that room, trying to reduce, clean, polish and simplify. So I said to Oskar, let’s try and not reduce; let’s try and keep the richness. It was all about balance and enhancing the digital negative so that it felt rich, colourful, inviting, yet without a digitallysaturated look as such.”

In terms of lighting approaches for storytelling purposes, Wenzel decided that he didn’t want any fake“Tryingmoonlight.toget to a very realistic sense of how night feels, and having the characters being exposed to the claustrophobic darkness was instrumental for us,” he notes. “On night exteriors on the island, almost all light was motivated by practical sources, like fire or flashlights and emergency lights on life rafts, etc.. We did have a softbox with four SkyPanel SC60s over the campfire scenes at night just to get sense of the surrounding vegetation, but other than that, there were no big overhead sources.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 37

“I’ve worked with gaffer Tobias Henriksson on all of the three movies I’ve done with Ruben. Tobias has an amazing eye and sensibility,” adds Wenzel. “We know each other well-enough by now, so we go to locations and discuss approach to lighting, but it is also something we like to figure out on the day.

by a mask it is almost impossible to get that through, I find.” Discussing the Captain’s dinner scene, Wenzel explains that, “The big dining room, stairs, corridors

Wenzel concludes, “It usually takes a while to prove yourself to a director, and Ruben is very much in control on all the aspects of making a movie. But there’s a sense of trust from the start now between us, and that’s a nice thing about having a long collaboration together.”

and all the individual rooms were built on a rocking gimbal on a stage in Sweden. With the sets on gimbals, we could create the rocking back-andforth to mimic the movement of the sea. With the camera mounted inside, it was mostly about how the actors’ bodies reacted to the movement, and how they worked to keep their posture. It felt like a very controlled setting for that.”

“Generally, I like to see where the thing takes us and not have too much of a dead-set approach to it. I’m more curious than determined. The crew know Ruben and his method well by now and they are all amazingly talented so it makes my job a lot easier. Sometimes I have this great feeling that the set becomes like a self-playing piano and the movie is more or less making itself.”

We dedicate this article to actress Charlbi Dean, who passed away suddenly on 29 August 2022, and send our deepest condolences to her family, loved ones and friends.

“The MRMC Bolt Jr MoCo rig was too big for the space, so I had a friend, Hugo Nilsson, custom-build a small, industrial robotic arm to work with the camera. He gave me a remote control, normally used for opening garage doors, to time the movements.

Images: Photos by Tobias Henriksson. © Plattform Produktion

The long one-shot car sequence near the beginning of the film proved to be particularly challenging to complete, as Wenzel details: “I wanted the sensation of the spectator being placed in-between the actors in the back seat of a car, but a regular pan did not feel like it would be enough, I wanted the camera to move as well.

The final grade on Triangle Of Sadness was completed on Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve at Tint in Stockholm, by colourist Oskar Larsson, who had previously worked with Wenzel on the HBO series We Are Who We Are (2020). Before principal photography began in 2020, Larsson and Wenzel reviewed camera tests and created a LUT, tweaking the ARRI K1S1 slightly in terms of contrast, with a slight temperature shift in the shadows and highlights to get more colour separation.

“With that, plus lights that were on the ground and rigged to the car, and the fact that we were panning 360-degrees, whilst shooting in the rain, made it into a real technical challenge. Also, it was the first day

The film was shot over a period 85 days. “The island scenes were shot in Greece, on a little beach, called Paralia Chiliadou, on the island of Evia,” says Wenzel. “We were lucky to be working through the pandemic on an isolated island, I don’t think we had one single Covid case. A challenge though is that a big part of being a cinematographer is to try to be supportive and letting actors know you see them, with a smile or a just a nod, but when your face is covered

One Van Rei’s precious little victories came during a night scene in which one Garvey sister con fronts one of the Claffins in their office and ends up… kissing him. The words are scarce, the atmosphere moody, the actors’ looks and gestures meaningful. The characters look at each other wrapped in cin ematic darkness, while you feel their pain that stems from what happened before.

38 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

“This became one of my favourite scenes during the DI, because its energy and colours sat really nicely and naturally as to how it was shot and lit. I’m incredibly grateful to have had ace colourist, and wonderful human, Jet Omoshebi at Goldcrest by my side throughout the process of finding the balance between the look that was set and expected for the show, and my different personal taste and aesthetic. Her honest ‘big sister’ chats, guidance and encour agement made the grading suite a nurturing cocoon of bliss!”Claffin’s office provided Van Rei with another of her signature minimalist moments, this time with a poignant scene of one of the brothers’ reading his father’s suicide letter.

Van Rei, the Dutch DP and photographer, who resides in the UK, has been rising steadily through the ranks of scripted UK TV, as well as shooting shorts for European indie directors, and progressing to an Apple TV+ series represented a fantastic opportunity. She was recommended for the show by Bad Sisters’ lead DP Nicole Hirsch Whitaker to take over her duties for the last few weeks of episodes 1-3 with lead director Dearbhla Walsh. Then, series pro ducer Johann Knobel invited Van Rei back to shoot episodes 4-6 with director Josephine Bornebusch. Even though the cinematographer’s personal taste for more visceral imagery did not necessarily align with the show’s stylised look, she went out of her way to fulfil the visual requirements of creating a story tai lored to a mainstream audience.

“I wanted to scale-back the lighting, as I love the feeling of light being emotive, understated and authentic. I don’t like things over-lit, or with too much fill and ‘beautified’, and wanted it to be rooted in European naturalism. I was keen on pushing for more unconventional framing, more head room and, over all, more artistic and unusual angles that would visu alise the interesting world of Bad Sisters’ heroines.”

This does not mean she did not try to push the envelope just a little bit.

“I always seek to imprint my signature on the im agery I create,” says Van Rei. “Coming onto a show at a later stage meant that most things had already been established, so it was about the little victories and intricacies which I could influence, evolve or expand upon,” she explains.

Talented cinematographer Evelin Van Rei, this recipient of the 2022 Angénieux Special Encouragement Award as a promising new talent in the field of cinematography, got her teeth into the juicy Apple TV+ dark comedy show Bad Sisters.

BAD SISTERS•EVELIN VAN REI

“We shot this little heart-throbbing scene on-lo cation in London and, as it wasn’t as established as the sisters’ homes, I had creative license to play with darkness, and create something more tenebrous,” recalls Van Rei.

BADBREAKING

By Darek Kuźma

insurance policy.

The show’s inherent quirkiness definitely helped. The story is set in Ireland and revolves around five Garvey sisters, one of whom is married to a so ciopath who riles everyone up with acts of vicious mischief. Or rather was married, as John Paul, JP for short, died before Bad Sisters starts. In fact, the sto ryline begins just before his wake, with JP’s mindless body having a boner, thus establishing the show’s peculiar tone. It turns out that his sisters-in-law had all reasons to help the bastard kick the bucket – but did they? As we get to know more with successive flashbacks, the present sees the sisters examined by two Claffin brothers, desperate not to pay up JP’s

“I had never shot explosions before and blow ing-up an entire cabin was an exciting prospect. It involved careful planning and blocking with SFX, VFX, stunts and most of the other departments. I was really looking forward to these sequences, as they didn’t have to fit into a straightjacket and allowed for more freedom and input. Dearbhla loved to approach them as something separate and thrilleresque, which tied in better with my taste and cinematic interests, so it was a real treat!”

“It wasn’t a particularly inspiring or exciting lo cation to shoot in, but it felt real and humble,” she reminisces. “This scene was pretty much lit by a sin gle, harder source coming through the window from outside, hitting the character almost uncomfortably. It wasn’t softened or particularly shaped, its ‘imper fection’ and ‘accidentalness’ felt wonderfully suitable for where the character was in the story, and what he was about to discover.”

The cabin exterior was built in Black Park, near Pinewood Studios, and the interiors were built onstage and pre-rigged by gaffer TC Thomas and his team, as per DP Whittaker’s brief who was set to shoot these scenes initially.

I always seek to imprint my signature on the imagery I create

EVELIN VAN REI•BAD SISTERS

The show was shot on ARRI Alexa Mini LFs, with at least two cameras working all the time at ISO1600 and 2:1 framing, equipped with Nicole Hirsch Whitakers’s choice of Masterbuilt Prime Lens es (18mm to 135mm), Masterbuilt Softflare (18mm to 105mm), as well as Masterbuilt Zoom. Van Rei’s lights, also ‘inherited’ from Whitaker, included a solid HMI kit (18Kw ARRIMAX, M90 9Kw, 2.5KW Fres nel, 800W K5600 Joker Bug) as well as a variety of

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 39

Tungsten (2Kw, 1Kw, 650W, 300W, 2Kw Gem Ball) and LED (S360 SkyPanel, S60 SkyPanel, Cream Source Vortex 8, 1x1 Aladdin, 1x1 Velvet, Astera Titan Tubes, Hudson Spider) sources.

Most of the series was shot in the Republic Of Ireland, about which Van Rei says, “We were based just outside of Dublin in the small seaside settlement of Malahide, where smaller locations like pubs were shot, but we also worked in Swords, Howth, Portmar nock, Ballycastle, Dundalk, Sandycove and Dublin. We also shot in Northern Ireland, like Greencastle or Glenarm. Most interiors were built at OMA Film Studios in Again,Enfield.”VanRei felt at her best when she got to work with visualising what lies beneath the surface. Such as on a beach scene with one of the sisters, a gifted sharpshooter, practicing with a bow. You see, Bad Sisters is a show structured around the Garveys’ various ideas that might just have something to do with finishing-off the prickly JP. They fail again and again, yet each attempt has consequences. The beach scene is a preparation for new try.

by hand,” explains Van Rei. “It was my favourite rig on the show.”VanRei is proud of one more impressively dark attempt to kill JP. The sisters plan to stage a gas leak in the family cabin in which the jerk will be resting after a hike.

“I sought to create this feeling of us – the camera – suddenly dropping ‘into’ our characters, as if we’d transcend with them from a different place and time, and were now reconnected. Our brilliant key grip, Paul Kemp, came up with a solution of rigging a twin tube paddle mount to our hybrid dolly with some ropes and pulleys attached to a Ronin, and operated

Images: Photos by Evelin Van Rei and Louise Gaffney. Bad Sisters image © Apple. All rights reserved.

“I put together new photographic references for the cabin scenes and discussed these with Dearbhla and TC. I wanted to take ownership of the scenes and make them mine,” Van Rei exclaims. “For our exteriors, Paul Kemp and his team brought out a Hy droscope 50 on a Raptor Base with a Libra remote head, which was expertly operated by action guru Mark Moriarty, whilst Steadicam extraordinaire John

Overall, van Rei shot 44 days for Bad Sisters, 13 on Block 1 (episodes 1-3, mid-September 2021) and 31 at Block 2 (episodes 4-6, end of September to early November 2021). Whilst anticipating the August premiere, she went to Cannes to accept the coveted Angénieux Special Encouragement Award, endorsing her internationally as a talent to watch. The renowned French-Iranian cinematographer, Darius Khondji AFC ASC, received the prestigious Pierre Angénieux Tribute during the festival.

Sarah Greene and Sharon Horgan by my side, who always had my back. And, foremost, my biggest backer, and now friend, Dearbhla Walsh, to whom I am forever indebted for her kindness and support.

I’m incredibly grateful to have had ace colourist Jet Omoshebi at Goldcrest by my side VAN REI

“Bad Sisters provided me with a wealth of learn ing, experience and stamina I didn’t know I had, or was capable of. As a little birdie said: ‘You’ve gained a badge of honour’.”

40 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD BAD SISTERS•EVELIN

“I’m very grateful I was given the opportunity to shoot Bad Sisters, and I’m particularly appreciative for having had camera operators Jamie Hicks and John Ferguson, DIT Patrick King, and the leading ladies Anne-Marie Duff, Eva Birthistle, Eve Hewson,

Ferguson was on dolly and track. During the explo sion we had three Alexa LF’s running to cover every angle, as it had to be a one-take wonder. We shot VFX plates prior on a drone with the DJI Inspire 2 with Zenmuse X7 lenses.”

APUTURE.COM APUTURE LIGHTSTORM 600 PRO SERIES LS 600d Pro daylight | LS 600c Pro RGBWW | LS 600x Pro bi-color

One such person, Gretchen Warthen SOC, recommended Edwards for an operating job on A-camera with DP Tommy Maddox-Upshaw ASC on the Netflix series Huge In France (2019). The DP then asked her back to operate for subsequent projects – On My Block S2 (2019) and Snowfall S4 (2021), for which Maddox-Upshaw earned an ASC Outstanding Achievement Award. And now, with White Men Can’t Jump, Edwards has secured her first movie operating credit.

SMOOTH OPERATORS•PAULINE EDWARDS SOC

“They would throw a camera on my shoulder and tell me to get in there and shoot, then watch me and give me tips,” remembers Edwards, “that’s how I startedThoughoperating.”herrise was steady, it was by no means smooth. “It was really hard for me to stay on course at the very beginning of my career, there wasn’t a lot of help,” admits Edwards.

“I recall that there was a Black camera operator working with the crew,” Edwards says. “My dad always had a camera in his hand and was always photographing or videoing us, so I was used to cameras, but I never knew that it could be a profession. Seeing that cameraman operating as a job really made me think.”

“Some directors are screamers,” reveals

reality TV which made me question whether I really wanted to do this job anymore.

42 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

“We met up with him to try to get an intern or PA position on his show,” relates Edwards, “but I told him I just wanted to do camera. I wasn’t there to PA.”

film crew shooting outside her elementary school gave the young Pauline Edwards SOC the idea of what she wanted to be when she grew up. Fast-forward to today and she joins us fresh from wrapping B-camera on a remake of the 1992 classic movie White Men Can’t Jump (2023) (dir. Calmatic, DP Tommy MaddoxUpshaw ASC).

Nutter, an ex-student of Clemente’s and a successful director known for Game Of Thrones (2012-2019), proved to be a useful contact for the graduates.

Even though she settled in reality TV, with friendly compatriots and with mounting opportunities to shoulder a camera, the climate remained challenging for the fledgling operator.

Edwards returned to America’s Next Top Model on-and-off for eight years, first as an AC on 91 episodes, and then as an operator on 11 episodes. There she met camera operators Gretchen Warthen SOC, Ruben Avendano SOC and Stephen Coleman, who became her unofficial mentors.

CAMER READYA

“Tommy just understands filmmaking,” marvels Edwards, “I’m learning all the time from him. Sometimes it’s almost too much to try and absorb.”

Being accepted into Maddox-Upshaw’s trusted crew meant Edwards had the chance to work with some familiar faces repeatedly over several contracts, such as B-camera 1st AC Prentice Sinclair Smith, B-camera 2nd AC Jose M. De Los Angeles,

By Natasha Block Hicks

On completing her diploma, Edwards and a group of fellow graduates headed-out to California for the summer, “and we never really left,” she says. “We went to David Nutter’s house for a barbecue. He wasn’t there but we hung out and looked at his awards.”

Nutter suggested that a stint at a rental house might be more suited to Edwards’ needs, advice she duly followed, which saw her joining the team of camera techs at the now defunct Rocky Mountain MotionBeforePictures.longshe was freelancing as a camera assistant on low-to-mid-budget movies such as The Nines (2007, dir. John August, DP Nancy Schreiber ASC). However, the Writers Guild Of America (WGA) strike of 2007-8 pinballed her in another direction.

Edwards. “I guess everything is so in-the-moment, and the tensions are super-high, but sometimes it can feel borderline abusive. I’ve had my moments in

I just want to be a camera operator and be the best at it

“The film work dried-up,” remembers Edwards, “and so my friend Robby Lowell introduced me to line producer Javi Sulaiman at America’s Next Top Model (2003-2015) and I started to AC there.”

A

“But then, there are genuinely good people,” she rationalises, “and you meet so many people that do want to help you.”

“I love storytelling, and when you are at the camera, you’re right there in the middle of it. Operating, to me, is the best job and I just wanted to do all parts of it. I never wanted to DP or anything else.”

Edwards was born in England, but moved to Queens, New York, aged three and has never returned to the UK. On the brink of adulthood, her family moved to Florida and Edwards followed, enrolling at Valencia College in Orlando to study film under its founder, the German filmmaker and actor Ralph Clemente. Edwards’ focus then was, as it is now, unwavering.

“But right now, I’ll take what’s offered,” she continues honestly, “as long as I can learn something new. That excites me the most, never touching something before, grasping it and trying to

“Geoff is good at listening and analysing, he helped me to take some of that burden off my shoulders,” says Edwards wistfully, “I miss our chats.”

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 43

A-camera 1st AC Alex Lim, A-camera 2nd AC Gina Victoria, loader Fernando Zacarias and gaffer Justin Dickson.“We are all friends as well as a camera team and they will do anything to help solve your problem,” says Edwards respectfully, “I just love the camaraderie.”Edwards’is fairly impartial about the subjective question of whether she prefers filming reality or scripted projects.

“I never thought in my whole life that I would win an award for camera operating,” marvels Edwards, although she has twice been nominated for an Emmy Award in Outstanding Cinematography for a Reality Programme for RuPaul’s Drag Race (2021/2022).

PAULINE EDWARDS SOC•SMOOTH OPERATORS

“The transition from reality to scripted production was a little bit of a learning curve because, on reality projects, you don’t talk to the people you’re filming, you’re just a fly-on-the-wall. In scripted, you have to communicate with a lot of people and deal with so much more equipment than just the camera. But I love being in-there with the actor and being the first person to see all that emotion that they pour onto the screen. I’d only done TV until White Men Can’t Jump, and I’ve found that I do love the pace of making a movie.

“The SOC Award was great because it was a team award. I go on different sets now and people will tell me, “I voted for you!” To be recognised by your peers is just amazing.”

Also during the pandemic, Edwards joined the SOC’s mentorship programme and was placed under the wing of Geoffrey Haley SOC.

Edwards is now part of the SOC Inclusion Committee and has joined the 600 Black Women, “a collective of motion picture filmmakers, stills photographers, and publicists who are Black women identifying people in the Local 600 guild”, founded by cinematographer and entrepreneur Chris“There’sWairegi.alot of us out there,” Edwards stresses, “we just need the chance. Often, when I get on-set, people will make their way over to me and tell me that I’m the first Black female camera operator that they’ve seen. I’m hoping that, like I when saw an operator when I was a kid, someone will see me and be inspired to get into this business. Because there’s space for us!”

“He helped me on the mental side of camera operating,” reveals Edwards. “Being a minority in this business, people weren’t that accepting all the time, especially early-on. I felt like I had to be perfect. I was cautious to step-up when I felt I didn’t know everything because I thought, if I messed up, I would ruin the chances of the next Black female operator to come along. That was hard to carry.”

Images: BTS photos of Pauline Edwards SOC at work on Huge In France, Snowfall and White Man Can’t Jump.

I love storytelling, and when you are at the camera, you’re right there in the middle of it

With an education in psychophysiology, Haley was in a good position to offer support.

master it. We had a pursuit vehicle on White Men Can’t Jump. I didn’t get to do it this time, but I was itching to get in-there.”

The Coronavirus pandemic provided a unique opportunity for Edwards to get stuck into some self-study.“Iwas working on Snowfall,” relates Edwards, “so when we went into lockdown, I borrowed some wheels from Gretchen and practiced with them, every day, for hours. When we started shooting again, they decided they wanted a smaller footprint around the actors. So, two cameras were dedicated to the Ronin. The Ronin would be on the dolly, the dolly grip would push the Ronin around and we’d operate the wheels.“Iwould never have been able to do that before Covid,” admits Edwards, “I’ve fallen in love with it now.”Her dedication to her craft paid-off. Edwards and A-camera/Steadicam operator Manolo Rojas SOC were jointly awarded the 2022 SOC Camera Operator Of The Year In Television Award for their work on Snowfall S4 E8 “Betrayal” (2021).

“I just want to be a camera operator and be the best at it,” she emphasises. “I’m in a really good flow when I’m handheld; I feel in tune. It’s one of my favourite ways to shoot, which I got from working on unscripted shoots.

Working well doesn’t just mean everyone is capable of doing their individual jobs, it means they get along and contribute to the group in ways that blend well and bring out the best in the other members of the team. It’s a beautiful thing when you have a team that can anticipate each other and adjust and assist before it’s needed.

Ambar: Inside the set, it’s essential that the focus puller, operator, DP and director all understand what the scene is about and where we want the focus to be. Most of the times it’s fairly obvious from reading the script, but once in a while it may be ambiguous and it’s better to have the conversation prior to rolling the camera. There are times that you may see something during the first take where you feel a focus throw or focus rack might tell the story better, and I will quietly mention it to the DP or director. 90% of the time they ask me to go ahead and do it, and 10% of the time they decline. It’s nice to be a part of the creative process AT AUG & AMBAR B CAPOOR

Tiffany: FPAW is an acronym for the website FocusPullerAtWork.com. It’s an international collective of focus pullers and other industry professionals, providing a global resource for all-things about camera assisting.

Tiffany: There are so many fun things you get to

44 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

use as a focus puller these days. The elephant in the room, of course, is the camera itself. Outside of that, there’s a lot of neat accessories, like remote lens control systems (LCS). These are starting to become much more than that though, which makes right now an exciting time to be pulling focus. Systems now include not just the ability to control the lens remotely, but you also get some camera control as well, which is something that didn’t really exist until recently.

RINGSMAGIC

World is now a media partner of Focus Puller At Work (FPAW), and will be featuring the organisation and its members regularly in print and online.

There are laser tape measures too, and at least three different kinds of range-finding technology being used on the camera these days. You can still find some 3D rigs working and will definitely find XR (eXtended reality) stages that you can learn the way your cinema camera will work in tandem a live-tracking virtual world for actors to move through.

Being global means FPAW is a near 24/7 sounding-board for ACs to troubleshoot, brainstorm and share ideas. We’ve also recently partnered with some manufacturers like ARRI, Sony, and Teradek, in the form of manufacturer-based groups to give these companies direct access to the people working with their gear, and viceThereversa.are a ton of great ideas floating around on the site. Anything from .STL files through to random asks about accessories, and opinion pieces about a focus puller’s life. There’s used equipment for sale, threads on common

TELL US A LITTLE MORE ABOUT FPAW?

Tiffany: There’s a lot of teamwork involved in making a show of feature film – the words ‘crew’ and ‘team’ are synonyms, make no mistake. It is so important to have good communication and good teamwork on multiple levels on-set. You have to, of course, work well as a team – including dolly grip, camera operator, 1stAC and 2ndAC – but you also have to have the mentality to make sure everyone is OK, and has what they need to keep the ball rolling, so that you never hear those dreaded words “Waiting on camera!”.

By Tiffany Aug and Ambar B Capoor

WHAT EQUIPMENT DO YOU USE AS A FOCUS PULLER?

FOCUS PULLER

In Asia, a focus puller and a 1st AC are actually

INSIDE AND OUTSIDE OF SET WHAT KIND OF COLLABORATING DO YOU DO?

two different people and the jobs are delineated along very strict line – the focus puller only pulls focus and the 1st AC deals with setting up the camera, etc.

Cinematography

It is so important to have good communication and good teamwork on multiple levels on-set

If you’re interested in getting into the camera team and working as a 1stAC/focus puller, this Q&A with leading members of FPAW gives you great insight into what’s needed.

WORK•TIFFANY

WHAT DOES THE FOCUS PULLER DO?

problems with equipment combinations and how to solve them. There’s even a focus puller podcast and a filesharing area for charts, info sheets, and lens files.

Ambar: The focus puller chooses where to direct the viewer’s attention by making certain things on the screen appear in focus, so your eye and attention are directed to that part of the picture. Oftentimes you can push the viewer to look at something that may be behind the main actor, or action, because that is more relevant to the storyline or script.

There’s lots of speciality equipment too, like gimbals, remote heads and housings, you can play with too, depending on the project and what interests you, plus all sorts of apps that will help with the mathematics that go into being a focus puller.

WHAT IS IT LIKE TO WORK IN A CAMERA TEAM?

Beyond that, the focus puller, or 1st AC as they are referred to in North America, is responsible for running the camera department. This means everything from finding the right crew for the job, prepping all the equipment beforehand, making sure you understand the camera technically, as well as being able to assemble all the various accessories that might been needed, and making everything works together seamlessly.

Camera systems are getting more and more sophisticated, but human focus pullers are here to stay!

Ambar B Capoor has been a camera technician for 16 years. His recent credits include Adele Las Vegas, Post Malone Launch, Prisoner’s Daughter and Liger.

But I liked it that this team let the symbolism speak for itself. The sign as well as the character dancing into the soft-focus mush of the background really is a metaphor for the character’s break from reality.

But there is also a tremendous amount of satisfaction when you make a creative call to rack focus and you hear the director or DP come up to you and say, “Amazing! That was amazing!”

The shot (at 38:39 into the film) is interesting to me because they kept the focus on the sign the entire time. I think another creative team would have chosen to follow focus to the bottom of the stairs and return to the sign to nail the idea home.

HOW WOULD YOU SAY FOCUS PULLERS HELP TELL THE VISUAL STORY?

Ambar: As I mentioned, we are in charge of where the focus lands and also how long it takes for the focus to get there. Oftentimes we are placed in a situation where we have to nail a shot with no rehearsals and no marks. Sometimes we may only get one take or two. I do not use any focus assist devices like the focus bug, lightranger, etc., so for me it’s a matter of being absolutely 100% in-tune with the camera movement, relying on my years of experience and the gods of focus.

Tiffany Aug, is a 1st AC and has been pulling focus for 17 years. Her recent credits include: Curb Your Enthusiasm S9-11, Better Things S2-5 and Super Bowl LVI Halftime Show.

and have an input.

Both pages: a selection of shots of 1st ACs Tiffany Aug and Ambar Kapoor at work on-set

TIFFANY AUG & AMBAR B CAPOOR•FOCUS PULLER AT WORK

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 45

I’m especially proud of the ARRI ECS group I built on Facebook, one of the biggest member-only groups, that was officially-recognised by ARRI for having contributed to the community as the premier resource for people with questions about the WCU-4.

Specifically, a shot that stayed with me was not the iconic stairwell shot used on all the promotions, but the interior stairwell shot when Arthur Fleck gets fired from his job and is leaving after punching a timeclock. He walks down a flight of stairs, stops at a sign that says, “Don’t forget to smile”, crosses out some of the words and dances down the rest of the stairs and out the door.

WHAT ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF THE USE OF FOCUS IN STORYTELLING THAT INSPIREDTiffany:YOU?

Off the set, I have built relationships with all the camera houses and some of the major manufacturers of cameras and lenses. This means that I am regularly invited to be a part of the prototype design, the testing process and the pre-launch of new products. I get to play with gear and give my input as a 1st AC before the product ever hits the market. Some of the things I have had the opportunity to play with before they ever got released are the ARRI 235 and 435ES, ARRI Alexa Mini and Mini LF cameras, Signature prime lenses, WCU-4 wireless lens controller, and more.

A recent use of focus I found interesting (mostly because it was very intentional) was in Joker (2019, Dir. Todd Phillips, DP Lawrence Sher ASC).

Then there are all the resources that we have built for ourselves as a community like FPAW, discord groups, Reddit groups, and more. These are especially useful to be able to troubleshoot and brainstorm when you are stuck, having an on-set problem that requires an immediate solution, or just need some ideas on what kind of gear might solve a certain shot the DP wants to achieve.

Currently camera systems are getting more and more sophisticated with focus assist devices, but until the AI can make creative decisions, based on what they are seeing on the screen, what the script says (if there is a script) and what the mood is, human focus pullers are here to stay!

By Natasha Block Hicks

One of the world’s oldest film schools, founded in 1935, the Centro Sperimentale Di Cinematografia –Scuola Nazionale Di Cinema (CSC) is one of Italy’s leading educational institutes in the art and craft of cinema. Literally called, the ‘Experimental Centre Of Cinematography’, the CSC’s repute is so widespread that has been featured in the Hollywood Reporter’s ‘Top 15 International Film Schools’ list for the last five years’ running.

“We are looking for team spirit, sensitivity and originality,” reveals De Santis. “Through these trials, the teachers and tutors will determine who they believe is most suitable to enter the school.”

In Year 1, the focus is on learning the language of filmmaking, exploring the roles of the cinematographer and other crew members and getting hands-on with technical equipment, of which the school has an extensive state-of-the-art inventory including cameras from the Sony Venice to ARRI Alexa and prime lens sets from Zeiss.

In Year 2, students develop their lighting skills, composition techniques and learn the theoretical and practical use of Steadicam. There is increased focus on digital imaging and post-production disciplines, such as colour correction. The CSC has two mixing rooms for student use, a dubbing studio and several editing workstations. All this new knowledge is put to practical

For their €2,500 annual fee undergraduates will be, according to the CSC website, “raising and developing their professional profile as a cinematographer.” The online prospectus continues with a detailed analysis of what students can expect to encounter during their time at the school, attending “modules on art-history and in-depth courses about digital and traditional photo shooting, technical and artistic techniques”.

Adriano De Santis, CSC head and master of the cinematography programme, joins us to throw light on CSC’s cinematography diploma, the equivalent of a three-year bachelor’s degree.

submit an online CV, motivation letter and portfolio to the school, between June 1st to July 15th that same year. For cinematography, this must include 20 photographs taken with natural and artificial light, accompanied by a written analysis in Italian. Based on these materials, CSC invites a selection of applicants to an in-person interview, after which a narrower group of candidates access the final step: a two-week preliminary seminar, where they attend general classes and participate in practical exercises.

STUDENT UNION•CENTRO SPERIMENTALE DI CINEMATOGRAFIA

Entry into CSC is highly-competitive, with only six places available on the cinematography programme per year. Candidates must be proficient in both Italian andTheEnglish.application process is split into three stages. Prospective applicants – secondary school graduates, who must be aged between 18 and 26 years old on January 1st of the year of enrolment – are invited to

“We also have partnerships with various major players of the audiovisual industry,”

In their fist year, students will study the basics of lighting and attend a weekly interdisciplinary workshop in collaboration with students of the film directing, acting, sound design and editing courses. The prospectus explains that, “Throughout the year students are involved in film production in cooperation with all the different school educational areas.”

46 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

CSC students are in contact with active professionals throughout their training

“Collaboration is the key word,” explains De Santis, fresh from the 2022 CSC graduation ceremony in Rome, “we always encourage different classes to collaborate on the same projects.”

CSC has campuses in Abruzzo, Lombardy, Piedmont and Sicily, but students chosen for the cinematography diploma will study at its HQ in the historic complex of Via Tuscolana in the Cinecittà area in Rome, a site shared with the Cineteca Nazionale, the National Film Archive.

CINEMA PARADISO

states De Santis, “who constantly help us in granting to our students the possibility of working with the most advanced technologies, and even directly supporting our more deserving students with scholarships.”

“We also have an on-going creative partnership with worldwide renowned brand Campari, through which we develop every year a workshop on branded-content short films,” relays De Santis.

on some

The “final period of the academic year,” concludes the prospectus, “is aimed at guiding students’ transition to the employment world.”

Complottista (2022), directed by Valerio Ferrara and lit by DP Andrea Pietro Munafò – featured in the last issue of this magazine as ‘One To Watch’ – won 1st prize in La Cinef Selection of the 75th Cannes Film Festival. The pair were also recognised in the 2021 David Di Donatello Awards when their student film Roman Nights/Notte

CENTRO SPERIMENTALE DI CINEMATOGRAFIA•STUDENT UNION

This year CSC invited two Ukrainian refugees to enrol on their courses as students, and enlisted Sahraa Karimi, an award-winning director escaping from Afghanistan, to join their teaching staff. The school has a strong international presence as a member of the International Association Of Cinema, Audiovisual & Television Schools (CILECT) and its regional branch GEECT, the European Grouping Of Film & Television Schools.

CSC alumnus Giuseppe Lanci, the Italian DP known for winning Best Cinematography at the prestigious David

With fully-owned subsidiary company, CSC Productions, overseeing the projects of CSC students and entering into distribution and marketing agreements often supporting individuals beyond graduation into the creation of their first full-length features as professionals out in the industry, CSC may featured Top

use in the realisation of short productions and movies, which can be screened in the school’s dedicated theatre.

“We always work to involve international professionals in order to encourage students to enlarge their horizons,” says De Santis. The cinematography programme’s last international lecturer was Nicolaj Brüel DFF, the Danish DP known to international audiences as the DP behind the Oscar-nominated Pinocchio (2019) and recipient of a David Di Donatello award for Dogman (2018). Brüel delivered a two-day workshop for cinematography students centred on colour correction, plus a masterclass addressed to the whole school to convey his work experiences.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 47

Each course at CSC has a core group of faculty staff, supported by numerous visiting industry professionals who deliver lectures, workshops and laboratories.

“CSC students are in contact with active professionals throughout their training process,” reiterates De Santis.

Michele D’Attanasio AIC, two-time winner of a David Di Donatello Award for his cinematography on Italian Race/Veloce Come Il Vento (2016) and Freaks Out (2021), has visited to teach at the school, as has Gianni Mammolotti AIC, known for mafia drama Malarazza: UnaSstoria Di Periferia (2017). On a side note, Mammolotti received the 2007 Néstor Almendros Award for emerging directors of photography; the Oscar-winning Almendros was himself an alumnus of CSC.

In Year 3, students have a chance to use 35mm celluloid and learn the basics of film restoration, plus there is more opportunity to work with VFX. The main Rome campus has two fully-functioning sound stages, of 150sq/m and 25sq/m respectively, for students to use on their projects. The diploma is consolidated with the production of a graduation film created in collaboration with students of other courses, shot on the ARRI Alexa.

“The application process is designed to duly encourage diversity and inclusivity, particularly towards gender equality, by appointing a majority of female commissioners,” says De Santis. “Our effort aims also to broaden our student’s horizons toward other cultures.”

CSC graduate film A Conspiracy Man/Il Barbiere

CSC alumni working in the Italian industry who have returned to teach at the school include award-winning DP Federico Annicchiarico AIC, known for shorts Child K (2014) and A Christmas Carol (2017), Spanish DP Ferran Paredes Rubio, who lit multi-award-winning movie Indivisible/Indivisibili (2016) and Sarajevo-born DP Vladan Radovic AIC, winner of the 2015 David Di Donatello Award for Best Cinematography for Black Souls/Anime Nere (2014).

Romana (2021) was nominated for Best Short Film. The Dependent Variables/Le Variabili Dipendenti (2022), the graduate film of director Lorenzo Tardella, lensed by Simone Rossi – who also took the role of assistant camera on Pietro Munafò’s films above – was selected for the Berlin International Film Festival where it was nominated for both a Teddy and a Crystal Bear.

Di Donatello Awards in 1986 for his work on Camorra (A Story Of Streets, Women And Crime)/ Un Complicato Intrigo Di Donne, Vicoli E Delitti (1985), is the artistic director of the cinematography programme, assisted by DP Sandro Camerata, a CSC alumnus behind more than 60 African documentaries for Sky.

Film schools are uniquely positioned to positively influence the cultural diversity and gender variety of the film industry, and CSC takes a proactive stance in this area.

well be

15 lists for years to come.2022 applications are now closed. Submissions for the 2023 enrolment open June 1st 2023. https://www.fondazionecsc.it/

We always encourage different classes to collaborate on the same projects

“During their senior year, they all have access to internships that strengthen their knowledge of the job market. Last and not least, they are involved with and invited to film festival and contests throughout their studies.”

on their behalf,

Irvin says that in the six-month period between shooting the screen tests with Ana De Armas and the start of principle photography, not only did he pore over the script, but also immersed himself in a biography about Monroe and read Joyce Carol Oates’ novel multiple times.

“I love screenwriters deeply, but I sometimes struggle with the screenplay format, and I wanted to assimilate the core facts about Marilyn’s life as well as the fictional account on which Andrew’s script was based,” he says. “Andrew had created a bible, which was in-effect the film told in archival images, in colour and B&W, from Marilyn’s life, her films and the period, some of which we were going to have to stage and recreate

on watching Blonde, you were expecting a regular biopic about the life of actress Marilyn Monroe, you might well find yourself having mixed feelings. On the other hand, if you’re open to a more fictionalised account about Norma Jean Baker and the troubles she faced during her meteoric rise to stardom as the legendary blond bombshell, the storytelling just might grab you in a completely different way.

Irvin, who now resides in Brooklyn, New York, won the Best Cinematography Debut award at the 2013 Camerimage Film Festival for director Andrea Pallaoro’s Medeas, and became more widely-known for his experimental collaborations with director/artist Kahlil Joseph on numerous works of art, before the pair worked together on Beyoncé Knowles’ companion film to her 2016 concept album Lemonade. He re-teamed with Pallaoro for the well-regarded Hannah (2017) and Irvin’s star rose further with his acclaimed rendering of Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman (2018) in colour and B&W on 16mm and 35mm celluloid film.

By Ron BLONDEPrince•CHAYSE IRVIN CSC

Written and adapted by Dominik, from the 2000 biographical fiction novel of the same name by Joyce Carol Oates, Blonde sees Cuban actress Ana De Armas in the lead role, with Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale, Xavier Samuel and Julianne Nicholson amongst the supporting cast. Shot in both colour and B&W, and with shifting aspect ratios, the film explores Monroe’s life from childhood trauma and how that affected almost every interaction in her life until her untimely death aged just 36.

“In essence, the visual storytelling was based around a staccato of different emotions and images that depicted to Marilyn’s psychological

But, whatever your take on director Andrew Dominik’s latest feature, you cannot fail to be struck by the imaginative, often wild and wonderfully impressionistic, cinematography by Canadian Chayse Irvin CSC. The film had its world premiere at the 2022 Venice Film Festival, where critics variously described it as ‘incendiary’ and a ‘must-see’, whilst Irvin’s work has been branded as both deft and powerful.

image. I think Andrew really connected with that, and you can certainly see that in the final movie. During production, I was aware of being in what, in jazz circles, we call ‘the pocket’ – deeply connected to the things that are happening around you and responding intuitively to them before the magic fizzles out.”

“Andrew had seen some of the art installation work I had shot for Kahlil, and reached out to me a few weeks before the screen tests he was planning to shoot in LA with Ana,” says Irvin. “He and Kahlil were both apprentices to Terrence Malick, who brings a lot of intuition and spontaneity into his filmmaking, and I sensed it was my ability to work in the same way that prompted Andrew to get in touch with me.

“Withinfaithfully.that,however, I wasn’t totally sure if we were going stick to the structure of the images in that bible, even when we were shooting. Some days the first question I would ask Andrew was whether he sensed a scene being colour or B&W. He would respond intuitively, in the moment, that the image might need to feel like a séance with Marilyn, or be something to haunt the audience.

If,

48 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

In tune with the emotions in the script, the wants of his director and remarkable performances in front of the camera, Irvin’s work is somewhat of a masterclass in consciously breaking conventions, being intuitive and daring, in order to bring something truly distinctive, absorbing, memorable and moving to the screen, across a running-time of nearly three hours. And it’s not beyond the realms of imagination to believe that the $22m Netflix production stands the chance of a decent run in the 2023 awards season.

“I think it’s maybe difficult for some cinematographers to work in unconstrained ways, because so much of the craft currently is about somethinginspiration.inreactbasicallyofshooting.wherethantoactuallydoneexecutingstructure,developingpre-conception,acertainandthenthatstructure.“TheworkI’vewithKahlilistheantithesisthat.Moreoftennot,Idon’tknoworwhatwe’reKahlilsortsurprisesme,andIreceive,andto,hisrequeststhemomentofItembedsinthe

“Her mother was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and resided in a mental institution. She never knew her father. She had a string of love affairs and marriages with men who were much older than her during her inexorable rise to fame and becoming an emblem of the sexual revolution,” says Irvin. “I thought that was a great basis on which to construct the cinematic language of the film,

because it’s really an intricate map of emotions and interpersonal relationships. Andrew picking me as the cinematographer was a considered step in that direction, because I bring a lot instinct to my work.”

BOMBSHELL

CHAYSE IRVIN CSC

•BLONDE

The challenge and creativity are actually the same thing

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 49

Images: Photos by Matt Kennedy. All images Netflix © 2022

You can bend, break or completely violate the rules

“Aside from the official camera tests, during preproduction I decided to try out a few cinematic devices that I could keep in my back pocket and pull out when I felt things might start looking a little prosaic and ordinary, or to heighten the emotion in a scene,” he reveals.

PVintage lenses as they had a certain fragility, where the image was sort of falling apart, and helped to evoke the period as well as the emotion. They are very forgiving on skin and skin pores when shooting large format, which meant I did not need to resort to softening the image using filters on the many close-ups in the film.

“Thepullers.nature of those tests, in interior and exterior settings, natural and artificial light, was really informative as regards the camera choice. Things like the ISO

“For example, I tested shooting characters reflectingoff mirrored polycarbonate and thought the results looked rather beautiful. So when Andrew was looking for something different for the scene in which Marilyn indulges in the ménage à trois, I had the grips bring several 4 x 8 eight sheets of the polycarbonate from the camera truck, put them on C-stands, and start bending them around to distort the reflections of the actors. That produced something surreal that took this moment of abandonment to an altogether different place.”

“As for the Alexa XT B&W, it captures rich, high-contrast B&W images very much like 35mm panchromatic film. It can also operate in an infrared mode, capturing non-visible IR light, rendering smooth skin and interesting details like black eye pupils. That said, the camera got damaged during prep, so for a week-and-a-half whilst it was being repaired, we used the Sony Venice with the same B&W LUT I had prepared. When it came back, we ended-up using the

“There’s one thing to note that, because it does not have a Bayer mask or optical low-pass filter (OLPF), the camera is doubly-sensitive to light, so the base rating of 800 is actually 1600 ISO, and that’s good knowledge to have in advance.”

Principal photography on Blonde commenced in August 2019, taking-in locations around Los Angeles, with set-builds on the stages and backlots at many Hollywood Studios, where scenes from movies such as Some Like It Hot (1959, dir. Billy Wilder, DP Charles Lang Jr ACS) and The Seven Year Itch (1955, Billy Wilder, DP Milton R Krasner ASC) were re-enacted, along with a segment from the song-and dance-routine of ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’ in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953, dir. Howard Hawks, DP Harry J WildAfterASC).extensive testing, supported by Panavision, Woodland Hills, and the company’s lens guru Dan Sasaki in particular, Irvin selected Panavison PVintage lenses, which are based on Panavision Ultra Speed lenses designed in the 1970s, paired with the Sony Venice camera, for the movie’s colour sequences, and ARRI Alexa XT B&W for the B&W portions. He also added H-series sphericals, built with vintage glass and coatings, that have soft roll-off in the image and emphasise skin quality, to his optical mix.

experience. But there were no hard-and-fast rules about the colour or the aspect ratio, and things were left intentionally uncertain and chaotic. It was part of my preparation to come to terms with what could and couldn’t be done, as resources were limited, and to be versatile enough to switch between colour/B&W, widescreen Anamorphic, 1.85:1 or 4:3 on the day.”

“On a practical level, the front diameter on the PVintage glass is consistent across the focal length range, so you can use the same matte box, and the smooth mechanical performance is really helpful for the focus

Irvin notes, “There are a lot of rules that we adhere to in cinematography and filmmaking in general, but to me the only rule that really applies is creating a sense of harmony between the camera, sound and a character’s physical or psychological experience. You can bend, break or completely violate those rules to create that sense of harmony. It’s not done enough, and this film was one place I could do that.”

Amongst other tricks in Irvin’s creative back pocket, was an unusual and visually -striking flare that he

50 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

BLONDE•CHAYSE IRVIN CSC

“Although Tom did a initial great job on the LUTs, I wanted a deeper connection to the images, so I spent time adapting them myself, encouraging more of a creamy, Kodachrome period-look on the scenes we shot in colour, and Tri-X and Double-X looks on the B&W footage, where the curve delivered a violent texture and filmic grain to the deepest parts of the shadow.”

I bring a lot instinct to my work

settings and ability to ride the exposure via the internal NDs on the Sony Venice revealed that it was way faster at helping us to react to things as they were happening.

Alexa XT B&W for the vast majority of the B&W work.

Irvin worked with colourist Tom Poole, of Company3 in New York, to develop an initial set of LUTs, including a Technicolor emulation LUT for a sequence from The Seven Year Itch, but honed and finessed them further himself during pre-production.

“During testing, we did a Pepsi blind-challenge for Andrew between different lenses and large format cameras,” Irvin explains. “When we did the screen tests Andrew developed a particular connection to the

Irvin says that when he’s not shooting, he is always experimenting with cameras, lenses, lights and all manner other paraphernalia to find ways of creating interesting and innovative imagery in response to a particular moment or emotion.

“I bought some fibre-optic cable on Amazon, and snipped it to a length that would fit across the Panavision lens mount,” he says. “When you put the lens back on, the hard source light hits the cable, which scatters the light around depending on the orientation. In this case it was vertical to create a horizontal flare. It looked like an Anamorphic flare, but different and rather violent.”

“I front-lit some of the Steadicam scenes, such as when Marilyn in on the red carpet at a film premiere, using a bespoke LED in a box, that was attached to the camera, with Depron for diffusion, to bring a flash photography aesthetic to the look.”

Reflecting on his experience of shooting Blonde, Irvin says, “Andrew is the strongest-willed person I’ve ever met, and he’s a controversial filmmaker. He makes films with a lot of integrity in the way that he sees fit, and I bonded with his rebellious spirit. Making Blonde was one of the biggest challenges of my life. But that’s what you have to strive for as a creative person, because the challenge and creativity are actually the same thing.”

Irvin was thankful to have gaffer Cody Jacobs on the team. “He and I go a long way back. I was delighted that he agreed to do this film and he contributed immensely. Along with helping to bring a lovely chiaroscuro to the B&W photography with the lighting, we needed authenticity to our film recreations, because if it doesn’t look authentic to the time, it really kills the whole sequence.

“We were able to research the lighting for our ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’ sequence from behind-the-scenes photographs, in which we could see they were using an array of Tungsten fresnels, 5Ks and massive Zip lights around the stage. We could not source working versions of those lights, so we would typically rig vintage units with modern LEDs, such as ARRI Skypanels, and have those all under wireless control so we could precisely adjust the colour temperature and intensity of the lighting.

harnessed several times, including a B&W sequence in which Marilyn breaks down and storms off-set during a take of one of her musical performances.

BLONDE•CHAYSE IRVIN CSC

“Andrew wanted to heighten the feeling of Marilyn’s disorientation, as she descends in to drug and alcohol dependency. So I switched the Alexa XT B&W into infrared mode, and used a cheap, battery-powered, infrared CCTV light, purchased from Amazon, for illumination. The infrared wavelength penetrates a few millimetres into skin, and gives a milky look to portraits and the eyes appear black. Shooting handheld on this sequence in particular delivered a really haunting and ghostly-looking image, that presaged her ultimate fate.”

A further example of Irvin’s preparedness for creative spontaneity came with a scene towards the movie’s denouement, in which Marilyn stumbles around her house, naked and confused at night.

Whilst the film features a lot of static or near-stable close-up observational portraiture, Irvin motivated the camera in all manner of ways, including more freeform handheld according to his own visual sensibilities in the moment, and several long, scene-setting oners, ably shot by Steadicam operator Dana Morris. Also in the mix were body mounts that were

Irvin says that recreating the camera movement for the re-enactment of ‘Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend’, “was one of the most daunting things I ever had to do. Although I tried to research it, I am not sure how they achieved that back then – maybe with a mobile base on a track, with the operator on a turret, and the camera on an arm. But it was certainly way before telescopic cranes were invented. I hired Bogdan Iofciulescu, a gifted Technocrane operator, who studied the original film and did a brilliant job of moving the camera and hitting every single mark exactly the way it was done in the original film. That said, we must have done close to 30 takes to get things exactly right in front of the camera, such as the choreography and expressions of the dancers.”

real, and gives a scene some soul.

times that he did not want to grade the film, he wanted the look from the camera on-set as the final on-screen. So during the first few weeks of production, I stopped by camera truck and spent time grading the dailies, rendering out DaVinci Resolve files for EFILM, who would then apply Live Grain or halations according to my instructions, and make sure we had the right extraction. At the beginning of the DI we did a bit of experimentation, but soon found things deviating from the original intention. So the final film is basically a faithful reflection of those dailies.”

The final film is basically a faithful reflection of the dailies

fitted to the actors themselves, using the Sony Venice Rialto extension kit to point the camera directly at the performer, such as in the scene when Joe DiMaggio storms upstairs in a fit of rage. For a the scene in which Marilyn is injected with a sedative and collapses to he floor, Irvin sported the body mount himself and in choreographed unison with De Armas, took the lead in helping her fall over.

52 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

Irvin completed the DI with Tom Poole at Company3 in New York. “Andrew told me numerous

“In more practical locations, I often adhered to soft top-lighting, with arrays of 8x8 or 12x12 LiteTiles rigged overhead, as I didn’t want a forest of flags and stands on the floor to interfere with the spontaneity and freedom of the cast and the camera team. Also toplighting does something theatrically that looks raw and

NEW

Powered by LiteGear’s Spectrum technology, Auroris X can cover a 100-square-foot area with just one fixture. Designed to be light on weight and easy to rig, Auroris is one of the slimmest, most versatile soft lights, period. The game of large-area overhead lighting is forever changed.

A DIMENSION OF HAS

LIGHTING

Auroris, the all-new full-color overhead light source from LiteGear, combines high-quality color rendition and precision control in one sleek, easy-to-use package.

ARRIVED TM Visit us at LiteGear.com/Auroris to discover how Auroris can simplify your production. Large-Area Lighting. Ultra Slim and Lightweight. Full-Spectrum Color. Large-Format Pixels. This is Auroris. TM

WHATCOME MAY

“It needed a lot of planning as we had to show the development of the characters’ tricky relationship in subtle detail and at the same time reveal, nonverbally, what they are trying to hide themselves and also from the viewers,” he offers. “We prepped from August to November 2020, including two whole months of just storyboarding the film shot-by-shot and establishing ground rules for the visual language.

DECISION TO LEAVE•KIM JI-YONG

Whilst the cinematographer is used to working with ARRI cameras and knew all along that he would pick the Alexa Mini, he still shot extensive tests of

It has been nearly twenty years since Oldboy (2003, DP Chung-hoon Chung) put him on the map, but master-stylist Park Chan-wook is invariably finding new ways to dazzle global audiences with his labyrinthine stories of sexual fervour, grisly violence and agonising frailty of the human condition.

Kim Ji-yong’s first foray into the idiosyncratic world of South Korean auteur Park Chan-wook, with Decision To Leave, is a visually enchanting puzzle of a love story, in which a detective investigating a man’s death in the mountains falls for the deceased’s mysterious wife during the course of his dogged sleuthing..

54 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

“We’ve known each other for a long time but never had a chance to actually work together. I agreed the moment he called me,” asserts Ji-yong. “This is a deceptively simple film in which gestures and movement have meanings that don’t necessarily correspond with what the characters say or do. It was a great challenge.”

“We decided to shoot POVs handheld and restrict the camera in the film’s first part as much as possible. It’s not static, we do feel movement through shifting colours or shallow depth-of-field,

There are no sexual encounters in Decision To Leave, violence occurs rarely, yet the tension is palpable, especially when the detective develops an obsession with the secretive widow and she, ever so subtly, reciprocates. Or does she?

And his latest cinematic puzzle, Decision To Leave, may well be his most surprising. Both in how the filmmaker uses clichés of noirish thrillers and crime dramas to frame a peculiar love story of an insomniac detective and an immigrant caregiver suspected of murdering her husband, yet how gentle and sensual it is without losing the essence of his most celebrated films.

and spontaneity on-set, most of Decision To Leave was conceived in prep.”

By Darek Kuźma

Although there was a place for spontaneity onset, most of this film was conceived in prep

“I have worked with great directors, but none have had the passion and curiosity of Park Chanwook. He is incredibly specific about camera positioning, movement and framing. We discussed each shot, but he never dictated anything. It was a partnership. Although there was a place for creativity

but the audience understands the importance of the restrictions only after they go away,” explains Ji-yong.

As Chan-wook’s go-to cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung was not available at the time the movie went into production, the director decided to approach Kim Ji-yong, a EnergaCAMERIMAGE Golden Frog winner for the criminally-underseen

The Fortress/Namhansanseong (2017), who has an impressive track record of layering genre films with inventive visual ideas.

Cinematographer

Decision To Leave wrapped its lengthy 76-day shooting period in March 2021. Most of the film was shot on location all around South Korea, with a little studio work at Busan Cinema Studios.

lenses to better-prepare for the film’s intricate nonverbal“Thelayer.director wanted to shoot Anamorphic because he excels in that format. We decided on Cooke Anamorphics because they’re crisp, soft and yet a bit sharper and more contrasty than other Anamorphic lenses,” he remarks. “I like how they beautifully distort the edges of the frame when they’re wide open. I shot most scenes on at least T4.0, but in a number of close-ups I purposefully opened them wider to make the images a little softer and fuzzier.”

The craftsmanship of Decision To Leave is precisely in what we see and don’t see in a shot, or in how framing colours, costumes and props gives the viewers tools to try to decode what the characters are really about. Each time we become distracted, the most crucial question strikes with double force: is this love or just a deception?

“It was a wonderful experience all the way through production and into post,” insists Ji-yong. “When I did the DI with my long-term colourist Jin Young Park, I was surprised the director sat with us in the suite for 60% of the grade. Not to control us, but to discuss the shots, the light, the colours. We both felt like partners in the process.

Because of the project’s specificity Ji-yong wanted to be as realistic as possible with the lighting.

LED was also the best solution for most night exteriors, especially for a slightly surreal scene in which the protagonists go up a mountain in the middle of the night, armed only with a small lantern and a head torch.

“Sure, we discussed all of this thoroughly during prep, but this was a different kind of work. We were digging into the ideas we had back then and enhancing them in ways we couldn’t have anticipated without looking at the actual footage. It was an interesting conclusion to a project that had some hardships, but ultimately was a fun and creative challenge. I hope the audiences will feel a bit of this fun, this collaborative effort, when they watch the film.”

“They go through forest, but it’s not pitch black, there’s snow on the ground,” Ji-yong reminisces. “We

“I have never talked with a director so much about colour or contrast, and I was very impressed by how he uses the intensity of the costume colours as a

Day interiors were about simplicity, too. “We had many shots when the camera moves all the way from a close-up to a wide shot and then to a medium shot. During prep I worked with the production designer to find ways of hiding LEDs on the sets. I wasn’t a fan of LEDs before, but I fell in love with them during this production for their portability and flexibility.”

“Park Chan-wook normally works on-stage to have more control, but the story is very specific geographically and couldn’t be shot any other way. So we moved a lot. We often shot on the eastern side of the Korean Peninsula before moving to the western side the next day,” he recalls. “The most striking example was the film’s finale on a particular beach

“We had a rooftop chase sequence, but there’s a ton of them in Korean cinema. We picked the location carefully so that the characters start at the ground level and then run higher and higher. And we used BodyCam, not to show-off, we just wanted the audience to feel they’re part of the chase,” he adds. “I didn’t want cranes and Hollywood lights, so I mostly used the same LED package and modified street lamps to make the audience feel the actual city in the background. The whole sequence took us three days to shoot.”

KIM JI-YONG•DECISION TO LEAVE

they write. We also had a dead person’s POV that was an integral part of the plot,” he laughs. “Sure, the film loses a bit of realism but it becomes more exciting and funny. The viewers become complicit, entangled in the characters’ lies.”

Another rule they adhered to was to be creative with the genres they use to divert the viewers’ attention from the evolving romance.

storytelling device,” marvels Ji-yong.

that suited the story. But we actually captured it at three different Korean beaches hundreds of kilometres apart to achieve the desired final look.”

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 55

I tried to keep the lighting simple and avoid glamorous lamps

Decision To Leave also differs in how Ji-yong and Chan-wook tell their story through modern technology.“Itisyet another way we strip the characters away from their secrets. They hide them in cell phones or computers, but it’s not enough. We wanted to have a voyeuristic feel, so we designed POV shots of inanimate objects. For example, the camera is inside a monitor and we see the characters through what

This is just part of the story, though, as the most important of the three locations was in a national park and the scene had to be shot during high tide at sunset.“The problem was, that the high tide only happens for two days every three months, so we had two ten-minute windows to get what we needed. We scheduled everything rigorously during prep and knew we wouldn’t be able to bring a lighting package with us. Still, we had a crane problem. We couldn’t bring it back after the tide changed, so we built a small platform for the crane to float on during the shot, and then we hastily pulled it back to the shore. The plan was perfect and we did everything on time, but still it was crazily stressful!”

needed to strike the right balance between telling the story and creating a specific mood. To get soft backlight, I hung two ARRI SkyPanel 360s on a Condor but dimmed both down to 20%. I also had a huge softbox with ARRI Max and Astera Titan Tubes

“I tried to keep the lighting simple and avoid glamorous lamps. For most day exteriors I didn’t use any artificial sources, and just controlled the ambience of natural light via negative fill or butterflies,” he says. “I used PAR HMIs only when I needed some punch.”

on the ground. The rest was staying with the frame we chose during prep.”

Libatique shot Darren Aronofsky’s directorial debut Pi (1998) and went on to collaborate with him on Requiem For A Dream (2000), The Fountain (2006), Noah (2014), Mother! (2017), and the visuallystunning Black Swan (2010), for which Libatique received his first Oscar nomination.

DON’T WORRY DARLING•MATTHEW LIBATIQUE ASC

His latest film is the psychological thriller, Don’t Worry Darling, directed by Olivia Wilde and starring Florence Pugh, Wilde, Chris Pine, Harry Styles, Nick Kroll and Gemma Chan. It tells the story of a 1950’s housewife, Alice (Pugh) and her husband Jack (Styles), who live in the idealised community of Victory, an

TROUBLE PARADISEIN

the attractive façade begin to emerge.

I came on a bit late to Don’t Worry Darling as originally I’d been unavailable prepping another film, which ended-up being shut down. Olivia called me and told me there’d been some changes at her end and with the film, so I ended-up coming on-board.

56 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

Over the years, Libatique has also shot films for Spike Lee (Chi-Raq, Miracle At St. Ana, She Hate Me), and the late Joel Schumacher (Tigerland, Phone Booth). His diverse credits also encompass Straight Outta Compton (2015), Venom (2018), The Prom (2020), Birds Of Prey (2020), plus Iron Man (2008) and Iron Man 2 (2010), which kicked-off a defining style for the hit Marvel franchise.

Well-known for his beautiful imagery and versatility, cinematographer Matthew Libatique ASC has long been the go-to DP for several of Hollywood’s top directors.

This is your second project with Olivia Wilde after shooting her short, Wake Up (2020) which premiered at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival. Tell us about collaborating with her and how you got started on this film?

Here Libatique talks about the about the challenges of the shoot and his approaches to the cinematography and lighting.

By Iain Blair

While the husbands spend every day inside the Victory Project Headquarters, their wives spend their time enjoying the beauty, luxury and debauchery of their community. To all intents and purposes, life is perfect, with every resident’s needs met by the company. All they ask in return is discretion and unquestioning commitment to the Victory cause. But when cracks in their idyllic lifestyle begin to appear, flashes of something much more sinister lurking beneath

We’d first discussed Don’t Worry Darling during

experimental company town housing the men who work for the top-secret Victory Project and their families. The 1950’s societal optimism espoused by their CEO, Frank (Pine) – equal parts corporate visionary and motivational life coach – anchors every aspect of daily life in the tight-knit desert utopia.

The DP won a second Oscar nomination for his work on Bradley Cooper’s directorial debut, A Star Is Born (2018), and is currently in production on Cooper’s Maestro after shooting the upcoming drama The Whale (2022) for Aronofsky.

It was just five or six weeks for me, because of Covid and coming on late. So it was a race to get up to speed. But, Olivia has such an ease about articulating her vision, that that whole side of things went very smoothly. As it was a fairly low-budget production, the main thing was to figure out how much could we accomplish with what money we had.

in 2.40:1 aspect ratio, we shot a lot in Palm Springs, where there are a lot of verticals with all the palm trees, and I wanted to keep that element, but without the bend.Imixed in a few Sigma Classics in different bits of the film, but a good 90-percent of the film was shot with the Blackwing lenses, manufactured by Neil Fanthom and Bradford Young’s Tribe7 company. They introduced me to them a year or so before I shot this film, and I used them on Wake Up, but I was waiting for a chance to use the Blackwing lenses on a longform project, and this was the perfect opportunity.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 57

the Wake Up shoot, and it sounded really intriguing. When we first met about the film at her office, she had an entire wall of photos and references for it. That was really helpful, and we talked about inspirations and the film’s themes of patriarchy, gaslighting and a woman descending into madness.

Please give us a few details about your prep period?

How did you arrive at your camera and lens choices?

We shot digitally with the ARRI Alexa Mini LF, and we shot spherically with the binary Blackwing lenses. Previously, I’d been shooting a lot of Anamorphic, but this just felt like a spherical film. Even though we shot

Yes, with Alex Bickell, and it was the most distinctive LUT I’ve ever worked on and was an on-going process. I shot some very early tests with swatches from Arianne, and we put fabrics in different lights to see how the colours rendered. We shot three different tests to develop the LUT, and also referred to a lot of the images on Olivia’s wall. I then augmented the LUT a couple of times, as later in the film you’re introduced to the actual reality of the situation, and I also used an old LUT for the Victory scenes to distinguish them from the rest.

Tell us about the shoot. How tough was it?

Images: BTS photos by Merrick Morton. Photos courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures, all rights reserved.

How did you approach the look of the movie and the technical challenges?

Once I get into prep, one of the things I always like to do is talk to the other key collaborators. So I met with Katie Byron, our production designer, and Arianne Phillips, our costume designer, to absorb the palette. It was so highly-stylised already that I didn’t necessarily want to put gloss on top of gloss. The thing is, it’s a film about a fictitious world, but you don’t know that going in, and you’re not meant to. So I wanted the lenses and lighting to be as natural as possible.

I wanted as much naturalism as possible with the lighting, and to pair it with the wardrobe, hair and make-up. The design was to keep it all as real-looking as weInterestinglycould.

In the edit they were able to really use and maximise the imagery of the women in sunlight and

The Blackwings have a very distinctive flare and they’re specially-designed to pull away from some of the sharpness of other lenses and take the edge off the digital image. They’re a bit lower contrast than a Zeiss Supreme or Master Prime. We also used the DJI Ronin 2 with AntigravityCam and GLINK high-end gimbal body support systems quite a lot, along with Allan Padelford’s drivable Biscuit Rig process trailer and an Arm Car Edge for the action sequences. Did you work with a colourist to prepare any LUTs?

MATTHEW LIBATIQUE ASC•DON’T WORRY DARLING

All of that informed some of the visuals that we put in front of the camera. That was the foundational aspect of it. Then slowly-but-surely we began to construct a more practical language for the camera and the light.

When I tested the binary Blackwing lenses they rendered a less shiny look, but with the potential for some imperfection that I was looking for, which juxtaposed nicely with the highly-stylised look from the other departments – production and costume design. I think it helped to establish a world that, at least at the start, felt like the real world.

enough, the exterior of the house was a real location in Palm Springs, and I basically followed the path of the sun for the interior on stage, because we were building-up to the grand finale where Alice makes her escape. I knew exactly where I wanted the sun to be at that point, so we built towards that.

How did you approach the lighting?

It was just 45 days, so it was a pretty tight schedule, but I’m really proud of just how successful the main house interior was as a set built on a stage in Santa Clarita. We shot a lot there and did two stints in Palm Springs. We also shot the finale in Barstow, including at a dry lake-bed there. I had a great crew, including gaffer Jeff Ferrero and DIT Mike Kowalczyk. The A-camera operator was Scott Sakamoto and the B-camera operator was Chris Herr.

We shot in Palm Springs at the best time of year for cinematography… winter! I could take advantage of the low angle of sunlight, and maximise the shadows

The movement of the light on that interior is actually mimicking what’s happening on the exterior, and we had the benefit of shooting in Palm Springs at the best time of year for cinematography… winter! The days were short, but it was well worth it. I could take advantage of the low angle of sunlight and really maximise all the shadows.

Even better, given our budget. I think we achieved a lot more than I expected going in, to be honest, and I’m really happy with the way it looks.

When you see the film there’s this circular shape that enters right at the start in the very first scene, where Alice and Jack are going for a joyride and doing doughnuts in the car. Then you see the eye and Busby Berkeley choreography in the flashback and you see the coffee in the morning montages, all the same size in the frame. And that visual theme of circles leads up to the reveal in the third act where you see what’s actually happening to Alice with her eye.

What about the DI?

You’d think it was the action scenes at the end of the film, but it was relatively easy to construct shots for those. The hardest scene to shoot was the big Victory

How involved were you with all the VFX?

party sequence, because it was shot at a beautiful old location and the problems we had in lighting it were not inconsiderable, as any director wants to see the

the men in the shadows. I used Mole Richardson Solarspot 20Ks for the sunlight. Our lighting package also included LiteGear LiteMat panels, ARRI SkyPanels, Astera LEDs and Mole Baby Senior Solarspot 5Ks.

ceiling. You can’t just use the usual rig, so my lighting team worked with our fantastic art department to create a design piece that allowed us to put light panels on the second-floor balcony behind translucent Art Deco pieces that lit the balcony.

Did it turn out way you hoped?

I was quite involved aesthetically with the VFX. The film has a fair amount of blue and greenscreen work so we could tie all the real exterior locations to the setbuilt interiors, and then we had visual effects for all the flashbacks that had to fit in with some of the themes.

Alex and I did it at the old Technicolor PostWorks room in Leroy Street in New York. I’ve done a lot of films there, and we spent about ten days on the colour timing. As the LUT was so specific, and the lighting was tuned to the LUT, we were basically just balancing the film the whole time. Olivia was busy in the final mix, so she’d drop in at the end of every day to review.

I was waiting for a chance to use the Blackwing lenses on a longform project, and this was the perfect opportunity

DON’T WORRY DARLING•MATTHEW LIBATIQUE ASC 58 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

What was the hardest scene to shoot?

Principal photography on The Woman King began in November 2021 at locations around Cape Town,

“Although we had to release the ARRI 65, I kept the Primo 70s, as I wanted to be able to shoot in widescreen format, but didn’t want the typical blue horizontal Anamorphic flares, as they felt too modern and out of context for the period drama.

“We typically shot between T2.8 and T4 to embrace the quality and feel of the glass as much as possible. These

stops, combined with a stigmatiser and extenders, created beautiful, but tricky, fall-off in focus, and definitely pushed the lenses and our focus pullers to their limits.

“Mark was very gracious, and helped to connect me with a good many of his camera team, and I was able to secure the considerable and indefatigable talents of gaffer Oliver Wilter, key grip Roderick Dean-Smith, operators Peter Belcher and Dale Rodkin, and DIT Nigel Tompkins, amongstTakingothers.”on-board

Prince-Bythewood’s penchant for handheld, but distaste for Steadicam, Morgan turned to her key grip, who came up with an interesting new way of moving the camera that created a hybrid look between

60 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

We wanted to explore the reality of African light

Having never shot in South Africa before, and needing a stalwart camera and lighting crew, Morgan sought the counsel of DP Mark Patten BSC, who had recently shot Raised By Wolves there.

During the movie’s test phase, Morgan also developed a set of LUTs with DI colourist Walter Volpatto at Company3 in LA, which had contrast curves similar to celluloid film, plus neutral greyscales so that in low light the skin tones kept their natural warm values and West Africa would be depicted as the richly luscious place it is in reality.

Prince-Bythewood prioritised department heads who were women and/or people of colour for the product. Along with Morgan as the cinematographer, these  included production designer Akin McKenzie, costume designer Gersha Phillips, hairstylist Louisa Anthony, visual effects supervisor Sara Bennett, and editor Terilyn Shropshire. Makeup was handled by a local, South African artist, Babalwa Mtshiselwa.

References and inspirations for Morgan and her director included The Revenant (dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu, DP Emmanuel Lubezki AMC ASC), for its use of large format ARRI Alexa 65 camera and wide angle lenses, together with epic historical dramas such as Braveheart (1995, dir. Mel Gibson, DP John Toll ASC) and Apocalypto (2006, dir Mel Gibson, DP Dean Semler ACS ASC), both framed in Anamorphic.

KINGDOM COME

THE WOMAN KING•POLLY MORGAN BSC ASC

including a former munitions site about an hour’s drive from the city, where the Palace of Abomey was faithfully constructed on a huge backlot, along with KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. Copious amounts of smoke and dust from the wind, helped to create texture in the film, lifting the shadows and softening the contrast. A splinter unit filmed bucolic landscapes in Ghana. Production however was shut down during December due to an outbreak of the Covid-19 Omicron variant, and resumed in mid-January 2022 before finally wrapping in March.

Inspired by true events, director Gina Prince-Bythewood’s The WomanKing follows the Agojie, the all-female group of warriors who protected the West African kingdom of Dahomey (now Benin) in the 19th century. Set in 1823, in the Abomey Palace and Quidah, one of the most active slave trading ports in all of Africa, the film stars Viola Davis as Nanisca, a general who trains a new generation of warriors to fight against an enemy wanting to destroy their way of life. The film also stars Thuso Mbedu, Lashana Lynch, Sheila Atim and John Boyega.

“I was working in Louisiana on Where The Crawdads Sing, when I received the script for The Woman King,” Morgan recalls. “I thought it was phenomenal in the way it mixed the power and vulnerability of the characters. Although it was ostensibly an epic period movie about a tribe of women warriors, with a lots of fighting and action, it dealt head-on with some very strong and unsavoury issues concerning the trade in human lives, which still echo down time, and it also had the emotional intimacy of a mother-anddaughter drama at its heart. So, for me it ticked all the boxes.”

“We wanted to create a beautiful yet authentic movie, staying true to historical fact, telling the story of the incredible Agoji women in a way that felt real, visceral and raw, but not be overly glossy. We wanted to introduce a new vision of Africa – not as dry and dusty place, but a rich beautiful land that held this vast cultural kingdom of Dahomey – and to explore the reality of African light, the hard sun, the deep shadows and the varying weather.

“I learnt that whilst Gina loves shooting large format and handheld, her aim was to elevate the epic scope of the movie by harnessing a more fluid style of camera movement, and loves to use multiple cameras to get multiple angles at the same time in the action scenes.

By Ron Prince

“All of the fight sequences were shot at 48fps with a 360-degrees shutter, not to slow down the action, but to be able to speed it up if need be in post with no artefacts in the motion. We only had 58 shooting days for the entire production, and with lots of huge action scenes featuring hundreds of performers, the only way to do those justice to them in the small amount of time had was to shoot with multiple cameras, often up to five simultaneously on the main unit.”

The screenplay for the $60m Sony production was written by Dana Stevens, based on a story she wrote with Maria Bello, with cinematographic duties under the auspices of Polly Morgan BSC ASC.

Morgan had never met Prince-Bythewood, but says she was well-aware of the director’s progress and prowess as a filmmaker from Love & Basketball (2000, DP Reynaldo Villalobos) and The Secret Life Of Bees (2008, DP Rogier Stoffers) through to The Old Guard (2020, DPs Tami Reiker ASC/Barry Ackroyd BSC).

“I was full of apprehension when I attended the initial Zoom meeting with Gina and presented my lookbook of ideas to her,” Morgan admits. “But I needn’t have worried. She was incredibly kind and attentive, and we were of like mind in terms of the visual treatment from the very start.

Morgan says would have loved to have shot The Woman King on celluloid film, but that was not an option. Consequently, her camera package included five ARRI Alexa Mini LFs fitted with T-series Anamophics, which were specially extended to cover the large format sensor, and detuned to give more softness in the toe, lower the overall contrast and accentuate the glowing characteristic of fire and Forcandlelight.thefirsttwo weeks of production Morgan was also able to use an ARRI Alexa 65 with Primo 70 spherical lenses, which were detuned to match the optical qualities of the T-series lenses. The camera and lens package was provided by Panavision branches in LA, London and South Africa.

“However, within this context, it was also important to focus on the relationships between our characters, and the phrase ‘intimately epic’, kept coming up. When it came to portraiture, we wanted to celebrate the beauty of Black faces, lighting our characters to make them shine and show both their strength and vulnerability.”

“I plotted coverage on the day exteriors according to the path of the sun, and often crossed the line of action in bigger scenes halfway through the day so that the lighting wasn’t flat in the afternoon, and used 3 or 4 x 20x20 unbleached muslins for bounce, plus silks and grids for diffusion,” says Morgan. “A polariser helped with the reflection of light on dark skin tones, and was especially useful when I couldn’t control the light and wanted to take the brightness of the highlights down on skin.

“I used Filmgear Helios Space lights for all the night work and made moon boxes of various sizes. For the fire effect on the beach, we had 45 Helios lights, instead of conventional Dinos, so we could have full colour control and adjust the flicker speed, and used real firelight or flame bars dotted around the place to either light the actors or the surrounding environment.”

As for the illumination, Morgan says day interiors were lit to be atmospheric, with a strong interplay and colour contrast between cool daylight and the warmth of firelight at 1700K, with hard light providing patterns and shafts of light. Day exteriors embraced the natural top light of the African sunshine, especially when that helped to depict the ugliness of humanity and convey the frightful character of a place that traded in human life. Night scenes were embraced colour contrast with the warm firelight against the cool tones of moonlight at 4400-5600K.

Images – Photos by Ilze Kitshoff. Film images © 2021 CTMG, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

POLLY MORGAN BSC ASC•THE WOMAN KING

those two modes of moving the camera, and which ‘Springthatdeployedsequances.forespeciallyprovedusefulthebigaction“Wearig–wecalledtheBalance’

actors. We also conceived a bunch of really long, fluid oners that moved between our different hero women and really got in the middle of the action in various fight scenes. Sometime on several cameras at the same time.”

“The effect was little bit more frenetic than Steadicam, but not as crazy as handheld would have been, whilst giving us the ability to move the camera really quickly and with a great deal of freedom and flexibility. Shooting on wide-angle lenses meant we could get very close to the

– where the camera was fitted to a DJI Ronin 2 and spring balance and then suspended on a length of cable, like a bungee cord, from a Pettibone telehandler. With the camera operator on wheels, the key grip could then run into the thick of the action, with the camera on the end of the cable. We could alter the height to the lifting device to change the radius and the circumference of the movement.

“Looking back, The Woman King was an incredibly challenging experience, with huge sets and action sequences to light and shoot, and some extraordinary downpours and high winds to contend with, all whilst working six-day weeks. But Sony were very gracious with my flight and housing alliance, which meant my husband and children were around during production, which is just want I needed at the end of long and gruelling day.”

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 61

“Whilst the kids get increasingly paranoid and cruel to one another, we wanted them to stay plausible so that the audience would want to follow them,” says Wolf, who uses mostly still photographers’ work as his references. “I considered Nan Goldin for how she makes you feel a part of any culture or subculture she depicts, and Bill Henson for how he works with low light levels or creates his art out of highlighting skin tones.”

The cinematographer cites many other references he and Reijn used to soak-up ideas and distinct moods akin to what they wanted achieve in Bodies Bodies Bodies

That she did, rewriting the script with Sarah De Lappe and approaching the shoot as if it was a theatre play, involving everyone beyond how they would work on a film

Even though the characters’ actions get increasingly frenetic with time, many of the moves and reactions were discreetly choreographed.

bring the audience as close as possible to the charac ters with less of a super wide-angle feel,” he explains.

Everything goes as planned as our ignoble seven prepare for a weekend of earthly delights. Until, that is, they decide to play the games of bluff and nasty wit, and begin to viciously roast and gaslight one another. Just then the first body appears. An accident, to be sure?

62 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD BODIES BODIES BODIES•JASPER WOLF NSC

The idea of a spoiled kids’ party gone wrong is noth ing new, but here it gets a refreshing treatment as Reijn and Wolf turn their unlikable, unreliable characters loose in a wicked version of Agatha Christie’s murder mystery. Seven individuals fight for their lives and sanity whilst the viewers’ have a somewhat perverse sense of fun watching their chaotic attempts to have some semblance of order.

“I felt frontal lighting would be emotionally right for the story, especially as they have flashlights, headlights, phones or colourful light necklaces, filling the rooms, each having its own colour identity, with vibrant contrasts. Each of these sources interacts differently with different rooms and with one another, creating a beautiful spectrum of skin tones that paint the characters in curious ways.”

“The Staircase (2004-18, dir. Jean-Xavier De Lestrade) documentary series was something we dis cussed when setting boundaries about how bloody we could go when one character falls down the stairs. We considered Mike Nichols’ Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf? (1966, DP Haskell Wexler ASC) to master the depiction of this hallucinatory state some of our charac ters get into at a certain point. I also found a great pho tographer who shot in this insanely-designed nuclear basement somewhere in the desert. It had a basketball court that is similar to the one in which one of the murders takes place in our film, but which we had to bring to the right exposure to match one of the most eccentric props I’ve ever worked with,” he laughs.

I wanted to be able to move from room-to-room and limit the lights outside of the shot for a more authentic experience

Just as the title promises, there is a handful of corps es in Reijn’s English-language directorial debut about a bunch of rich twenty-somethings who try to survive the night in a stupendous, isolated mansion during a particularly nasty hurricane. Yet the film is more about creating a platform to play with the viewers’ pre-deter mined ideas and expectations, than just discovering the killer(s) identity or second-guessing who will die next.

DARKNESSTHEEMBRACE

Dutch actress and director Halina Reijn’s quirky psychological thriller, Bodies Bodies Bodies, sent cinematographer Jasper Wolf NSC on a creative journey into darkness.

Wolf decided to put his trust in ARRI Alexa Mini LF with Panavision Primo lenses.

As most of the film revolves around the charac ters’ yelling their heads off and moving through the mansion’s dark corners, occasionally illuminated by infernally red emergency lights or the owners’ other kooky ideas, picking the right location was of utmost importance.

“The Primos were brilliant for this – the darkness, the flares, the contrast. For more impressionistic parts I also had Panavision Ultra Speed lenses, in a range of focal lengths between 25 and 50mm. The whole package worked brilliantly, especially with the Asteras and SkyPan els LEDs and all of their RGB possibilities, plus big HMIs we used to bring more punch with shooting the rain.”

Having such a location at their disposal made the five-week shooting period, from March to May 2021, definitely easier. Still, because of the inherent darkness, Wolf says “it was crazy to cover everything we needed in only 26 days. I prepared as best as I could. Based on my moodboards, I developed a LUT with colourist Damien Van Der Cruyssen at Harbor, but it was tough regardless.

By Darek Kuźma

“Shooting 35mm would have been great for the skin tones and textures that I was after, but I felt confident that the Alexa LF Mini was the best choice considering the low light levels and the need to shoot extensive, long and high-paced scenes with lots of dialogue. It’s pretty dark, I wanted to have sharp eyes and sharp details to

“One of the ideas we stuck to was that the film is a lot about representation, how the characters present themselves. In this day-and-age of new media people are at ease with making selfies and filming one another – and most of these are frontal lit,” offers Wolf.

“We were fortunate to find a house in upstate New York that looked like one of the eclectic ‘McMansions’ that we were after, yet still was somehow grounded in re ality. With some tweaks to make room for our Astera Titan and Helios Tubes and some ARRI SkyPanels, plus build ing-in some fixtures in walls, we turned it into our man sion,” claims Wolf. “It’s a contained location, a microcosm of sorts, and I wanted to be able to shoot around freely and move from room-to-room, and limit the lights hidden outside of the shot for a more authentic experience.”

“Much of the challenge was about finding ways to

Right from the get-go we are thrown in an environment brimming with passive-aggressive toxicity and seriously moronic behaviour, before the mansion plunges into blackout and we are beckoned to enjoy the ride.

“After reading the script that A24 sent to Halina, we became quickly and increasingly excited about an ensemble drama with high-paced dialogue, set during a blackout and offering a lot of potential and visual opportunities. I knew from previous collaborations that Halina would make this movie her own,” recalls Wolf.

“What’sset. great in working with Halina is that she’s always encouraging and looking for creative ways to heighten the experience, and to add depth and meaning to what will be on the screen,” marvels the cinematographer.“Duringourearly meetings with the producers and the department heads we presented various ideas, like turning the characters into mobile light sources bringing light, colour and shape to different rooms. It was an exciting process during which we found the right way to shoot Bodies Bodies Bodies.”

film without exhausting the cast, so we tented the house to shoot day-for-night and added all of the rain and hurricane effects on the windows during post. Having the actors work in such a way heightened the plot’s increasingly surreal feel.”

I felt confident that the Alexa LF Mini was the best choice considering the low light levels

The erratic tone of Bodies Bodies Bodies made it evident that handheld was the way to go as regards the camerawork.“Iexplored two or three-camera set-ups, but they didn’t belong to this story, as did Steadicam, although we used it in a couple of scenes, on stairs for example,” he says. “One of my starting points was to find the right operation by deliberately changing the dynamic from time-to-time as the camera’s energy mirrors the anxiety on the screen. For most of the film it’s quite fast, but when they start playing the game, forcing others to join and ruining the mood, the camera goes static.”

Be it an increasingly surreal journey into the mouth of madness, or a psychological thriller about the thin line that divides some of us from becoming killers, Bodies Bodies Bodies is as intense experience that should not leave any one indifferent. Wolf admits that even though it was quite a demanding project, he had a blast.

“I was operating myself, and sometimes even I had a flashlight in my hand moving with the cast, but it was mostly about working out the harmony in the lit spaces, between the practicals and soft sources hidden in walls and on the ceiling.”

Images – Photos by Eric Chakeen. © Public House Rights LLC and A24.

The hurricane storm makes going outside a bit insane but with killer(s) inside, what seems crazy becomes a worthwhile solution.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 63

“The rain scenes were tough because we wanted to have very dark images and at the same time see the downpour. We did extensive camera and light tests, with the various phones and flashlights, to establish which mobile light sources we would use, with cherry pickers and other lights to get the shape and create this slightly nauseating feeling,” recalls Wolf. “There are shots where

you could arguably see there are soft lights hidden in the bushes and overhead moon boxes exposing the rain, but this was the best way to achieve the effect we wanted.”

“From our initial discussions and prep with Halina, the shoot with our cast, the experience with A24 and our producers, and finishing the grade with Damien, it was an invaluable experience and I am very happy we shot the film the way we did. We made it our own, now we hope the audiences will like it too.”

JASPER WOLF NSC•BODIES BODIES BODIES

“The actors had quite a lot of freedom yet there was this discipline about how they should hold the flashlights or the lights that are outside of the shot illuminating the people in the shot. Only by giving the background just enough information to embrace the darkness did we really boost the tension,” says Wolf.

64 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

When it came to initial conversations about Flux Gourmet, Sidell notes how Strickland set out the overall structure of the film. “The residency of the sonic catering band at the remote artistic institution takes place over three weeks. It was written as a three act play and like a three-course meal, with a colour, bodily fluid and foodstuff for each. The starter (week one) is red – blood and tomato soup. The main (week two) is yellow – bile and a cheese omelette. The dessert (week three) is brown – excrement and chocolate pudding. I absolutely loved this conceptual structure and knew there’d be some great visual opportunities.” Thefilmwas shot over a period of fourteen days in North Yorkshire manor house in Yorkshire, apart from the gallery sequences, which were captured in Selby Town“TheHall.fact that the mainstay of the shoot was at one location made things much easier than they might have been,” says Sidell. “An additional day was added

As the DP explains, “The Actionists were a group working in the ‘60s and ‘70s who set out to

“Those often transgressive Actionist performance events were documented through B&W 35mm stills and 16mm film, and we sought to bring the authenticity associated with the texture of those original images to the performance sequences in Flux Gourmet Documentary stills by the German artist, teacher and performance artist, Joseph Beuys, provided another reference for

GOURMET•TIM

Director Peter Strickland serves up a gastronomic feast with his latest film, Flux Gourmet, which provides an insight into a dysfunctional, ‘sonic catering band’, comprised of experimental performance artists, who take up residency at a remote artistic institution, run by an enigmatic director. An outsider is tasked with recording the day-to-day performances of the group, only to discover that he slowly becomes part of their collective.

function within them, but to do this affectionately and respectfully, rather than mockingly. There’s an observation here on the interdependency between the institutions and the artists that they host.

though in one of the out-buildings at the manor, which we’d initially used for the sonic caterer’s dormitory, and which then we turned into a basic studio for additional abstract food and audio tech shots. The basic lighting rig and the seating gallery above the main space in Selby Town Hall was what facilitated our lighting approach, and made it feasible to complete everything there in four days. The gallery was small and hot, the hall was rich and varied. We were lucky to be shooting there.”

Sidell says that Strickland was also keen to develop a heightened theatrical quality to certain scenes in Flux Gourmet, such as the burglary sequence, for which he referenced Judex (1963, Georges Franju, DP Marcel Fradetal). The Third Part Of The

FLUX SIDELL BSC

deliberately provoke and upset the establishment through andparodyintentalignedandinvolvingperformancesnudity,blooddeadanimals.ThiswithPeter’swiththescript–toculturalinstitutionsthecharactersthat

“We all met at Ice Film in London to compare 16mm, 35mm, ARRI Alexa and Red cameras, and I showed Peter some of my experimental film work. This led to me shooting some second unit material for him on Berberian Sound Studio, and then, in post, we started to discuss a sequence that Peter thought could be enhanced through some of the experimental techniques I’d established in my own practice. So I went off to have a play, and he and his editor then cut a great little sequence together. I subsequently shot some other bits with Peter using similar techniques.”

Brilliantly shot in vibrant hues by DP Tim Sidell BSC, the sumptuous and surreal character-driven drama is set to be released in the UK on the 30 th September.

COOKING?WHAT’S

By Oliver Webb

“A decade ago, I was testing for a feature film alongside my great friend Nic Knowland BSC who was prepping Berberian Sound Studio (2012) with Peter,” says Sidell, whose recent credits include Two For Joy (2018, dir. Tom Beard), six episodes of Sky Original’s I Hate Suzie (2022), plus the National Theatre/Sky Arts’ TV movie Romeo & Juliet (2021).

In terms of creative inspirations Strickland’s first and foremost reference for Sidell was documentary material of the short-lived Viennese Actionist art movement.

“However,this.by way of contrast that, we also wanted to establish a formal austerity for the remote institute and play on the notion of the establishment that would contrast the performances, and the work of director Peter Greenaway was a reference here.”

As for the optics, he remarks, “I use the K35s a lot and have been using Cooke’s more and more – their contrast is delicious, but there’s always a forgiving softness. The camera and lens kit was supplied by Movietech, who were incredibly supportive, especially given our budget. Their technical support is also second to none.”

Describing the look of the film’s colour palette, Sidell notes: “I’d rather wistfully describe the intention as painterly. We tried to cement the tertiary colours of the manor house property we were shooting in, and leave space for more primary and secondary colour in the performances and more abstract sequences. Unfortunately, there wasn’t time to build any new LUTs for the production, so I used some I’d put together on a previous project with my regular colourist with Duncan Russell.

“With a fourteen-day schedule there’s little time for anything, let alone colouring on-set with the DIT. There might have been a couple of repairs as we went along, but by-and-large we transcoded the footage with the chosen LUTs. For the final colour grade I was very keen to work with Duncan Russell again, which led us to Halo Post who took excellent care of Discussingus.” his approach to shooting the film’s abattoir sequence with a bloodied Elle di Elle (Fatma Mohamed) writhing around on the gallery floor, Sidell says that this proved to be one of his favourite sequences.

My mantra is to be true to the material and intuitive with my response

“Anotherglass.feature of the Sony Venice is its high ISO and, on several occasions, this really did help us. I shot freely with the higher-base ISO and knew we could tune the grain during the grade, balancing the more ‘classical’ material to tie it in a little with the performance documentary.”

Flux Gourmet was a single camera shoot, with Sidell himself at the eyepiece.

Sidell selected the Sony Venice to shoot the film, predominantly using Cooke S7 lenses. The performance and more abstract sequences in the film were captured with Sidell’s own Canon K35s.

“I am a big fan of the Sony Venice as I feel it offers the most organic image available digitally,” says Sidell. “The colour-depth is exceptional and somehow it delivers an emotional quality. Rather than being what you might describe as ‘correct’, it’s human and organic, especially with softer and more forgiving

In terms of lighting approach, Sidell relied on a few HMI heads, a mix of LEDs and soft Tungsten sources. Astera tubes helped on a few occasions too.

space. I agreed entirely that the approach surrounding the institutional world would provide an excellent springboard for the performance sequences, so that I could let rip with greater freedom, including what I call ‘floaty jib’ and handheld styles of camera movement.”

“Additionally for me, Aneta Bartos’ photographic stills were inspirational for our backstage sequences, and Marcel Marceau was another key reference for our ‘Trips to the Shops” sequences in the gallery space. Of all these references from Peter, I think Judex had the greatest impact on me, and I lit that burglary sequence in a far more theatrical way than I’d normally have considered.”

Night (1971, dir. Andrzej Żuławski, DP Witold Sobocinski PSC), The Driller Killer (1979, dir. Abel Ferrara, DP Ken Kelsch) and Carrie (1976, dir. Brian De Palma, DP Mario Tosi AIC) were key references for the film’s performance sequences.

“ProVision did us an amazing deal, and our gaffer Bruno Inacio did an incredible job,” he recalls. “The softbox in the gallery space was full of Kino tubes, as that was all that was available and affordable. I aimed for slightly shaped naturalism for the most part, to form a baseline from which to jump towards the more creative, abstract and extreme sequences. We had limited resources and so little time, so I could only achieve broad strokes in-camera and tried to save something for those more experimental sequences.”

the Viennese Actionists,” details Sidell. “We shot partly with a jib arm on a track, which I operated manually and partly handheld for complete freedom and extra rawness. We had a few dimmable lights with strong colours, that could be dimmed during the take, so I always had backlights, usually with contrasting colours, in-play, and could move at least 270-degrees

around Fatma.”

“This was a direct reference to

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 65 TIM SIDELL BSC•FLUX GOURMET

– © Lisa

Looking back at his experience on the film, Sidell says, “My mantra is to be true to the material and intuitive with my response to that and the director’s intentions. It’s ideally an organic process, although this is not always compatible with filmmaking and especially TV drama. But I’ll always keep trying.”

We wanted to contrast the formal world of the institution with the experimental world of the performances in the gallery space

“I am very interested in subjectivity and it’s harder to be in control of this with a second camera in-play,” he says. “Peter prefers a more classical approach in general – even established and austere. We wanted to contrast the formal world of the institution with the experimental world of the performances in the gallery

Images Stonehouse/SerenaArmitage.

The movie’s orgy sequences were captured through prisms. “We sought elegance through abstraction. I’d shot with prisms before and Peter liked the effect. He thought it would help us avoid a crass and overly graphic result, and also make the cast feel more comfortable. While it’s hard to control exactly what you’re seeing, there are little moments of gorgeousness that pop out, and lighting with different colours helps to create separation and depth.”

Somewhere in Finnish Lapland, amidst sublimely wintry landscapes and endless instances of nature’s chilling indifference towards mankind, lies a village pop ulated by laconic folks trying their best to hide their inner agony under the guise of quiet dignity. Or alcohol. Or cards. Or Freud. Or visiting a well-endowed barber. Yet because we explore this world through the eyes of Pepe the woodcutter, a man notorious for seeing the glass half-full, it never gets tedious. Rather, the film frames their suffering through the beauty of the banal.

Finnish DP Arsen Sarkisiants’s idiosyncratic approach towards the cinematography on Mikko Myllylahti’s debut feature The WoodcutterStory, helped make for an existential dark comedy to die for.

I believe in giving the audience something to watch… looking at a character’s eyes or head is not enough

pawn-broker’s shop we found by accident on one of our trips. It was so dirty and ugly we instantly knew it was perfect! We had dozens of tiny rooms and houses up in the north that we could barely squeeze half of the crew in, but we wouldn’t have it any other way. You can’t replicate that kind of personality on a soundstage.”

The second part of the photography started in mid-January 2021 and ended in February, reassuring the filmmakers that they chose the right locations.

By Darek Kuźma

it was un-filmable. But we knew it was possible, and it became one of our goals to prove them wrong!”

CHOP CHOP

People were adamant that it was un-filmable… but we knew it was possible

“After I shot his short film, Tiikeri (2018), I knew this was a director I wanted to continue working with,” says Sarkisiants. “He sent me script for The Woodcut ter Story, and I had never read anything like it. It was screenwriting poetry, yet it was so precise, every word was exactly where it should be. People were adamant that there was no way we could translate its unique atmosphere and metaphoric content to the screen, that

Sure, this prosaic ordinariness is heightened from time-to-time by adultery, murder, talking fish, a nihilistic psychic and a mysterious floating orb of light, yet life has to go on. It seems impossible to define what The Wood cutter Story exactly is – interpretations vary from it being a metaphor for purgatory, to a deadpan odyssey of a guy trying not to lose his grip on reality. But therein lies the beauty of a feature debut from a filmmaker so sure of his voice that he prefers to go off the beaten path. Still, Myllylahti would not be successful without the evocative visuals of Sarkisiants, his partner-in-crime.

And personality is this film’s essential factor. As the sawmill shuts down, leaving Pepe the ex-woodcutter and the rest of the folks in a state of limbo, looking in despair for any meaning in life, The Woodcutter’s Story needed enough visual stimuli to keep the view ers’

“Manyinterested.people use Edward Hopper’s paintings as a reference for mood, but what I like about his work is the composition, how he only shows a part of a bigger scene so your imagination can run wild. In this film, I never show the edges of a scene, I cut cars, houses and people. It gives this world a curious feel. I was also inspired by photographer Gregory Crewdson and the use of high angles. There are only a couple of low angles in the entire film, the rest is done above the eye-line.”Sarkisiants infused the images with a sort of mun dane extraordinaire that makes the viewer marvel at the whole frame.

“I’m not interested in over-stylising, and want to come close to capturing reality as it is, like old Ameri can street photographers did,” he explains. “They never tried to find beautiful angles, they just took photos from

66 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD THE WOODCUTTER STORY•ARSEN SARKISIANTS FSC

“For example, the barber’s house was an old

Due to the script’s completeness the prep was all about scouting and discussing how the film should be shot.“All-in-all, we had 31 shooting days, but because we wanted to film on location as much as possible, we had to scout the year before,” he explains. “Principal photography started in November 2020 and was divided into two parts. First, we shot only interiors, then we had a break to wait for the right amount of snow and do the final scout to check if what we had picked the year before still suited us. Then we continued to shoot exteriors and the remaining interiors.”

doesn’t care if the editing is smooth, he cares about what he shows,” says the DP. “We wanted our film to be kind of old-fashioned, with no modern visual tools to escalate whatever happens in a

The plan to shoot the whole film on-location worked perfectly until it did not.

FSC•THE WOODCUTTERImagesSTORY–©TeroAhonen

“I try not to repeat myself, I’d rather explore new ways to express myself and the story through the means at my disposal,” Sarkisiants says. “I still value what Bru no Delbonnel AFC ASC told me once, that there might hundreds of great cinematographers in France that he cannot compete with in terms of style, but there’s only a couple who can do real drama that is personal, often ugly, and not beautified for the sake of pretty images. He he prefers to be one of them, and I am the same. I know I’m not Vittorio Storaro AIC ASC, nor that I want to be. I have my own style and peculiar way of seeing things, and I look for projects that I can be proud of. Like this one.”

these things, but the director and I had the same vision, and just needed to bring that to fruition. We flew backand-forth between Finland and Denmark and were exhausted, but we wanted the ensure the film had the right blend of naturalism and cinematic feel. There was no masking, no extensive CGI, only tweaking what was already shot in-camera.”

“I believe in giving the audience something to watch. Looking at a character’s eyes or head is not enough,” he says. “You need to create a solid back ground, to have depth-of-field, to give people an op portunity to see the details of what lies behind.”

“Kitano,Yamamoto)forexample,

At the same time, however, Sarkisiants wanted the film to look unobtrusively cinematic.

As a reminder lesson, he and Myllylahti took from three classics, Fellini’s La Dolce Vita (1960, DP Otello Martelli), Bresson’s A Man Escaped (1956, DP Léonce-Henri Burel) and Kitano’s Hana-bi (1997, DP Hideo

Toshot.”depict

Sarkisiants and Myllylahti were so adamant to retain the look they envisioned for their film that they spent 14 full days in the grading suite with colourist Edoardo Rebecchi at Denmark’s Beopost to finesse the final“Ivoice.canbe quite difficult when it comes down to

accentuate whatever was in the shot.”

The end result is as personal as an existential dark comedy can be, both for Myllylahti and Sarkisiants.

“In Lapland, the winters are so cold, with -30º Cel sius and harsh winds, that you and the equipment can’t stay outside for long. I don’t do full lens sets anymore, and always pick individual lenses. I had two ARRI Ultra Primes, 16mm and 35mm, one Master Prime 25mm, and a vintage Cooke 25-250mm zoom lens, the one Janusz Kamiński ASC used on Steven Spielberg’s Munich (2005). As the ARRI Rental technicians accu rately predicted, Ultra Primes and Master Prime froze between -24ºC and -26ºC respectively. Fortunately, the Cooke zoom lens did not fail even once, giving us the necessary flexibility and variability!”

The strategy was slightly different when it came to lighting“Becauseinteriors.the rooms were so tight, the idea was to bring light in through windows, and use a lot of fill for colour separation,” he recalls. “As a rule, I don’t light people. I create atmosphere, and bring form and shape to the image, so that I can shoot in every direc tion and give actors a space to explore. We pre-lit for an hour or two every morning, then just tweaked the lighting set-up bit as we went along, but no one had to wait more than 45-minutes for a re-take. I didn’t care about it looking perfect, it had to be functional.”

The freezing conditions did not make Sarkisiants change his attitude towards lighting. “I prefer Tungsten light, so we had a lot of old-fashioned Fresnel 2K lamps with a dimmer for days, and 2K Balloons pushed with sodium gel for nights. We also used ARRI M-series HMIs, like M8, M18, M40 lamps, to illuminate the night scenes with blue moonlight. Mostly they were used to draw backgrounds and shape the trees in the distance. They are light and powerful fixtures and it was easy to power them from small generators and just drop units farther away.”

where they were standing because the subject was more important than beautifying it. That’s why we didn’t go Anamorphic, as that just looked too beautiful and brought something that wasn’t there to the actual reality of what was in front of us.

Pepe and his friends’ banal-yet-bizarre life situations to the fullest, Sarkisiants decided to shoot The Woodcutter Story in 2-perf on 35mm film using ARRI ARRICAM LT cameras, with ARRI Ultra Prime, Master Prime vintage Cooke zoom optics.

Sarkisiants supplemented his lighting kit with DIY LED solutions designed by a gaffer/engineer friend who supports his idiosyncratic approach to lighting film sets.

“One of his greatest gifts for this particular project was a number of very thin LED panels, A4-size, that barely weighed anything. I could tape twenty of them to ceilings and plug them all together in a single wire, and have a degree of control I wouldn’t have any other way,” he says. “You won’t find them in a rental house. We didn’t have to build anything and yet had a powerful source that suited our needs.”Another example of the gaffer’s in genuity came with the aforementioned floating orb of light that harasses Pepe and a bunch of his colleagues in one of the film’s most surreal scenes.

“We chose 2-perf and LTs with thousand-foot mags because we wanted to have visual flexibility as well as a smaller spherical area to use for sharper depth-of-field. This way we took the vignettes and distortions off the lenses and used only the centre of the lens. The idea was, again, to make the image a bit boring, not to beautify it beyond recognition and to

“This was shot on stage. We had KinoFlo tubes on the ceiling to give the room a soft top light, whilst the ball was made on a 3D printer from a very thin material with a few small Litra LEDs inside to simulate flickering light,” marvels Sarkisiants. “I had my grip operating it on a long boom whilst I had the ball paired with an iPhone. It was basically a practical effect, that’s why you see the actors properly interact with it and the ball’s light reflects in their eyes, hair and skin.”

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 67

ARSEN SARKISIANTS

The original Top Gun film was shot spherical in Super 35

“Eventually, Continental Camera Systems developed an aerial periscope system called Astrovision, and eventually used it extensively on

INDUSTRY LENS - THE TALE OF TWO TOP GUNS•DAVID B. NOWELL ASC

“Tony had seen a little article that was written about Continental Camera and another special little camera they had developed which had been used in the skydiving sequences on the James Bond film Moonraker (1979, dir. Lewis Gilbert, DP Jean Tournier AFC). I was asked to bring the camera down to them for testing. So I drove it down to the Miramar Air Base in San Diego, and that is where I met Tony and the cinematographer on the original film, Jeffrey Kimball ASC, for the first time.

there were just two standards to deal with – 35mm mostly for features and 16mm for TV sports and news. People would come in and rent the Continental mount with a 16mm camera on it, but they needed someone to shoot it. The late John Carroll, the VP of the company at the time, told them I could do it, so that is what got me started. And then it progressed from there.

The film’s stratospheric success also illustrates that is perfectly possible to make a blockbuster sequel decades after an original film’s run, while keeping the franchise’s foundational appeal intact and paying homage to the original filmmakers – in this case, the late director Tony Scott who made the 1986 movie, with Jeffrey L. Kimball ASC working as the cinematographer.Forthenewfilm, director Joseph Kosinski, cinematographer Claudio Miranda ASC and producer/star Tom Cruise, wisely concluded that one key to the franchise’s success is the starkly real, teeth-crunching aerial cinematography that quite literally brings audiences inside the cockpit of modern fighter jets soaring around the skies.

In early 1985, Tony Scott’s crew was prepping the original Top Gun, working with US Navy officials to figure out what kind of planes and equipment he could use, and how to film with them. Nowell says that Scott wanted to put a camera into the cockpit of an

First Time Around

68 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

the original Top Gun in a Learjet, piloted by aerial cinematography expert Clay Lacy It was like a periscope in a submarine, except that it was directed through the floor or roof of the Learjet.”

By Michael Goldman

After graduating from Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, Nowell searched for ways to break into the film industry before getting hired as an assistant on a local production. Soon after, he met the well-known aerial cinematographer Rexford Metz who began to mentor him and suggested Nowell’s services to various contacts across the industry.

During a recent conversation with Cinematography World, Nowell offered fond memories of the 1985 project that helped raise his industry profile, and interesting context on the similarities and differences between how aerial imagery was captured in the first film and more recently on Top Gun: Maverick

“Rex handed my name over to Continental Camera Systems, now defunct, which was in the process of building a brand-new helicopter mount,” Nowell recalls. “I happened to be at home at the right time when they called, and they invited me to take a look at what they were doing. I ended-up working for them for free for about four months, and since I was around the helicopter and mount all the time, they started sending me out on jobs.

“Until then, I really didn’t know anything about the aerial end of cinematography. Of course, back then,

the original film, and since then, has become renowned as one of the top aerial cinematography experts in the world. His credit list is very long, and includes multiple movies in the Jurassic World, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Mission:Impossibe, Ant-Man and Fast & Furious franchises, amongst many others.

F14 fighter jet so that it could look backwards at actors sitting in the cockpit’s backseat.

The recent $1.377billion box-office success of Top Gun: Maverick, the long-anticipated sequel to 1986’s Top Gun, is not only good news for fans of action films featuring rowdy flyboys.

“The camera was small enough to fit into the cockpit, but the problem was that Tony Scott wanted to shoot Anamorphic, because he loved the 2.35:1 format. At that time, nobody was using Super 35mm much, or even knew much about it. However, at the end of 1984, I worked on a movie called Choke Canyon with cinematographer Dante Spinotti ASC AIC. That was Dante’s first job in the United States and he shot it Super 35, which educated me and him about how to use that format and cover it with specific lenses.

“When Tony Scott was looking at Panavision lenses at the time, the widest lens they made was 28mm. That thing was huge, almost six inches in diameter. The problem was the close focus was only about four-andhalf feet. So to mount a camera in the plane’s cockpit, we literally would be inches away from the pilot’s face, and that didn’t work. So, I asked him about using Super 35, where we could put a prime lens in there and still shoot the 2.35:1 format, with lenses that only weighed ounces and which could focus about ten-inches away.

The big difference between the two films is that we could get cameras into the cockpit this time… this movie is the real thing FORCEAIR

To accomplish those aerials this time around, they returned to the franchise’s roots by bringing in David B. Nowell, ASC, to serve as director of photography on the aerial unit. Nowell previously served as aerial camera operator on

“We basically have newer jets and camera systems we can use, but all of those have now been industrystandard for several years,” he says. “It’s really a question, both in the 1980s and now, of applying what is available in the proper way, and I’m proud we were able to do that both times.

That would change for the new film (see below). But the original film, Nowell emphasises, like the new one, did feature extensive air-to-air cinematography. For those scenes, he says the Astrovision system rigged onto a Learjet was the primary air-to-air filming solution for material shot in the airspace around both Miramar and the Fallon Naval Air Station, in Reno, Nevada, over the course of about two weeks.

Overall, Nowell says the biggest ways that stateof-the-art aerial cinematography work has changed over the many years between the two Top Gun movies are the cameras themselves – the industry, of course, converted heavily over to digital systems during those intervening years – and the new jets available to productions like this one.

Images: (top) David Nowell ASC inside Mitchell B-25 bomber on the aerial unit for Air Force (1997) and(bottom) working in the zero gravity unit on Apollo 13 (1995).

“All the actors and crew who would be involved with aerial work had to go through a safety training course and get used to pulling sustained G’s up in the air. They have to make sure you know how to use the ejection seat to get out of the aircraft if you have to, and if you land in water, that you can get into the life raft located underneath the seat you just ejected with. People were also put through hyperbaric oxygen chamber testing to make sure they could handle high altitude and so forth.”

The New TopGun:Maverick Fast forward about 33 years, and planning was underway in 2017 for the new Top Gun: Maverick movie. The film was completed in 2019 but then saw its big-screen IMAX release delayed on multiple occasions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. By this time, Nowell was a grizzled industry veteran who already had existing relationships with Miranda, Kozinski and producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who called him to tell him the new film had been greenlit and asked him to join discussions on how to film the new air-to-air sequences.

That introduced a whole new idea to Tony and Jeffrey, and so the original film was shot spherical in Super 35.”

“I met a guy who owned a Phenom 300 and wanted to build out the executive jet around a camera system,” he says. “We realised we could put a camera on the nose and tail and have two cameras running simultaneously inside the comfortable cabin of a jet, with the director, a technician, myself and a pilot all onboard.”For the cockpit scenes, this time around, working closely with the US Navy, Miranda and Kosinski were able to film all scenes of actors playing pilots in the air, rather than on a tricked-out stage, as filmmakers had to do in the 1980’s. Nowell feels this gave all the air-to-air sequences in the new movie a more organic feel than ever“Thebefore.Shotover F1-J aerial camera mount, developed especially for Top Gun: Maverick, worked great with the Venice camera,” he says. “The F1-J has stronger torque motors that allowed us to pan-and-tilt at up to 400mph and take higher G’s, up to approximately 3.5 G’sm up in the air. But for the camera and recording system to fit on the mount, we were limited at first to the length of the zoom lenses that we could use. Claudio eventually said, let’s use Fujinon Cabrio Series telephoto lenses, 20-120mm and 85-300mm, because physically they fitted there.

I had talked to Tony Scott over the years about how to shoot a sequel – in fact, I had discussions with him the Wednesday before he passed away in 2012,” Nowell recalls. “Jerry told me they wanted to bring in as many people as they could from the original Top Gun, so of course I said ‘sure’ when he askedWhenme.”Nowell went to those early meetings, he brought with him “in

my back pocket” details about new kinds of jets that would allow for more flexible aerial cinematography, plus all manner of camera mounts and related equipment that could work with the Sony Venice digital camera system that Miranda chose for the production.

“And that is what he did, and where I learned that idea from, and we definitely carried it on into the new Top Gun movie. For the new film, we once again spent almost a week on top of a different mountain inside of Fallon’s Military Operating Area (MOA).”

“In terms of the footage, I think the big thing that is different between the two films is that we could get cameras into the cockpit this time, rather than relying on actors in a mock-up on a stage. This new movie is the real thing. We really are flying inside an F18, with Tom Cruise and others really pulling seven G’s while doing it – pretty much the limit that an F18 can do. It was no joke, that’s for sure.”

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 69

“That’s how we did the air-to-air work back then. However, Tony wanted to punch the whole sequence up, and knew that we needed super-long lenses so that the jets could fly right at the camera or away from the camera, or suddenly drop into the frame, or veer left or right. We simply couldn’t do that in the air because we had to fly at the same speed. We could capture a quick manoeuvre, but to stay with them and get the idea of the tremendous speed they were flying required a long lens effect.“So, Tony decided to put cameras on top of a mountain range near Fallon that was so high that we could film jets flying at about 3,000-feet and have them be about at our level. I remember sitting up on one of those mountains one day when Tony explained his philosophy about how the aerial manoeuvres would fit into the movie. He said he wanted to take those shots, many unscripted, and cut it all together into an action sequence that felt like a Rocky movie boxing match, complete with top-notch music.

DAVID B. NOWELL ASC•TOP GUN - INDUSTRY L:ENS

“Then, for a lot of the cockpit stuff that Claudio did, he was able to shoot

Safety was as real big deal… they wanted to see how many G’s a camera could take

As it turned out, on the original film, Nowell says that attempts were made to film Cruise and other actors in the backseat of an F14 fighter jet with cameras mounted in the cockpit, “but the problem was that none of that material could be used as nothing was scripted or matched later footage. So, everything in that film showing the actors flying in the cockpit was shot on a mock-up on a stage.”

heavily on the L-39 jet and a helicopter as primary aerial vehicles. But early-on in the development of equipment that would work for the film, he encountered the owner of an Embraer Phenom 300 executive jet and quickly decided it needed to be added to the mix.

Nowell emphasises that despite the production’s seemingly death-defying aerial stunts, all aspects of the aerial cinematography were closely supervised by NAVAIR (Naval Air Systems Command) – the US Navy’s operation and safety unit.

with four cameras in the cockpit of an F18 fighter jet, looking rearwards at actors in the back performing as pilots, while the jets were all flown in actuality by Navy pilots, and two cameras looking forward over the real pilot’s shoulders. He was able to remotely mount the recording pack thanks to the Sony Rialto system, designed to work with the Venice.”

“I had been working with a jet called an Aero L-39 Albatros, which allowed us to put a camera system on the front of the jet,” he explains. “So, by the time we went into the meetings for Top Gun: Maverick, I told them we had the ability to have a stabilised system mounted on the exterior of a jet with a zoom lens on it. Prior to that, with the Astrovision system and a Learjet, we only had a 50mm lens, but with no stability of any kind – it was just bolted to the floor of the jet. To have stability on a longer lens was something I always wanted for this kind of work.”Nowell adds that aerial work on the film relied

“Safety was as real big deal with them,” he says. “They wanted to see how many G’s a camera could take, how it would be configured, and whether it would interfere with the ability of the pilot to eject, if needed, from the plane. They also approved all the mounts and helped the production come up with ways to mount cameras on the belly, forward or aft of the aircraft.

This is something that has allowed ARRI to stand out from the beginning, where it embraced the digital grain on the Alexa Classic and its Alev sensor when many other manufacturers chose to remove that from theirs.

We will offer more textures in different strengths for download

With over 30 different parameters occurring in the image-processing chain before the ARRIRAW image is created, Seybold explains that providing total control over this would be very difficult for cinematographers to specifically tune themselves.

70 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

Seybold is keen to emphasise that ARRI Textures were not designed to be used in place of vintage op tics. “Textures are really an add-on, they won’t replace

Therefore, ARRI Textures provides a concise, man ageable workflow, offering one default texture and sev en additional textures for cinematographers to choose from, with more to come in future developments.

The ingenious idea was birthed at the 2017 IMA GO conference in Oslo. “I spoke with many cinema tographers about how they were using older, vintage optics to bring a special or more individual look to the digital image, and also about their creative concerns about how digital cameras have a certain uniformity to the images being produced,” Seybold explains.

TAKE SCENE SLATE• ARRI ALEXA 35 TEXTURES

“ARRI Textures are all about control over image,” Seybold explains, “with the option to choose between a pre-set range of sharp, clean or more gritty textures. The textures themselves are applied in-camera by al tering the amount of contrast at different levels of detail, perceived as sharpness and grain characteristics. We call it grain, but it’s not something that we add or simu late artificially, it’s that we change the image-processing in a way that looks like grain.”

THE DETAILSFINER

CityLandscapes34-ClarityF567 Victoria-CosmeticP425

A

Seybold, who initiated the ARRI Textures project, has an impressive history, carrying out her PhD on motion picture de-noising at the Technical University Of Munich in collaboration with ARRI, before joining the company’s image science team. Now on maternity leave, Mayr has taken the reigns. The passion and care for which Seybold and Mayr have for the project is obvious, with tireless work carried out by them and their team these last few years.

We spoke with ARRI’s Dr Tamara Seybold, techni cal lead in image science, and image science engineer Carola Mayr, about the special texturing technology that has been developed for the new camera.

As Seybold clarifies, “The idea of using ARRI Tex tures is that it’s a little like filmstock, it’s not something you can change afterwards. It’s a cinematographers choice that will get baked-in to the recorded image.”

RRI has come a long way since the day August Arnold and Robert Richter invented the ARRIFLEX 35 in 1937, the world’s first celluloid motion picture reflex camera. At the heart of their entrepreneurial process was the desire to give cinematographer’s control over the image, a philosophy that remains just as strong today.

“I grabbed the feeling that people really wanted to see more differences, to have individual choices, relating to the special project they were working on. So, building on the technology of previous ARRI cameras, the main intention of creating Textures is to provide greater filmic and cinematic alternatives.”

Spearheaded by ARRI’s in-house image science team – led by Harald Brendel, head of ARRI’s Centre Of Competence In Image Science – the Alexa 35 offers Reveal Colour Science, which takes full advan tage of the sensor’s ARRIRAW image quality for richer colour rendition, along with ARRI Textures, an advance that equips cinematographers with a range of pre-set choices over image texture – incorporating grain, detail and sharpness characteristics – something reminiscent of the celluloid era.

Over in Munich, where the magic now happens, ARRI recently released the much-anticipated Alexa 35, a 4K Super 35 camera incorporating new features designed to move ARRI’s approach to offering greater creative control onwards in leaps and bounds.

ARRI Textures represent the manipulation of around 30 image-processing parameters, these have been cleverly distilled into memorable alpha-numeric codes and words that help describe each texture.

Textures like P425 Cosmetic function as a softer, finer option, being slightly more forgiving to skin whilst

The new Alexa 35, and its ability to provide cinematographers with greater creative control over the images they shoot, is incredibly exciting. Although Seybold and Mayr could not be drawn about what might be coming next, they did at least agree that, “This is just the beginning.”

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 71

ARRI ALEXA 35 TEXTURES•TAKE SCENE SLATE

For example, “P425 Cosmetic”, is one of the eight textures released. The first letter indicates the quality of grain in the image – including colour, coarseness, size and geometric shape. Letters that are farther away from each other in the alphabet represent types of grain that are more or less different from one another. The second character/number indicates the amount of grain, and third and fourth characters/numbers represent the amount of contrast in the fine and course image struc tures, with all three variables ranging from 0 to 9.

keeping structures and highlights pronounced. Where as Textures like G733 Nostalgic are more grainy and designed to emphasise nostalgic film emulation. Other Textures with varying effects include, K445 Default, G522 Soft Nostalgic, F567 Clarity, F578 High Clarity, L345 Shadow and H457 Deep Shadow. All have their own specific qualities of contrast and grain, producing different effects at various ISO settings and exposure levels.A lot of the trialling of ARRI Textures was completed using Sony’s flagship BVM-X300 4K OLED critical reference monitor, well known for its highlight/black performance and colour reproduction, and the process of choosing a texture for cinematographic purposes is being squarely aimed at the testing and pre-production stages of a “Appropriateproduction.testing and monitoring are vital to viewing and assessing the effect of ARRI Textures before they are used,” Seybold clarifies. “On-set, you wouldn’t want to switch through the different textures and try to observe them on a small, field monitor – the effect will be more subtle than that.”

She explains that, “We spent a lot of time analysing different filmstocks to observe and compare how the grain affects the image, and it was particularly import ant to our development process to get specific notes from cinematographers and colourists regarding how grain interacts with the shadows and highlights under a whole host of lighting scenarios. Later on, ARRI Textures were further examined by several additional cinemato graphers around the world, who conducted field tests and provided even more detailed feedback on the varied qualities and looks.”

Currently, you cannot create your own textures on or for the Alexa 35, as Seybold explains, “We will offer more textures in different strengths for download, and maybe there could be a tool where you can create your own textures in the future. But it would take quite some work to create additional options or software like that. At the moment, the company is focusing on extend ing the current ARRI Textures set.”

Seybold describes the work ethic within ARRI’s image science team as “fantastic”, and whilst they obviously need to be intimately concerned with the technicalities, she says “Mathematics alone don’t help. New developments such ARRI Reveal Colour Science and ARRI Textures are the result of a creative, collab orative and symbiotic process between ARRI and the people who shoot with our cameras.”

ARRI Textures won’t replace old optics… they are designed to work with any lenses of your choice

Appropriate testing and monitoring are vital to assessing the effect of ARRI Textures before they are used

old lenses. They have been designed to work with any lenses of your choice. The effect of these textures is subtle, and with older optics or strong filters you can achieve much more exaggerated looks.”

During the creation of ARRI Textures, Seybold, Mayr and the team worked closely with colourists and cinematographers to develop a set of specific textural looks. These accomplices included Florian ‘Utsi’ Martin, a talented senior colourist at ARRI, with a history working on The Lord Of The Rings trilogy (DP Andrew Lesnie ACS ASC), and cinematographer Tom Fährmann, who along with being an ARRI consultant, is also a professor of cinematography at the HFF München, the University Of Television & Film in Munich.

As Evans explains, “We’re always going to harness the feedback we get, we’d much rather the company work closely with gaffers and cinematographers to create and deliver the tools they want.”

Evans was keen to explain the significance of the UK branch’s premises. “Elstree, geographically, is a great location, as it sits in the middle of so many other areas where production takes place. Sky Studios, Warner Studios, the approved Broxbourne studios, Pinewood and Dagenham, and many others, are all close to Consequently,us.” the company attracts a lot of cinematographers, gaffers and lighting technicians that are working nearby. And, with Sumolight’s UK branch being run by Evans and Cave, both experienced lighting technicians, their focus on feedback from the crew members is immediately apparent.

When DPs and Gaffers come into the studio to pick the equipment for their next production, Cave will often join them to rig it, providing Sumolight with first-hand feedback.

The kettle’s always on, there’s always biscuits”, was one of the first things Simon Evans, CEO of Sumolight GmbH’s UK subsidiary explained to me as I arrived for my visit. He wasn’t wrong!

It wasn’t long after having worked my way through the historical site of Elstree Studios, that I found myself sitting upstairs, cup of tea in hand, chatting about everything Sumolight with Evans. It became rapidly apparent that this welcoming attitude is part of an intriguing, wider philosophy, that has launched the company into rapid success these last few years.

Evans provided a little background about his long and impressive history in lighting. He worked as an electrician on a mixture of theatre, rock ‘n’ roll

to the other (the “standard” UK grid height) and just under 16-ft floor to ceiling measurement. The branch functions to both push the brand and work as customer support, as well as selling the products to either resellers or larger companies directly.

72 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SPOTLIGHT•SUMOLIGHT

shows, opera and film productions, and also spent several years in management positions at Panalux and Universal, at which point he met Patch Cave, a fellow lighting technician. Together, Evans and Cave now run the UK branch, providing a homegrown, welcoming atmosphere at the Sumolight studio.

The company first released the Sumo100, a popular bi-colour LED panel lamp. In 2015 this evolved into the SumoSpace, quickly followed by the SumoSpace+ in 2018 and Sumosky. Then the SumoMax arrived in 2021’s flurry of activity for the company.Intheprocess of bringing out some fantastic LED fixtures, Sumolight has come to serve a variety of high-end television productions including Netflix’s Anatomy Of A Scandal, HBO’s Westworld, Disney’s Obi Wan Kenobi and HBO’s Game Of Thrones, as well as feature films such as The Northman (2022, DP Jarin Blaschke, gaffer Hugo Wilkinson), Death On The Nile (2022, DP Haris Zambarloukos BSC, gaffer Dan Lowe), The Matrix Resurrections (2021, DP’s Daniele Massaccesi & John Toll ASC, gaffer Jarred Waldron) and The Midnight Sky (2020, DP

Evans exclaims, “Yes, in the UK, we are the show!” And quite the show it is, with the Elstree branch having only opened this year. The 2,000sq/ ft demo space offers a 54-ft throw from one wall

We’re always going to harness the feedback we get from gaffers and cinematographers to create and deliver the tools they want SPECIALSOMETHING

For a brief history, Sumolight was founded by gaffers and photographers in 2011, with the mother company residing in Berlin. Germany is home to Sumolight’s manufacturing base, and as Evans explained, is where the engineers carry out the complex work. Tim Zur, the global MD, is based in Berlin, with Malcolm Mills in LA and Evans in the UK. Sumolight Inc. in Los Angeles has been running for the last five years, and Evans explained that this is an integral part of the company today. “Hollywood gaffers were very instrmental in the original foundation of Sumolight. It was gaffers and DPs working with engineers in Germany to create the product they wanted.”

Evans elaborates, “We need to work with the riggers because they put the equipment up in the air. We need to work with the gaffers and electricians because they’re the people operating it. And, we also need to work with the DPs because they’re the

Martin Ruhe ASC, gaffer Julian White).

By Dylan Bruce

There was one particular fixture that Evans was eager to show me, the SumoLaser. A world first, this 175W, 6000K fixture, has absolutely no fall-off and an unbeatable throw, with a tiny beam angle of three degrees. Evans aimed the SumoLaser at a sunny spot on the ground, and it put up a good fight in broad daylight!

I have to say that this multi-faceted approach, of Sumolight’s effort to hear and learn about the experiences of all crewmembers, really stood out to me.

Illuminating the Sumolight UK studio with rippling effects and vibrant colours, the SumoSky is certainly an eye catcher. It was inspired by a conversation between DP Haris Zambarloukos BSC GSC and gaffer Dan Lowe, who were looking to create the effect of a wall of light that can equally be used as a roof or animated ceiling fixture, in a car shot for example.

As Evans concludes: “It’s all happening during the global pandemic and a recession. So we must be doing something right?” The answer to his musings are clear. An exciting company with an intrinsic philosophy for listening, Sumolight has the makings of something special.

the aim for other rental companies to adopt it by the end of the year.

SUMOLIGHT•SPOTLIGHT

Our talk was briefly interrupted by a host of SumoSky units being returned from a shoot. We took it upon ourselves to head down to the studio to play with some of the kit.

Without a hint of slowing down, launching two new operating bases and three new products in a year, as well as plan for expansion in the UK operating base, German HQ and product line, Sumolight’s future looks promising.

Looking ahead, Evans puts a lot of emphasis on Sumolight’s desire to become a carbon neutral organisation by 2024, saying “We want to be a sustainable, efficient, environmentally-responsible company”.Foramanufacturing company, this can be an immense challenge, but steps are already being taken to achieve this. Evans explains transport can be the hardest thing to clamp down on, but Sumolight has ensured that everything is made within 45km of the Berlin HQ, cutting down massively on the carbon footprint. As well as this, Elstree Studios itself is already operating on 100% renewable energy, one of the reasons Evans chose to set up camp there.

Evans went on to show me the SumoSpace+, one of the original bi-colour units with the option to change optics through a system of “pizza-slice” shaped modifiers. Developing on this, the new award winning SumoMax is a high output LED RGBWW lamp with a clever hexagonal design. Constructed with versatility in mind, it can perform as a key-light, hard-light, space-light, or soft-light due to its modular shape and having 19 controllable pixel zones, IP65 rating, fan free silent operation and up to 31,000 lumens at 5m.

ones who will say what they want the light to I look like when it’s going through their lenses.”

The SumoSky interactive lighting system is an expandable 160W per unit, LED wall with reduced rigging time compared to other LED solutions. The system is highly-customisable, for both vertical and horizontal use. It supports pixel mapping, RBGWW, 16-bit colour and a smooth background for keying. It can be built up to a massive 100-meters wide and more than 15-meters high. The UK branch is currently the exclusive provider for rental of the SumoSky, with

Evans summed-up the important philosophy very simply, by saying, “Everyone here pushes a broom, and everyone picks up the heavy boxes.” This encapsulates the family value of Sumolight and the focus on a collaborative environment, not just for the customers, but within the company itself too.

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 73

Everyone here pushes a broom, and everyone picks up the heavy boxes

Nils De Montgrand: LED lighting De Montgrand: Operations

What did Rosco bring?

In 2014 we developed the Switch Bi-colour Daylight/Tungsten fixture. Then the ARRI Skypanel came out in 2015. The jump from single colour to bi-colour hadn’t been easy for us from a technical

Manager SalesThomas:Manager

R&DRémi:Manager Sandra

DMG

Rosco gave us the support we needed to continue our development, and we’ve grown the business tremendously since the acquisition. Rosco brought money, a strong brand, a history of colour expertise and an established distribution network. The Rosco name opens doors anywhere on the planet. Walk into any studio in Dubai, Tokyo or Sydney with a Rosco shirt and the door will open for you.

HowtojumpstruggledWe’dstandpoint.justtofromwhitebi-colourwhite.werewegoing to make another jump to compete in the global marketplace?Ourbusiness was growing fast, but it was not easy. If we were to do this alone, it would be years of struggle. I was 38 years old, no longer a kid and with three kids of my own. We knew it would be better for the business if we got some help.

businesses at the time, so we knew the pressure was on. So we made the jump. Rosco acquired us in 2017. If I had to do it again, I would do it the

Rosco was moving into the LED business, having launched the original LitePad and then the Silk soft light, but they wanted to invest further and quickly into LED technology.Theywere interested in what we were doing, but they did not want to be minority investors in the business. It was all-or-nothing. We had a family reunion with my wife, Sandra, and my two brothers, Jean and Mathieu. What should we do? The timing was great for us, but our intention wasn’t to sell our business. It really wasn’t. Our intention was to find a company that could bring us money and markets. Rosco were also looking at another couple of

Lumière is a now familiar name around the world, yet the original creation of the LED lighting company came from small beginnings. Acquired by Rosco in 2017, we take a look five years on at how DMG Lumière has become Rosco Lyon in this Q&A with Nils De Montgrand. How did DMG Lumière start life?

VP

Rosco is also a great cultural fit. The people are great, and the strategic alignment is strong. We brought product and technology expertise to Rosco that they didn’t have, and that was a great strategic fit.

Tell us about the growth of DMG’s facilities and team?

TUTTI-FRUTTI

DMG started small. I had a business supplying LEDs to the medical and dental signage business. My older brother, Mathieu, is a working DP. He was building his career and doing some interesting stuff. We both worked with LED, but in very different ways. Mathieu was shooting in Paris back in 2008- 2009. We met up and said we have got to do something together to build a better LED light for filmmakers. I was like, ‘OK, I know nothing about your business, so draw me something and I’ll try and make it happen’. Literally. I asked which light he used the most. He said the 4-foot, 4-bank Kino Flo was the most beautiful soft light, and there was no real good LED version of it. So, this is where we started, with the single colour SL1 in 2010. That was really the start of DMG Lumière. We built the DMG business with our own funds. We never raised any capital of any sorts, our profitmargin paid for our product development, and our very low wages, like any start-up enterprise.

Rosco is also a great cultural fit and its name opens doors

DMG Lumière had a 300sq/m facility in Lyon, France, with an R&D office, a handful of engineers and a small warehouse. We had six employees including the directors. There are now 17 of us. We had two engineers when Rosco showed-up, and they helped us recruit world-class engineers, an electronics engineer, an optical engineer, and three in-house mechanical engineers. We are fully-autonomous in our product development. We have two repair technicians, and we handle after-sales and repair for the whole of Europe.

74 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD ON TOUR•ROSCO LYON & DMG

By John Keedwell GBCT

How did you link-up with Rosco?

We have plenty of lighting credits: Remember Me: The Mahalia Jackson Story (DP Eduardo Ramirez ADFC); Le Mans ’66 (Ford vs Ferrari) (DP Phedon

How about the future?

Now you are Rosco Lyon. But how was losing the DMG Lumière name?

It’s a very complicated to make high-quality coloured light. How a camera sees colour is different to how a how your eye sees it. We tend to push people looking at the spectrum shape and how it renders colours.

Rosco is investing to bridge the old gel into the new digital gel. The MixBook digital swatch book is part of this. Rosco is transforming, and it’s pretty exciting to be at the leading-edge of it.

My vision is that I want our products to last for 20 years. We’re not here to sell a product then see it thrown away after two years. Cheap gear often stops working and it gets thrown away. We’re engineering our products with a view to quality and longevity. We design durable and reliable products. This is one of our key differentiators for customers.

There are now so many lights on the market that fill a room or light a subject. We are concentrating on creating more shadows, mood and depth for the final image. We are currently in development on lights that will give different looks and qualities. There are some very exciting next steps for us.

We are developing lights that will give different looks and qualities

DPs like to have the choice of multi-colours. We think X&Y is a great, easy tool, because it’s just two coordinates. It’s a very easy language. The problem is that you can have a DMG X&Y output that reaches the same X&Y as a fixture from another manufacturer, but they have a drastically different spectrum. Our mindset behind X&Y is that it only gives you part of the story.

How did lime and amber come about?

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 75

TOUR

In March 2022, we moved into 1,100sq/m premises, more than three times the size of the original facility. We now develop, design and engineer all of Rosco’s LED products in Lyon. We have strong supply-chain and manufacturing capabilities that support the business.

Tell us about your approach to light and colour?

Our six colours are red, green, blue, lime, amber and white. We have a 4,000K white in the middle of the BBL. It really helps us with efficiency on both sides of the spectrum. Without the lime and the amber our spectrum would not be as nice.

It was always a mouthful, and nobody could pronounce it properly. The original name came from the Lumière brothers from Lyon. They invented the first movie camera in the late 1800s to early 1900s. Our friends called us the DMG brothers, so we became DMG Lumière.

Which project have the products been used on?

ROSCO DMG•ON

RGB only gives three directions. RGB and two whites is great, but cameras need more. The spectrum of a wide LED has failures in the reds you need to see, the lime and amber with phosphor coating help to solve that challenge.

LYON &

I have zero regrets about losing it. I don’t look in the past and I’m not nostalgic. I’m happy we’re keeping the DMG name for our film lighting products, because we built a significant brand value. We need to do what’s right. Branding is a tough one. It needs to be simple for the customer. You know the Apple geniuses came up with Apple iPhone, Apple Mac… we have DMG Dash for example… boom!

ASC);Papamichael A Star Is Born (DP Matthew Libatique ASC); Game Of Thrones (DP David Franco); and The Witcher (DP Romain Larcourbas), and just a few that come to mind.

The future is X&Y, HSI, RGB, or whichever one suits. But there’s also an established language of gel colours with names and numbers. Some think gels are just references, but the name also gives it an emotion that ties the name to the colour. Pick one, such as R2 Bastard Amber. You can never replace an X&Y value with Bastard Amber. And there’s a brilliant story that explains how the name was created, please ask me about it when you see me next!

I find that things work best with DPs who are interested in my ideas, who trust me, and who want to collaborate. That puts a spark in me and gets me excited to push the look. But it must be a collaboration.

Free Guy

Boston197151 BachelorUniversity,ofScience in Broadcasting & Film

Irrational Man (2015)

The Holdovers (2023)

Spirited (2022)

Moonrise Kingdom (2012)

In 2008, I had the opportunity to work with Oliver Wood ASC on Surrogates. I went in for the interview and was asked a lot of questions. I didn’t have the experience for a film that big and Oliver knew it. I said that I would never get approved by a studio unless someone like him gave me a shot. Twenty minutes after the interview was over, Oliver called and said, “This is your shot!”

I have had an amazing desk op ever since Little Women in Tim Boland. He was a theatre guy and has become an invaluable part of my crew. Tim is a grandMA operator, something different from what you normally see here in the States, and with the evolution of lighting instruments the need for a programmer is essential. He is very creative, and he gets my ‘Frans speak’!

my work. I needed a portfolio, so I brought all my best negatives to a lab to process, but they lost them. I gave up and decided to do film instead.

Biggest DP influences

Don’t Look Up (2021) (chief lighting technician)

Equalizer 2 (2018)

Eydie (short) (2022)

Surrogates (2009)

Originally I wanted to be a photographer. My mother’s roommate in college worked at National Geographic, and in my sophomore year in college I was asked to send her

Thomas Keenan has been my best boy for as long as I can remember, and Robert Cuddy and Carlos Bermudez have been with me for a long time too. A lot of my sparks have gone on to be gaffers, which is exactly what you want.

Biggest challenge so far?

Okja (2017)

III

The Tender Bar (2021)

I would have to say The Lost City Of Z (2016) with Darius. We started in Belfast and ended in the jungles of Columbia. It was my first experience of being gaffer and key grip. The first big challenge was trying to figure-out and navigate a new system in Belfast. Then it was lighting a very remote jungle location with limited resources.

The Lost City Of Z (2016)

Age// Born// Education//

76 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale (2009)

Learning the trade

On each production, we worked through problems. He let me make mistakes, and I learned an incredible amount. We spent time talking about colour, composition and, of course, darkness.

I have worked with some amazing cinematographers, but would say Darius has been the greatest influence on me, and it has been incredibly rewarding. He pushes you to be your best and has opened many doors for me, both personally and professionally. I consider him a dear friend. Oliver Wood ASC would be the other DP who has influenced me the most. He trusts me enough to let me do my thing.

Lives: I grew-up in Corona Del Mar, California, but made my full-time home on the East Coast in Massachusetts, where I started two companies with my partner David Cambria – Red Herring Motion Picture Lighting, an equipment support business, in 1997, and Red Sky Studios, that has sound stages, in 2014.

When I started as a gaffer, I found that surrounding yourself with people who had more experience was very beneficial, and I have been lucky to have very consistent crew.

Every day in Columbia, we loaded boats, travelled up-river, got out and pulled the boats through rapids to get to the location. We had batteries and MacTech LEDs at the time, plus some 4Ks for creating shafts of light. It was mostly making sure we shot around the sun and were inside the tree canopy during the midday period. I brought my rigging gaffer, Josh Dreyfus, and he would move a head and put pulleys up for rags. It was our own Aguirre, The Wrath Of God (1972, dir. Werner Herzog, DP Thomas Mauch), an experience we will never

Who are your regular crew?

With the evolution of lighting instruments the need for a programmer is essential

Did you always want to be a gaffer?

ASHININGLIGHTON...

Training: I got into the New England International Alliance Of Theatrical Stage Employees in 1995, and was an electrical intern on David Mamet’s Oleanna (1995, DP Andrzej Sekula).

Okja, again with Darius, we spent several months shooting in cities and jungles in South Korea. The language and customs were the greatest hurdles. The local gaffer, Jae Hyuk Lee, was essential, a saviour, in fact.

Early career: I spent time between LA and Boston. There was no tax incentive in Boston so work was scarce. I went to LA to do an MTV show, called Undressed (1999), that happened to turn union, which got me into the Local 728. Having that on my resumé opened doors.

Challengers (2023)

LittleGodmothered(2021)(2020)Women(2019)(chief lighting technician)

Selected Filmography

Hobbies: At only 13-years of age, my son is an accomplished equestrian, and I spend my free time watching him ride. I obviously love photography and travel. Luckily my passion is my work.

(as gaffer unless otherwise indicated)

GAFFERS CAFÉ•FRANS WETERRINGS

How did you get your first break?

Onforget.

Working On Don’t Look Up, with Linus Sandgren FSF ASC, we had a scene on a battleship at night that stands out as a challenge. Talking about angles, we used so many lights to illuminate the multitude of faces this scene had. Linus liked the ‘wedding cake’ look as we called it. Josh ran miles of cable and data around what was a very difficult location, not to mention it being zero degrees with wind chill.

I have been blessed to have worked for, and under, some great gaffers, including Evans Brown, Raffi Sanchez and Jeff Murrell to name a few. I don’t know that I learned my craft from them – I think you find that on your own – but they greatly influenced the attitude with which I approach my work.

In 2014, I went for an interview on Woody Allen’s film Irrational Man – the DP was Darius Khondji AFC ASC. We hit it off, and I spent the next four years working almost solely with him all over the world.

Cinematographer Darius Khondji AFC ASC says:

some lighting companies I have really taken a liking to – such as DMG Lumière, Creamsource, Astera and Chroma-Q, to name just a few – and we stay on top of what they offer.

Little Women, which was shot by DP Yorick Le Saux AFC, was a difficult film to light. To start it was on celluloid film and took place in the mid-1800s with lots of candlelight. Yorick had a lot of faith in me and let me run with my ideas.

Owning a rental company is a big help. We pretty-much just keep buying the latest and greatest, I suppose, and if I use it, we buy more. There are

I have only the best, fun memories with Frans on The Lost City Of Z, directed by James Gray, which was like a battle that we fought together in Northern Ireland and then in the jungle in Colombia. Then we went to Korea for another battle on Okja, with another great director, Bong Joon Ho. The best movies are like battles and working with Frans is like having the greatest general at your side.”

SUSTAINABILITYCOMMERCIALSFEATURESLOCATIONSTUDIODRAMATELEVISIONEQUIPMENTGENERATORSTRANSPORTSUPPORTINNOVATIONSAFETYAs one of the industry’s premier rental resources, we are extremely proud to support crews around the world with an unrivalled collection of production solutions which embrace both the conventional and the very latest in advanced lighting technology. Whatever your production type, wherever you are, when it comes to lighting - we’ve got the lot. MBS Equipment Company Lakeside Road, Colnbrook, Slough, Berkshire SL3 0EL +44 (0) 1753 987 888 mbseco.uk PMBS generic quarter.indd 1 12/01/2022 11:18

CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SEPTEMBER 2022 77

Cinematographer Martin Ruhe ASC says:

“I loved working with Frans on The Tender Bar, not only because he is so precise and a master at what he is doing, but also how he runs his crew, his presence on-set and his generosity. The Tender Bar was our first collaboration and we little prep time, which is always a bit nerve-racking. We had some conversations together with key grip Frank Montesanto, and they both understood what I imagined the film to look like. I loved working with Frans – he made it so easy for me.”

How do you keep up with the latest lighting innovations?

A lot of locations we filmed at would not allow naked flame, so coming up with flickering fixtures was a big focus. I used a lot of DMG Lumière LEDs as a small fire effect, and Quasar Science RGB tubes for fake fireplaces. But, we also had to have enough foot-candles without sacrificing the look. Rigging gaffer Josh Dreyfus and I found lots of options –everything from lanterns, sconces and chandeliers to simple candles electrified in some way. Most worked pretty well, others not at all! Simple, less expensive options worked in the deep background, whilst some of the fancier board-operated fixtures featured more in the foreground. My board op learned to hate hue bulbs during that shoot.

Which film pushed you most?

“I met Frans while casting for Woody Allen’s film, Irrational Man, in Boston. It turned out to be the greatest meeting in years with someone who would become not only a wonderful gaffer, but a dear friend too.

I get called a lot because I do light films shot on celluloid film, which started with Darius on Irrational Man. The truth is that I enjoy both film and digital. They are so different, but I find that I light them in similar ways. I do like the instant gratification that digital production offers, but the wonder and excitement about the unknown when shooting on film is my favourite.

WETERRINGS III•GAFFERS CAFÉ

I would say Darius Khondji AFC ASC has been the greatest influence on meFRANS

Film vs digital

Images: Frans Wetterings III on Daddy’sHome2 with Little Frans on-set (photo by Claire Folger), and pictured with Darius Khondji AFC ASC and crew on The Lost City Of Z, and standing-by on Free Guy.

Jon Fry of CVP with Rebecca Price of Creative Vision Finance

Lisa Collins of The Circle Society, with Kristy Walker of Screen Systems and Kaz Pearman from Cinematography World

Siobhan Chapman of Vivendum, with Alistair Horne of Rogue Waves/ Trapdoor Broadcast

THE AMSTERDAMNED! We had fun time Amsterdam with supporters and friends!

Marc Cattrall of Red with new 8K V-Raptor VV camera (l-r) … Phil Parker CFO of Sunbelt Rentals with John Buckley chairman of Movietech and Anil Devani MD of Movietech

at IBC 2022, meeting-up

78 SEPTEMBER 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD SHOOTING GALLERY•IBC 2022

a

(l-r) … James Osborne and Dawn Bochenski from CVP, Richard Baker of Blackmagic, and Dave Stannard and Thompson-AllottDarren of Sony

Rainer Hercher of Leitz with the new Hugo lens

(l-r) … Claire Saunders with Benjamin Hagen and Snehal Patel of Zeiss

Claus Pfeifer of Sony in front the company’s Crystal Wall CLED technology

Claire Saunders with Paul Lang from ARRI

Joseph Mendoza of Cineo Lighting with the new Quantum Ladder light

in

Robert Kulesh with the Nanlux FL-35 LED

Join us for the second edition of EURO CINE EXPO THE international event focusing on the technologies and craft of Cinematography Uniting the film industry across 2 days of exhibition & seminars +44 1428 609 info@eurocineexpo.com382 2023 FREE ENTRY! EUROCINEEXPO.COM SAVE THE DATES: 30th JUNE - 1st JULY 2023 MUNICHSAVE THE DATES: 30th JUNE - 1st JULY 2023 MUNICH SUBSCRIBE NOW AT EUROCINEEXPO.COM