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FEATURE OZARK
IN PARTNERSHIP WITH
OZARK DOP Pepe Avila del Pino researched the use of the Panasonic Varicam through other streaming shows but was particularly pleased with its treatment of one colour WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL PICTURES NETFLIX
clips to the colourist. We were very happy about how it was working especially with the environment we were working in with all the green in the show.” Pepe decided to shoot the Varicam at 800 ASA although they did test the 5000 rating. “Luckily I really like how the camera reacted to the greens against how other cameras looked very digital with so much green.” For lighting Pepe decided to play it very low key and try and use natural light as much as possible but still keep the camera rated at 800. Even on the darker scenes he was using practicals as much as possible to emphasise the dark tone of the show.
for the first time, and he said it was interesting. Then our colourist told me he knew a DOP who was working on 13 Reasons Why , another Netflix show. I called him and asked him about the camera, so we then tested it against the RED and decided to use it for the show. For lenses I chose Cooke S4, Zeiss Super Speed, Hawk V-Lite and V-Lite Vintage ’74 lenses. But it’s not an anamorphic show, it’s cropped. Most of the night scenes we shot with the Super Speeds as they gave us extra stops. Cropping the Hawk anamorphics gave us a little bit of a claustrophobic feel which added to the tension. “We ended up doing a lot of camera tests but also we were sending
epe Avila del Pino was responsible for setting the look for the first series of Ozark although he only shot the first
ABOVE The Ozark look needed to be ‘grim’ but in a good way. RIGHT Ozark star Jason Bateman keeps an eye on the Varicam’s
two episodes. “Jason Bateman, the lead actor who also directed a few episodes, had seen something that I had done that had a gritty, rough look to it which he wanted for Ozark ,” he says. In fact, Jason wanted a bit of that for a contrast to the characters’ lives while they’re in Chicago and then when the menace appears in their subsequent move to the Ozarks. “He wanted to bring a little bit of grimness and that’s how I got involved.” “Camera-wise, because it was Netflix, we needed a 4K camera and so we had to rule out ALEXA because of their ‘4K cameras only’ rule. I had a friend who worked on Master of None; they were using the Varicam
Steadicam coverage.
CROPPING THE HAWK ANAMORPHICS GAVE US A BIT OF A CLAUSTROPHOBIC FEEL WHICH ADDED TO THE TENSION
DEFINITION FEBRUARY 2018
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