GHOSTBUSTERS PRODUCTION
ARRI’S fantastic sensor AND PANAVISION’S exceptional glass ... I CAN’T THINK OF A better match ” apart, was something that he had never attempted before. “I wanted to carry over the visual sensibility of Ghostbusters: Afterlife, so it felt like that story continued, but also set it apart and embraced everything that is great about New York City. We went from a very western horizontal frame [used for the Oklahoma setting of Afterlife ] to a place turned 90°, with everything vertical. “I looked to the first two Ghostbusters films, from 1984 and 1989, to remind myself of compositions that worked well in an anamorphic format. The density of the city made for exciting opportunities in our Ecto-1 car chase that we just didn’t have previously.” Afterlife ’s warmer colour palette, which made perfect sense for summer on the plains, needed to feel more like the ‘hot sun and cool skylight’ you would find in urban canyons. One of the keys to the success of the franchise is it mix of comedy, sci-fi and horror. The new film is built around that same trifecta, with Steelberg required to translate it to screen in collaboration with production designer Eve Stewart and special effects supervisor John Van Der Pool. “Gil and Jason wrote both scripts, so it should hopefully feel just as effective,” he says. “One other notable difference was the amount of interiors and darker lighting introduced. Keeping that interesting and fun, while hopefully sucking people into a little bit of uneasiness and tension, was crucial.”
BACK IN THE GAME Frozen Empire tunes into Ghostbusters’ trademark blend of comedy, horror and sci-fi
He retained the same ARRI ALEXA LF and Panavision T Series anamorphic package from Afterlife t o maintain that visual recipe. Steelberg made lens tests at Panavision UK to show Kenan why he preferred the format. “He didn’t take much convincing. And it was a great way for us to start our creative process and learn one another’s aesthetic preferences. Afterlife was the first film where I used that combination, and I continued it on [Marvel’s] Hawkeye . Honestly, there’s something about the combination that just says ‘cinema’. Frozen Empire is a movie that’s tailor- made for a big audience and meant to be seen theatrically – and large format anamorphic, with ARRI’s fantastic sensor and Panavision’s exceptional glass… I just can’t think of a better match for the way I shoot and see!”
Principal photography was on new stages at Shinfield and Winnersh. The stage at Shinfield, where they built the entire interior/exterior of the firehouse, was a construction zone while filming. “We were waiting for the foundation to dry so we could start construction the moment it was ready,” he reports. A small splinter unit picked up shots in Canary Wharf to double as midtown Manhattan for some city life. A sizeable second unit handled exterior VFX plates and driving shots in New York City, with DOP Igor Meglic “doing a fantastic job of keeping the vibe we were establishing in the UK.”
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