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VistaVision and bespoke Renaissance paintings, miniature dioramas, lenses. Dig in with DOP Emmanuel Lubezki Crafting the uncanny visual world of Digger

THE SHRINKING GAP BETWEEN CINEMA & LIVE PRODUCTION KEEPING THE CAMERA DYNAMIC IN THE SOCIAL RECKONING HOW DOGME 95 CHANGED THE GAME (AND WHY IT’S BACK!)

A NEO-NOIR FOR THE 21st CENTURY SAM LEVY ON THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK

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WELCOME

EDITORIAL Editor in chief Nicola Foley nicolafoley@bright.uk.com Features writer Oliver Webb Chief sub editor Matthew Winney Sub editors Zanna Buckland & Chris Young Contributors Joshua Ighodaro, Adrian Pennington & Phil Rhodes ADVERTISING Sales director Sam Scott-Smith samscott-smith@bright.uk.com +44 (0)7875 711967 Ad sales executive Becky Carse beckycarse@bright.uk.com +44 (0)1223 662202 DESIGN Design director Andy Jennings Magazine design manager Lucy Jeffery Junior designer and ad production Holly May PUBLISHING Managing director Andy Brogden

T here’s a lot to get stuck into this issue, as we speak to the cinematographers behind some of the biggest productions of the moment: from this issue’s cover star Digger , polarising, audacious and visually fascinating, to The Social Reckoning , the much- anticipated follow-up to The Social Network . We also speak to DOP Kim Ji-yong about creating ‘quiet visuals’ in Possible Love , a naturalistically shot relationship drama from director Lee Chang-dong. Also keeping things stripped back are the proponents of Dogme 95, a filmmaking movement founded in the nineties that advocates a back-to- basics approach, eschewing the Hollywood tricks and ‘movie magic’ we love to dissect. We explore the history – and recent resurgence – of Dogme 95 on page 52. Elsewhere, we take a look at the race to bring cinematic imagery to concerts, stage performances and sports (page 16), while a drone lighting specialist talks about his work and what’s possible when it comes to lighting up the sky on page 26. As productions increasingly cross borders in search of partners to help bring projects to life, we investigate the rise of coproductions – and how to make one work without figuratively, or literally, losing the plot. For this issue’s The View From... meanwhile, we head to New Zealand to hear from Ainsley Gardiner, head of funding at the New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC), and Philippa Mossman, NZFC head of international attraction and inbound production, about the country’s production incentives, what it has to offer filmmakers and its ambitions for the future. There’s also news from Wildscreen Festival, NAB New York and CAMERIMAGE; a chat with Sam Levy about The Only Living Pickpocket in New York ; a VFX breakdown of Alien: Earth and loads more to explore. Enjoy the issue – see you next time!

Operations director Saffron Osborn-Clay

Subscriptions manager Laura Meikle PPC & social manager Keith Murtagh

Bright Publishing Ltd Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire, CB22 3HJ, UK Definition is published bimonthly by Bright Publishing Ltd, Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridge, CB22 3HJ. No part of this magazine can be used without prior written permission of Bright Publishing Ltd. Definition is a registered trademark of Bright Publishing Ltd. The advertisements published in Definition that have been written, designed or produced by employees of Bright Publishing Ltd remain the copyright of Bright Publishing Ltd and may not be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Prices quoted in sterling, euros and US dollars are street prices, without tax, where available or converted using the exchange rate on the day the magazine went to press.

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CONTENTS

PRODUCTIONS 10/ DIGGER Emmanuel Lubezki tells us about creating Digger ’s singular aesthetic 20/ THE SOCIAL RECKONING Jeff Cronenweth gets into the look of the second instalment of the Facebook saga 34/ THE ONLY LIVING PICKPOCKET IN NEW YORK DOP Sam Levy leans into neo-noir in this stylishly shot Big Apple crime thriller 40/ POSSIBLE LOVE DOP Kim Ji-yong on the ‘quiet visuals’ of Lee Chang-dong’s latest feature REGULARS 6/ BEHIND THE SHOT We dive into a rain-drenched sequence in Netflix’s One Hundred Years of Solitude 24/ DYNAMIC DUOS DOP Christine Ng and director Jonathan Krisel reveal how they collaborate 48/ VFX BREAKDOWN How Zoic Studios shaped the creatures and visual effects of Alien: Earth INDUSTRY 62/ THE COPRODUCTIONS PLAYBOOK International coproductions are on the rise: here’s how to make them work

DEF RECOMMENDS: MARIE ANTOINETTE

A s Marie Antoinette celebrates its 20th anniversary with an exhibition and a new documentary about its production arriving in November, now is the perfect time to revisit this riotous slice of pastel-hued French history. Released to a mixed reception in 2006 (famously, it was booed at Cannes), the film has acquired cult status in the two decades

since. It sees Sofia Coppola in familiar territory, exploring the wants, whims and boredom of a young woman, this time amidst the pomp and grandeur of Versailles. The production was granted rare access to the actual Palace, including the Hall of Mirrors and the Petit Trianon, and every inch of the film is beautiful in its detail, from the extraordinary costumes

to the sumptuous production design. Shot on 35mm, the film exists in a dreamy haze; watching it now, you can see Coppola’s influence on today’s auteurs like Emerald Fennell – there’s a direct stylistic throughline between Marie Antoinette and “Wuthering Heights” , for example. Critics complained that it ends just as the story gets interesting, but that misses the point.

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CONTENTS

66/ THE VIEW FROM... We head to New Zealand to learn about the country’s production landscape from three key players 71/ CINEVERSE ROMA Find out what’s in store at a new trade show heading to Rome this autumn 72/ INDUSTRY BRIEFINGS A robot ARRI phone, plus WildScreen, NAB New York and CAMERIMAGE all return TECH & TECHNIQUE 16/ CINEMA LIVE Three DOPs help us understand the evolution of cinematic imagery to cover concerts, stage performances and sports 26/ LIGHTING IN THE SKY We meet Max Mandelbaum, a drone lighting specialist who’s taking aerial illumination to new heights 30/ SEEING SMALL IN STEREO DOP Robert Hollingworth and 3D specialist Chris Parks on using immersive tech to film wildlife in all its macro glory 44/ TRUE CRIME & BEYOND Photographer-turned-DOP Jeff Hutchens on shooting documentaries and his approach to crafting images 52/ DOGME 95 A history of this back-to-basics approach to filmmaking – and why it’s currently enjoying a resurgence

Coppola’s less bothered about the revolution and inevitable march towards the guillotine. She captures the chapter before it; that of a 14-year-old Austrian girl who’s thrust into an arranged marriage with French royalty; allowing one of history’s most famous and divisive figures to just be a teenager: bored, indulged, reckless and figuring out who she is.

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Camilo Monsalve talks us through a

rain-soaked sequence in One Hundred Years of Solitude: Part Two

WORDS NICOLA FOLEY IMAGES @ MAUROGONZAEZA

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BEHIND THE SHOT

A year since One Hundred Years of Solitude brought Gabriel García Márquez’s novel to the screen, the series returns to Netflix for its second and final chapter. Directed by Laura Mora and Carlos Moreno and filmed entirely in Colombia, Part Two sees the town of Macondo entering a new era of modernisation. In some ways, it continues the visual style set out in Part One , but cinematographer Camilo Monsalve (episodes 3, 4 and 7) wanted to progress the lighting and textural feel. The first part leant on full-frame and wide shots, favouring Cooke Anamorphic Special Flare lenses with a fast T1.8 aperture, while in Season 2 they changed glass, using ARRI ALFA 2x anamorphics for a more landscape-oriented feel. They also set themselves the challenge of more continuous shots, often with wide lenses and complicated camera moves through houses and stretches of Macondo. For Monsalve, who usually works on feature films, joining

forces with other DOPs for a series was a completely new experience. “It was totally different but super cool,” he grins. “We had this collaborative conversation, bringing our own ideas and looking into the world of the other DOPs, trying to carry their ideas into our episodes and also add our own.” Top priority was that the look moved on in line with the story and time period. The advent of electricity in episode 3 allowed the cinematographers to introduce new visual components, while the arrival of the train in episode 4 brought smoke and pollution. Episode 7, meanwhile, was unique for including a torrential downpour. Getting the rain right was important for Monsalve: “Normally when people think about rain, they visualise European or American rain, but in

Colombia, it can be different; almost foggy. I wanted the audience to feel the humidity, the swelling. It was a good challenge to create this texture and aesthetic, so it felt more like tropical rain.” They realised that vision in a standout nighttime sequence that follows José Arcadio running towards the train in a single, unbroken shot. The camera

begins on a Scorpio 45 crane before being handed off, at the precise moment of a lightning strike, to a second operator on the ground and then

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BEHIND THE SHOT

seamlessly passed again to another operator riding a quad bike; all drenched in lashing rain. “Carlos and I wanted to create this feeling of a continuous state, beginning with the camera far away from José, then pushing in, going closer and closer,” Monsalve explains. “Then we wanted to make the audience feel like they’re next to him; to feel his emotion intimately in this important moment. Almost as if the camera didn’t belong to him or to us.” The pair – both of whom love to draw – storyboarded by hand, deciding it had to be a continuous shot to allow the audience to really feel the emotion. “In our other episodes, everything was on [steadicam], TRINITY or cranes – but here, Carlos and I wanted something different. We wanted to start stabilised, then move to handheld to reflect the drama in the character’s mind. We started to create this kind of fluid [movement], like rain, then quick release when the thunder is coming, the lightning’s going out, then

COLLABORATIVE EFFORT DOP Camilo Monsalve coordinating a shot with director Carlos Moreno and members of the cast

the strike – and then the camera follows him and runs with him.” Three camera operators made that transition seamless: the shot begins on the Scorpio crane, then the camera is passed to the second operator, who moves around Arcadio, then it’s handed to the A camera operator on the bike. From there, it runs with Arcadio across the field, towards the train. “The release and camera passing was super hard,” chuckles Monsalve. “Then adding the choreography with the special effects… everything was a practical effect.”

The hot, dry location wasn’t going to lend a hand on the weather front, so the production had to create a realistic downpour across an entire field, bringing in specialist rain equipment from Spain. The lighting team had their work cut out. “Lighting was a big challenge because it’s super-wide and I have to be on top of that, and I have to light this massive field and feel the rain,” says Monsalve. “The problem with the rain is that I have to light it very specifically to feel real. If not, you can just lose the rain.” With the rain, lightning, handoffs, focus pulling, actor and movement all needing to land together, the sequence became, says Monsalve, “almost like a huge dance.” Alongside the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF and ARRI ALFA anamorphic lenses, with the Scorpio 45 crane extended to 52ft for the opening movement, a rain deflector was a key part of the puzzle: with so much water in the air, even a single drop on the lens could mean having to reset the entire sequence. Exposure posed another challenge as the camera moved from the crane into the field, solved with a variable ND control to adjust exposure while maintaining a consistent T-stop, to preserve the intended depth-of-field and feel of the image. He reckons it took around 11 takes to nail the shot – he can’t recall exactly, but does remember the slog of getting everyone and everything back to the first position. “The reset was crazy,” he laughs. “José Arcadio was exhausted too, because he had to run so much! “I think the choreography of all those pieces together was the most challenging part. The rain, the camera, the lighting, the acting – every detail. But at the end, it was perfect. It was beautiful and everyone gave 300%. I think everyone was super proud of that shot.”

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PRODUCTION DIGGER

“I love when you can capture a performance that is evolving, where it’s getting increasingly visceral”

Renaissance paintings, miniature dioramas, VistaVision and specially made lenses. DOP Emmanuel Lubezki breaks down how he crafted the uncanny visual world of Digger

WORDS OLIVER WEBB IMAGES WARNER BROS

I meet Emmanuel Lubezki in a five-star hotel in London, in a rather grand room with a view of one of the city’s most iconic streets. Lubezki, nicknamed Chivo (meaning ‘goat’ in Spanish – a moniker given to him by schoolmates), is a name that has become synonymous with his achievements in cinematography. He holds the record for number of consecutive Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, with three, for Gravity , Birdman and The Revenant . After I walk into the room, Chivo guides me towards one of the large windows. “It’s an amazing view, isn’t it,” he says, pointing to a nearby street where he shot a scene from Children of Men . Like that film, Digger explores a dystopian near future. It’s difficult to

provide a synopsis without spoiling it, but director Alejandro González Iñárritu’s eighth feature film stars Tom Cruise as the eponymous Digger, “the most powerful man in the world, who embarks on a frantic mission to prove he is humanity’s saviour before the disaster he’s unleashed destroys everything”. It features an impressive ensemble cast that includes Riz Ahmed, John Goodman, Sandra Hüller, Emma D’Arcy, Michael Stuhlbarg, Sophie Wilde and Jesse Plemons. Digger , Chivo says, is unlike any other film he has worked on. CHIAROSCURO ON FILM Iñárritu started planning the film nearly ten years ago, with the script going through several iterations. “We prepped this movie for so long,” says

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DIGGER PRODUCTION

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PRODUCTION DIGGER

Chivo. “I travel a lot with Alejandro; he’s my teacher, my brother and my friend. During that time, we drank coffee and wine and went to all these galleries, primarily in Amsterdam and London.” During these travels, certain paintings particularly stood out to them. “A lot of our inspiration came from Bruegel and Bellini, where the characters have this uncanny fill light. Their work is almost shadowless, very much like a diorama. We approached the sets in a similar way. The dioramas are complex in the sense that they are multilayered – and some of these layers were created by using miniatures.” More than 30 different sets were built on various stages across Pinewood Studios, and proxy sets were constructed with grey canvases. Chivo worked closely alongside set decorator Anna Pinnock, who was there throughout the entire process. “We mapped the movie and storyboarded with a little digital camera,” he says. “It took us a while to figure out how to get the right tone.” Sophie Wilde plays a theatre director, and her character’s vision for a play became central to the film’s visual language. “Part of the creation of the miniatures had to do with her character recreating the past,” he says. “We loved the idea of her building these dioramas, like you would see in a natural history museum. Most of these characters are taking us towards extinction, and all these dioramas are the sets of a play. It’s slightly weird because they look real, but they aren’t.”

END OF THE WORLD The production team used more than 30 sets on Digger, with Lubezki (left) using fill light to achieve an artificial aesthetic, as well as natural light for the ‘reality’ scenes

To capture the film’s artificial quality, Chivo utilised fill light. By contrast, in the scenes set in ‘reality’, the lights came from real sources and he implemented handheld camerawork to distinguish the scenes from the rest of the film. They deliberately relied on an imperfect lens with lots of halation and blur to help achieve this effect. “Little by little, we transitioned to handheld camera, so you can have the energy of the camera moving between the actors.” In terms of the ‘unreal’ scenes, he admits that the solarium sequence was particularly challenging for everyone. “The whole conception of that was super tricky. I based the light on a Rembrandt painting that Alejandro and I found in a

gallery. It’s one of [the] only landscapes that he did and it worked perfectly for the tree in our scene.” When playing with the lighting, there was one major limitation. Tom Cruise’s makeup could not be heated more than 19°C. They had to ensure it stayed cool and without too many variations, or risk expanding the glues and the makeup. “We didn’t want to melt it, so we had to use LEDs. The lights are also changing constantly throughout the film, [so] LEDs made more sense for us.” VISTAVISION Creating the film’s uncanny visual language wasn’t only about lighting. The choice of format and lenses were equally as important, and Digger marked the first time Chivo has shot the majority of a film in VistaVision. “Back in the day, we used VistaVision for visual effects. The first time was on Meet Joe Black . We had a complicated effect where Brad Pitt’s character is run over by a car and we used it to shoot all the different plates. When I saw the dailies, the projection was horrendous, but the image was breathtaking and looked spectacular. It planted a seed in my head that one day I could shoot on the camera.” The cameras are still extremely loud – he does an impression of how they sound on set – remarkably like machine-gun fire. “Some actors love it,” he says enthusiastically, “as they get to feel the tension of this expensive film

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PRODUCTION DIGGER

going through the magazine. Most of our cast enjoyed that. It also gave them time to talk to Alejandro between the reloads and created a whole atmosphere that he wanted to have on set.” Despite having shot many of his movies on film, he admits he is no longer the biggest fan of the medium. “We live in the moment where digital cameras are the best they’ve [ever] been, and for capturing, I still love digital. The question is how you treat the digital, so it feels more organic. For this film, Alejandro’s vision was to shoot on film, and after several tests, VistaVision was the superior choice. You have a larger format and field of view, but you still have all that depth-of-field.” Actor and DOP Giovanni Ribisi restored a vintage Beaumont VistaVision camera for One Battle After Another and the same camera was subsequently lent to Chivo for Digger . “The camera was sent over to us quite late and was completely beat up,” he recalls. “We had to rebuild it and change the prism. The lenses they used for that film were good at servicing a film that aimed to look like a seventies movie with all the aberrations and flares, but it didn’t work for our film.” With limited time before shooting began, he reached out to Dan Sasaki, Panavision‘s senior vice-president of optical engineering and lens strategy. “He built us a package that consisted of four lenses. Leitz also really saved us and built us a whole set of lenses that were slightly cleaner and allowed me to shoot against

FILLING THE FRAME During the European Parliament

all the skies and windows without blurring too much. Panavision don’t usually like to put bases on lenses that were not made by them, but they very kindly did for Alejandro, Tom and myself.” Most of the film was shot on a 29mm lens. The very wide shots were captured on 21mm, with maybe one shot on 18mm. With VistaVision, a 29mm lens already gives you a very wide field of view. “We shot at f/8 because when you have all these actors sitting around a table, you need a lot of depth-of-field. You want to be able to see action and reaction without having to constantly pull focus or have someone fall out of focus.” One of the limitations of shooting in VistaVision was the relatively small size of its film rolls, which allowed for less than ten minutes shooting. “For the longer shots, we had to shoot them digitally,” adds Chivo. “For example, the European Parliament scene was one extended take and so we knew we had to capture it digitally.”

scene, Tom Cruise delivers a ten-minute monologue. “I love when you can capture a performance that is evolving, where the energy is changing and it‘s getting increasingly visceral without cuts, because you allow Tom to go to those levels. The heights of his performance could not be captured with cuts.” Chivo is very much in awe of Cruise’s ability to deliver the scene in one take, and he tells me that Iñárritu also likes to get as much coverage as possible. “Can you imagine cutting and going back to the end of the scene and saying, ‘OK, Tom, let’s start here.’ He could do it for sure, but I don’t know if you would have that same energy. He’s almost out of breath at the end of his monologue. It’s just unbelievable, and that’s because we didn’t cut.” The parliament is filled with obvious dummies throughout the scene, adding to the fantastical element. This is a

DRILLING DOWN The movie was the first time Lubezki has worked with Tom Cruise, who he says had an “intimidating” knowledge of lenses and camera set-ups

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DIGGER PRODUCTION

nominations, he is incredibly modest. “I couldn’t have done this without my crew,” he says. “The collaborators on this project are so good at what they do and much better than what I could do. It’s like working with teachers. It’s fantastic to go to work and be able to learn all this stuff from these masters.” The project was also his first time working with Tom Cruise. “He’s so knowledgeable about lenses, eye lines and distances of the camera, to the point that it’s intimidating. I think his performance in this film is absolutely a miracle. I also love that this film is not derivative. It didn’t come from a novel or another movie. It’s just the mind of Alejandro and his writers, talking about a theme that is probably the most important thing right now.” IT’S fantastic TO GO TO WORK AND LEARN all this stuff FROM THESE masters ”

technique he learnt from Michael Mann when filming Ali . “That was the first time I used dummies,” he recalls. “We actually used them for Birdman too, as we didn’t have the money to fill the theatre with real people. We didn’t want the audience to notice in that film, but obviously we wanted [them] to for this one. It also ties in with the theme of these characters just being dummies that are sitting there brainless and opinionless.” Digger was shot across a period of 50 days, with an extended prep due to the proxy sets. “We had a troupe of incredible actors that stayed with us throughout the movie. Alejandro was open to their suggestions, but you have a very good layout of what the movie is going to be and how it’s going to look and how it’s going to be shot. Once we establish the rules and regulations, I like to stay within the parameters for the movie to achieve a style. Otherwise, you go crazy.” Working with Iñárritu is always a joy for Chivo. “I talk to Alejandro about

everything,” he says. “I complain and he complains. We always fight in Spanish and people look at us confused. He’s very giving and an incredible artist. His drive is impeccable and I admire him a lot. It’s fantastic watching him work.” For someone with three Academy Awards to their name and a further five

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TECH CINEMATIC LIVE PRODUCTION

WHY LIVE PRODUCTION IS TURNING CINEMATIC WORDS ADRIAN PENNINGTON

Technology & techniques from high-end TV and film are increasingly blending with traditional broadcast production. Definition talks to three DOPs about the evolution of cinematic imagery to cover concerts, stage performances and sports T he technology has improved and audience expectations are higher than ever,” says cinematographer Nathaniel Hill. “The gap between cinema and live

He recalls being camera supervisor on a large-sensor multicamera outside broadcast (OB) covering a 2012 Rolling Stones concert in Hyde Park. Although the creative teams wanted to shoot progressively, engineering priorities were still rooted in conventional interlaced broadcast standards. “The whole point of using those cameras was to get the look and feel of a large sensor, but there was still a mindset of ‘this is how broadcast has always been done’.” Today, the cinematic aesthetic is increasingly common. However, Hill believes not every format benefits from a shallow depth-of-field. For SNL , for example, traditional broadcast cameras remain the preferred choice. “Rehearsal time is incredibly tight and focus becomes much more critical when you’re working with larger sensors,” he says. “From a comedy perspective, you also want to see the reactions around people. A very shallow depth-of-field isn’t always the best storytelling tool.”

Concerts, by contrast, have become a natural home for cinematic cameras. Hill recently worked on Back to the Beginning , Ozzy and Black Sabbath’s farewell, using a combination of Sony VENICE, VENICE 2, HDC-5500 and FR7 cameras, creating a workflow capable of servicing both a live stream and a potential version for IMAX presentation. “I‘ll spend weeks talking with the lighting director beforehand,” he says. “We’re discussing colours, spotlight temperatures, LED screens and how the cameras respond to all of that. The aim is to represent the concert the way the audience, artist and lighting designer experience it.” That relationship has become far more integrated than in the past. “Years ago, when you turned up to film a concert DVD, you were often seen as a bolt-on. Now everybody understands it‘s part of the production from the start.” Advances in lens technology have also accelerated the crossover between cinema and broadcast. Hill points to

television keeps getting smaller.” Working across major concerts and light entertainment TV, including Saturday Night Live UK , Hill has witnessed first-hand how cinematic cameras have transformed the visual language of live. “Anything single-camera was already moving in that direction,” says Hill. “If you go back to the Canon EOS 5D, people were incredibly excited by what it could do. Documentaries were already embracing larger sensors and a more cinematic look, and then cameras like Sony’s F series made that approach increasingly practical.” The transition into multicamera environments was slower. Broadcasters were ‘nervous’ about the cost and also wary of progressive imaging. Hill explains: “There was a feeling that it wouldn’t look ‘live’ enough.”

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CINEMATIC LIVE PRODUCTION TECH

ON CUE Nathaniel Hill (below) says broadcasters are no longer worried about a cinematic aesthetic not looking live, while for John Tipton (right) it’s about the ‘best shot’

and mood that would be difficult, if not impossible, to recreate within traditional broadcast exposure parameters. Rather than altering the production, Davis works closely with vision engineers to adapt camera settings in real time. During productions such as Giselle , where scenes move gradually from near darkness into full daylight, camera operators may be required to make significant exposure adjustments to maintain image quality while preserving the artistic intent of the stage design. “The audience in the opera house paid to see the show as the director intended,” he explains. “Our job is to maintain that while still delivering good television pictures.” Davis frequently introduces additional lighting to improve balance for cameras, particularly in opera and ballet. A character positioned in deep shadow may work theatrically but prove problematic for a close-up camera shot. Small adjustments often benefit both mediums. “It‘s surprising how often the theatre team likes the changes and keeps them in,” he says. Davis remains a strong advocate of traditional broadcast system cameras, particularly for live productions, valuing the predictability and direct control they provide. While intrigued by newer large format systems such as the ARRI

Fujifilm‘s Duvo Series as a significant development, providing the long zoom ranges demanded by live television while maintaining compatibility with large-sensor cameras. “Ten years ago, getting those focal lengths involved compromises. Now we can put a Super 35 camera front of house and still get the range we need.” TELEVISING LIVE STAGE PRODUCTIONS RTS Award-winning lighting director Bernie Davis specialises in marrying stage lighting with broadcast production.

“I make the cameras work with the lighting as much as I make the lighting work for the cameras,” describes Davis, whose recent credits include Les Liaisons Dangereuses at the National Theatre and Manon at the Royal Opera House. Unlike conventional television productions, where lighting is built around the needs of the camera, televised theatre (for livestreaming to cinema) presents a different challenge. The stage show has already been designed for a live audience, often with dramatic changes in brightness

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CINEMATIC LIVE PRODUCTION TECH

Rather than documenting the event in a traditional broadcast style, the focus was on cinematic moments: sweat dripping from a player’s face, blades of grass exploding into the air in ultra slow- motion, a golfer framed in silhouette against the setting sun, or close-ups captured with extreme telephoto lenses. “It‘s not about what‘s actually happening,“ Tipton says. “The producers were solely judging us on how awesome the shot is.” The same aesthetic is finding its way into live broadcasts. DSLRs mounted on DJI Ronin gimbals, paired with fast primes and AF systems, allow operators to move among NFL players and deliver cinematic images directly into live workflows. “It‘s absolutely obvious when they cut to those shots,” says Tipton. “They look beautiful. Everybody is doing it now because it‘s a look that simply wasn‘t possible a few years ago.” Tipton selects the right camera for the job. “If I‘m shooting a scripted movie with a lot of night scenes, I‘m probably going to choose a Sony VENICE because it‘s got a dual ISO capability. But it’s terrible to shoot golf with because the camera weighs like a boat anchor. “If I need run and gun, I‘ll shoot ALEXA because that‘s a lighter-weight form factor. If I need slow motion, I’ll shoot Phantom. My preference is ARRI because its cameras are designed for filmmakers so there’s not a lot of menus. You want to be focused on image capture, not the menu structure.” For the US Open golf job, Tipton and fellow DOPs were told to bring whatever camera and lenses they wanted. “It’s all about capturing the coolest shot.”

SHOOT TO WIN Tipton (left and above) says sports directors now want to use all tools available to them

ALEXA 35 Live, he believes that broadcast workflows still offer greater certainty over the final image. He also highlights the technical challenge of LED stage lighting. According to Davis, colour processing systems within some cameras can react unpredictably to the spectral characteristics of LED fixtures, occasionally producing inaccurate colours. “People often add half a dozen PTZs because they‘re relatively inexpensive, but matching them to the main cameras can be difficult. SPORTS CINEMA TAKES THE FIELD Larger sensors and the widespread availability of cinema glass have given sports broadcasters access to the same visual language long associated with Hollywood productions. “Over time, we‘ve got these bigger and bigger sensors,” says 11-time Sports Emmy Award-winning director of photography John Tipton. “Now the cameras can accept a PL mount. All of a sudden you‘ve got an enormous number of lenses available.” The engineering teams end up diving through menus trying to make everything line up.”

Traditional broadcast cameras relied on B4 lenses designed for 2/3- inch sensors, offering relatively limited creative options. Today‘s cinema- orientated systems support everything from Cooke S4 primes to ARRI Signature Primes, allowing broadcasters to shoot sports promos, opens and feature content with the shallow depth-of-field and visual texture typically associated with film productions. “We‘re shooting Super Bowl opens as if it‘s a commercial shot on film, but it‘s a video camera,” Tipton explains. “It‘s been a gradual evolution, but it‘s really a confluence of sensor size, camera technology and lens development.” That evolution reflects a growing appetite among sports producers and directors for more cinematic storytelling. “Sports producers and directors watch movies, they‘re sensitive to visual aesthetics, and now that we have access to these tools it was very natural to apply them to live.” Tipton recalls working on a US Open golf broadcast where Fox Sports invited five cinematographers to bring whatever equipment they wanted and simply capture the most visually compelling imagery possible.

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PRODUCTION THE SOCIAL RECKONING

RECKONING DAY OF

INTERVIEW OLIVER WEBB WORDS NICOLA FOLEY IMAGES LEAH GALLO © SONY PICTURES Jeff Cronenweth on revisiting the Facebook story, reuniting with Aaron Sorkin and creating a fresh visual identity for The Social Reckoning S ixteen years after The Social Network dissected the origins of Facebook, Aaron Sorkin returns to Silicon Valley with

Returning behind the camera is cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, whose other credits include Fight Club , Gone Girl and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo , and whose work on the original film helped define its moody, precise look. Revisiting the story years on presented the team with a new challenge, he says: telling a story whose broad strokes were already known to audiences. “Anybody can go back and research it, or have followed it; so you’d already know about it,” he says. “But to have it presented through Aaron’s vocabulary, the way that he constructs words, and the way that

The Social Reckoning , this time contemplating the fallout of the 2021 Facebook Files leak and the whistleblower at the centre of the story, Frances Haugen. Described by Sorkin as “more of a story set in the same universe” than a direct sequel, the film revisits familiar territory through a different lens, with Jeremy Strong taking on the role of Mark Zuckerberg alongside Mikey Madison, Jeremy Allen White, Bill Burr, Betty Gilpin and Billy Magnussen.

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THE SOCIAL RECKONING PRODUCTION

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PRODUCTION THE SOCIAL RECKONING

he has actors deliver them, is just such an adventure.” The passage of time also called for a different portrayal of Zuckerberg himself, and while Cronenweth admits he was initially disappointed to learn that Jesse Eisenberg wouldn’t be reprising the role, he came to realise that recasting was a good move. “When you really think about it, it’s 15 years later. This guy went from being a student in a dorm to one of the biggest companies in the world,” he explains. “He’s been in front of Congress 30 times by now, he’s been sued 10,000 times. It’s a different world and a different guy. And Jeremy Strong gave a matured performance that I think the world needed. That was super exciting.” While Cronenweth and Sorkin have tucked in a few Easter eggs for returning viewers, The Social Reckoning inhabits a very different visual world to its predecessor. Gone are the wood- panelled dorm rooms, polished campus corridors and old Boston buildings illuminated by the glow of sodium- vapour lights. In their place is San Francisco’s tech world: a landscape of glass and steel that demanded its own, more modern presentation. Capturing the action was a RED V-Raptor package, including the THERE IS quite a bit of camera movement AND ENERGY MOTIVATED BY THE performances ”

V-Raptor XL, paired with ARRI’s spherical DNA LF lenses. “I’m so comfortable with this camera, I’ve used it a lot,” comments Cronenweth. “I love the way it mitigates colour and I love the tools built into it. It was an obvious choice for me.” Sorkin wanted the camera to be dynamic, says Cronenweth, "which is great because often with dialogue-heavy stories, you get stuck, because how much can you move when someone is talking about the same thing?” Sometimes dealing with up to eight pages of dialogue in a scene, they

knew they had to get creative to keep the camera alive. “At different times – and for different reasons – when there was tension or awkwardness in the scene and people were starting to establish relationships, we took certain approaches to the camera movement. “Other times, when it was a fluid situation, the camera movements became more fluid as well. If you watch it, you’ll see there is quite a bit of camera movement and energy motivated by the performances,” he adds. “That was a key thing Fincher brought to The Social

THE RIGHT TOOLS Cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth used a RED V-RAPTOR camera combined with ARRI spherical DNA lenses

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THE SOCIAL RECKONING PRODUCTION

created,” comments Cronenweth. “Whenever possible, I try to work with production designer Jon Hutman and get a lot of sources into the environment – oftentimes too many to start with – and then turn off what seems like an overpopulation. When you’re doing a newsroom at night and it’s semi-closed down, some desk lights are left on, some off, giving you pools of light. Then it gives you places to motivate light from that needs to carry broader areas in the frame.” For Cronenweth, one of the most challenging parts of the story to shoot was the congressional hearing, during which Zuckerberg testifies in front of the US Senate in Washington, DC. Shot in a university building, the crew built in some practical hard lights and let that motivate most of the source on him. “I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say that there were about 45 pages of dialogue that took place in this room – and there’s a lot of tension and movement in there,” he shares. “So keeping that believable, but keeping the drama in there in terms of light and light direction, was a challenge. “We also wanted to keep the characters mysterious sometimes, in terms of their emotions, by contrast. Flares and atmosphere were part of that

too. It was a tiered amphitheatre with rows ascending up, and whenever we tried to do moves in there, it was very laborious. You need a lot of effort from the grips and removal of seats from the art department, and you get stuck with a crane arm there for hours just to get some movement. So we had to be very creative about when and where and how we utilised that room and the tools in it.” Reflecting on the project, Cronenweth describes it as an enjoyable experience, which he credits to the team and the quality of the writing. “I just loved Aaron’s script and I loved the cast that he put together,” he concludes. “I used a crew that I’d used on Tron , so there were a lot of familiar faces there, plus we had our producer Stuart Besser, as well as Aaron and Jon Hutman, the production designer. We’d all done projects together before, and so it was very comfortable and family-oriented. “I also got to use a great partner of mine, the camera operator Łukasz Bielan – and it was fun to take on that challenge of keeping that camera moving as much as possible when motivated, especially during the rapid-fire dialogue that’s traditionally in Aaron Sorkin scripts. It was just a really great experience. It was really nice moviemaking.”

FACE OFF Cronenweth (left) had a variety of environments and locations to light

Network . But in all of his movies he has this style of letting the actors motivate the movement as much as possible.” On the lighting front, with varied environments to contend with, including hotel rooms, apartments and Facebook HQ, plus a variety of location work that saw Vancouver standing in for San Francisco (and Puerto Rico at one point), the team deployed a mix of LEDs and practical sources. “It was a combination of Astera Titan Tubes, ARRI SkyPanel S60s and S30s, and some soft boxes that we

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DYNAMIC DUOS

Cinematographer Christine Ng and director Jonathan Krisel talk us through their partnerships on English Teacher and Adults , and what makes them gel creatively Jonathan Krisel & Christine Ng DYNAMIC DUOS

INTERVIEW NICOLA FOLEY IMAGES FX

DEFINITION: How did you guys first meet, and what were your

also fun for me on English Teacher because I was coming in on Season 2 – which I hadn’t done before – and it was this process of figuring out the tone and how to step in creatively. The first meeting I had with Krisel and [show creator] Brian Jordan Alvarez, we thought about how we wanted to film this in a way that is helpful for the comedy. It reinvented the way I approach comedy: how do you maximise coverage and maximise the tone of the comedy and the scene? Traditionally, I’m trained to start with the wide and work your way in. But on English Teacher , and Adults too, we started with the coverage and worked our way out, which I think was helpful for the performers and the writers to have more play with it. JK: It’s trying to figure out, where can this be funny? I’m thinking of the edit right away. But from a lighting perspective, it’s nice to see, so you’re not painting yourself into a corner. Christine figured out how to do that,

knowing I’ll eventually have to see all these walls at the same time. But once the cinematographer becomes aware of that, actors are also part of the cinematography, and their performance can elevate the cinematography. It’s not just about the lighting. DEF: And the oner at the start of Season 2 is the perfect example of the cinematography and performances working together… CN: It was such a technical and performance-specific thing that it really helped bond all of us together quickly. We were able to play around a little bit and let everyone feel it out – the timing, the crosses, the dialogue. It was really fun to just dive in and do something hard.

first impressions of one another?

CHRISTINE NG: We met on a pilot in New York. I was the B cam operator and a bit of a fly on the wall. I remember Krisel had this amazing blue Moncler jacket – I was obsessed with it. A few years later, I got called to shoot English Teacher and that’s when we worked together as DOP and director. I was like, ‘Oh, the guy with the jacket. Yes, I want to work with him again!’

JONATHAN KRISEL: Christine’s name was definitely around a lot.

She had a good reputation. And then when it came to hiring her for Adults , I knew she’d be the perfect vibe.

DEF: What do you remember about that first collaboration

JK: Yeah, and there’s just so many oners around now, we

on English Teacher?

wanted to call attention to it with a wink to the audience, but we still actually had to pull it off and make it a decent one!

CN: I loved Portlandia and was excited to work with him. It was

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DYNAMIC DUOS

We got in there early, way before the day of the shoot, to start mapping it out. Christine shot it on her iPhone first, which was super helpful. It was kind of like a puzzle, as there were certain things we had to service. We were fine-tuning as we went, and in that way it felt very alive. But yeah, oners are really hard. DEF: Christine, what excited you about coming on to Adults? CN: I thought it was so funny. And with Krisel and I, the comedy is grounded in reality. It’s trying to figure out how to make the reality of what I can control help elevate the comedy. Krisel does something really well, which is the collaboration with the performers and writers; maintaining the integrity of the scene and giving everyone their voice, while keeping it contained.

how it feels. I always think: if it feels better, then we should absolutely do it. DEF: Looking back at both of the projects you’ve worked on together, is there a scene or sequence you’re particularly proud of? JK: I loved how the Covid play turned out in English Teacher . The comedy is so good because something happens on the stage and then it pings throughout the audience and all these different places that we’ve set up. You need those little additive pieces to take a scene that’s good and then go: ‘OK, get more plates spinning on it’. CN: The fake ID episode in Adults , because the club was actually quite small, but when you watch the episode it feels like they’re hanging out in 20 different places. We just went around and carved out these little spaces. I think you always want the world of whatever show you’re creating to feel really full. DEF: If you could make anything together, what would it be? JK: I think the dream project is where Christine and I are in charge 100%. And we could just have these big ideas and figure them out together. CN: I would love that!

YOU CAN'T JUST BE trying to STICK TO the plan ”

JK: The planning and prep phase is very enjoyable. You have time, you’re not under the gun. That space and time for collaborating and coming up with the plan – which is going to change because somebody’s going to say something funny! You’re trying to catch all of this stuff that’s falling while also thinking about how it’s all going to edit together; you need someone like Christine who has an attitude of ‘yeah, we can figure that out, we can do that’. You can’t just be trying to stick to the plan: if it was good, you’ve got to get it. CN: On English Teacher , we were shooting in a real school, which had constraints, so we were keeping it loose and just making it work; seeing

DEF: For Season 2 of Adults, how did the two of you approach the

task of evolving the existing look?

CN: My strategy is to screenshot the whole show, Season 1, and then just be very objective and ask Jonathan and the showrunners what their favourite frames are. The overlap – that Venn diagram of which frames overlap – is then our North Star. For Adults , it was trying to get the house to feel like it had more natural light, bring in a little more saturation, a little more contrast, a little more pop. I swapped out the shears, which was a really little thing that made such a big impact. JK: It’s hard when you’re going from a pilot where you’re shooting on location to the second episode where you’re building a set. How can we re-infuse the reality back into it? Christine came up with this ingenious thing where she magnetised parts of the ceiling so they could move little lights around. Those little, smart things ahead of time really free up the creativity down the road. DEF: You seem to really enjoy doing that planning and problem-solving together. What is it about that part of the process that works so well?

SETTING THE SCENE Ng and Krisel have worked together on English Teacher and Adults (pictured)

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