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CRAZY RICH ASIANS SHOOT STORY
Dual Native DOP Vanja Černjul wanted to use a consistently high- end look for a shoot with 38 different locations
WORDS JULIAN MITCHELL IMAGES WARNER BROS. STUDIOS
the Panasonic VariCam was the right choice.” Vanja has become familiar with the VariCam 35 on HBO’s The Deuce , which is set in the 1970s and was shot last year on location in the streets of New York City, with available light. For the production of Crazy Rich Asians , Vanja turned to TCS in New York for the VariCam 35 package. TCS recently upgraded their VariCam 35 camera systems to the VariCam Pure with Raw recording capability using Codex media. TCS is known for offering a vast inventory of motion picture cameras, and modern and vintage cinema lenses, to support independent filmmakers, TV show productions and feature films. Vanja was comfortable with TCS’s endorsement of the VariCam Pure with Raw recording and Codex. “I was blown away by the results,” he says. “I thought the dual native sensitivity was something that could help me on that project. In testing, I found that I could switch between
ast year, Vanja Černjul ASC was commended by his peers in the American Society of Cinematographers for his
IT WAS A CHALLENGING SHOW BECAUSE WE HAD 43 SHOOTING DAYS AND 38 LOCATIONS
outstanding work on Netflix’s Marco Polo . The ASC Award is all the more impressive given the competition – today’s television cinematography sets a high standard. Vanja’s education began in his native Croatia and continued at New York University, where he earned an MFA. His career began in earnest in the late 1990s, and he has since crafted a varied body of work that includes television landmarks like 30 Rock , Orange is the New Black , and Nurse Jackie as well as features like The English Teacher , Violet and Daisy and, most recently, Crazy Rich Asians , a Warner Bros. romantic comedy shot in Malaysia and Singapore. The project is based on a bestselling novel in which an American-born economics professor travels to her wealthy boyfriend’s hometown for a wedding and
discovers that he is desired by a flock of unscrupulous, rich and ruthless women. CRAZY SCHEDULE Crazy Rich Asians is believed to be the first major studio production with an all-Asian cast, directed by Jon Chu. “It was a great experience, but it was a challenging show because we had 43 shooting days and something like 38 different locations,” says Vanja. “We considered the ALEXA 65 because we wanted a big, classic Hollywood look. But I knew we were going to be moving a lot. I thought that in order to consistently get the look I wanted in all these locations,
ABOVE Crazy Rich Asians was shot on location in Malaysia and Singapore.
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