IN THE ARENA: SERENA WILLIAMS PRODUCTION
To preserve the pink undertones in Serena’s skin and avoid overlighting, Baraka called upon John Tindall, who manufactures the Brokeh Lighting System. “I knew that I wanted to break up the spectrum of light because, in past experiences, when I put a colour in front of the light, it would break it up in a beautiful way, especially on deeper hues,” Baraka states. Tindall’s Brokeh rags “break up the particles of light so that it’s more like the sun; it’s bouncing off everything and never this direct source. “He sent them to me, and I tested all of them with my first AC along with the lenses,” she continues. After creating a custom LUT for Serena, Baraka and her team came up with the ‘perfect combination’ of lenses, filters, type and quality of light and Brokeh rags. “You see the nuance in her skin; that’s because of everything we did to prepare.” THE WHOLE SCOOP To tell the full Serena story, Baraka filmed one-on-one, direct-to-camera interviews using an EyeDirect. “Essentially, it’s like a mirror, so that when she’s looking down the barrel of the lens, she can see the interviewer.” The series’ director, Chopra, conducted all the interviews from ‘his own little space’, but he and Serena couldn’t see each other from straight on. In the Arena ’s team also incorporated custom backdrops, which they draped behind Serena. “As her story unfolds, the draping becomes more taut,” describes Baraka, who found this the most difficult
YOU SEE THE nuance in her skin; THAT’S BECAUSE OF everything we did to prepare ” aspect of the shoot. “The draping took longer than the lighting. It was difficult to get it to do what we envisioned.” Unlike Tom Brady’s season, In the Arena added a second camera angle to capture more intimate moments via ‘in- your-face’ close-ups. Baraka, Fisher and Cirillo conceptualised this not only to vary the visual rhythm, but also ‘differentiate between Serena’s interviews and the supplemental interviews’. To cushion the episodes, Baraka shot B roll while the crew created graphics and colour graded all the footage, resulting in one seamless, cohesive project. DO-IT-YOURSELF Formally trained in filmmaking and having attended universities in both New York and Los Angeles, Baraka is a storyteller. One of just six Black female
DOPs in the IATSE Local 600, she largely carves out her own opportunities. “It’s just about creating – you’re already passionate so it’s about creating the work,” she reveals, having moved to Arkansas to make ‘a VR project about Black Wall Street and the Tulsa race massacre’ called Greenwood Avenue . Whilst there, she also shot commercials with Nike, Adidas, Target and Nordstrom. Baraka brings that DIY attitude wherever she goes, creating her own thing whenever possible. While she’s fond of documentary filmmaking – “they are very much in-the-moment and about listening and problem-solving” – she enjoys working with scripted content. “I love the process of reading a script and creating the visual language for it – texture and colour and shape and shadow,” she beams. Serving as an assistant camera operator to DOP Tobias Schliessler ( All the Light We Cannot See , Dreamgirls ), Baraka has been there for big decisions. “This is stuff I do for fun on a Saturday,” she admits. “I feel like I’m ready.” Lately, she’s been writing and working on passion projects. “Right now, no one’s going to give me a major feature film to shoot,” she supposes, “so I need to create my own. If you’re already a moving train, people are attracted to you, and I never let myself be stagnant.” In the Arena: Serena Williams is available now on ESPN+ in the US
MATCH POINT (Left) Serena Williams in her docuseries; (top right) Williams with DOP Ayana Baraka
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