worklife | Case study
angle that you suddenly realise you need simply doesn’t exist. You don’t then have hybrid cinema. You have filmed footage and constructed imagery with a highly visible join between them. Old tools with new importance This hybrid way of working hasn’t made traditional equipment less important to me and, in some cases, it’s done the opposite. My tripod has become more important. If I’m going to construct movement between captured frames later, an unstable starting point makes life harder. The colour chart has become important again. Nobody reliably remembers the precise colour of a scene they lit three weeks earlier, and consistency becomes crucial when you’re integrating different elements. Lighting decisions change too. I love hard side light and beautifully defined shadows, but they’re difficult to reproduce convincingly in a constructed layer. Sometimes the best lighting isn’t simply the most beautiful thing I can create on-set – it’s the beautiful light I know I can reproduce throughout the finished image. And I’ve developed one habit of shooting clean plates everywhere. Before the set fills with people and equipment, I’ll lock off the camera and record the location without anyone in the frame. I might not know yet how I’ll use those images. If I don’t use them, they’ve cost nothing. If I later discover I need a plate I didn’t shoot, the The fashionable AI-generation platform of today could be overtaken within months
cost could be a return trip – assuming that returning is even possible. Is it filmmaking? Somebody always asks if it’s really filmmaking. But models, matte paintings, rear projection, partial sets and digital visual effects all exist because filmmakers wanted to show audiences things they simply couldn’t shoot. Every generation has debated whether new techniques somehow make the result less authentic. If a constructed shot serves the story, communication or emotion of the film, the technique has done its job. If the shot exists to demonstrate how clever the technology is, you’ve made a technology demo. There’s another important element – and that’s the client. I explain my proposed approach before a job is commissioned, not afterwards. My treatment identifies what will remain captured and what I intend to construct. That gives the client confidence and protects the production. Of course, the individual technologies used will change incredibly quickly. The fashionable AI-generation platform of today could be overtaken within months, which is one reason I don’t build my process around a particular piece of software. The decisions underneath it won’t date nearly so quickly. Define the function before producing anything, protect the elements that need to be truthful, capture material with the finished result already in mind, then integrate the elements until the joins disappear. And, most importantly, be prepared to reject something technically impressive when it doesn’t serve the film. Hybrid cinema isn’t about giving up the camera. It’s about knowing, shot by shot, what needs to be captured and what can be constructed – while making sure you’re still the person making that decision.
How to FRAME your hybrid shot
Jack Cotlevski’s five-stage method for combining captured and constructed imagery. F for FUNCTION Start with ‘why’. What does the shot need to communicate and which elements absolutely need to be real? Make that decision before reaching for either camera or computer. R for RECORD Don’t simply shoot and assume you’ll fix or extend it later. Capture the best possible foundation for construction, considering camera position, focal length, lighting, clean backgrounds and matching frames. A for AUGMENTATION Add only what the captured image needs. Extend locations, change conditions, create scale or construct presentation movement rather than automatically generating an entirely new image. M for MERGE This is where hybrid succeeds or fails. Match colour, direction and quality of light, texture, perspective, scale and sound until captured and constructed elements feel like one image. E for EVALUATION I don’t ask whether something looks impressive or demonstrates what the technology can do. I ask whether it makes the film better.
Jack of all trades Mixing work shot on real cameras with computer-generated footage takes planning
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September/October 2026
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