THE LAST KINGDOM PRODUCTION.
LINING UP Shot on an Alexa LF with anamorphic Cooke lenses, the film has an even more cinematic bent than the already classy original series
LEARNING CURVE Although Bryant’s primary responsibility was aesthetic and creative, he discovered a huge amount about leadership. “We had challenging parameters within which to work, so staying positive, keeping the team motivated and keeping channels of communication clear was incredibly important,” he says. “During the main battle sequence, we had hundreds of people to coordinate in extreme weather conditions, so making sure that everyone knew exactly what their job was ended up being critical.” Watch The Last Kingdom: Seven Kings Must Die on Netflix
and I can’t actually tell where the set ends and the VFX begins!” Bryant exclaims. “Which is as it should be, making the world of the film more complete, more fully rounded. For some of the wide exterior digital matte paintings (mostly shots of towns from afar), we added a bit more film grain in the grade just to accentuate that sense of haze, to make the effect feel even more bedded in.” At one point in the film, Bryant and his team use a horse to provide a foreground wipe, letting them move from set to set. “If I remember correctly, it had been used in a previous series,” he states. “I learnt lots from watching the show; there’s some fantastic work by the preceding DOPs.”
was using, as well as the shutter angle, so by the time it got to the final battle scene there was zero filtration in the camera and he was using a 144° shutter. “This gave the battle scene imagery more bite, more immediacy and made it a more kinetically immersive experience for the audience,” Bryant explains. “Early on, we have a scene where we see the antagonist start to exert control, and I was pleased with how we lit him, using chiaroscuro with a high lighting ratio across the face, to suggest the hidden nature of his dark machinations.” One of the most impressive aspects of The Last Kingdom was its pre-existing sets: a huge, detailed world had been built over the last few years and series. On occasion, the production team looked to extend these sets or link a courtyard interior to an exterior, using a blue screen to expand the world. Needless to say, there’s a lot of VFX in the film – from digital matte paintings and crowd replication to removing signs of modern life and set extensions. “I thought the VFX was absolutely seamless. For the final Valhalla scene, the VFX team had to extend our main hall “I thought the VFX was seamless. I can’t actually tell where the set ends and the VFX begins!”
15. JULY 2023
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