This issue we’re bringing you an exclusive look behind the lens of Guillermo del Toro’s long-awaited Frankenstein, insights from Alice Brooks on Wicked: For Good, and a trip into the strange, subversive world of Kiss of the Spider Woman with Tobias Schliessler. We also dive into immersive filmmaking, celebrate the wonderful MAMA Youth Project, round-up the year’s seminal cinematography, and lots more. Enjoy!
NOV/DEC 2025
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Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF on capturing the gothic grandeur of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein BEAUTY Monstrous
STORAGE: SIMPLIFIED
2025’S STANDOUT CINEMATOGRAPHY
BEYOND 2D: THE PROMISE & PITFALLS OF IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING
ALICE BROOKS’ SPELLBINDING CINEMATOGRAPHY BRINGS COLOUR & EMOTION TO WICKED: FOR GOOD
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Bright Publishing LTD Bright House, 82 High Street, Sawston, Cambridgeshire, CB22 3HJ, UK prices, without tax, where available or converted using the exchange rate on the day the magazine went to press. Definition is published monthly 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 EDITORIAL Editor in chief Nicola Foley nicolafoley@bright.uk.com Senior staff writer Katie Kasperson Features writer Oliver Webb Chief sub editor Matthew Winney Junior sub editors Tabitha John & Kezia Kurtz ADVERTISING Sales director Sam Scott-Smith samscott-smith@bright.uk.com 01223 499457 | +447875711967 Sales manager Emma Stevens emmastevens@bright.uk.com 01223 499462 | +447376665779 Account manager Kurran Jagpal kurranjagpal@bright.uk.com 01223 492244 DESIGN Design director Andy Jennings Magazine design manager Lucy Woolcomb Senior designer Carl Golsby Junior designer and ad production Holly May PUBLISHING Managing directors Andy Brogden & Matt Pluck
G uillermo del Toro has finally realised his lifelong ambition of making a legend on page 8. Also on the slate this month, we have two very different musical movies. First up is Wicked: For Good , shot back-to-back with the first film at Sky Studios in London. Despite sharing a production window, the sequel makes a tonal departure from Wicked , reveals DOP Alice Brooks, ASC as she talks through her technical choices and creative intent on what’s sure to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the season (page 16). The other musical in our spotlight is Kiss of the Spider Woman , for which director Bill Condon and cinematographer Tobias Schliessler, ASC created two distinct visual worlds – one a grim Buenos Aires prison and the other a Technicolor dreamscape inspired by vintage Hollywood. Schliessler discusses nailing the high-key lighting style of classic musicals and capturing claustrophobic prison scenes on page 62. With the help of boundary-pushing director Charlotte Mikkelborg, we also dive into the world of immersive filmmaking, exploring its potential and how to overcome the challenges faced by directors and DOPs looking to venture beyond 2D. Elsewhere, we celebrate the 20th anniversary of MAMA Youth Project, round up the year’s standout Frankenstein movie, reanimating the monster and his maker in a grand, gothic fever dream that could only belong to him. Oscar-nominated DOP Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF shares how he and del Toro breathed new life into the
cinematography and discuss the health of the industry with ScreenSkills CEO Laura Mansfield, plus plenty more on the pages ahead. Enjoy the issue!
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CONTENTS
PRODUCTIONS 8/ FRANKENSTEIN
Guillermo del Toro reanimates the gothic tale for a new generation, with a little help from cinematographer Dan Laustsen 16/ WICKED: FOR GOOD As the Wicked juggernaut returns to theatres for its second instalment, we catch up with DOP Alice Brooks 30/ STANDOUT CINEMATOGRAPHY From Adolescence to Anemone , we round up the year’s best-made shows and films, celebrating the kit and crew that made them possible 48/ A BIG BOLD BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie head off on a road trip of self-discovery in this fantastical romance. DOP Benjamin Loeb takes us behind the scenes 54/ ETERNITY Ruairí O’Brien brings the afterlife vibrantly to life in this high-concept love story starring Elizabeth Olsen 62/ KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN Cinematographer Tobias Schliessler talks us through creating two distinct worlds in Kiss of the Spider Woman POST 58/ EDITING PLAINCLOTHES Erik Vogt-Nilsen takes us into the editing suite of romance-thriller Plainclothes
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Features writer Oliver Webb remembers Diane Keaton’s career-defining turn in Annie Hall DEFINITION RECOMMENDS: ANNIE HALL
A nnie Hall is a problematic favourite of mine, but I can’t think of a better film to honour the late, great Diane Keaton. Born Diane Hall (aka Annie Hall), Keaton is flawless in the role specifically written for her. For me, the best moment in the entire film is the honest thoughts subtitle scene, which might be my favourite moment in any film. Choosing a Diane Keaton role is a challenge when you look at her remarkable filmography, but to quote Annie Hall herself, “La-di-da, la-di-da, la la!”
The film took home best picture at the 1978 Oscars, beating Star Wars , with DOP Gordon Willis helming the cinematography. Having shot some of the most iconic films of the time – The Godfather , Klute and All the President’s Men to name a few – here he employs experimental techniques including an animated sequence, split frames, extreme long takes and breaking the fourth wall. Better known for his dramatic work, Willis was something of an odd DOP choice, but it turned out to be a masterstroke.
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TECH 24/ BEYOND THE FRAME
With insights from Charlotte Mikkelborg and Craig Heffernan, we delve into the world of immersive storytelling 42/ ROUND TABLE Experts from Blackmagic Design and Mnemonica look at the storage challenges in production and how to find the right set-up 52/ AI & THE CRAFT As our regular series on artificial intelligence in filmmaking continues, we cut through the hype to find AI tools to support, not supplant, the craft REGULARS 6/ BEHIND THE SHOT Jason Oldak breaks down the attention- grabbing opening moments of the new season of Apple TV+ show Loot 38/ DYNAMIC DUOS Ben Semanoff and Igor Martinovic go way back. We catch up with the pair, learning the key to their years-long creative partnership 60/ TRAILBLAZERS Bob Clarke, the inspirational founder and CEO of MAMA Youth Project, shares his journey – and his thoughts on whether the industry is on the right path with DEI INDUSTRY 70/ INDUSTRY BRIEFINGS Fujifilm’s GFX ETERNA 55 cinema camera, the International Motor Film Awards and more are in the spotlight 74/ FIRESIDE CHAT Laura Mansfield, CEO of ScreenSkills, discusses the current health of the screen industries 78/ THE VIEW FROM... POLAND We catch up with the Polish Society of Cinematographers 82/ CAMERIMAGE We find out what’s in store at this year’s festival, from the main competition to the seminars and trade show
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Cinematographer Jason Oldak gives us the inside scoop on Loot Season 3’s ambitious desert island opener
WORDS NICOLA FOLEY IMAGES APPLE TV+
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BEHIND THE SHOT
T he new season of Apple TV+’s Loot finds billionaire philanthropist Molly Wells (Maya Rudolph) stranded on a deserted island after the dramatic finale of Season 2. For DOP Jason Oldak ( Lessons in Chemistry ), it was an opportunity to make a splash and reset the tone of the show. “From the early stages of prep, Claire Scanlon, our episode 1 director, and I agreed we wanted the series to open on a shot that hit our audiences over the head. A sequence much bigger than what we’ve had before,” he begins. “The whole first episode occurs outside the world of the Loot offices on a deserted island, so thinking big felt appropriate. “When we left Molly at the end of Season 2, she was storming towards her jet in rage, demanding to be taken as far away as possible,” he continues. “To open Season 3, we wanted to frame Molly tight enough not to reveal where she is. It was important to our showrunner, Matt Hubbard, to hold on her face for an uncomfortable few beats before pulling away and revealing the sand around her. As she sits up, our camera pulls up with her and, at the same time as her, we discover the beach, her assistant running around in hysteria screaming that they’ve crashed, and their belongings dispersed This opening was influenced by iconic beach sequences in Lost and Cast Away , shares Oldak, and the biggest challenge they faced was coordination. “On top of shooting on a beach with natural elements working against us, the shot was going to take five to six individuals (three grips, first AC, and operator) to execute properly. The cadence was key to everyone working in unison.” After mapping out the move, Oldak settled on a Sony VENICE 2 with a 50ft telescoping crane and Scorpio remote head rented from TCC. His lens choice was ARRI/ZEISS’s 40mm Master Prime. “I wanted to use one of our Master Primes versus a zoom because of the aesthetic nature a prime gives. This meant finding a focal length that would be tight enough for Molly’s close-up, hiding her surroundings, but also wide enough for an expansive shot of the beach when the crane was fully extended,” he explains. on the coastline.” LIFE’S A BEACH
The move required complicated synchronisation between departments, with the A camera operator Reid Russell leading the team. “To pull away from Molly’s face in a straight line, our A dolly grip Jeffrey Douglas was lifting the arm as our crane arm operator was pickling the arm out ever so slowly. As Molly sits up, the crane has to switch directions and ramp up quickly while retracting as we pull up and away in our reveal. A grip at the head of the crane was keeping it in line, but once the frame widened they had to sprint away to be off-screen.” HAPPY ACCIDENT Ian Barbella, A camera first assistant, had critical focus on this shot because of the shallow nature of the f-stop and the varying moves the camera was making with the crane positioning. “The team absolutely killed it!” Oldak enthuses. He was keen for the shot to track Molly’s emotional arc. Waking up in an unfamiliar place and unsure how she got there, she initially moves in a slow- paced, quizzical manner. “We wanted the camera – and audience – to feel like we were being roused from this dream with her. As she sits up, we rise slowly, and as she starts to take in the chaos, we speed up to reveal the commotion surrounding her, shifting the camera so it feels as if the world is moving with her, the camera mimicking her emotional state.” Once he and the director had hashed out the concept of the shot, Oldak scouted the location with key grip Adam Kolegas to figure out which crane could achieve the vision, considering the time of day, sun’s direction and best background for the widest frame. Despite their prep, the day still had its challenges, shares Oldak. “Once we started to rehearse, I noticed the sun was creating unpleasing shadows on our stand-in’s face,” he recalls. “I was concerned that, without diffusion, we might have an issue once Maya steps in. We played with pulling the diffusion as the camera moved, but it was impossible to hide it getting pulled from the subject so we decided to go natural and possibly fix it in post. But when Maya stepped in, it was as if I was messing with all of this for nothing. Her face was glowing, and the sun was in the perfect position. It was a happy accident.”
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PRODUCTION FRANKENSTEIN
“Guillermo had been dreaming of making this film his whole life” DOP Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF talks painting with light in Frankenstein, his latest collaboration with Guillermo del Toro
WORDS OLIVER WEBB IMAGES NETFLIX
A dapted from Mary Shelley’s egotistical scientist and his attempts to bring a monstrous creature to life. This marks del Toro’s fifth collaboration with Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF, having previously collaborated on Mimic (1997), Crimson Peak (2015), The Shape of Water (2017) and Nightmare Alley (2021). Director del Toro had been discussing the idea of adapting the novel with Laustsen as early as Crimson Peak . “After The Shape of Water , he told me he was writing the screenplay,” begins Laustsen. “I read the book and it’s a really great story, but then I read the screenplay and it was totally different. It shouldn’t have 1818 novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus, Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein follows an
surprised me, this is Guillermo del Toro and the way he looks at stuff is great.” GOTHIC WORLDBUILDING During the early stages of production, Laustsen looked at the work of Danish painter Vilhelm Hammershøi. “His paintings have this very classic single- source lighting from the windows,” he says. “We didn’t really talk about other movies,” he admits, except for Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975). ”We were shooting in some of the same locations it used and it’s a masterpiece, so we thought why not look at it? I’m sure Guillermo had lots of other references, but we wanted to make our own world.” Del Toro and Laustsen wanted to make a period movie, without it looking
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like a period movie. “We wanted to take a more modern approach. We had lots of early discussions about that and about moving the camera more than we’d done before. The takes in this movie were much longer and all the sets and shots were less designed than in The Shape of Water . We were a little bit looser in the camerawork, although it is still very precise. I think that’s great for the story and for the actors. The lights and movement should be very precise, but also a little bit loose on the other hand.” PLAYING WITH COLOUR Lighting was an integral part of the discussions, with Laustsen and del Toro preferring single light sources. They wanted to keep practical fixtures out of the frames as much as possible. Laustsen cites the ship sequences as an example of this. “We have all the soldiers holding torches when they’re standing. We like light when it’s organic and moving around. We did speak about whether or not live action flame torches would be too dangerous, but I fought very hard for them because when the wind and light is changing, they look organic and really beautiful in the light.” Laustsen tested using candles to light the older sets, though he admits candlelight can get too soft. He used candles within the frame, but relied on light fixtures and fire effects for the key lighting. “Half of our fire effects were visual effects,” he says. “For example, if I am putting a light into the chimney or
the fireplace, our visual effects supervisor Dennis Berardi is putting a flame on top of that light. We were cheating a lot in that sense.” In terms of practical lighting fixtures, Laustsen resorted to old-fashioned lights. “We had big lights outside the windows: 24K Raptors and 24K Dinos. We used more tungsten light in the studio,” he details. “We had LED lights as well. On location, you have to work with where you are and so some of those were led with tungsten and some HMI. I’m never using HMI in the studios, however. If I need steel blue, then I put steel blue on the lights at the studio. The locations are always another discussion because you are fighting the sun, the weather and the elements. It’s a challenge, but when you have time to do it right it looks really nice.” Laustsen is no stranger to steel blue, having frequently used the colour across
his other films. “We attempted to escape from steel blue colours, but we love it so much,” he says. “It works so well with the ambers and golds and so we returned to it again. We tried to get away from it but couldn’t, and it works so well in this movie. Red was another important colour and element in the flashback sequences with Frankenstein’s mother, it’s very distinctive with her dress and the blood.” The sets, creature, costume design, hair and makeup and the overall colour palette were meticulously planned down to the smallest details. “We were not going to change the colour in post,” says Laustsen. “Our dailies and the final movie are very alike. We’re not making it warmer or colder because if you do that then the whole colour palette is sliding to another side. We shot a lot of tests during pre- production to make sure we had the right colour on both the costumes and sets.
IN THE THICK OF IT Laustsen rose to the challenge of shooting on location
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THE doctor’s
house alone WAS SHOT IN AROUND five or six locations ”
the filter behind the lens and that burns the highlight out beautifully. If you put a diffusion filter in front of the lens you get a filter flare instead of a lens flare, which makes a big difference. Our lenses were 24mm and you can get really nice close-ups with that. It’s not a super wide angle because the sensor is big, but it is a beautiful lens as it doesn’t distort and has a wonderful depth-of-field fall-off in the close-ups.” Laustsen is particularly proud of the scene when the creature sees the sun for the first time after Frankenstein opens his bedroom’s blinds. “That’s a very romantic scene with lots of flare and light coming through the window,” he explains. “There were lots of times when we shot directly into lights like that.” To capture the underwater sequences, Laustsen relied on an age-old theatre trick that he’d previously used in The Shape of Water . “You fill a stage with lots of smoke,” he says. “Then you have a film projector hanging and shooting straight down with a gobo that makes it look like there’s water moving around. There’s no water there at all, it’s 100% smoke with light moving around. On top of that, you have a small wind machine in order to make the characters’ clothes move a little and you are shooting high speed. We fell in love with it during The Shape of Water . It does look a little artificial but somehow also real. And the actors aren’t restricted because there’s no water: it’s an old gag from the theatres.”
If, for example, our costume designer Kate Hawley is making a green dress and I’m lighting it with red, then it’s going to 100% change. We tried to be very specific about the colour palette for each scene, but I don’t do a LUT.” OLD TRICKS Laustsen opted to shoot the entire film on ARRI ALEXA 65, accompanied with Leitz THALIA 65 lenses. “For the last few years, we’ve shot ALEXA 65 on remote heads and then LF on the Steadicam. We used 95% of the sensor, so we had 5% crop for the visual effects. I really love the ALEXA 65 because I like the big sensor combined with the tighter lenses, but sometimes it gets a little too sharp.” To resolve this, Laustsen shot with a diffusion filter inside the camera. “I had
A LOYAL CUSTOMER Laustsen used an ARRI ALEXA 65 for all 105 days of the shoot
The shoot lasted around a staggering 105 days. “We shot in Toronto for a very long period of time, then Guillermo and I went to London to do some of the lab scenes, which was a more miniature shoot. We then went to Scotland with another team as well. Frankenstein’s house consisted of five or six different locations and that was a challenge to keep the same feeling and colours going from one frame to another to make it look like it’s all the same location.” Laustsen enjoyed reuniting with del Toro. “It’s like coming back to your brother,” he concludes. “This was a very visual story and although I like to be in the studio controlling everything, the locations on this film were fantastic. You just cannot build those locations. Guillermo has been dreaming of making this film his whole life, so it felt like I was doing something very special.”
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PRODUCTION WICKED: FOR GOOD
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WICKED: FOR GOOD PRODUCTION
DOP Alice Brooks, ASC talks colour theory & creative intent on Wicked and Wicked: For Good “Every lighting cue, every lens choice, every movement is rooted in emotional intention”
WORDS KATIE KASPERSON IMAGES UNIVERSAL PICTURES
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PRODUCTION WICKED: FOR GOOD
P ink and green: these
complementary colours have come to represent Jon M Chu’s two-part adaptation of Wicked ,
itself the result of a long stream of adaptations of L Frank Baum’s 1900 novel, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz . Charting the origin story of Elphaba, the so-called Wicked Witch of the West, and Glinda the Good, Chu’s Wicked (2024) and Wicked: For Good (2025) tell a tale of friendship, social ostracism and self-fulfilling prophecies – often through song and dance. Alice Brooks, ASC took the reins for the cinematography on both films, having previously worked with Chu on In the Heights (2021), another film adaptation of a Broadway musical. Friends for nearly 25 years, Brooks and Chu began planning Wicked and Wicked: For Good by keeping the story’s emotions front and centre. “For movie one, these were emotions such as celebration or desire or choice, and for movie two, they were things like sacrifice and separation and consequence,” she explains. “As our discussions deepened, we quickly realised that the first movie would be effervescent and glowing, while the second would have more of a weight and density to it. Every lighting cue, every lens choice, every movement is rooted in these emotional intentions.”
MAPPING TWO MOVIES After establishing the story’s emotional beats, Brooks parsed thousands of images, creating a moodboard that featured everything from Instagram photos to stills from classic movies like The Empire Strikes Back . “It was all over
the place,” she admits. “The next process was to create a colour script – a hand- painted drawing for each sequence in the movie – or sometimes a few if things tonally shifted,” Brooks continues. “I picked one photograph per scene and put them up on the wall in sequential order. When I stepped back and softened my gaze, I could see where we were light and dark. I could see the entire arc of both movies as one whole.” Brooks and Chu took two years – plus an additional 18 weeks, officially – to prep the Wicked films. “I had a crew of over 200 people, and we shot on 73 sets, 17 sound stages, four backlots and three locations: a huge scope of things to keep track of,” she admits. To keep everyone organised and on schedule, “my team would create weekly packets that included, at a glance, the emotional intentions, colour script, script pages, shot list and storyboards.” To map out the more complex sequences, such as the films’ combined total of 26 musical numbers, Brooks and Chu would “shoot video of dance rehearsals and then cut them together from our iPhone footage,” she describes. Those too were included in the weekly plan packets.
TAKING A TURN The celebratory emotions that defined Brooks’ creative approach to the first movie gave way to darker themes of separation and sacrifice in Wicked: For Good
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I SAW THE emotional ARC OF BOTH MOVIES AS one whole ”
LOOKING GOOD Brooks used two different lenses for Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande’s contrasting characters
COLOUR-CODED When production rolled around, the team had nine months to shoot two movies. Filming at Sky Studios in London, Brooks used an ARRI ALEXA 65, Panavision prototype anamorphic lenses as well as thousands of lights – including Cineo Quantum IIs – provided by Universal Production Services. Again, colour guided the production design from costumes and set-builds to Brooks’ careful lighting choices. “Colour has always meant something in Oz, from the original L. Frank Baum books to The Wizard of Oz and Wicked . In the books, every single paragraph has a rich, poetic colour description. For me, the poeticism was what I was really leaning into.”
Brooks lit every scene in a different shade, assigning meaning to each one. “For instance, red meant wrong choices,” she shares. “You see it in the governor’s mansion and during the scene between Elphaba’s mom and her lover. In the second movie, you see it in her sister’s suite, when her shoes begin to glow. I used orange for Elphaba’s transformation,” she continues, “and in the second film, you see it in No Good Deed . In For Good , we used real flame and torchlight with this beautiful glow to it. There’s a scene called ‘the Melting of the Wicked Witch’, which is also orange.” Yellow corresponds to Glinda’s intuition, appearing when she creates the yellow brick road and, in For Good , during
her wedding to Fiyero and the final scene. Pink stands for popularity, while blue is the colour of love between Elphaba and Glinda, according to Brooks. “Colour tells you what isn’t necessarily spoken.” As for lensing, Brooks chose a 65mm anamorphic for Elphaba, played by a painted-green Cynthia Erivo, and a 75mm for Glinda, played by a platinum blonde Ariana Grande. “I found Cynthia’s lens first during a camera test. But when I put it on Ari, it didn’t quite fit with her more bubbly personality. They are incredibly different characters.” In Wicked , Elphaba and Glinda often appear in the same frame, while in For Good , “they are together very little,” Brooks reveals. “In the first film, we
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created these beautiful, symmetrical shots. In the second movie, Glinda’s world is refined and elegant and very much like an old MGM musical. Round images encompass her.” Meanwhile, for Elphaba, “we shot her handheld so she’s raw and real and textured. We do these extreme close-ups on her that we didn’t do in the first movie. The dichotomy of their two worlds quickly became part of our Sticking to their roots as stage musicals, Wicked and Wicked: For Good were both primarily filmed practically. “All our sets were real, built and tangible. We had very little blue screen,” Brooks details. “When Elphaba is flying we used blue screen, but on our biggest stage she’s on wires and tuning forks and our Technocrane is spinning around her. We captured all those movements in camera.” In both films, animals play an essential role. Many are professors at Shiz University, where Elphaba, Glinda and Fiyero attend school. And, like in The camera language.” PRACTICAL MAGIC
Wizard of Oz , flying monkeys accompany Elphaba in For Good . “With the animals,” begins Brooks, “we had people in grey suits on-set. I lit them, then VFX would make sure the lighting matched exactly. It was a seamless relationship between cinematography and visual effects.” TWO AT A TIME Wicked and Wicked: For Good each correspond with acts one and two from the original stage musical. In Brooks’ words, “together, the two films form a continuous visual story, but they each occupy their own world.” During production, however, “we treated it as if we were shooting one movie.” It’s rare for a studio to greenlight multiple movies without any indication of box office performance – but it does happen (the Lord of the Rings trilogy being an example of when it’s worked out). While likely financially motivated, filming the two films back-to-back also encouraged creative continuity. “I don’t think we would have got the same look, feel – even emotional reaction we got to
PAYING ITS RESPECTS All the sets were built in the same vein as musical stage sets
the first movie – had we not made those choices,” says Brooks. “I’m glad we did. I’m so proud of both movies.” While Wicked: For Good is tonally different from Wicked , according to Brooks, “there is a visual heartbeat that intricately weaves the two movies into one. When you step back and look at both films as a whole, every intention is clear, vibrant and beautiful.”
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TECH IMMERSIVE
Charlotte Mikkelborg, acclaimed immersive director and Craig Heffernan, EMEA director at Blackmagic Design, reflect on the promise and pitfalls of immersive storytelling BEYOND THE FRAME I mmersive storytelling promises something traditional cinema never could: the ability to place your viewer directly inside a scene, free to look a project created with Neil Corbould’s Oscar-winning special effects team and starring Joanne Froggatt. And more recently, she series directed Adventure (2024-2025), a live-action Apple TV+ Original for the Apple Vision Pro.
around and explore as they wish. It offers amazing creative potential, but with that comes new challenges, from preventing motion sickness to navigating complex workflows and guiding the audience’s attention. The technical learning curve is a steep one for those who are hoping to venture beyond 2D, but the rewards are tantalising. Charlotte Mikkelborg is one of the directors leading the charge in this space. She started out in front of the camera as a BBC correspondent and had a stint making 2D documentaries and features, before pivoting to immersive content. She’s since directed a string of acclaimed projects, from The Journey (2018), a projection and interactive dome experience that won a CINE Golden Eagle Award, to Fly (2019),
Her first encounter with immersive content was back in 2015, long before today’s sleek headsets and polished production tools. “I had a meeting in LA with a producer who mentioned this 360° Cuban dance piece,” she recalls. “I couldn’t quite get my head around it until I tried on the VR headset. After that, oh my God, the experience was truly eye-opening.” The technology was rudimentary – this was the era of Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard – but the potential blew her away. “I was absolutely captivated. Why wouldn’t you want to be immersed inside a scene, rather than just looking at it on a rectangular screen?”
ENDLESS ADVENTURES Charlotte on
the set of Apple TV+’s Adventure, an immersive series following athletes taking on awe-inspiring challenges
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IMMERSIVE TECH
It wasn’t long before she led her own 360° VR project for the UN called Born into Exile , which follows two pregnant Syrian refugee women in the week leading up to their babies’ births. “The UN were putting money into making this kind of content because they found that it made people more likely to engage and donate,” she explains. Since being contacted to work on Apple TV+’s first immersive series in 2023, Mikkelborg has worked primarily in 180° immersive content. This front-facing format captures everything in front of the viewer, without the full wraparound of 360°. It offers filmmakers the freedom to shoot in ultra-high resolution, using tools like Blackmagic’s URSA Cine 17K, while keeping control over lighting and camera movement. ”There’s an amount of choreography that goes into directing for immersive that you don’t necessarily get in 2D,” she asserts. But the payoff? “You get
someone’s complete attention, and that’s such a rare treat. When we’re watching films these days, we’re often also on our phones – distracted. But with this, you’ve got somebody entirely immersed in your content.” An antidote to second screen syndrome is a win in our books, and we’re pretty sure filmmakers will love the prospect of having the audience’s undivided attention. But in a medium where the viewer has the freedom to explore, exactly how to direct their attention to the thing you want them to focus on becomes the new challenge. It’s something Craig Heffernan, EMEA director at Blackmagic Design, recognises from a technical standpoint. When working with a 180° field of view, he points out, considerations must be made for all elements of the scene, both 180° vertically and horizontally. “In traditional filmmaking, editing, camera movement or in-frame action
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TECH IMMERSIVE
dictates the viewer’s point of view and mediates their emotional connection to characters. All that goes out of the window with immersive production, when the viewer is ‘in the scene’ and can choose their own viewpoint,” he muses. “This dictates some important changes in a director’s approach to mise-en- scène, blocking and camera placement, especially for narrative filmmaking, to ensure the audience stays engaged and doesn’t miss key moments.” He draws a parallel with theatre: “Due to the 180° field of view, an audience member can look wherever they want at any time during a scene. It becomes more like stagecraft in guiding the viewer’s attention.” The way you choose to guide them can take many forms, such as sound or light, suggests Mikkelborg, pointing to The Line , a Brazilian VR short that uses a simple spotlight to guide the viewer’s gaze through a miniature love story. “It’s done in such a simple but clever way,” she enthuses. Multisensory experiences might take this even further. Her British Airways- funded VR experience Fly , shown at the Saatchi Gallery and recipient of the best documentary experience at Raindance in 2020, is an exhilarating journey through the history and possible future of aviation. “We explored all the multisensory aspects that you could include when you have somebody’s entire audio-visual attention, incorporating wind, touch and smell – these are other ways you can direct attention in this medium,” she assures. Shooting with a camera that has a 180° field of view means a different approach when it comes to lighting and audio too, says Heffernan. Lighting rigs and stands, generally placed around set, might now be visible to the viewer, so you need to think about gear that can be subtly integrated and appear part of the environment. “Boom mics would clearly be seen above any camera, so it’s more likely that actors will need to be fitted with lavalier microphones hidden in costumes for their dialogue,” he adds. But immersive production offers an “opportunity to expand existing surround sound mixes by integrating spatial audio, allowing scene- or object-based audio to be captured and mixed in order to
IMMERSIVE BASTILLE DAY Produced by Immersive Flashback for
Apple Vision Pro, a new film captures France’s national celebration using the Blackmagic URSA Cine Immersive and finished in DaVinci Resolve Studio
give the viewer a 360° surround audio experience,” according to Heffernan. “Productions will have to use newer ambisonic microphones, which can capture full-scene soundscapes, creating fully engaging scenes.” Immersive storytelling also changes the equation when it comes to motion. If you get it wrong, it can be a surefire way to make your viewer feel queasy. Mikkelborg recalls the early days when the camera would simply be placed on a tripod in the scene and you’d press record, taking all creative control away from the director.
Over time, though, she and others have learned how to use movement to enhance immersion rather than causing problems. “Smooth cinematic movement can work,” she notes. “In Adventure , which has a motorsports episode, the motion is very fast but it’s still comfortable because it’s smooth, on a single axis and keeps the subject centre in frame. As long as the motion feels purposeful and the body’s inner ear isn’t contradicted enough to cause discomfort, it works beautifully.” Heffernan agrees that camera motion is one of the trickiest balancing acts.
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IMMERSIVE TECH
IMMERSIVE PRODUCTION IS MORE visceral , immediate & engaging ” emulates the lens space of the camera for Apple Vision Pro.” He points out that Resolve’s new toolset also widens creative possibilities: “New tools have expanded Resolve’s support for VFX, graphics and 3D image composition in the immersive space, as well as for mixing and mastering to Apple Spatial Audio. Finally, this needs to be finished and then delivered to Apple Vision Pro, so new tools for rendering and delivering immersive packages for audiences to experience with Apple Vision Pro are absolutely critical. They have been custom-designed and built to process high quantities of media, so the quality of the dual 8K media captured is ready for audiences.” Heffernan’s advice to filmmakers stepping into this world is to be brave and creative. “Immersive production is truly a new approach for audiences to experience storytelling unlike before. For over a hundred years we’ve been invited to watch filmmakers craft stories and introduce characters through the frame of a 2D camera system. Even where 3D camera technology expanded this, adding the illusion of z-axis depth, the scene remained locked to the camera frame and its focus. Immersive production enables the filmmaker to place their viewer in the scene and invite them to be closer to the action than any other filmmaking technology,” he concludes. “It’s more visceral, immediate and emotionally engaging in the hands of great storytellers.”
“Even a slow, steady tracking shot could be enough to create unease and an unnatural sensation of movement when, in reality, you are not,” he explains. “On the other hand, fast-paced movement and whip pans are no-goes, as they can induce motion sickness in the viewer who is fully immersed in the field of view.” You also need to consider the height and relative position of the camera, ensuring it feels natural for the audience, he says. “Using a low-angle or a worm’s- eye view for an immersive production creates an entirely different sensation for the viewer when immersed in a scene.”
Mikkelborg suggests that immersive production is still in its infancy, but she’s convinced it represents the future of screen storytelling. “I’ve been working in immersive for around ten years now and I’m completely biased,” she laughs, “but I have believed since I watched my first 360° film – and I still believe – that this medium is 100% the future. Because of course it’s going in this direction. Why wouldn’t you want to be more immersed in storytelling?” She believes that the potential is still largely untapped. “The more talent that comes to the space the better,” she says. “People new to the medium will do something that we might not expect. I’m excited about more high-quality narratives coming to the space as well because more great content will draw people in. Think about immersive Harry Potter or Game of Thrones where you don’t just watch the story, you feel like you live it.” From a technical standpoint, Heffernan comments that the road is only getting smoother for filmmakers looking to make the leap. “From our work supporting immersive projects, a key learning has been in post- production and the development of a new immersive toolset for DaVinci Resolve,” he explains. “This now offers intuitive editing tools to help manage dual-sensor 8K media as quickly and efficiently as 2D media. There are also new viewer options to check out immersive content in native state, LatLong or a viewport option that
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How Atomos delivers Hollywood in real time
Ninja TX comes with integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and even Atomos Airglu timecode technology. Your footage can be uploaded directly to Frame.io or Dropbox, or streamed to what Shaw deployed on the shoot – the company’s own ATOMOSphere cloud platform. Ninja TX is more than just an upgrade to enable easier sharing. It’s faster and more flexible, and the compact, five-inch body uses a stronger but lighter chassis with an improved thermal design. It now supports 12G-SDI and HDMI, making it compatible with both cinema and mirrorless cameras. And Atomos has also adopted CFexpress Type B for ultra-fast Raw recording or direct capture to external USB-C drives for long-form projects. A stunning 1500-nit touchscreen provides exceptional clarity in any light, with pro-level tools such as waveform, vectorscope, EL Zone false colour and focus peaking built in. Powering it, the all- new Linux-based AtomOS offers faster boot times, smoother performance and over-the-air firmware updates. Ninja TX arrives with every codec pre-activated, including ProRes, ProRes Raw, Avid DNx and H.265/H.264, ready to handle everything from 8K/30fps to 4K/60fps or HD in 120fps. Dual USB-C ports allow simultaneous recording, powering and calibration, while a new locking system keeps cables secure on-set. As a cooler, quieter and faster monitor-recorder than ever, Ninja TX bridges powerful production with modern cloud workflows, delivering the speed and reliability that contemporary filmmakers need. Shaw’s New York Film Festival footage was being edited in California while the applause was still ringing out in Manhattan, solid proof that Ninja TX truly lets professionals work at the speed of cinema.
When Christine Shaw filmed Bradley Cooper’s film premiere, Atomos Ninja TX made sure her footage was in the edit before the applause had faded W hen you get the call to cover the climax of a major film festival, a world premiere showing of a brand-new movie that’s creating noise, speed is of the essence. The world
system she’d used for similar work in the past. She now puts her trust in the new Atomos Ninja TX as the perfect partner to her Sony FX2. With it, she can record high- resolution files to the monitor-recorder and beam wirelessly to the cloud and her waiting edit team on the west coast. “I always take the Atomos Ninja TX on-set with me,” she says. “Not only does it allow me to record ProRes footage, but I can also send the files to the cloud in real time to a remote editor. “I used the ATOMOSphere camera-to- cloud workflow system for the first time in the field for the red carpet shoot at the Lincoln Center. I loved that, with Atomos Ninja TX, I could upload clips I was filming in real time to the LA team. Once I started rolling, the clips started uploading.” Atomos has been gradually developing connected monitor-recorders over the past three years – and Ninja TX is its latest and greatest, released in August this year.
is waiting to catch a glimpse of the Hollywood actors, so reliable and timely delivery is everything. When Christine Shaw of Drop40 Productions was asked to cover Bradley Cooper’s new flick Is This Thing On? as the finale of the New York Film Festival, she was not going to compromise on tech. The big-budget movie, starring Will Arnett, Laura Dern, Andra Day, Emily Blunt and Cooper himself, screened at the Lincoln Center with Cooper and cast members in attendance. Shaw had to make sure her footage was back with the team in Los Angeles as fast as possible. She was confident about getting the job done, having recently decided to simplify her workflow, binning the larger
SHAW THING Ninja TX uploaded footage from Shaw’s camera at a red carpet premiere directly to the ATOMOSphere cloud
More info at atomos.com
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DEFINITIONMAGS
STANDOUT CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Definition team round up their top films and shows of the year, celebrating the ideas, talent and tech that made them shine
DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
STANDOUT CINEMATOGRAPHY
Not only did The Ballad of Wallis Island give us a range of catchy folk songs like Give Your Love and Slip Away , it’s also a moving tale of past loves and heartbreak. Originally a 2007 short film ( The One and Only Herb McGwyer Plays Wallis Island ) by director James Griffiths, The Ballad of Wallis Island was shot by DOP G Magni Ágústsson, ÍKS. Ágústsson opted for the ARRI ALEXA 35 with LEITZ THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND – Oliver Webb
PRIME large format lenses to shoot the film and used natural light sources to portray the beautiful, rugged island landscapes. Wales acted as the fictional island with the main issues involving the erratic weather. Although, ultimately this was a blessing in disguise as the greys and blacks contrasted with the hard light, resulting in a moody, atmospheric backdrop to the film’s poignant story.
– Nicola Foley ADOLESCENCE
Reuniting the Boiling Point team of Jack Thorne (writer), Stephen Graham (co-writer/exec producer/ actor), Philip Barantini (director) and Matthew Lewis (DOP), Adolescence made headlines as much for its filmmaking approach as its harrowing story. As is well known, each episode was shot in a single, continuous take – but it never feels like a gimmick or the filmmakers showing off. In fact, it suits Adolescence ’s unflinching storytelling perfectly – not allowing the viewer a moment to relax as the devastating narrative unfolds. The team battled signal issues, technical failures and the relentless physical challenge of capturing the performances in full each time. So many things could go wrong and kill a take – but thanks to incredible talent behind and in front of the camera, military-level coordination and some important pieces of kit, they pulled it off to make (IMHO) the best telly of the year. When I interviewed Matthew Lewis earlier this year, he told me that the shoot simply wouldn’t have been possible without DJI’s Ronin 4D. This prosumer camera might be a surprising choice, but its small form factor and self-stabilisation allowed maximum agility. They could run with it at full sprint, slap it on a drone, pass it through windows and it’d stay perfectly steady the whole time. It also allowed the use of a variable ND filter, which made exposure control more manageable. For Lewis, Adolescence was also a lesson in how little you need to make a shot look good from a lighting perspective. He and gaffer Max Hodgkinson got clever with blocking and using practical and natural light, enabling the quick-paced production to keep rolling and looking great, while the VELVET KOSMOS 400 colour fresnel fixtures provided hard-light sources. With its unbelievable ambition, complex choreography and blistering performances, this show raised the bar and showed how powerful a well-executed oner can be. It deserves all the awards that come its way.
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DEFINITIONMAGS
STANDOUT CINEMATOGRAPHY
– Katie Kasperson WICKED: FOR GOOD
Based on a long string of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz adaptations, Jon M Chu’s Wicked: For Good completes the story of Elphaba and Glinda, two witches and best friends who’ve been wedged apart. Like the 1900 L Frank Baum book, the 1939 film and 2003 Broadway musical, Wicked: For Good is ripe with all the colours of the rainbow – pink and green holding extra meaning, of course. DOP on both Wicked: For Good and last year’s Wicked , Alice Brooks, ASC worked with Universal Production Services to light each scene in a different shade. UPS provided nearly 10,000 lights – including over 300 Cineo Quantum IIs – to cover 17 stages at Sky Studios Elstree. The resulting film delivers all the magic and emotion of the original book,
movie and musical combined. From the Emerald City of Oz to the enchanted Ozian forest and even down the yellow brick road to Munchkinland, Brooks creates a visual language that stays true to its predecessors while expanding the canon. She does so with an ARRI ALEXA 65, alternating between two Panavision prototype lenses – one
for Glinda’s bubbly, picture-perfect world and the other for Elphaba’s raw reality. While Wicked: For Good follows on from Wicked , it’s heavier both thematically and visually. The dire moments are darker, the celebrations grander and the stakes higher; Wicked: For Good is a visual spectacle that deserves to be seen on the big screen.
– Katie Kasperson SEVERANCE
On its surface, Severance is an office drama set primarily in a sterile, white-walled, windowless room, yet it’s one of the most visually compelling, technically precise TV shows of late. Led by Jessica Lee Gagné, the series’ cinematography isn’t about showing off what the team can do (and they can do a whole lot); every decision has been carefully considered, every camera movement orchestrated. Paying homage to everything from French New Wave cinema to Alfred Hitchcock to The Twilight Zone , Severance is truly a treat for the eyes as much as the mind. Key to Severance is the innie-outie dichotomy; the protagonists head down to the severed floor at Lumon, where they do work that is ‘mysterious and important’ – or so they are told. When they leave, they forget everything, and when they clock in the next morning, vice versa. They live two lives, and the show explores the practicalities and repercussions of this dual existence. To do so, the show’s DOPs define the innie and outie worlds as aesthetically distinct. They play with lighting, lens choice and colour theory to set the two apart, giving viewers a visual language that’s vital to their understanding. The DOPs also utilise ultra-wide shots, symmetry, extreme close-ups and other framing techniques to establish the show’s unnerving tone. There’s an element of surveillance at all times, and the camerawork succeeds at speaking to that.
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