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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