PRODUCTION. RED ROSE
The difference here is that Red Rose comes from the same stable as The Enfield Haunting , the drama series starring Timothy Spall, Juliet Stevenson and Matthew Macfadyen; and paranormal docuseries True Horror for Channel 4. In other words, production company Eleven (fans of Stranger Things will get the link) knows how to do horror. Salazar called on the help of his long- time collaborator and cinematographer Ricardo de Gracia, who needed very little convincing to get on a plane to England. “The minute I read episode 1, I was thrilled to be part of this project. It featured many of the things that I love most about movies: soul and different layers all open to interpretation,” de Gracia explains.
“Organicity, simplicity and a vintage look were what the team was after across the series”
series is that they’re fast, lightweight and relatively cheap.” VFX plays an integral role in the series, and the show’s producers called on the services of Space in Manchester and Dazzle in Prague. According to de Gracia, he met with VFX experts several times to develop the main lines for the project. “We needed to meet them in order to discuss ideas,” he says. “Organicity, simplicity and a vintage look were what the team was after across the series, for VFX and everything else. “We weren’t looking to show off, but use simple and imperceptible effects. We used green screen mainly and wanted the eighties look. Although VFX was involved throughout the series, I wanted it to
His brief was to make certain scenes as unnerving as possible, so he had to think about the best kit for the job. He chose the Sony Venice and EZ series of Angénieux zoom lenses, which de Gracia used with some aplomb on Élite with Salazar. “That’s because I wanted to make it look like we were using zoom as a kind of language, trying to create a layer of depth in the picture,” he insists. “Zoom gives the audience an eerie feeling that something is going on under the surface. What I like about the Angénieux EZ
NORTH BY NORTHWEST Red Rose is a love letter to the post-industrial town of Bolton and its surrounding moors – the homeland of writers Michael and Paul Clarkson
26. DEFINITIONMAGAZINE.COM
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