DRAMA | MI DSOMMAR
I feel that green grass is really difficult to get right on digital,” Pogorzelski enthuses. He adds: “Using LiColor2 on set gives me confidence to push the boundaries, knowing I will have what I need in the grade. I can see clearly the richness in the colour rendition. Once we set the LUT, I really just used the LiColor as a film stock. It then allows me to do the rest of it in-camera with lights. It’s just easier for me that way. Having said that, the DI helped mitigate those colour and contrast shifts when the sun changed in the middle of the day.” AFI HISTORY Ari Aster and Pogorzelski attended the American Film Institute at the same time and made Hereditary together – a more traditional horror tale, but with a similar attention to detail. “We’ve worked together for ten years,” admits Pogorzelski. “And we did a whole bunch of shorts before we made Hereditary , which was released last year. We saw Midsommar differently – very much as a fairy tale – which is where the ‘floaty’ camera movement in this Swedish summer backdrop came from.” Cleverly, much of the horror takes place under the high summer sun, creating the sense that outside in the daylight is not a safe place to be. The camera package, combined with the Panavision Artiste lenses, gave Pogorzelski the safety net he wanted,
We were referencing films by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger like The Red Shoes and Black Narcissus
vibrant, pastel colours, referencing films by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger like The Red Shoes , A Matter of Life and Death and Black Narcissus . They were our inspiration for the colour of our film. Add the new Panavision Artiste lenses and a couple of filters to let the whites glow a little bit, maybe a little bit of halation… It’s all to do with the fairy-tale angle. We wanted to make the people glow, but in a very subtle way. It also helped to make the whites a bit creamier and prettier,” explains Pogorzelski. CAMERA MOVEMENT The film’s cinematography is something many reviews mention since, unlike the
IMAGES Director Ari Aster with the cast. The shoot took place in Sweden and Hungary
meaning he could achieve the extreme white essential to the ‘fairy tale’ theme. “I was getting rich colours through the use of the Panavision camera and colour science with a wide latitude, while still exposing the centre quite brightly. The whites were still there and the skin tones held up. I was constantly right on the edge of clipping, but that was when the new Panavision lenses in the centre really performed,” he says. “These are brand-new lenses, but factory detuned Primo 70s, which have softer blacks and gave me that little glow.” The three-strip Technicolor inspiration for Midsommar was solidified by the LUT designed by Harbor. “We were getting rich,
dark, expositional aesthetic of many horror movies, Midsommar ’s fairy-tale look lulls viewers into a false sense of security with bright whites and floaty camera movement. For this, Pogorzelski was keen to use as much grip equipment as possible, including technocranes, drones, three-axis heads and various dollies. “We had a Steadicam dolly and a whole bunch of different tools that we tested with the key grips,” he explains. “We had to be careful with the budget, especially as we had sets to build and dress. So we had to limit the use of the technocrane to when
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