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It was a real dance, much of it figured out on the day” Adam Newport-Berra, ASC on photographing The Invite
DOP OREN SOFFER EVOKES THE 80s IN A24 THRILLER ONSLAUGHT
COLLABORATION TOOLS EVERY PRODUCTION TEAM SHOULD KNOW ABOUT
How Kodak kept more than two million feet of film rolling for the first-ever feature film shot entirely on IMAX cameras SHOOTING A modern epic
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EDITORIAL Editor in chief Nicola Foley nicolafoley@bright.uk.com Senior staff writer Katie Kasperson Features writer Oliver Webb Chief sub editor Matthew Winney Sub editor Chris Young Junior sub editor Tabitha John Contributors Tim Cragg, Adam Duckworth & Joshua Ighodaro ADVERTISING Sales director Sam Scott-Smith samscott-smith@bright.uk.com +44 (0)1223 499457 | +44 (0)7875 711967 DESIGN Design director Andy Jennings Magazine design manager Lucy Jeffery Senior designer Carl Golsby Junior designer and ad production Holly May
T he Odyssey is the film everybody has been talking about this summer. But did you ever stop and think about the practicalities of using two million feet of 65mm film? We know we did, which is why we sought out Kodak to learn about the extraordinary logistics and technical workflow involved in processing such an extraordinary volume of film; a Sisyphean feat to rival anything found in Greek mythology, as we discover on page 8. We also go behind the scenes of A24’s upcoming thriller Onslaught . DOP Oren Soffer, in partnership with director Adam Wingard, blended old-school techniques with modern tech to achieve the film’s tactile, retro aesthetic. Read all about it on page 14. It’s often said that constraints foster creativity, and nowhere is that more apparent than in a film like The Invite . Confined to a dinner party taking place in one apartment, the restrictions were huge, but DOP Adam Newport-Berra, ASC relished the challenge, as he shares on page 20. At the other end of the spectrum is a lesson in visual maximalism from Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF, cinematographer on Boots Riley’s sophomore film I Love Boosters . She reveals how they crafted the look of the movie, from creating a bespoke set of anamorphics with Panavision to integrating a stop-motion animation sequence, on page 26. Elsewhere, we revisit the making of Raiders of the Lost Ark 45 years after its original release, while the latest instalment of The View From... takes us to Iceland. We find out what makes the Land of Fire and Ice such an irresistible filming location – and how it’s punching above its weight on the international production scene – over on page 72. This issue’s Dynamic Duo is showrunner Nick Antosca and DOP Celiana Cárdenas, AMC, who discuss their creative partnership (which has most recently resulted in Apple TV’s Cape Fear ) on page 40. The spirit of collaboration is also alive and well at Manaki
PUBLISHING Managing director Andy Brogden
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Brothers Festival, a celebration of cinematography in Bitola, North Macedonia (page 76); and with IBC around the corner, don’t miss our preview on page 78. Enjoy the issue, and see you next time!
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CONTENTS
PRODUCTIONS 14/ ONSLAUGHT
Oren Soffer blends old-school techniques with modern tech in A24’s action-packed sniper movie 20/ THE INVITE DOP Adam Newport-Berra, ASC talks capturing the single-location chaos of Olivia Wilde’s latest directorial foray 26/ I LOVE BOOSTERS We chat to DOP Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF about bringing this darkly funny crime caper to life in kaleidoscopic colour 36/ MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE How He-Man’s big-screen comeback got its bold but grounded look with help from DOP Fabian Wagner, ASC, BSC and gaffer Jonny Franklin 60/ DEADHEADING Director Jack Hughes and DOP Ash Connaughton discuss finding the right tone for this allotment-set black comedy REGULARS 6/ BEHIND THE SHOT We go under the bonnet of the Battle of the Gullet, House of the Dragon ’s most ambitious undertaking yet
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Editor Nicola Foley spotlights a genre-defying thinker you might have missed DEFINITION RECOMMENDS: THE DRAMA
T his one feels like cheating as it’s such a recent release – starring two of Hollywood’s biggest stars, no less – that it’s not exactly the kind of overlooked gem we normally like to champion here. But I’m willing to bet plenty of you have slept on it. For one thing, the marketing sold it as a frothy romcom, when in reality it’s one of the most unsettling films I’ve seen in a long time. I didn’t initially realise it was directed by Kristoffer Borgli, whose filmography specialises in charting spectacular psychological unravellings, but that would have been a clue that all was not as it seemed in The Drama , which follows an engaged couple as they approach their wedding day. A horrific
revelation during a game of ’the worst thing I’ve ever done’ with friends threatens to destroy everything, forcing them – and us the audience – to consider what we’re prepared to forgive, forget and ultimately accept from our loved ones. From its seemingly sweet meet cute, punctuated by flashes of horror-inspired cinematography that signal something is deeply wrong, the film sustains an almost unbearable sense of anxiety throughout. Borgli ratchets the tension so expertly that, by the time a gunshot rings out during the wedding – in reality nothing more sinister than the hapless DJ suffering a technical malfunction – you’ll almost certainly jump out of your seat, just like I did.
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CONTENTS
40/ DYNAMIC DUOS Writer Nick Antosca and DOP Celiana Cárdenas on how they make their collaborations work 65/ TAKE TWO Forty-five years on from its release, we look back on the stone-cold Spielberg classic Raiders of the Lost Ark TECH 8/ AN ANALOGUE ODYSSEY Go behind the scenes of the first feature film shot entirely on IMAX cameras, as Kodak shares the story behind this monumental 65mm production 32/ WORKING TOGETHER FROM ANYWHERE We round up some of the best platforms helping teams stay connected and collaborating effectively GEAR 42/ TEST SPACE It’s a lighting special in our review section this issue, with fixtures from amaran, Astera and NEEWER put under the spotlight and through their paces 50/ ROUND TABLE The world of PTZs is changing fast – and presenting myriad opportunities. Experts from six leading brands offer their views INDUSTRY 68/ BRIEFINGS News from ARRI Rental, Sony’s latest cinema camera, a new streaming platform and lots more 72/ THE VIEW FROM… Leading figures from Iceland’s film industry share insights into its incentives, infrastructure and vision for the future 76/ MANAKI FESTIVAL IN FOCUS We hear from the festival director at this special celebration of cinematography in North Macedonia 78/ ’DAM BUSTERS With IBC Show around the corner, we look at the content to catch and the stands to see in Amsterdam this September
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Combining dragon combat, naval warfare and VFX on an unprecedented scale, the Battle of the Gullet is House of the Dragon’s most ambitious undertaking yet. Lead cinematographer PJ Dillon, ASC, ISC breaks down an epic sequence
WORDS NICOLA FOLEY H BO’s House of the Dragon opened its third season with the Battle of the Gullet: one of the grandest and most technically demanding sequences ever attempted in an already colossal franchise. A key pillar in Game of Thrones lore, the battle is described in George RR Martin’s Fire and Blood as the bloodiest sea battle in Westerosi history, beginning with an attack on the Velaryon blockade by Sharako Lohar’s Triarchy fleet, escalating into a sprawling confrontation where warships collide with dragon fire, and ending in a devastating death toll. “It’s pivotal because of the scale of the consequences,” begins lead cinematographer PJ Dillon, ASC, ISC ( Wednesday , Game of Thrones ). “The world suddenly feels much larger, but more fragile. You realise the machinery of war has grown beyond the control of any one individual, and that sense of inevitability drives the entire sequence.” In a franchise that has never shied away from ambitious spectacle, this battle – combining ships on hydraulic gimbals, stunts, water, fire, visual effects
and dense plot – was a whole new challenge for the creative team, but they were determined to prove they could still wow their audience. “Scale alone isn’t enough. If the audience loses the story, the sequence simply becomes noise,” asserts Dillon. “So our approach was always about clarity. We wanted the audience to understand the geography of the battle, feel the escalation and stay emotionally connected to the characters throughout. Our job was to give chaos a shape.” Grounded in that philosophy, the focus became about kindling an emotion, as opposed to just chronicling the events as they unfolded. The English romantic painter JMW Turner – known for his turbulent maritime watercolours – was a key reference point, says Dillon. “In works like The Battle of Trafalgar, as Seen from the Mizen Starboard Shrouds of the Victory , what appealed to us wasn’t simply the spectacle but the feeling of being inside it; bodies, rigging, smoke, sails and wreckage all layered together. We weren’t trying to recreate those paintings,” he shares, “but to
capture that same sense of elemental violence and human vulnerability.” The sequence was photographed on an ARRI ALEXA 35 and DJI Ronin 4D, paired with ARRI ALFA and Blazar Remus anamorphics. These lenses’ distinctive bokeh was embraced, with an emphasis on atmosphere over clarity, says Dillon. Lighting, meanwhile, was built around natural elements – fire, smoke, fog, water, sky and shifting sunlight - “so everything felt motivated by the world rather than imposed upon it.” He and director Loni Peristere wanted audiences to experience the passing of a single day as the battle unfolded, moving from cool morning light through warmer tones and culminating in a fiery sunset as the battle reaches its conclusion. That required a lot of infrastructure, including a rig of nine 24-light Dinos for warm sunlight, 18K ARRIMAX units for hard light and a rig of 30 Vortex8 fixtures providing broad, soft illumination across the ships’ decks. Natural light was controlled using 20x20 fly swatters, 40x40 overhead silks suspended from construction cranes and a wire system that allowed black
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BEHIND THE SHOT
silks to be flown over sections of the decks as conditions changed. “We decided very early in prep that there would be no lighting fixtures on the decks themselves. That was partly practical, but it was also an aesthetic decision,” says Dillon. “We didn’t want the lighting to feel overly polished or sculpted, we wanted the images to have a sense of rawness, as though grabbed in the middle of the action.” The approach to movement was to let the story guide the way. They considered capturing the warring ships handheld, but instead opted to mount on hydraulic gimbals. “We felt adding excessive handheld movement risked becoming distracting,” he explains. Plus, “the visual language of House of the Dragon is also relatively formal, so we wanted to preserve some of that control even within the chaos.” After testing on a boat at sea, they settled on Libra stabilised heads mounted on cranes outside the hulls, and Ronin 4D cameras operating on deck. “The Ronins allowed us to retain the immediacy of handheld work while
keeping the horizon stable, which was especially important in selling the ships’ movements within a largely blue- screen environment.” For water-heavy sequences, they relied primarily on handheld ALEXA 35s in splash housings. “Loni insisted there should be no impossible shots,” he adds. “Every move had to feel like something that could genuinely have been achieved photographing boats at sea, which kept the audience grounded in the action.” Shooting the one-day battle took five months – with photography taking place over 27 shooting days in ‘virtually every weather condition imaginable’ – making continuity a big task. They were also contending with moving gimbals, practical fire, water crashing on decks, smoke and large-scale stunts, which all had to work together seamlessly. Another factor was the visual effects. “Much of the work involved making sure the practical photography and digital elements shared the same physical logic - the same direction of light, atmosphere and behaviour,” explains Dillon. “Loni is a former VFX supervisor, so
his understanding of the process meant we were always pushing the ambition of what could be achieved. We were also fortunate to work with Dadi Einarsson, who was a fantastic creative partner. “The most important thing was giving VFX something photographic to hold onto: smoke, interactive light, atmosphere, practical fire, water, focus choices and real camera movement,” he adds. “Those elements anchor an image, even when a great deal of it is ultimately created digitally. That didn’t make their lives any easier but they embraced it and made spectacular work. The best VFX are the ones you don’t think about.” Looking back, “I’m proud that we managed to make something this ambitious feel cohesive. It only works because so many departments are operating at an incredibly high level. The cinematography sits at the centre of those contributions and tries to bind them together into a single experience. “If audiences remember how the battle made them feel rather than how it was achieved, then I think we’ve done our job,” Dillon concludes.
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TECH SHOOTING ON FILM
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SHOOTING ON FILM TECH
As the only remaining manufacturer of colour motion picture film, Kodak played a pivotal role in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey EPIC SCALE
WORDS OLIVER WEBB IMAGES MELINDA SUE GORDON © UNIVERSAL STUDIOS
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F rom Ulysses (1954) to O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and even The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie (2004), Hollywood can’t seem to resist bringing the story of Homer’s Odyssey to the screen. The latest effort – Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey – may not be the first adaptation of the epic poem, but it can claim to be the first feature-length film photographed entirely on 15-perf 70mm IMAX film cameras. And, as if that achievement weren’t impressive enough, the production also embraced large- scale practical effects. The production used the Draken Harald Hårfagre – a 115ft Norwegian longship (the largest Viking longship replica around today) – as Odysseus’s primary vessel, while also staging open- water seafaring, and constructing a 40ft Trojan Horse prop weighing 8800lb and a full-scale Cyclops animatronic puppet. Tackling those demands required an unprecedented quantity of large format film stock. As the only remaining large-scale colour motion picture film manufacturer in the world, Kodak supplied more than two million feet of 65mm camera film for The Odyssey and approximately eight million feet of 70mm film to support the 70mm 5-perf and 70mm IMAX release prints of the film. Kodak works closely with all large- scale productions long before they begin shooting to forecast the specific products they will need. “A film like The Odyssey , with shooting locations across the globe, requires careful logistical
GO BIG OR GO HOME For The Odyssey, Kodak supplied more than two million feet of 65mm camera film, as well as eight million feet of 70mm film for the IMAX and 5-perf release prints
planning and coordination with the production team throughout to ensure the right film products arrive at various locations on time,” begins Vanessa Bendetti, head of Motion Picture & Entertainment at Kodak. The film was shot across six different countries – Morocco, Greece, Italy, Iceland, Scotland and Malta – over a period of 91 days. One of its most impressive sequences is the siege of Troy. To bring this legendary battle to life, the production enlisted around 2000 extras and constructed a 110,000 sq ft set
in Morocco. The UNESCO World Heritage mud-brick Ksar of Aït Benhaddou served as the backdrop for the 2.5-acre city of Troy, with around 60 structures added, including a pillared Temple of Athena. LED lighting and controlled flames were used to stage the city’s destruction. Shooting on film is a fast-growing trend, with filmmakers such as Nolan – as well as Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson and Wes Anderson – all championing the use of celluloid. “In 2024, as part of Kodak’s effort to increase its manufacturing capacity,
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while maintaining the consistent pristine image quality our filmmakers rely on, we planned a five-week shutdown in Film Sensitizing (where light-sensitive film emulsions are made and coated onto the film base) to upgrade equipment. Kodak carefully scheduled the upgrades before production was slated to begin.” Kodak also partnered closely with IMAX in the development of its latest film cameras. Large format analogue filmmaking is revered as the most premium capture method – and a technique that Nolan often embraces. “We understood new cameras would drive additional opportunity for 65mm film,” says Bendetti. “More film cameras would mean multiple productions could engage the format at once, and we were also aware Chris Nolan was interested in capturing the film entirely in IMAX.”
Nolan first used 15/70 IMAX cameras back in 2008 for the opening bank heist in The Dark Knight . He has continued to use IMAX for sequences throughout his films since, and in 2023 he relied on IMAX MSM 9802 and IMAX MKIV 65mm cameras to film the majority of Oppenheimer . This also marked the first film to use custom IMAX black & white 65mm film stock. When it came to filming The Odyssey , the cast and crew needed to be as efficient as possible within limited timeframes. Opting to shoot the film with cameras of this size and on film stock only enabled around three minutes of shooting time per take before they needed to be reloaded. Capturing a sequence such as the siege of Troy was a huge undertaking under these circumstances.
Taking this all into account, Kodak began working several years ago to increase its 65mm film finishing capacity. While furnishing more than two million feet to The Odyssey , Kodak was also shipping significant volumes of 65mm film to the sets of Euphoria and Dune: Part Three . “Through careful, long-term planning to grow our ability to supply, we successfully kept pace with the increased demand without compromising quality,” says Bendetti. While supplying 65mm negative to sets throughout production of The Odyssey , Kodak also worked closely with FotoKem to supply the intermediate and print film required for dailies and release print testing. When more 70mm theatres were added for release, Kodak added surge capacity to supply even more 70mm print stock than planned. This meant working through Christmas and lots of overtime for dedicated film factory employees in Rochester, New York. “Kodak works closely with filmmakers of every level to help bring their stories to life,” adds Jim Continenza, executive chairman and chief executive officer at Kodak. “Visual creators are passionate about capturing their images with the authentic look of film. To ensure Kodak can provide film for decades to come, we continue to invest in product innovation and expanding capacity.” With mammoth productions such as The Odyssey continuing to embrace large format film, Kodak’s investment in celluloid remains integral to the format’s future.
WRIT LARGE Kodak partnered with IMAX for the development of the new cameras, with Nolan having first used 15/70 IMAX cameras for The Dark Knight back in 2008
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PRODUCTION ONSLAUGHT
Oren Soffer, DOP on Adam Wingard’s action flick Onslaught, blended old-school techniques with modern tech to achieve the film’s tactile, retro aesthetic “It was an attempt to evoke the 80s – but not to the point of pastiche or parody”
WORDS KATIE KASPERSON IMAGES A24
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ONSLAUGHT PRODUCTION
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PRODUCTION ONSLAUGHT
T here’s something about the eighties that seems to ignite horror or a light-hearted John Hughes teen comedy, the films of that era still resonate. There’s a look, a feel, a vibe that filmmakers have since tried to replicate, often successfully; take Stranger Things , Everybody Wants Some!! or It , for example, which are all based in the eighties but made in modern times. Director Adam Wingard’s latest project Onslaught follows, albeit loosely, in their footsteps, taking visual inspiration from the decade while being set in the present day. “The way he described it to me,” begins Oren Soffer, who Wingard hired as the film’s DOP, “was that he wanted it to feel like, if you were in the eighties and channel surfing, you could stumble upon this movie – the kind you could pull out of a pile of old VHS tapes and it would feel like it’s exactly from that era.” our collective nostalgia. Whether it’s a shadowy John Carpenter
Soffer pulled inspiration primarily from Carpenter and James Cameron’s filmographies. “It’s The Terminator ,” he says. “It’s The Thing .” After establishing Onslaught ’s visual language with Wingard, “it was off to the races.” BLAST FROM THE PAST While Onslaught borrows some tropes from slashers, it’s an action film. “Visually, it’s drawing from a lot of different genres,” says Soffer. “It has horror, thriller and sci-fi elements. It’s also very funny. It’s a mash- up, and hard to pin down.” The story itself takes place over a single 24-hour stretch, like Die Hard or Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 . A group of genetically enhanced super soldiers have escaped a secret military facility, tormenting the residents of a trailer park – where our protagonist, an ex-army woman named Celeste, fights to protect her family. “There are daytime scenes earlier in the film and then it transitions through
sunset, dusk and then the last two-thirds are at night, with a little bit of daytime at the end,” Soffer explains. “When you’re filming across multiple days, you want the weather to be consistent; once you get into night shoots, it’s a lot easier because you have full control.” Soffer, Wingard and the crew worked on location – nothing was filmed virtually, though VFX did some minimal clean- up in post – in New Mexico, where the production designers built a trailer park set from scratch, which they used for both exteriors and interiors. Other locations included the military facility, a truck stop and an “ Eyes Wide Shut -esque sex club,” which they filmed at the Turquoise Museum in Albuquerque. They filmed day for night at the latter – placing blackout curtains beyond the windows to conceal any hint of sun – but shot the rest overnight. While night shoots and physical set builds were partially the result of a constrained budget, this more traditional filmmaking method lent itself to the eighties aesthetic they were aiming for. “It was to evoke the look and feel of that era,” Soffer states. “We attempted, as much as possible, to do practical effects, like gunshot squibs, glass shattering sparks and explosions.” At the truck stop, there’s a shootout scene that “sends things flying,” says Soffer. “It’s exaggerated. Those films have this tactile, intense nature to them, and we embraced that in our filmmaking choices – as well as our cinematographic choices.”
BACK IN TIME Onslaught pays homage to the eighties with a melting pot of genres such as action, horror and sci-fi
THERE’S SOMETHING about the 80s THAT SEEMS TO ignite our nostalgia ”
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PRODUCTION ONSLAUGHT
EVOKING THE OLD DAYS Soffer swapped modern devices like drones and gimbals for Steadicams, tripods and dollies – because “that’s what filmmakers in the eighties had at their disposal,” he says. He extended this logic to lens choice as well, opting for Panavision E Series anamorphics. “So many of our references were shot on those lenses, and they have such a distinct look. Even our choice of focal length was inspired by films of that time; we studied our references and noticed that a lot of shots were telephoto. “In terms of lighting,” Soffer adds, “especially in the nighttime work, we wanted that backlit, blue look. We called it Terminator blue. We were specific about that in the colour grade and throughout the entire process, but I don’t think we did it to the point of limiting ourselves,” he clarifies. “It was all an attempt to evoke or be inspired by films of that time and channel them, but not to the point of pastiche or parody. Our number one priority was the story, and we didn’t want these things to take precedence.” Filming largely at night, Soffer sought a camera that would perform well in low light. For his main body, he doubled up on the ARRI ALEXA 35, which has a Super 35 sensor and a maximum ISO of 6400. In turn, “we were able to light with relatively low-power, low-wattage LEDs, as opposed to much bigger, brighter, more traditional lights,” he shares. “We did embrace modern technology,” using a combination of Aputure, NANLUX, Astera and Creamsource fixtures. He also employed the Sony FX3, fitted with Blazar Remus anamorphics, for car mounts, in tight spaces and other specialist shots.
On-set, each trailer had practical lights both inside and out, which were all placed by the film’s electrical team. “We also used these theatrical, hard spotlights,” sometimes to mimic moonlight, which was then softened by artificial fog or haze, à la A Nightmare on Elm Street or film noir. Soffer played around with colour, too, using full- spectrum RGB LEDs. GOING BIG While most of Onslaught is relatively restrained, stylistically speaking, Soffer decided to have some fun with the sex club scene. “We’re introduced to Drew Starkey’s character, a government agent who is sent to clean up after the escaped super soldiers,” he says. “The location is a fancy-looking mansion, and lighting- wise, we basically went crazy.” By day, the museum displays gems and jewellery under sterile, fluorescent lights; in the
film, it was stripped down and ‘decked out with candles’ to make it feel more ‘strange and seductive’. For Soffer, “It was fun to create the palette for that. We put red lights and a blue spotlight outside the stained-glass window. We put in atmospheric haze, so you could see these blue beams, and then there’s all this candlelight. If you saw a before and after of this location – what it was and what we turned it into – you wouldn’t believe it was the same space.” He added other details, such as a strobe light, into the sequence to build a deeper, more believable world. “It just adds a little colour, metaphorically and physically,” he describes. The crew had been spending so much time at the trailer park that they welcomed this change of pace. “We were so grounded in reality that when we had an opportunity, we were like, ‘How neon, saturated and colourful can we get – and get away with?’” Soffer says. “We pushed ourselves, and whenever you do that you second- guess yourself. But often that’s when you make the most interesting choices. ‘Is this too much? Is this too far?’ The answer is almost always no.” While the crew hadn’t planned on it, Soffer was pleased that Onslaught was selected for an IMAX release. He urges audiences to see it in cinemas – just like they would have in the eighties. “It looks amazing on the big screen.” Onslaught is set to hit US theatres on 4 September
STICK TO YOUR GUNS Panavision E Series optics, the same lenses used on many of the films Onslaught was referencing, gave Soffer the look he was after
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PRODUCTION THE INVITE
DOP Adam Newport-Berra, ASC breaks down filming the chaos of The Invite’s single-location dinner party “ How can we make this apartment feel more like a landscape than a confined box? ”
WORDS OLIVER WEBB IMAGES A24
A fter a short hiatus from films, 2026 is proving to be Olivia Wilde’s year. Starring in the highly anticipated I Want Your Sex and Behemoth! , with several more projects slated for 2027, Wilde also returns behind the camera with her third directorial feature following Booksmart and Don’t Worry Darling . Wilde’s latest venture, The Invite , follows a dinner party that spirals into unexpected territory when a couple invite their upstairs neighbours over for dinner. Starring alongside Wilde is an ensemble cast made up of Seth Rogen, Penélope Cruz and Edward Norton. BOXED IN Adam Newport-Berra, ASC first met Wilde in 2025 on the set of The Studio , in which Wilde plays a fictionalised version of herself in the missing-reel episode. Working on the show also marked his first collaboration with Seth Rogen. Later that same year, producer Saul Germaine asked Newport-Berra if he would be interested in talking to Wilde about a project she was working on.
“I was excited by Olivia as a director and loved the script,” he begins. “That same week, I randomly ran into Seth in New York and told him to tell Olivia to hire me. I was really craving a project where we could sit with close-ups and focus on performance, and not jump through quite as many technical hoops.” A remake of the 2020 Spanish film The People Upstairs by Cesc Gay, The Invite is confined to one space (opening sequence aside). Newport-Berra was admittedly excited by the prospect. “I tend to be drawn to projects that have some sort of red flag like that,” he laughs. “I find it quite liberating to have one hand tied behind my back because it forces me to think in new ways. For me, the whole question was: how can we make this apartment feel more like a landscape than a confined box?” Newport-Berra and Wilde looked at several films that predominantly feature one location. Their biggest touchstone was 1966’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? . “We had a lot of other references that weren’t necessarily one location but contained interiors
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THE INVITE PRODUCTION
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PRODUCTION THE INVITE
NEW SPARKS The Invite was shot across a period of 23 days, with the majority on a soundstage at Sunset Las Palmas Studios, as well as on location in San Francisco. Newport- Berra shot on 3-perf 35mm, selecting the Panavision Panaflex Millennium XL2 camera and Panavision GW lenses custom built by Dan Sasaki. “The lenses were originally made for VistaVision, but Dan ended up building a full set for us. They were beautiful lenses, I loved them. He’d barely finished them in time, and when they showed up to set they were just these silver metallic barrels where all the markings on them were handwritten.” Newport-Berra ended up shooting a lot of the longer dialogue scenes with two cameras to expedite the coverage and make sure they didn’t tire the actors out. He admits that each scene was challenging in its own way and he was always trying to come up with the most inventive or dynamic way to shoot
with multiple people throughout a long period. We also looked at films that had interesting composition within interiors.” Newport-Berra points to Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’Eclisse as an example of a film with dynamic staging of actors, the use of reflections and high or low angles to make a mundane space feel more dramatic. He also lists the films of Éric Rohmer as a strong influence on how to make interiors unique and magical, even if they are somewhat banal. “ Le Bonheur by Agnès Varda was a really strong reference in terms of colour and close-up photography,” he adds. “She makes things romantic, seductive and magical. Again, a lot of her stories take place in mundane situations that we can all relate to. She has a certain grace and magical quality to her After reading the script for The Invite , Newport-Berra admits he had a very different idea in mind for laying out the apartment. However, when production designer Jade Healy shared her vision of a labyrinthine set, he was excited by the possibilities. Healy created a series of hallways, doorways, frames within frames and ways to separate the characters. “She did all that while maintaining a consistency in the architecture that very much feels like a San Francisco apartment,” adds Newport-Berra. “Some friends from San Francisco visited the set and were blown away by how real it felt. Jade did a great job of honouring the real architecture, while also creating something unique that was very fun to shoot. My favourite part was that inner hallway you can see into from inside the apartment. It creates all these angles and you can shoot through multiple windows to see across the apartment. It creates this mystery and drama in the middle of the apartment, which I found so fun to play with.” filmmaking that sucks you in.” ARCHITECTURAL AMBITIONS The goal was to make it feel dynamic and always be evolving the filmmaking, ensuring that every scene felt like a
logical progression from the previous scene. Newport-Berra didn’t want it to feel confined or claustrophobic unless the scene called for it, and then he could mirror that emotion. Newport-Berra and Wilde put together a map of the general trajectory of the movie, showing where characters would be at different parts of it. Each day they blocked it with the actors and talked through the scene, then everyone would bring their own ideas to the table. “It was a real dance and much was figured out on the day because we also didn’t shot list the movie,” he says. “We came in with an idea of how we wanted to shoot scenes and conceptual ideas of how we wanted a certain scene to feel, whether it was awkward, sexy, intimate or distant. We’d have these keywords in the back of our head that would inform the framing and the blocking. We had a good idea of how we wanted to carve out each scene and we got an embarrassment of riches.”
SET PIECE The Invite was filmed almost entirely in a replica apartment, inspired in part by classic one-location movies
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THE INVITE PRODUCTION
something. He points to one sequence as an example of the framing difficulties. “After Seth falls and hurts his back, they’re all positioned in the living room; he’s sitting on the ground, Olivia’s on the couch, Edward’s behind the couch and Penélope’s on the chair. I was figuring out the camera heights and the angles for the scene. Seth then eventually sits behind Olivia when Penélope’s giving them the big monologue. It was really tough to figure out how to shoot them so that we could connect and distance them all in certain ways.” Shooting in one location opened up a lot of opportunity, and allowed the cast and crew to focus on crafting the story. Being in one space also meant Newport- Berra could come up with a lighting plan that worked for the whole film. Initially, the plan was to shoot with lots of practicals and let it play out naturally. “A lot of Woody Allen films feel that way, for example,” he adds. “In Husbands and Wives , there’s a bunch of people in an
and we weren’t getting that nuance of their performance.” The crew ultimately wanted more volume to the lighting, so to combat the issue they constructed thin-profile soft boxes on the ceilings. Although they were on a stage, they wanted a ceiling to be able to shoot at a low angle. ”We had a capped ceiling with practicals, then built soft boxes that could be easily moved in and out of the ceiling. These created a soft fill and a base layer of light for the apartment, bringing out the texture of the set decoration and giving more shape to the actors’ faces. From there, we added floor-based lighting for each shot using Astera Titan Tubes fitted with Lightsock Dooplo diffusion sleeves.” Newport-Berra is grateful for the group of people he had around him, and credits gaffer Len Levine, key grip Adam Kolegas, camera operator Mark Goellnicht, first AC Lucas Deans and second AC Robbie Julian for bringing their own expertise to the project. He also enjoyed working with a cast that brought so much to their characters. “They are all accomplished in their own right, so they know how blocking and staging works in mise-en-scène,” he says. “Seth was also given a chance to do something he doesn’t normally do – and it’s one of his best performances. They all dipped into each other’s genres and played in each other’s worlds. It became this beautiful collage of performances that’s very funny, but also dramatic and heartfelt.”
apartment with the lights on; they each move in and out of the shadows and it feels natural. We shot some tests using that same method but didn’t love the way it looked. It forced the actors to be in certain places because of the shadows
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Cutting-edge performance High-resolution Raw footage demands storage that’s every bit as capable as the camera recording it. The Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield delivers A t first glance, an artisan bladesmith and a filmmaker don’t appear to have much in common. But look a little Edmonds. When Edmonds needed a campaign to launch his latest range of knives and chef’s accessories, Freeman was again entrusted to tell the story. Their collaboration is built on a
Creating cinematic images in studios – or an active workshop – presents its own difficulties, so Freeman relies on equipment that’s proven time and again in demanding production environments. His set-up includes several cinema cameras that record high-quality Raw footage directly to an external PSSD over USB-C. This has become a crucial part of his workflow, eliminating the need for offloading footage during a shoot. “For my Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera 6K Pro, Samsung is a recommended supplier, and the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield is fully approved,” explains Freeman. “I know it’s fast, rugged and reliable enough that it will never let me down.” For a production that switched between the studio for clean product shots and Edmonds’ Derbyshire forge – where flying sparks, dust and heavy equipment are all part of the working environment – durability mattered as much as performance. That’s where the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield proved its worth. Protected by a tough, rubberised exterior over a robust aluminium body, the portable drive has been designed to withstand the knocks of location production.
closer and you’ll realise that both rely on precision, craftsmanship and an obsessive attention to detail. Whether handcrafting a top-quality chef’s knife or producing a striking commercial film, creative success comes from choosing the right tools for the job. That’s why filmmaker Gary Freeman has enjoyed a long-standing creative partnership with master bladesmith Ben
successful working relationship that has already helped raise Edmonds’ profile through appearances on Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch , BBC’s Escape to the Country and a TEDx Talk. For the latest campaign, the brief was to capture not only the beauty of the finished products but also the drama, sparks and spectacle of the forging process itself.
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Rock-steady storage
T hese days, every production is really two shoots in one. Alongside the main cameras, there’s a constant demand for behind-the-scenes content to feed social media, websites and client marketing. That’s why Gary Freeman never heads to a shoot without a gimbal camera. Compact enough to keep in a pocket yet capable of producing smooth, stabilised footage, it’s his go-to machine for behind-the-scenes clips and walkthroughs, dramatic gimbal moves and time-lapse sequences. When the camera is always rolling, reliable storage becomes crucial. Freeman appreciates the safety and size of Samsung’s PRO Plus micro SD to help him keep pace with every shot. Available in capacities up to 1TB, it provides enough space to record hours of high-quality footage. With read speeds of up to 180MB/s and write speeds of up to 130MB/s, the Samsung PRO Plus handles demanding video recording with ease while moving footage quickly once it’s time to edit. It’s equally at home in action cams, drones and smartphones, making it a versatile choice. The Samsung PRO Plus micro SD delivers the speed, capacity and reliability today’s creatives need to keep rolling from the first shot to the last.
THREE OF A KIND Choose between stylish black, beige and blue colourways
More information: samsung.com/uk/memory storage/portable-ssd images rather than managing data. And, on a shoot where the only thing sharper than the knives on display was the actual production itself, that’s exactly how filmmaking should be. made immediately rather than waiting until everyone returns to the edit suite. Portability is another advantage. With cine cams, lenses, lighting and support gear already filling the van, every gram matters. The Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield weighs just 98g and measures 88mm long by 13mm thick, making it easy to slip into a camera bag or even a pocket without adding noticeable bulk. The portable drive is ready to use straight out of the box with Mac computers and also supports Windows PCs. Pre-installed Samsung Magician software enables personalisation with a custom name, password protection and drive health monitoring, giving you extra confidence that valuable footage remains safe throughout production. Available in 1TB and 2TB in black, blue and beige – with an added 4TB black version – there’s lots of room for high-res footage without worrying about storage. For Freeman, the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield has become more than just a place to store files. It’s an integral part of a fast, dependable workflow that lets him concentrate on creating compelling
It’s rated to IP65 for water and dust resistance and can survive drops of up to three metres, making it ideal for working in unpredictable environments. The aluminium construction also helps dissipate heat, helping maintain reliable performance even during extended Raw recording sessions. Performance is equally impressive. With sustained write speeds capable of supporting demanding 8K and even 12K recording, the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield had no trouble handling Freeman’s 6K Raw workflow. Recording directly to the portable drive meant there was no interruption to production while footage was backed up elsewhere. The Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield is up to 9.5-10x faster than an external hard disk drive (HDD) when using USB 3.2 Gen 2, thanks to sequential read and write speeds of up to 1050MB/s and 1000MB/s respectively (actual speeds depend on the host device and conditions). “Having the footage already on the Samsung Portable SSD T7 Shield speeds everything up so much,” says Freeman. “I simply plug the portable drive into the laptop, instantly review the footage and show the client too. It’s slick, efficient and looks professional, which is really important when you’ve got a team waiting on location.” That streamlined workflow doesn’t just save time. It helps maintain momentum on-set, allowing creative decisions to be
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PRODUCTION I LOVE BOOSTERS
“It’s a visual
feast”
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I LOVE BOOSTERS PRODUCTION
W hether through his music or movies, Boots Riley doesn’t shy away from strong opinions. His latest project, I Love Boosters , shares his usual anti-capitalist agenda, following a group of ‘fashion-forward philanthropists’ – otherwise known as shoplifters – called the Velvet Gang, who steal clothes from designers and then sell them at a steep discount. Like Riley’s directorial debut Sorry to Bother You , I Love Boosters is equally absurd, featuring something called a ‘skin suit’, a teleportation device, LaKeith Stanfield as a daemon and a minutes- long car chase that blends stop-motion animation with live action. All of this was captured in camera by DOP Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF, who jumped at the chance to work with Riley after being unavailable for Sorry to Bother You.
Writer-director Boots Riley’s second film is even more vibrant and visually absurd than his first – but the ideas are just as important as the execution. We chat with DOP Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF, who helped bring crime- comedy I Love Boosters to life
WORDS KATIE KASPERSON IMAGES NEON
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PRODUCTION I LOVE BOOSTERS
SPEAK YOUR MIND Keke Palmer (pictured) stars as Corvette, a shoplifter and member of the Velvet Gang, a reflection of Boots Riley’s (below right) political ethos
“I’m always attracted to directors who are bold, brave and have a strong visual identity,” begins Braier. “I’m already kind of edgy and experimental, but I like people who push me even further out of my comfort zone. It’s also important that the content of what we’re telling aligns with my values, so finding somebody like Boots I was jumping up and down with happiness when I read the script.” KEEPING IT REAL Braier has shot her fair share of music videos, and she’s no stranger to visual maximalism. “Music videos allow you to experiment with new techniques without being tied to a story,” she says, seeing them ‘more like poetry’ than films, which might be beholden to a plot. With I Love Boosters , “even though it’s a visual feast, everything is rooted and grounded in the emotions, characters and ideas in each scene. If you don’t engage emotionally, then you don’t engage with the ideas.” The film takes a stab at late-stage capitalism and overconsumption, as well as surveillance, propaganda and labour strikes. The Velvet Gang – Corvette, Mariah and Sade – team up with Metro Designers factory worker Jianhu and retail employee Violeta to take down the unethical fashion empire. “For me, the big challenge was to materialise this through cinematography that is visually stunning but rooted in emotion,” shares Braier. The film is simply bursting with colour, from hair and makeup to the costumes
Riley and Braier worked to find a look that would mimic analogue stock as closely as possible. “I usually go to anamorphic lenses as the first layer of treatment because they’re softer and have the fall-off,” she says. “But a lot of what we wanted is hard to find on anamorphic lenses, like very close focus. This is tricky, especially on old glass.” Braier tapped Panavision’s resident lens guru, senior vice president of optical engineering Dan Sasaki, who created a special set of anamorphic lenses specifically for I Love Boosters . “I started to build, along with Dan, all the qualities I wanted to have. I wanted softness in the skin, the close focus. I wanted to be able to shoot wide open because
and production design. Sometimes they coordinate and sometimes they contrast, but vibrant hues are always at the fore. Braier says ‘everything had to be heightened’ to reflect Corvette’s internal state, while maintaining a sense of reality. “In some scenes, the set or costume design defies reality. My job was to keep it all grounded. I didn’t want to lose the audience; it still has to be real for them.” Braier used LED lighting for its flexibility, as they often shot multiple scenes in one day and hardly had time to prepare. “I had to adapt,” she admits, which is often the case with indie films. “I had to work with what was in front of the camera.” As they couldn’t afford to shoot on film (instead opting for an ARRI ALEXA 35),
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PRODUCTION I LOVE BOOSTERS
China, “Boots wanted to do a simple split screen,” says Braier. “We had a hula hoop, so the actors could actually jump through something. We wanted to do as much in camera as possible.” The LaKeith Stanfield scenes – his character is referred to as the Pinky Ring Guy – were all handled in camera too. Whenever he’s on screen, he stares into the lens, and the picture pulsates while the background blurs and falls away. “We called it the ‘love lens’,” Braier says – whenever Corvette sees him, the world warps. “We had to find a way to do something that didn’t mean bringing in a whole rig. We needed something versatile, so that we could have it in five minutes instead of spending half an hour setting up an effect.” The solution combined someone physically moving the lens, to mimic a beating heart, with a beauty light rigged onto the camera. “As LaKeith drags Corvette into this state, we’re upping the light and at the same time closing the iris. The lighting stays constant, but the quality changes, and the background gets darker,” Braier says. This balancing act required three people – someone moving the lens, someone adjusting the light and someone closing the iris – to sync perfectly. “It was a lot of coordination to get it right,” she admits. “It was very stressful – but it was fun.” I Love Boosters is scheduled to premiere on 30 October in the UK
OUT OF THIS WORLD The film plays with vibrant colours and costumes that defy the limits of reality
we had exterior night shoots. He took different pieces from different lenses – old lenses from the forties and fifties that were on the shelves, accumulating dust. We created an amazing set.” CHEAP TRICKS The stop-motion scene, which lasts for several minutes, was shot in a day and a half. “For ten pages, that was nothing,” insists Braier. “It’s a big scene in a big space, with a lot of people. It was quite challenging for me because I normally like to light for the space so that I don’t have to relight, which allows the director to have more time with the actors.” In this particular scene, however, it starts out dark and indistinguishable and gets brighter about 30 seconds later. “I had to figure out how to play on the edge of seeing and not seeing,” she reflects. Braier filmed the scene – where
several characters are revealed to be wearing skin suits over their skeletons – chronologically, as this helped her block each camera movement. “We were shooting towards our girls, who were delivering their lines,” says Braier. “Then, we would shoot the reverse, towards the skinless people. We would shoot it with stand-ins, just to frame it, and then take them out and shoot it empty.” The stop motion was added months after the principal photography. “The people that did it were on-set, taking measurements so they could reproduce the lighting, the lenses, the angles,” Braier explains. “They did an amazing job.” Lower budgets often force creativity and necessitate the use of practical tricks. So, when the characters jump through the teleportation device, which transports them between the San Francisco Bay Area and urban
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