Ac Ac0624

FOR YOUR EMMY CONSIDERATION
IN ALL CATEGORIES INCLUDING

OUTSTANDING
DRAMA SERIES
CINEMATOGRAPHY
FOR A SERIES
(ONE HOUR)
Adriano Goldman, ASC, BSC, ABC
“Sleep, Dearie Sleep”
“ONE OF THE MOST WELL-MADE

TV SHOWS IN THE MODERN ERA.” OBSERVER
FYC.NETFLIX.COM THE BELOVED SERIES BIDS FAREWELL
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June 2024 The International Publication of the American Society of Cinematographers
Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC

Shoots Back to Black
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TO VIEW ALL TITLES, PLEASE VISIT
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F O R
20
Y O U R E M M Y ®
5/3/24 3:52 AM
C
COVER STORY STORARO AND HIS DIRECTORS
024
Y ®
C O N S I D E R A T I O N
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DECEMBER 2022 / 1
5/3/24 3:52 AM
JUNE 2024 VOL. 105 NO. 6
Contents Features
18 Civil War: Chronicling Chaos
Rob Hardy, ASC, BSC reteams with director Alex Garland to shoot
an epic vision of the United States as a future dystopia at war with itself.
32 Earth-Shattering Optics for

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Ben Seresin, ASC, BSC explains how custom lenses and advanced
optics impacted the look of an ambitious monster mash.
46 Crafting Texture for Back to Black

Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC details her approach to the
Amy Winehouse biopic.
18
56 Challengers: An Intense Courtship
Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and director
Luca Guadagnino serve up a steamy tennis drama.
64 Lifelong Lessons
The ASC Master Class strives to educate and inspire as Society
members impart personal perspectives on cinematography.
Departments
8 President’s Desk
10 Shot Craft: Lens Aberrations and Tunable Optics
72 Clubhouse News
76 New Products and Services
79 Ad Index
80 Wrap Shot: Salvador (1986)
VISIT THEASC.COM
32
On Our Cover:
Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC (right) and B-camera operator Dora
Krolikowska shoot a scene on a set dressed as the Soho,
London offices of Island Records for the Amy Winehouse biopic
Back to Black. (Cover design based on original photo by Dean
Rogers, courtesy of Focus Features.)
2 / JUNE 2024
p. 2-3 TOC V5.indd 2 5/3/24 4:02 AM

OUTSTANDING LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES
OUTSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR
BOTTOM FRAME CAPTURE FROM CHEVALIER (SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES).
A LIMITED OR Anthology Series or Movie

ROBERT ELSWIT, ASC
“ABSOLUTELY BRIMMING
WITH STUNNING, CRISP, AND
JAW-DROPPING
BLACK AND WHITE IMAGES FROM
ACADEMY AWARD -WINNING CINEMATOGRAPHER
®
ROBERT ELSWIT.”
FROM ACADEMY AWARD WINNER

®
STEVEN ZAILLIAN
FYC.NETFLIX.COM
APRIL 2024 / 15
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AMERICAN
CINEMATOGRAPHER
MANUAL EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
PAPERBACK EDITION4 Stephen Pizzello
WEB DIRECTOR and PUBLISHER

David E. Williams
This budget-conscious version
of our revised 11th edition of EDITORIAL
our essential technical refer- MANAGING EDITOR Andrew Fish
ence is now available from the
American Society of ASSOCIATE EDITOR Max Weinstein
Cinematographers. SHOT CRAFT and TECHNICAL EDITOR Jay Holben
CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Rachael K. Bosley, Iain Marcks
With the same content as our
hardback version, this
VIRTUAL PRODUCTION EDITOR Noah Kadner
edition is designed for on-set VISUAL EFFECTS EDITOR Joe Fordham
use and is a must-have for WRITER/RESEARCHER Tara Jenkins
cinematographers and other
ASSOCIATE WEB EDITOR Brian Kronner
motion-imaging profession-
als — at a reduced price.
Edited by M. David Mullen,

CONTRIBUTORS
ASC and ASC associate Benjamin B, Mark Dillon, Sarah Fensom, Michael Goldman,
member Rob Hummel, David Heuring, Michael Kogge, Matt Mulcahey, Jean Oppenheimer,
contributors to this edition
include Society members Phil Rhodes, Peter Tonguette
Bill Bennett, Christopher
Chomyn, Richard Crudo,
Richard Edlund, John C. CREATIVE DIRECTION and DESIGN
Hora, Levie Isaacks, Dennis
Edwin Alpanian
Muren, James Neihouse,
Sam Nicholson, Steven
Poster, Christopher Probst,
GET YOUR ADVERTISING
Pete Romano, Roberto
Schaefer and David Stump.
COPY NOW! ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Sanja Pearce
323-952-2114 / Fax 323-952-2140 [email protected]
Topics covered in this edition ADVERTISING SALES DIRECTOR Jeff Victor
of our “filmmaker’s bible” 310-241-3166 / 847-721-2730 [email protected]
include:
• Evaluating digital cameras SUBSCRIPTIONS, BOOKS and PRODUCTS

• Taking ownership of your sensor CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Saul Molina
• The color science behind modern
CIRCULATION and EVENTS COORDINATOR Carlos Molina
lighting instruments
• Virtual production/emissive screens
• Digital versions of day-for-night and infrared ASC EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Terry McCarthy
cinematography ASC SPONSORSHIP and EVENTS DIRECTOR Patricia Armacost
• Imax/large-format cinematography
• Specialty lenses CHIEF OPERATIONS OFFICER Alex Lopez
• Variable frame rates CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER Natalia Quiroz
• ASC Color-Decision List (ASC CDL) MEMBERSHIP and EVENTS ADMINISTRATOR Salvador Maldonado
• Academy Color Encoding System (ACES)
DIRECTOR OF FINANCE and ACCOUNTING Thanh Lai
STAFF ACCOUNTANT Ariola Lopez Lamas
American Cinematographer (ISSN 0002-7928), established 1920 and in its 105th
year of publication, is published monthly in Hollywood by ASC Holding Corp.,
Order today — for yourself or as a gift 1782 N. Orange Dr., Hollywood, CA 90028, U.S.A., (800) 448-0145, (323) 969-
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books-videos Advertising: Rate card upon request from Hollywood office. Copyright 2024 ASC
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and at additional mailing offices. Printed in the USA. POSTMASTER:
Send address change to American Cinematographer, P.O. Box 2230,
Hollywood, CA 90078.
4 / JUNE 2024
p. 4-7 Masthead and ASC Board 2.indd 4 5/3/24 4:03 AM

Introducing the Angénieux EZ-3
S35 45-165mm T2.3-T3 | FF 68-250mm T3.5-T4.5
bandpro.com
OCTOBER 2023 / 5

American Society of Cinematographers
The ASC is not a labor union or a guild,

but an educational, cultural and
THE WORLD’S LEADING INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL professional organization. Membership is
by invitation to those who are actively en-
ON MOTION IMAGING DELIVERS THE INSIDE STORY gaged as directors of photography and have
OF MODERN CINEMATOGRAPHY demonstrated outstanding ability. ASC
membership has become one of the highest
honors that can be bestowed upon a
the American Society of Cinematogra
phers
professional cinematographer — a mark
The International Publication of
May 2024
February 2024 The International Publication of
the American Society of Cinematogra
phers
of prestige and excellence.
OFFICERS 2023/2024
Shelly Johnson
President
Charlie Lieberman
1st Vice President
John Simmons
2nd Vice President
Patti Lee
3rd Vice President
Charles Minsky
Treasurer
Dejan Georgevich
Griselda
Secretary
Armando Salas, ASC
Christopher Chomyn
The Stills Issue Sergeant-at-Arms
4/3/24 9:47 PM
MEMBERS
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1/7/24 7:30 PM
OF THE BOARD
From new camera systems and lighting options to the creative Patrick Cady
use of virtual-production methods, American Cinematographer Steven Fierberg
examines the latest tools and techniques while maintaining Michael Goi
Shelly Johnson
sharp focus on essential creative collaborations and the Patti Lee
artistry of visual storytelling. Charlie Lieberman
Karl-Walter Lindenlaub
• Print Edition – Learn from the best Charles Minsky
and build your permanent reference collection Lowell Peterson
Lawrence Sher
• Digital Edition – Access AC magazine content John Simmons
anywhere you are while on the go Eric Steelberg
• AC Archive – Dive deep into more than John Toll
100 years of information and inspiration Amy Vincent
Mandy Walker
SUBSCRIBE TODAY ALTERNATES
Dejan Georgevich
store.ascmag.com/collections/subscriptions Denis Lenoir
Steven Poster
Mark Irwin
Christopher Chomyn
ASC MUSEUM
Steve Gainer, Curator
Richard Edlund, Co-Curator
6 / JUNE 2024

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A B L E P L E A S U R E
OUSTANDING CINEMATOGRAPHY
FOR A L IMIT ED O R ANT HO LO GY S ERIES O R MOVIE
Alexander Dynan, Director of Photography
THE NEW YORK TIMES
“BEAUTIFUL
CINEMATOGRAPHY”
COLLIDER
“DARKLY COMIC
AND LUSHLY
EROTIC”
VARIETY
“TELEVISION
STORYTELLING
AT ITS BEST”
COLLIDER

President’s Desk
PORTRAIT BY JOHN SIMMONS, ASC.
In April, I found myself at the NAB Show in Las Vegas, alongside many I love how crewmembers interconnect with each other, creatively or
other ASC members and staffers. I was there to represent the Soci- logistically, within our world around the camera and the director. Each
ety and moderate a panel of filmmakers from Masters of the Air (AC film comes alive and finds a way to seek something new and individual
April ’24). This panel included one of the show’s cinematographers, Jac in a manner that is touched by humans — an evolution that is not possi-
Fitzgerald, as well as the sound mixer, members of the VFX team, and ble via a computer’s generative response.
the executive producer. The ensuing discussion illustrated how a group While I was at NAB, Tiffen held a 50th-anniversary celebration hon-
can create an artistically supportive structure during production. I was oring ASC associate Garrett Brown and his groundbreaking invention,
impressed with how frankly this cross-section of people spoke to the the Steadicam. Humble as ever, Garrett spoke eloquently about his
importance of maintaining a collective creative voice, and how that con- regard for fellow inventors and his own crewmembers. He added that
cept coalesced and became something unified onscreen. he felt a heartfelt affinity for the generations of camera operators that
This collaborative dynamic reaches far beyond what an audience have learned to use his invention on landmark films over the past sev-
might feel on the surface during their first look at any production once eral decades.
it reaches the screen. The prowess of an actor’s performance or the Like other innovators in our industry, Garrett has felt the lineage of
capable hand of the director are easy talking points — but the conver- the people around him, and he graciously acknowledged them for cre-
gence of the crew’s work creates the bedrock that supports all other ating the on-set energy that is conducive to expressive storytelling. As
endeavors. Collaboration is what brings cohesion to this process, and almost any cinematographer will tell you, it’s that amalgamation of talent
this has always been the most interesting part of physically making a that manifests itself in work that an audience can not only see, but feel.
movie. In most cases, we are in awe of our fellow cinematographers
and collaborators because we appreciate how each crewmember has
blazed their own trail to get to where they are today — and that respect Best regards,
for another’s journey contributes to bringing this family together.
Shelly Johnson
ASC President
8 / JUNE 2024
p. 8-9 President's Desk V4.indd 8 5/3/24 4:04 AM

F O R Y O U R C O N S I D E R A T I O N
OUTSTANDING LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES

CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE
ROBERT HUMPHREYS, ACS
“
HHHH ROGEREBERT.COM
”
“CONSTANTLY COMPELLING.”
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
TO VIEW ALL EPISODES, PLEASE VISIT

www.PeacockFYC.com
p. 8-9 President's Desk V4.indd 9 5/6/24 1:23 PM

Shot Craft By Jay Holben
A user-tunable Otto Nemenz/P+S Technik Ottoblad lens.
PHOTO BY JAY HOLBEN.

Lens Aberrations and Tunable Optics
The cinematographer’s choice cinematographers a great deal image-reproduction errors (i.e., type and spacing between the
of lens significantly impacts the of creative control within a single aberrations). When an optical lens elements.
visual expression of the story family of lenses. designer creates a new lens Each degree of freedom in
being told. Generally speaking, prescription, they are work- optical design, especially curva-
the cinematographer chooses a Physics and the Balancing Act ing primarily to mitigate these ture of front and back surfaces
lens for an entire project or on a First, some background. aberrations and get the best per- and spacing between elements,
scene-by-scene basis. In most As I’ve said many times before, formance out of the lens, given is critical and must be precise
cases, the characteristics of the no lens is perfect. The very fact restrictions of cost, size, speed, down to hundredths or even
lens are fixed, and if the cine- that light passes through another format, etc. thousandths of a millimeter. This
matographer wants more or less medium — in this case, glass — There are seven primary ab- exactitude is necessary for the
character, they must switch to a means it is altered by the new errations — spherical, chromatic, lens to perform to the designer’s
different lens. medium, and there is always astigmatism, coma, field curva- prescription.
One of the most exciting de- some loss of integrity in the ture, geometric distortion and vi- With an extremely simple
velopments in modern lens design image reproduction. gnetting — and there are multiple optical design, such as the Cooke
is the introduction of optics that Certain properties of physics variations thereof. Each element Triplet, all seven aberrations
have variable characteristics are unavoidable. One is that in the lens offers the designer can be fairly well mitigated with
within a single lens — and this light passing through the very up to five “degrees of freedom,” just three optical elements and
goes beyond the amount of center of the lens is altered the each of which can be specially their spacings. Modern lenses,
aberration that can be reduced in least by the glass, but rays that designed to correct an aberration. however, often feature 10 or more
many lenses by stopping down. pass through the lens farther These degrees are: front-of-the- elements of glass to produce an
Several companies now offer from the center become more lens curvature, back-of-the-lens even more refined image.
more malleable options, giving compromised and subject to curvature, lens thickness, glass The faster a lens is — meaning,
10 / JUNE 2024
2024_
Congratulations
Congratulations Dan Perry on winning the Bud Stone
Award of Excellence at the 38th Annual ASC Awards.
The Bud Stone Award of Excellence — named for the longtime co-chair of the ASC Awards —
each year honors a member of the motion-picture community who has made a
significant impact.
sonycine.com
2024_03_SONY_CongratulatoryAd_DanPerry_ASC_F.indd 1 4/26/24 5:24 PM

Shot Craft
PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE CINE LENS MANUAL.

A pair of user-tunable lens series: Panavision’s Primo Classic that was also pushing for more focus distances. This variabili-
Soft Effect (left) and Angénieux’s Optimo Prime. contrast and more resolution, and ty can be frustrating when the
then moved to an interpositive cinematographer finds a partic-
of course, the wider the aperture where this is going? and an internegative, and then ular aberration to be beautiful
opens — the more of the periph- a film release print. There was a and desirable, but has trouble
ery of the lens will be used for Cinematographers’ Choices loss of sharpness throughout the reproducing it under different
imaging, and the harder it is to The end user typically has little imaging chain, and this inspired circumstances. The other issue,
correct the aberrations. For this control over these lens-design the demand for sharper lenses. which is more common, is that an
reason, faster lenses are more decisions. You choose a lens Since the introduction of dig- aberration that works well for one
prone to aberrations. based on its performance and ital-cinema cameras — and, es- shot can be distracting in another
Therefore, the more complex specifications, and as long as pecially, digital exhibition — this — like a pleasant lack of contrast
— and/or faster — the lens, the that lens is well-maintained, degradation is no longer a factor. and veiling glare that becomes
more delicate the balancing act; the results should match your In fact, many cinematographers untenable when moving to a shot
though each degree can correct expectations. When something in find the purely digital image to with backlight.
one aberration, the addition of a lens is out of prescription, then be “too sharp” or “too clean,” and
every new element adds more the performance of that lens will more of them have been reaching Custom Tuning
aberrations and possibly other drop, which may or may not be for less “perfect” optical options Some cinematographers choose
complications. The front curva- desirable. to replicate the look and feel of for creative reasons to have mod-
ture of a lens, for example, can For most of the history of 35mm film projection. This has ern glass “tuned,” or mechanically
affect the refraction of light and filmmaking, optical designers made the lens a more significant altered to induce certain aber-
change the optical power, but it and cinematographers strove to creative choice than ever before. rations and reduce the perfor-
also affects the reflection angle create and use lenses of the best Lenses from earlier eras are mance of the lens. This process
and number of spherical and performance (with a few outliers). not as well corrected for aber- requires a skilled technician who
chromatic aberrations. In turn, Optical design was geared toward rations as modern glass. One of understands the lenses and can
chromatic aberrations can be ad- more contrast, better resolution the problems with vintage glass, not only correctly reproduce the
dressed by using a type of glass and wider apertures. Cinema- however, is an inconsistency of desired effects, but also match
that reduces spectral diffraction, tographers generally chose the aberrant effect throughout a se- those effects with other focal
which may then adversely affect best-performing lenses they ries, or even within an individual lengths in the series. This is no
weight and cost — and spherical could find within a budget and focal length at various stops or small feat! (And one that can
aberrations can be reduced by shunned those that didn’t perform
adding a second element at a as well.
distance, but the second element These tendencies were largely Many cinematographers find the purely
then adds new aberrations. For attributable to the degradation digital image to be “too sharp” or “too clean,”
example, if the rear curvature of of the image that occurred in and more of them have been reaching for
one element is too close to the film prints. The image started
front curvature of the next, you’ll with the camera film negative, a less “perfect” optical options to replicate
get exacerbated ghost flare. See constantly improving technology the look and feel of 35mm film projection.
12 / JUNE 2024

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION
O U T S TA N D I N G L I M I T E D O R A N T H O L O GY S E R I E S
CINEMATOGRAPHY FOR A LIMITED OR ANTHOLOGY SERIES OR MOVIE
DAVID KATZNELSON, BSC, DFF
TO VIEW ALL EPISODES, PLEASE VISIT

www.PeacockFYC.com
MAY 2024 / 13

Shot Craft
BOTTOM FRAME CAPTURE FROM CHEVALIER (SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES).

TOP FRAME CAPTURE FROM THE BATMAN (WARNER BROS. PICTURES).
Above: For this shot in The Batman (AC June ’22), Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS used Arri Rental Alfas (customized element(s) of the lens and replac-
Arri/Zeiss Master Anamorphics) with induced astigmatic field curvature to make the sides fall out of focus ing with the alternate element(s).
while keeping the center sharp. Bottom: On Chevalier (AC May ’23), Jess Hall, ASC, BSC collaborated with ASC Arri has simplified this concept
associate Dan Sasaki of Panavision to customize a bespoke new series of T1 lenses to appear to have more
with its Signature Prime series,
depth of field by reducing resolution and arcing field curvature to mimic the shape of the human face.
adding a rear magnetic filter ring
to the series with a plethora of
be prohibitive for filmmakers — lenses that allow the cinema- which features alternate front and filter options that can be quickly
with more limited budgets and tographer greater control over rear elements for the lens series applied or swapped out to create
resources.) aberrations, in some cases on a that have less robust coatings different looks.
shot-by-shot basis. and therefore produce more Taking this idea a bit further,
Modern Era An early example of this was flare. It’s not a quick alteration; Angénieux offers variable optical
Now let’s look at some adaptable the introduction of the Arri/Zeiss switching to the flare set requires characteristics in its Optimo Prime
or tunable — i.e, user-adjustable Master Anamorphic flare set, removing the front and/or rear series by building in the ability

FOR YOUR EMMY CONSIDERATION
®
in all categories including

Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series
Outstanding Cinematography for a Limited or Anthology Series
ARMANDO SALAS , ASC
“A BEAUTIFULLY SHOT THRILL RIDE.

THE WORLD OF ‘70s AND ‘80s MIAMI IS GLORIOUSLY REALIZED.
WITH STUNNINGLY EVOCATIVE DESIGN.”
FYC.NETFLIX.COM
AMERICAN CINEMATOGRAPHER (ASC)

ISSUE: JUNE: LENSES & OPTICS
NETFLIX: GRISELDA
PUB DATE: 05/24/2024
TRIM: 9” X 10.875” BLEED: 9.25” X 11.125”
Shot Craft
A frame from
cinematographer Kaity
Williams’ Ottoblad test
showing the effect
of the “tuning ring”
from 0 (no effect) to
6 (extreme effect)
and various stages
of induced field
curvature.
IMAGE COURTESY OF KAITY WILLIAMS.

Manufacturers have recently designed lens’ rear group to reduce field progressively intensify the already
flatness, inducing field curvature high-character optics.
tunable optics that feature an added ring, in and making the edges of the The Moment Module 8 is an
addition to focus and aperture, specifically image go soft while the center optical adapter that sits between
to alter the character of the lens. stays sharp. The company has a standard prime lens and the
thus created an entire series of body of the camera — and it’s this
focal lengths with consistent look intermediary unit that features
to disassemble the lens and featuring a Soft Effect — an and tunability that allows the cin- the adjustable ring for inducing
introduce an additional glass ele- adjustable amount of induced ematographer to adjust the effect aberrations. The Model 8 comes
ment in the middle of the optical spherical aberration that’s con- on a shot-by-shot basis — or to in three options: L1, L2 and L3.
design. With a growing number of trolled by a third ring at the front turn it “off” entirely and use the These are offered in several
optional inserts, the choices for of the lens and a calibrated scale lenses’ natural characteristics. mount options — E, EF, PL to E
custom-tuning Optimos to your denoting how much additional ef- As with the Panavision Primo and PL to RF. Designed by ASC
taste are extensive. However, it’s fect is applied. This was inspired Classic Soft Effect and the Arri associate member Iain Neil (See
not easily alterable on a shot-by- by vintage portraiture still lenses. Rental Heroes Look, this third lens Shot Craft, AC May ‘23), recipient
shot basis. The Arri Rental Heroes line of ring features standard 0.8 module of 13 Academy Awards in Scien-
high-character optics comprises gearing so you can add a focus tific and Technical Achievement,
Quick-Tuning Optics a collection of lenses with ag- gear or motor to the ring and ad- the Module 8 enables cinematog-
Here’s where we get to the really gressive character and abilities. A just it with precision during a shot. raphers to add creative character
good part — the following lenses standout is the Look series, which Cinematographer Kaity Wil- to their existing lenses in a cali-
feature an added ring, in addition features a third lens ring that liams and I recently tested the brated method that is alterable in
to focus and aperture, specifi- allows for significant inducement Ottoblads, and the results can be shot.
cally to alter the character of the of optical aberrations. found on Otto Nemenz’s website. These exciting innovations give
lens, which allows adjustment of Otto Nemenz recently Ancient Optics recently cinematographers a previously
certain aberrations not only on partnered with P+S Technik to released the Petzvalux series, a unheard-of degree of control over
a shot-by-shot basis, but even rehouse a series of Hasselblad partnership with G.L. Optics that the look of their images. I look
during a shot. primes and add a “tuning” ring to involved rehousing Lomogra- forward to more manufacturers
The Panavision Primo Classic each lens, yielding a line called phy Petzval lenses with a third joining the fray!
series has several focal lengths Ottoblad. This ring adjusts the ring that allows the user to
16 / JUNE 2024
p. 10-17 Shot Craft V4.indd 16 5/3/24 4:07 AM AMER

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Civil War:
Chronicling Chaos
Rob Hardy, ASC, BSC; director Alex Garland; and effects
experts collaborate on a vision of warring American
states presented through photojournalists’ eyes.
I
By Joe Fordham
n Civil War, a near-future America is torn between a radicalized

U.S. president (played by Nick Offerman) and the “Western Forc-
es” alliance of California and Texas. Director Alex Garland and
cinematographer Rob Hardy, ASC, BSC — collaborating on their
fifth feature — made combat photography integral to their vision,
framing the drama through the lens of a renowned photojournal-
ist covering the events.
“Our approach was always about what it must feel like to be present
in a war zone,” says Hardy. “We wanted to create an authentic immersive
experience.”
18 / JUNE 2024
p. 18-31 Civil War V5.indd 18 5/3/24 4:37 AM

STILLS BY MURRAY CLOSE. ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF A24.
Opposite: Photojournalist Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst) observes

rebel units preparing for battle. This page, from top: Lee’s protégé,
Jessie Cullen (Cailee Spaeny), gets an on-the-ground look at the
conflict’s combatants; Jessie and journalist Joel (Wagner Moura)
proceed with caution; Lee rushes to protect Jessie during an
explosive street battle.
Interpretation and Immediacy

Seeking an interview with the rogue president, the photojournalist,
Lee Smith (Kirsten Dunst), must make a harrowing journey from war-
torn New York City to Washington, D.C., accompanied by her journalist
colleague Joel (Wagner Moura), veteran correspondent Sammy (Ste-
phen McKinley Henderson) and cub photographer Jessie Cullen (Cailee
Spaeny).
“The first thing we focused on was what makes a war photograph,”
Hardy says. “What happens in the moments before and after a picture is
taken? Our intention was to do something that had real immediacy. I de-
scribed the look of Civil War as ‘abrasive.’ We wanted to immerse the au-
dience in this world in a very real way to make it all the more terrifying.”
Production was based in Atlanta, Ga., where military adviser Ray
Mendoza, a former Navy SEAL, coordinated the film’s military presence
with stunt coordinators Jeff Dashnaw and Wesley Scott. Garland notes,
“Ray Mendoza and Jeff Dashnaw are incredibly experienced, creatively
ambitious, clear-minded, can-do guys, [and] it’s hard to overstate their
joint role. The sequences we devised needed a lot of hardware — tanks,
helicopters and weaponry. Ray also brought in veterans to play [some
of the] military characters; they influenced and elevated the film a great
deal.”
Special-effects supervisor J.D. Schwalm and visual-effects supervisor
JUNE 2024 / 19

David Simpson added to on-set action. “Rob and Alex like to shoot fast,
and they like to find shots on the day,” says Simpson. “Alex told me he
wanted military action to be as authentic as possible — he wanted to
choreograph the military operation first and then stage his main cast
around that. So, the action was carefully choreographed before we ar-
rived on set, based on our lengthy roundtable conversations, but it need-
ed to feel like it was happening in real time — hence, no storyboards or
previs. During prep, I watched a lot of newsreel footage, and it was the
unpredictable nature of that footage that inspired my approach to cov-
ering the action.”
An Immersive Mobile Environment

Hardy chose the Sony Venice for his main cameras, teaming them with
Panavision H Series lenses. Sony a7S Mark IIIs served for interior and
exterior multi-camera car rigs. However, the cinematographer estimates
that approximately 70 percent of Civil War was shot using prototype DJI
Ronin 4D/Zenmuse X9 camera rigs paired with specially modified Leitz
M0.8 primes. (See sidebar, page 24.)
The filmmakers sought camera platforms that would best capture
performances in the heat of battle and during the long traveling scenes
in Joel’s press vehicle. “In the past, we’ve used things like Stabileye, Stea-
dicam and handheld,” Hardy says. “What we were looking for was a de-
vice that could give us all that, but with a different way of moving. We
wanted to find visual-capture mediums that would allow us to react in
a way that would be elegant and give us the language we wanted, but
at the same time put the audience right into the action. Our military
advisers created authenticity, and we wanted our photography to im-
merse itself without being disruptive. That comes back to the idea of
From top: Helicopters fly over a rebel encampment; Lee and Jessie pass
creating 360-degree environments, which Alex and I have done on all
a downed chopper; abandoned vehicles clog a highway.
of our films.”
Hardy and gaffer Todd Heater, working with key grip Mackie Roberts,
rigged the press vehicle to capture the actors’ performances on the fly.
The cinematographer explains, “We had three vehicles: a Pod Vehicle,
20 / JUNE 2024
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CIVIL WAR: CHRONICLING CHAOS
with a stunt driver on top; our camera car; and the ‘Coverage Car,’ which
had up to 20 cameras attached. We had four actors in all three vehicles.
We put two Venice cameras on the hood, covering the driver and pas-
senger, and then rigged Sony a7S Mark IIIs around the car so we could
capture reactions at any point. The Mark IIIs were useful simply because
of their small footprint.
“For important storytelling points, we sometimes had driving shots
with a camera out the window looking down onto an actor’s face looking
out, and we’d see the reflection of landscape passing by,” he adds. “We
had cross-shooting with front angles, and reverse angles from the back
looking through the car to the front.”
For Pod Car scenes, where roof-mounted stunt drivers controlled
steering, braking and acceleration — including a sequence in which Jes-
An example of the VFX work that helped turn partial sets (bottom) sie switches seats with a passenger in a passing car — VFX artists erased
into complete onscreen environments (top). the stunt drivers as well as reflections in windows and paintwork.
Most daylight driving scenes required minimal VFX assistance, with
no lighting aside from diffusion or flagging of side windows. “It was
quite a juggling act to rig the cameras in a way that kept them out of each
other’s views,” says Simpson. “VFX occasionally cleaned up the odd cable
that worked loose and snuck into the frame, but the majority of shots
worked perfectly. What we saw outside a car window was real in every
shot. We used no LED screens or greenscreens for driving backgrounds.
It was 100 percent real cars on real roads.”
A Powerful Prototype
Garland and Hardy were thrilled with the combat-photography poten-
tial of the prototype Ronin 4D, which they tested during prep at Panavi-
sion U.K. The rig incorporates the Zenmuse X9, DJI’s flagship full-frame
camera, and the company’s latest image-processing system, CineCore
22 / JUNE 2024

JUNE 2024 / 23

For this boathouse scene, cinematographer Rob Hardy, ASC, BSC

exploited the unique characteristics of a specific Panavision lens to
create a stunning background of light reflecting off water.
Spotlight on Optics | “The Antithesis of a Modern Lens”

Hardy enjoyed a long unofficial prep for Civil War that began years boathouse location, we picked our angle very carefully, and we
before the official one commenced. He and Garland started discussing knew the 75mm would offer up its full glory,” the cinematographer
the project during post on the Hulu series Devs, and then the pandem- says.
ic prompted them to switch gears and focus on the U.K.-based thriller The favored lens “has spherical aberration and a very smooth
Men (AC Oct. ’22). “We had all this time to think and to absorb the edge roll-off that is the antithesis of a modern lens,” notes ASC as-
material,” Hardy says. sociate Dan Sasaki of Panavision. “There is also a unique warmth
The London-based cinematographer made the most of this lead about it that is directly related to the vintage glass types used and
time by evaluating lenses at Panavision U.K. as often as he could. the coatings available during the era [1960s] when the glass was
“Whenever I was there, I’d ask [technical marketing director] Charlie manufactured.”
Todman to pull glass off the shelves,” he says. “We had time to refine Another mission at Panavision was finding lenses for the other
[choices] and get things in place before we were ‘boots on the ground’ camera rigs Hardy planned to use on Civil War — Sony’s a7S Mark
in Atlanta.” III and DJI’s Ronin 4D — that would reasonably match the H Series.
After using Panavision’s H Series lenses on other projects, Hardy Research revealed the Leitz M0.8s as a compact, lightweight op-
was keen to use them again. The spherical lenses “give character, but tion suited to both camera platforms, “but I found the Leitz lenses
they’re small enough to be adaptable to any situation,” he says. to be too clean, so Dan Sasaki and his team [modified] them to
He especially wanted to secure a specific 75mm whose unique ab- match characteristics of the H Series,” Hardy says. “That gave us
errations had dazzled him and Garland before. “While using the 75mm two sets of lenses we could combine beautifully and seamlessly.”
on a shot for Men, “we discovered an insane haloing effect,” Hardy Re-creating some of the singular lens effects in Hardy’s images
continues. “It’s where Rory Kinnear appears as a very untrustworthy for digital composites was an ongoing challenge for the visual-ef-
priest — he was walking down the aisle of a church, we did a tilt down, fects team — but a pleasure, too, according to Simpson.
and this weird, inverted halo appeared around his head. We weren’t “One of the things I loved about Rob’s lens choices was a style
expecting that to happen, but the effect is due to the often beautiful of optical occlusion — at the edge of frame, the bokeh goes from
aberrations in Panavision glass. It’s what makes them unique.” round in the middle to a cat’s-eye shape on the edges,” Simpson
On Civil War, Hardy used the lens for a bold composition featuring says. “We spent ages replicating that because it’s so visually dis-
Lee and Jessie sharing a quiet moment in a boathouse, backlit by tinctive. It’s too beautiful not to do!”
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The production used three vehicles to portray the movie’s press truck:
a “hero” camera car (pictured here), a Pod Vehicle with a stunt driver on
top (middle), and a Coverage Car that had up to 20 cameras attached to
capture both interior and exterior angles (bottom).
3.0. Hardy explains, “If you imagine the body of a chicken, you hold the
chicken from the sides, and its head sticks up vertically. As you walk
along, the camera body moves but the head stays in the same place. The
z-axis gives stability in that way, similar to a Steadicam, but the operator
holds the camera, and they can move and control it from the handles.
For action sequences, it was perfect. We could drop to the ground, lift up
into an elegant move and then move quickly as we followed a character.”
And with the unit’s Sport Mode feature, which, when toggled, causes the
head to lock in place, “if we were pulling back with someone and then
wanted to whip across, we could freeze the head, and suddenly it was a
handheld camera.”
For the test, Garland, Hardy and camera operator/Ronin technician
Chris DuMont took the rig for a drive in Garland’s car. The camera’s light
weight — about 12 pounds — and Dual Operator mode sparked the
team’s interest. “The genius part is that it could also go back to wheels
operated remotely,” Hardy notes. “I would be operating on A camera, on
comms, and we could instruct [another Ronin 4D operator] like a chore-
ography in tandem, where I could take over for the more elegant camera
motions. We could let the camera drop, go into ‘battle’ mode and move
through fight sequences with instant elegance, instant handheld, and
that was all there at the touch of a button. It was brilliant for that reason.
We had six Ronin 4D prototypes.”
Convincing Combat
Battle action includes Lee’s first encounter with Jessie on the streets of
Brooklyn, where a suicide bomber attacks a Western Forces gathering.
The production staged the conflagration in downtown Atlanta, where
Schwalm’s special-effects team initiated the pyrotechnic event. Frame-
store added the Manhattan skyline in the distance and enhanced the ex-
plosion, referencing a mix of documentary footage. Says Simpson, “We
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found news footage and ammunition tests, showed them to Alex, and a real flame, it’s very hard to get that right. We asked the prop depart-
he’d pick the most appropriate one. Then the effects team dug into those ment to provide a mannequin, and after they shot that scene, we filmed
details, always trying to replicate [the] real footage.” that burning. Then we created a combination of the mannequin and the
Jessie’s hero-worship of Lee causes Lee to recall horrors from her plate.”
early career, including an instance when an African man was immolated Stateside horrors unfurl as Jessie joins Lee on the road — highway
within a car tire. Locations in Atlanta doubled for the west coast of Afri- wrecks, bombed-out malls and corpses dangling from nooses. “We
ca and the Middle East. SPFX and VFX collaborated on the immolation wanted to present familiar locations with a civil-war aesthetic, whereas
using a pyrotechnic element. other towns that are unaffected had an uneasiness about them,” Hardy
“One of the things that’s difficult with flames is determining expo- says.
sure,” says Simpson. “How bright should the flames be? Unless you film Practical dressing included 10 derelict vehicles in the foreground of
Top left: The U.S. president (Nick Offerman) addresses

a divided nation. Top right: Lee, Joel and Jessie enter
the abandoned White House. Pictured here: A soldier
battles his way through America’s “Executive Mansion.”

the movie’s most ambitious highway scene. Framestore added to the the ground-level inferno. “I had written this imagery into several scripts
onscreen devastation. “We always kept degrees of real elements,” says previously and had never managed to pull it off,” Garland reveals. “But
Simpson. “Atlanta has a variety of derelict locations, so we found plac- J.D. and I watched some images of cars driving through forest fires, with
es that felt abandoned, dressed them for war and then added buildings terrifying swirling clouds of embers, and he decided to fully take on the
smoldering in the deep background.” challenge. It’s the most stunning in-camera effects I’ve ever seen.”
Tracer fire suggests the threat of war in a nighttime campsite scene. Pyrotechnic devices extended 1/3 of a mile through a forest road, using
Hardy’s crew lit the location with bare incandescent 1K bulbs and a dis- metal “flame tree” structures spaced at intervals. A special-effects spark
tant condor supporting a Nine-light Maxi-Brute. “Tracers were an im- generator mounted behind a truck drove ahead of the follow car and
portant storytelling device,” Simpson says. “Sometimes they’re single Coverage Car, spewing airborne embers. Heater’s crew affixed Astera
stabs of light, and sometimes they draw lines describing who’s shooting LED tubes to the Coverage Car roof rack to add ambience to car interiors.
at whom. It was a needle-threading act to get that balance so you un- Framestore digitally tracked tree structures into practical flames and en-
derstood what was happening. [At the campsite] we see the tracers from hanced two shots to assist ember continuity in the otherwise in-camera
afar, and Alex wanted them to arc and ricochet. At that distance, we [as sequence.
the audience] can ‘safely’ observe their movement. Later, when we’re up “One of our characters is passing away in this moment,” Hardy re-
close, the perspective is more chaotic and dangerous.” veals, “so we wanted to add an element of surrealism. Every one of our
Lee’s group follows Western Forces into a firefight with opposing movies has an element of surrealism, because what’s the point in life
force in a bombed-out housing project, where soldiers advance with otherwise? It was a glorious thing.”
flashlights affixed to weapons. Bad weather plagued the two-day shoot Lee and company pause at a large Western Forces encampment that’s
at the location. preparing an attack on the U.S. Capitol. Framestore added to the se-
“We used Maxi-Brutes for fill in the exterior battle and had the inte- quence with one of the film’s few all-digital shots. Simpson explains,
rior lit from outside,” Heater says. “The problem was, when it came time “There’s one shot on the ground where the Chinooks are picking the
to film the interior part of the scene, we had to shut down our generators
due to lightning strikes. We were in danger of not being able to finish
the shoot as the weather just got worse. So, the interior of that scene was
filmed with Astera tubes, gun flashlights and battery-powered Kino Flo
Freestyle 21s. It was dark, but it worked well for the scene.”
Hardy covered the sequence with multiple Ronin 4Ds, with operators
in camouflage navigating tight quarters using Dual Operator mode. Du-
Mont recalls, “One of the operators carried the camera into the stairwell,
and Rob was there, operating on wheels and comms, framing the shot as
they moved up through the stairs, the z-axis floating the camera through
space. That gave us a nice synergy, moving in and reacting as Rob was
finding the composition.”
The sequence involves editorial freeze frames that simulate Jessie’s
black-and-white stills, emphasizing the photojournalist’s perspective.
“A war photographer is surrounded by chaos, but when they raise their
camera, they must find a stillness in the chaos to capture a picture,” Du-
Mont observes. “The Ronin 4D can do that in Sport Mode — find the still-
ness that a photojournalist finds in that moment. When I clocked onto
that about three weeks into shooting, I understood the decision-making
behind that idea.”
Into the Fire

A later conflict leads Lee and company to flee for their lives by driving
close to a forest fire. The sequence begins at dusk with an aerial view of
the forest captured by aerial director of photography Dylan Goss and he-
licopter pilot Fred North. Framestore added elements of forest-fire pho-
tography and synthetic flames blended in 2D. Schwalm’s team staged
“Every one of our movies has an element of

surrealism, because what’s the point in life
otherwise? It was a glorious thing.”
JUNE 2024 / 29

Tech Specs: 2.39:1

Cameras | Sony Venice, Red Weapon Dragon,
DJI Ronin 4D-6K, Sony a7S III
Lenses | Panavision H Series, Leitz M0.8
“Our intention was to do something that

had real immediacy. I described the look
of Civil War as ‘abrasive.’.”
Humvee up off of the ground, and that became a full-CG shot because
it was an idea that came later. But we looked at it in terms of filming it
for real. We couldn’t safely get close to that helicopter, so we carefully
replicated Rob’s lenses and chose our focal length and our camera body
[to match].”
For the ground assault on Washington, the production used a park-
ing-lot location in Stone Mountain, Ga., as a backlot. Sets of D.C. streets,
backed by bluescreen, included a gun emplacement at the Lincoln Me-
morial and a heavily barricaded White House perimeter. Heater’s team
emulated lighting on high alert using Maxi-Brutes, Arri SkyPanel 360s
on condors and barrier-wall clusters of Fiilex Quad Color LEDs. “[The
lights] needed to be flicker-free, rainproof and color-changing depend-
ing upon [what was being shot],” says Heater. “It was a long sequence,
about eight nights, and we went for a mix of color temperatures as you
see in real street lighting. Our locations team did a nighttime lighting
study of D.C. so we could match it as closely as possible.”
To add environment extensions, Framestore created a 3D model of
Washington based on scouts and photogrammetry studies. “The city
model was insanely detailed,” says Simpson. “It was not just the outsides
of the buildings, but the insides, too — with furniture, desks, computers,
plants, whiteboards and elevators. They put so much into it because we
knew we’d be looking up at buildings or flying over in a helicopter and
would want to see all that detail inside.”
An Indelible Moment
Lee and her surviving colleagues ultimately accompany Western Forces
into a fierce standoff with the president’s staff. Framestore generated
the barricaded White House exterior as a digital model that was nested
into wide shots. The production staged the White House approach and
interiors at Tyler Perry Studios, where stunts and SPFX staged gunfire
barrages using blanks. TPO VFX in London added bullet hits to help re-
duce the need for on-set reset times.
Amid the firefight, Lee is shot while protecting her protégé. Hardy
captured the moment by simulating a 35mm freeze-frame using a Ven-
ice with a remote head on a dolly track.”
“I’m very much an operator/DP,” he says. “We worked with some
From top: Director Alex Garland preps on set for
great operators on this, but everything I do comes back to what the cam-
the climactic battle; Garland confers with Hardy on
era sees. I try to capture as much as possible myself, and the moment Lee
location in Atlanta; Garland at work with actors Karl
Glusman (far left) and Jin Ha. gets hit was one of those singular images that Alex and I talked about
in preproduction. We knew this shot had to cut through the chaos; the
image almost has the weight of the entire movie behind it. How we cap-
tured it was designed specifically for that moment.”
30 / JUNE 2024

JUNE 2024 / 31

Earth-Shattering Optics
for Godzilla x Kong:
The New Empire
Ben Seresin, ASC, BSC employs an array of custom lenses and
advanced optics to immerse viewers in a clash of classic titans.
W
By Iain Marcks
hen cinematographer Ben Seresin, ASC, BSC

reunited with director Adam Wingard for the
sequel to their 2021 monster movie, Godzil-
la vs. Kong, the filmmakers sought to create
a visceral experience that would avoid the
clinical feel of many CGI-laden productions.
“We wanted the audience to be drawn into
32 / JUNE 2024
p. 32-45 Godzilla x Kong - The New Empire V4.indd 32 5/3/24 4:12 AM

UNIT STILLS BY DANIEL MCFADDEN. ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF WARNER BROS. PICTURES.
Opposite: Godzilla and Kong square off in the

Egyptian desert. Pictured here: Dr. Ilene Andrews
(Rebecca Hall) and conspiracy podcaster Bernie
Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) form part of the misfit
crew that investigates Hollow Earth.
the film visually without any technological barriers,” Seresin says of Marzano (Rome and Rio de Janeiro, as well as aerial work). Ongaro notes
the follow-up feature, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire — in which the that the Canon EFs were paired with a six-camera Red Helium array rig,
top-billed titans team up to take down an even-bigger existential threat which was used for plate photography in Iceland.
dwelling beneath the Earth’s crust. “The goal was to make it feel real, like
someone was there with a camera capturing everything as it happened. “That Nice Swirly Feel”
Our solution was a common visual language that could be applied both Seresin had used spherical Petzval-style portrait lenses designed by
in live-action and computer-generated scenes.” Sasaki on the 2023 action thriller The Mother, and he asked the engi-
neer to take things a step further by creating 1.65x Petzval anamorphic
Drawing the Audience In lenses that blended the feel of a familiar environment with an unbal-
Key to the filmmakers’ strategy was a combination of anamorphic and anced element, particularly for Godzilla x Kong’s “Hollow Earth” scenes
larger-format photography, which Seresin accomplished by shooting (in which the main characters launch their plan to take on another set
with 1.65:1-squeeze lenses on the Arri Alexa Mini LF and Red Komodo, of monsters).
and the Alexa LF for high-speed work. The cinematographer initially had “The motion-picture community has embraced Petzval lenses for
reservations about this setup, preferring the distinct purpose served by their nice swirly feel, [which is] often achieved through astigmatism,”
2x anamorphic lenses. “However, after testing Panavision’s Ultra Vista says Sasaki, referring to the optical aberration wherein two light rays
lenses, we found they had a unique characteristic that aligned with our that propagate on perpendicular planes resolve on different image
vision, and [ASC associate and Panavision senior vice-president of opti- planes.
cal engineering and lens strategy] Dan Sasaki’s expertise allowed us to Sasaki’s goal was to create a unique look without making the imag-
fine-tune them for our shooting needs,” he says. es appear overly out of focus or blurry. He produced 37mm, 59mm and
Seresin relied primarily on Ultra Vista 1.65x primes in the 40mm- 90mm anamorphic primes based on the Petzval concept. “Using addi-
180mm range, as well as a custom-built Ultra Vista 35mm and a set of tional elements, I can start altering my field curvature,” Sasaki says.
custom-made Petzval anamorphics. His zoom lenses included Panavi- Throughout production and postproduction, Seresin adjusted lens
sion’s anamorphic ALZ3 270-840mm and ALZ11 48-550mm and spher- effects such as chromatic aberrations and fringing to complement the
ical VA 15-30mm and 28-80mm. Spherical Tribe7 Blackwing7, Helios drama at hand. He recalls, “It became an intuitive process of finding
44-2, Arri Signature and Canon EF 24mm f/1.4 L II USM primes were the right balance to ensure that the visuals enhanced the storytelling
used for 2nd-unit and plate photography, which was shot by 2nd-unit without creating sharp contrasts that detracted from the narrative flow.
director/cinematographer Alessandro Ongaro in Iceland and Qatar, with For example, when the crew [of heroes] land to investigate the myste-
an assist from cinematographers Darin Moran (in Hawaii) and John rious destruction of the Monarch base in Hollow Earth, they become
JUNE 2024 / 33

EARTH-SHATTERING OPTICS FOR GODZILLA X KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE
While piloting a Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicle, the crew is joined by

a flock of winged beasts. Middle: Ben Seresin, ASC, BSC (in hat)
and director Adam Wingard on set. Bottom, from left: Trapper (Dan
Stevens), Jia (Kaylee Hottle), Ilene, Bernie and Mikael (Alex Ferns)
make their way through the jungle.
increasingly concerned with the newly discovered Titan threat. We in-

troduced that sense of unease through the progressive adjustment of
the lenses.”
Bespoke Collaboration
In addition to custom lenses, Seresin’s camera crew carried 13 clamp-
on optical attachments. They could be quickly applied and removed to
create looks ranging from “lite” to “heavy,” depending on the scene’s
requirements.
Developing the attachments and ensuring their compatibility across
34 / JUNE 2024
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different lens sets and focal lengths was a collaboration among Seres-
in, Sasaki and A-camera 1st AC Simon England. Seresin optimized his
workflow by having the main-unit lens mounts converted to PV 65 and
standardized housings to 113mm diameter.
“We experimented with coatings, element designs and lens configu-
rations to achieve the desired effect, such as creating a Petzval-like qual-
ity for the Ultra Vistas,” England recalls. One attachment was used to
enhance a lens’ natural flare, and another induced dramatic color fring-
ing. Seresin adds that there were numerous benefits offered by these
attachments, including “attempting to eliminate any ‘sterile’ lens char-
acteristics, or enhancing fire and flame effects through unpredictable
flaring.”
Each lens needed specifically calibrated attachments or combinations
thereof to address resolution, flares and other characteristics unique to
its focal length and design. Aligning the attachments correctly was es-
sential to maintain sharpness and focus consistency across the frame,
and understanding each attachment’s impact was crucial for England’s
focus pulling, as the field curvature was designed to affect specific parts
of the frame. The most challenging aspect, he says, “was managing focus
due to the multiple focus scales introduced by different [attachments].”
Real-world testing was conducted in environments similar to the sto-
ry’s settings, including the Huntington Botanical Gardens in Pasadena,
Top: Kong forms a bond with Suko, a juvenile ape Titan. Calif. In production, Seresin relied on intuition: “We adapted our lens
Bottom: Steadicam operator James Goldman films
choices to match the evolving environment and narrative. We sometimes
Henry for a jungle-set scene.
found that certain combinations didn’t produce the desired effect until
we pushed them to the most extreme settings, and then we backed off.”
Another important consideration was the cinematography’s impact
on Tom Hammock’s production design. “[Tom’s] inclusive approach
aligned well with our vision,” says Seresin. “We collaborated extensive-
ly on lighting, textures and set design to complement the lenses’ visual
impact, and we used smoke and [other] atmospheric effects to further
enhance the lens characteristics.”
During the testing phase — conducted primarily in Panavision’s
36 / JUNE 2024

Above: A close look at a Panavision Ultra Vista during a camera

test. Right: A custom Panavision lens attachment developed for
the production.
theater via projection — Seresin experimented with the lenses’ resolu-

tion and resolving power to try to anticipate how more extreme looks
and attachment variations would translate to the big screen. Theatri-
cal deliverables included 2D/3D 4K, Imax Digital and Dolby Cinema
masters.
A Unique Post Workflow

For the 2D deliverable, Seresin incorporated a scan-back-to-film step
and special photochemical processing at FotoKem “to introduce a filmic
quality with grain and texture, which is especially important given the
heavy use of CGI,” he says. A 35mm internegative was filmed out at 4K
to Kodak Vision3 Color Digital Intermediate Film 2254, which was then
processed with a bleach bypass before being re-digitized at 4K.
Supervising colorist Dave Cole calls FotoKem’s method “a truly ana-
log intermediate process. Instead of creating a printable neg, we’re using
the negative as a data-storage device with its own characteristics. When
we bring it back in, we match it back to the show LUT before doing final
creative touches.” “We adapted our lens choices to match the
evolving environment and narrative. We
The VFX Approach
sometimes found that certain combinations
Nearly an hour’s worth of Godzilla x Kong is completely computer-gener-
ated. Shot designs were initially planned by Ongaro — who also served didn’t produce the desired effect until we
as the show’s visual-effects supervisor — and the previs company The pushed them to the most extreme settings, and
Third Floor.
then we backed off.”
“I would substantially develop the scenes before presenting them for
JUNE 2024 / 37

L O M O G R A P H Y
FUJI
EBC
38 / JUNE 2024

JUNE 2024 / 39

Mounted to a
remote head, the
camera — fitted
with a 40mm
Panavision Ultra
Vista lens and one
of the production’s
custom-made
clamp-on
attachments
(pictured below)
— captures Hall
and Hottle for a
daytime-exterior
scene.
review with Adam Wingard, and he’d suggest changes in shot composi-
tion or camera angles,” Ongaro says. “The cinematography approach for
the full-CG world closely followed that of the main unit; this included
limiting extravagant camera moves and embracing a more restrained
approach, except for specific scenes where a dynamic camera was
warranted.”
Wētā FX and Scanline VFX did most of the fully CGI work, with contri-
butions from Dneg, Luma Pictures and others. Previs was done in Maya,
enabling the VFX vendors to quickly transition into production without
starting from scratch.
The virtual camera used on the production was modeled after the
Alexa LF, matching its 36.70mm x 25.54mm sensor size for optical con-
sistency. Early in previs, Ongaro used a 2.39:1 aspect ratio, which was
later altered to 1.89:1 to accommodate Imax projection. “This new choice
necessitated using spherical lenses instead of anamorphic ones,” he says.
The filmmakers did a 2.39 extraction for standard screenings, lead-
ing to considerations about cropping and masking for different formats.
“If you favor the 2.39 treatment, then it wouldn’t work for a 1.89 frame
because then you have an extreme look at the top and bottom, but if we
were doing that treatment only in 1.89, when you crop the 2.39, you only
get the look east and west,” Ongaro says.
2024
Behind the scenes and screengrabs from “Tonight We Ride,” with Director of Photography Matt Sakatani Roe.
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JUNE 2024 / 41
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Top: Kong “In the DI, we hard-matted the 1.89 aspect ratio to 2.39 for standard
traverses a bony
screenings,” he continues. “In Imax screenings, the aspect ratio shifts
bridge. Middle:
Seresin confers from 2.39 for the non-CG shots to 1.89, creating a visible change in crop
with Wingard and framing.”
between takes Though not based on a particular lens design, Ongaro’s virtual spher-
for a scene set in ical primes closely mirrored the focal lengths used by the main unit, in-
a chamber within cluding a 65mm, 75mm, 80mm and 100mm. A virtual prescription was
Hollow Earth. developed to mimic the characteristics of Seresin’s stronger character
Bottom: Jia
lenses and attachments, and it was applied with varying intensity based
awakens Mothra
in an effort to on the shot’s context. For intimate or non-action scenes, the treatment
restore the was adjusted to resemble live-action lenses more closely.
protective barrier “The scenes in Hollow Earth and the presence of Titans in full CG
of Skull Island’s demanded a portrayal of depth and scale,” says Ongaro. He chose wider
Iwi tribe. lenses and reduced the lens treatment for shots emphasizing the size of
the monsters as seen from the humans’ POV.
42 / JUNE 2024

Celebrating Cinematography at Cinegear LA 2024
JUNE 2024 / 43

Tech Specs: 2.39:1, 1.89:1

Cameras | Arri Alexa LF, Mini LF; Red Komodo, Helium
Lenses | Panavision Ultra Vista, Petzval anamorphic prime, ALZ zoom,
VA zoom; Tribe7 Blackwing7; Helios; Mir; Jupiter; Tair; Canon EF
Godzilla undergoes a new evolutionary stage.
“The scenes in Hollow Earth and the presence simplify the data. “One significant lesson we learned on this project was
of Titans in full CG demanded a portrayal of the importance of controlling aberrations to maintain their predictabil-
ity,” he says.
depth and scale.” This process involved using computer models to analyze how dif-
ferent elements in the attachments affected lens behavior. “By keeping
aberrations relatively monotonic — meaning that a lightwave holds its
A Blended World shape from barrel to pincushion — we ensured that the CG artists could
Achieving a consistent look between live-action and CG shots meant achieve the desired lens effect without excessive difficulty,” says Sasaki.
that every lens used on set had to be mapped. Ongaro shot grid patterns In the grade, Cole, senior colorist Mark Griffith, 3D colorist Philip
on set as a reference for lens distortion and other optical aberrations, Beckner and assistant colorist Claire Iannelli enhanced the filmmakers’
as well as Christmas lights for bokeh and torchlight for lens flares. The work to blur the line between live action and CGI by shifting focus to
grids were provided to vendors to replicate the lens effect in post. guide the audience’s eye and adding lens aberrations for consistency be-
One of Seresin’s concerns was how the VFX teams would handle tween shots. Simple defocus effects could be handled by a single plugin,
the lenses’ more extreme characteristics, particularly when integrating but lens aberrations were achieved through a combination of nodes in
live-action performers with digitally rendered elements. DaVinci Resolve, allowing Cole to define their contour and where they
Ongaro explains the process: “Visual-effects artists used automated occurred in the frame. For chromatic distortions, he offset the frame
and semi-automated tools to generate a distortion map which, when sizes of the red, green and blue channels. Cole adds that this finishing
reversed and applied to the footage, re-aligned the RGB channels to re- work was completed “more so on the photographed footage,” and that
move or minimize the chromatic aberration. The map also explained “most of the heavy lifting of lens matching in the VFX shots was handled
how the image softened toward the edge of the frame, which helped in VFX.”
with camera tracking, roto and compositing. At the end of the workflow, Says Seresin, “In an industry where there can be hesitancy to push
the lens treatment was reapplied so that the final result with the added visual and conceptual boundaries, the support from Adam, the studio
CGI matched the original image.” and the entire team was encouraging. It’s rewarding when experimen-
Complicating matters was the fact that each vendor had its own tation is embraced, because this kind of exploratory approach is crucial
approach to interpreting the mapping data. Sasaki’s solution was to to innovation.”
44 / JUNE 2024
Amer
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Crafting Texture
for Back to Black
Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC returns to her London
roots for the Amy Winehouse biopic.
By Valentina Valentini
46 / JUNE 2024
p. 46-55 Back to Black V5.indd 46 5/3/24 4:16 AM

P
olly Morgan, ASC, BSC says it
wasn’t pressure, exactly, that
she felt when taking on the story
of Amy Winehouse’s rise and fall
in Back to Black with director
Sam Taylor-Johnson, “but we
really wanted to do Amy’s lega-
cy justice. Here was this incredible artist that had
such a challenging life, and we wanted to honor
her memory.”
When she met with Taylor-Johnson, Morgan
had just finished a triple-hitter: Where the Craw-
dads Sing (AC Nov. ’22), The Woman King (AC Nov.
’22) and Marmalade. She’d been planning to shoot
some commercials and reset, but she was excit-
ed by Matt Greenhalgh’s Back to Black script; by
Taylor-Johnson’s desire to create outside the tra-
ditional biopic rubric; and by the intensely per-
sonal nature of the material, some of which she
was familiar with.
“Amy wrote lyrics as a sort of therapy. So, when
I read the script, I started to understand the deep-
er meaning to her songs and how they related to
her life story,” Morgan says. “Knowing her music
so well and then gaining insight into its signifi-
cance to her struggle opened up her world to me.”
Tactile and Messy

One of the first things Morgan and Taylor-John-
son agreed upon was to avoid an overly stylized
look that would detract from the reality of Wine-
house’s struggles. Another early decision was to
shoot 1.85:1. The director “wanted that height for
close-ups,” the cinematographer says, noting that
such shots were a cornerstone of the shooting
strategy.
“My original intent was to create something
visceral, a film with texture that was tactile and
messy at times — a true reflection of Amy’s life,
not a clean observation of it,” she says.
Back to Black stars Marisa Abela as Wine-
PHOTO BY OLLI UPTON. ALL IMAGES COURTESY OF FOCUS FEATURES.
house and covers the singer’s story from age 17

to 27, when she died of alcohol poisoning. It takes
place mostly in Camden, Winehouse’s North Lon-
don neighborhood, where she worked, sang and
met the love of her life, Blake Fielder-Civil (Jack
O’Connell).
Although there’s a wealth of video footage and
photography of Winehouse — thanks in part to
zealous paparazzi coverage — Morgan recalls that
Taylor-Johnson’s look book was more of a mood
board. One reference the director emphasized was
Ingmar Bergman’s Persona, shot by Sven Nykvist,
ASC, for the importance of close-ups.
The filmmakers did not work from a shot list.
“As an artist in her own right, Sam is very instinc-
tual in her approach to directing and doesn’t nec-
essarily like to over-prep,” Morgan says.
JUNE 2024 / 47
p. 46-55 Back to Black V5.indd 47 5/6/24 2:00 PM

CRAFTING TEXTURE FOR BACK TO BLACK
On Location in London pyramid stage; Hammersmith Apollo; Shepherd’s Bush Empire; and the
Back to Black was shot over 40 days at 54 locations throughout London, Clapham Grand, a music hall built in 1900.
including many places Winehouse frequented — such as the renowned Partial to the color rendition of the Arri Alexa, Morgan tested the Alexa
jazz club Ronnie Scott’s and the streets of Soho, the Dublin Castle and Mini LF against the Alexa 35, which was relatively new at the time. The
Good Mixer pubs, and the passageways and canals of Camden — as well improved encoding on the Alexa 35 was especially attractive because the
as her flat on Jefferson Place. Sets built onstage at Ealing Studios by pro- new LogC4 gave an extended latitude compared to LogC3, encompass-
duction designer Sarah Greenwood, and dressed by set decorator Katie ing the full 17 stops of dynamic range on the camera. “We were going
Spencer, included the interior of Winehouse’s first flat; Glastonbury’s to be shooting on the streets of London in the winter months, and with
TOP PHOTOS BY DEAN ROGERS. BOTTOM PHOTO BY POLLY MORGAN, ASC, BSC.
Previous spread: Amy Winehouse
(Marisa Abela) performs while
her husband, Blake Fielder-Civil
(Jack O’Connell), is spot-lit in the
balcony at her request. This page,
top left: The two have a tense
discussion. Top right: A pensive
moment on stage. Pictured
here: The stage-built interior
of Winehouse’s Camden flat
featured this exterior section to
accommodate characters’ entries
and exits.

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JUNE 2024 / 49

TOP PHOTO BY POLLY MORGAN, ASC, BSC. BOTTOM PHOTO BY DAVID GIESBRECH.
very little lighting support,” says Morgan. “The LogC4 extended high-
lights and had a lot more latitude in the curve, which was advantageous
to us. Also, we wanted what I’d call a ‘classic’ approach with the 1.85:1, so
rather than shooting on a large-format sensor and having that expanded
field of view, I wanted to go back to a 35mm sensor. The Alexa 35 ticked
those boxes.”
Morgan chose Canon K-35 primes as her main lenses. “The K-35s are
fast and flare beautifully but are softer, giving the image a slight ‘fem-
inine’ quality,” she says. “They also felt the most straightforward — a
human point of view.
“Everybody talks about subjectivity when photographing movies, and
we wanted to evoke that emotion within the viewer and help them un-
derstand Amy’s journey,” Morgan continues. “We gravitated naturally to
using the 35mm K-35 about 90 percent of the time on this shoot — that
was just ‘Amy’s lens.’ Every time we lined up a shot, it felt right. It’s not
the most beautiful [focal length] in the world to shoot an actress’ close-
up, but I think it worked for an honesty we were going for. There is a
rawness and a grittiness to the film that I wanted to play into.”
She credits A-camera operator Jason Ewart and B-camera operator
Top: Rigging for a car-interior scene. Bottom: Winehouse wanders
Dora Krolikowska for their excellent work throughout the “run-and-
the streets of Manhattan. “We shot early Sunday morning, because
gun” production.
we had to dress the location with period cars and dressing and get
it in the can before the city woke up,” Morgan says. She adds that (To learn about Morgan’s use of specialized lens effects for height-
the production shot exteriors of the actual Birdland jazz club in ened moments, dubbed “Amy Vision,” see sidebar, page 52.)
New York City as well.
Key Collaborations
In addition to Morgan, Greenwood and Spencer, Back to Black depart-
ment heads included two other women: costume designer P.C. Wil-
liams and hair-and-makeup designer Peta Dunstall. “To have a group
The feeling on set “was open and of women tell Amy’s story felt very powerful,” says Morgan. The feeling
on set, she adds, “was open and collaborative — anyone could join in on
collaborative — anyone could join the conversation.”
in on the conversation.” Morgan cites Picture Shop colorist Natasha Leonnet as one of her
50 / JUNE 2024

JUNE 2024 / 51

After stepping off the stage,
Winehouse performs amid
her fans’ adulation.
PHOTO BY DEAN ROGERS.

most important collaborators on the production. The pair had previous- were true to Winehouse’s style — she began exploring how to make
ly worked together on Crawdads and Lucy in the Sky (AC Nov. ’19). “Nata- them fit within the gritty tone she had in mind.
sha was vital to this film’s outcome from prep all the way through [color “Natasha and I talked about bleach-bypass early on as a way to desat-
process],” says the cinematographer. urate the designers’ palettes,” she says. “The Picture Shop color-science
Morgan had just five weeks of prep, and when she saw the bold colors team, [comprising ASC associate] Joshua Pines and Chris Kutcka, crafted
Greenwood and Williams were employing in their creations — which the LUT, which was a real characterization of actual ENR processing.”
Spotlight on Optics | “Amy Vision”

Morgan used a variety of techniques and glass to render the intensity areas of the frame, drawing the eye to the sharp areas and creat-
of dramatic events Winehouse experienced while drunk or high — mo- ing a heightened image,” the cinematographer says. An optical flat
ments the filmmakers dubbed “Amy Vision.” with glycerin in front of the lens was used for Winehouse’s walks
Sometimes Morgan would shoot at 6 fps for motion blur or with a in Camden in the rain, and a Revar Cine Compression Diopter
90-degree shutter. Or, for a scene in which Winehouse awakens after and Lensbaby 3G were pressed into service for numerous hazy
a drunken fight with Blake, the cinematographer deployed Century moments.
Swing & Shift lenses. The sequence where Winehouse loses her com- Morgan describes another example: “When Amy and Blake get
posure during a performance at Glastonbury called for intense flaring, into a fight at the Sanderson Hotel, we start with a descender rig
which prompted Morgan to use uncoated Arriflex/Zeiss Super Speeds. as she’s running down the stairs away from him, and then cut to a
For the moment when Winehouse smokes heroin for the first time, and Snorricam shot with Abela wearing a [Dark Chamber Media] Z Cam
also when she learns her grandmother has cancer, a 50mm Arri He- with the 35mm K-35. It gives the sense that you are really with her
roes T.One was pressed into service, in particular for its very shallow in all her messiness. When the paparazzi are chasing her, those
depth of field. Morgan used a “crystal wand” — i.e., a multifaceted flashing lights become overwhelming. It’s an invasion of personal
glass prism affixed to a stick — for the singer-songwriter’s nightmare space. We want the viewer to feel that.”
of Blake and his ex having sex on her bed. The tool was employed in — Valentina Valentini
combination with the 35mm K-35, and “created distortion in certain
52 / JUNE 2024

Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC confers with director Sam Taylor-Johnson

about a scene set in Winehouse’s grandmother’s house, the interior of
which was built onstage at Elstree Studios. (Exteriors of this location
were shot at Maida Vale, London.)
Says Pines, “Just like we made ‘real’ film print emulations — by

filming out a zillion color patches to negative stock, then printing that
filmed-out negative to a print stock, and then measuring all those patch-
es individually with a spectro-radiometer — we did the same thing, but
made the print through the photochemical ENR print process at Tech-
nicolor. We did this for different ‘levels’ of ENR, along with a few other
‘special’ photochemical processes.”
Adds Morgan, “The color arc we did in the grade worked at the begin-
Exceed
ning of the film to show Amy’s joy and creativity, with color dominating
the image, and as her story turns darker and more desperate, we desat-
urated the look and leaned heavily into the ENR.”
Expectations,
The ENR silver-retention LUT is not only desaturated but heavy in
contrast. Morgan did various tests with the Picture Shop team to lift the
toe of the curve to a place where she could capture enough information
Not Budgets
in the shadows. The soft contrast of the K-35 lenses helped with this, and
she had to make sure she was always exposing the low end in a way that
would give her the desired flexibility in the final grade.
“Sam and I wanted to shoot on film,” she reveals, “but the limited
prep schedule didn’t allow for enough time for testing. Dailies were done SIGMA CINE lenses deliver top-shelf build quality and imaging
out of Cinelab in London, and we tested for a filmout and scan back to performance on full frame and Super 35. And they don’t cost
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as possible. Sadly, time constraints and budget restricted the amount of professionals — and why more cinematographers are trusting
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viziGrain [film-emulation plugin], which allowed for fine adjustments of Visit SIGMACINE.com for the full experience, including current
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Lighting for Truth

Whether lighting onstage or on location, Morgan strove for an organic,
truthful feel. “I wanted to focus on using light to express Amy’s mental
state and be true to the environments she was in. In the past, I have shied
away from flat frontal light, but on this film, I wanted to explore the Learn more at
reality of the situations and lean into it. I wanted the audience to really sigmacine.com
understand the despair Amy felt and how addiction took hold of her life.”
With the ENR LUT, the cinematographer had to hit the colors hard All lenses protected by a
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for them to read, and she employed a variety of lighting techniques to
JUNE 2024 / 53

CRAFTING TEXTURE FOR BACK TO BLACK
Top: The setup for Winehouse’s 2007 performance at the

Hammersmith Apollo, shot at the Clapham Grand in London. Bottom:
Unit-still photographer Dean Rogers (holding camera), A-camera 2nd
AC Chloe Harwood (in green hat) and key grip Sam Phillips (setting
jib arm) prep for an exterior shot at the Good Mixer pub.
PHOTOS BY POLLY MORGAN, ASC, BSC.

“My original intent was to create something
visceral, a film with texture that was tactile
and messy at times — a true reflection of
Amy’s life, not a clean observation of it.”
do so. She found modern LEDs couldn’t replicate the colors needed with
the ENR LUT, noting, “The LUT took so much saturation away from the
image that, depending where we were on the color spectrum, we had to
explore a different approach.” The crew used large, gelled incandescent
fixtures such as Wendy Lights, Maxi-Brutes and 24Ks. Lee 653 Lo So-
dium (with ¼ Green added at times) took a lot of stop away, so the big
lights were necessary for exposure.
For the concerts depicted in the film, Morgan adds, “I wanted Amy’s
live performances to pop, and when I tested the colors in prep, I just
couldn’t get the correct hues,” she explains. “I contacted Chris Bush-
ell, the lighting designer who had worked with Amy on these actual
54 / JUNE 2024

Tech Specs: 1.85:1

Camera | Arri Alexa 35
Lenses | Canon K-35, Century Swing & Shift,
Arriflex/Zeiss Super Speed, Arri Heroes T.One, Lensbaby 3G.
performances, and he sent me the original lighting list. We ended up

using the same theatrical-lighting units: Palco 3 Mobiles, Mac 2000
movers and 5K Fresnels. They were punchy and strong enough in the
color spectrum to get the color I needed.”
Morgan underscored some dramatic moments with noir technique
only when it seemed appropriate. “An example of this was at the end of
a sequence where Amy and Blake are high on drugs and have a fight,”
she says. “The sequence takes us from the inside of a hotel to the streets
of Soho, with the final scene shot with the taxi’s actual headlights as

the key light [illuminating the characters], to provide high contrast and
reflect the drama in the moment. I added some fill light with [Cream-
source] Vortexes and [Arri] SkyPanels, and lit the background with vari-
ous LED units. Due to the location, we were not able to use any lifts, [so
we] had to light the environment from the ground.”
Morgan remembers living in London when many of the events de-
picted in Back to Black were unfolding — and she “feels honored to help
people gain insight into who Amy was and how much love she had to Winehouse and Fielder-Civil enjoy a moment of levity during
a turbulent time.
give to those around her.”
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p. 46-55 Back to Black V5.indd 55 5/6/24 1:18 PM

Challengers:
An Intense Courtship
Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom and
director Luca Guadagnino discuss their shotmaking
on a romantic drama involving tennis pros.
L
By Sarah Fensom
uca Guadagnino’s Challengers is framed by a fierce ten-

nis match between Art (Mike Faist) and Patrick (Josh
O’Connor), former friends and doubles partners who
now find themselves on opposite sides of the net during
the Challenger Tour. A mix of flashbacks and contempo-
rary scenes off the court gradually illuminates the men’s
shared past, which revolves around their mutual roman-
tic interest in Tashi (Zendaya) — Art’s coach and wife, and the keenest
spectator in the stands.
56 / JUNE 2024
p. 56-63 Challengers V4.indd 56 5/3/24 4:18 AM

STILLS BY NIKO TAVERNESE, COURTESY OF METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURES, INC.
PHOTOS AT BOTTOM ON PAGES 57 AND 62 COURTESY OF SAYOMBHU MUKDEEPROM.
Guadagnino calls the men’s professional faceoff “an über sequence”

that had to mirror the growing intensity of the off-court drama, so much
so that by the final minutes of the match, “we become the match,” and
the camera takes on seemingly impossible perspectives, including shots
from beneath the court and the ball’s POV. “The game is super precise,”
the director says, “and the arc of the experience of the game for the audi-
ence is all part of a huge building toward what it sees at the end.”
Dynamic Perspectives
The climactic tennis sequence called for about 90 setups and includes
500 cuts, and its length and technical complexity motivated Guadagnino
to storyboard it, a process he seldom uses. “I drew basically the entire
sports sequence, so for the first time in my career, half the film was sto-
ryboarded,” he says.
Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom acknowledges that this
strategy was a necessary departure from the method he and Guadagnino
have used on such films as Call Me by Your Name and 2018’s Suspiria (AC
Dec. ’18). “Storyboarding was not common, but I think we needed it in
this case because there were certain movements with the ball and play-
ers and specific positions that needed to be clarified,” Mukdeeprom says.
Storyboarding also facilitated the integration of visual effects, which
Guadagnino says was necessary to achieve “some of the more daring
sequences, particularly the subjective point of view of the ball.”
Opposite: Tennis players Art (Mike Faist), Tashi (Zendaya) and
According to camera operator Terrence Hayes, “The storyboards were
Patrick (Josh O’Connor) form a romantic triangle that complicates
vital and gave us an insight into what Luca wanted to convey emotional- their professional aspirations. This page, top: Patrick serves during a
ly. These complex action shots took a team effort, and they wouldn’t have match. Bottom: Cinematographer Sayombhu Mukdeeprom prepares
been possible without the efforts of dolly grip Chris ‘Chappy’ Chapman, to light and shoot the on-court action.
JUNE 2024 / 57

head tech Dan Sheats and 1st ACs Jamie Fitzpatrick and Tim Sweeney.”
Embodying the ball’s POV as it careens across the court and over the
net lends the image a riveting velocity that couldn’t be achieved practi-
cally. “We can’t move the camera that fast, but [with visual effects] we
can completely control the path of the ball in the direction we need,” says
Mukdeeprom. “We shot a bit wider, which gave us the ability to reframe
and crop out any bad movement, etc.”
One of the most remarkable perspectives during the Challenger
match places the camera beneath the court as the actors run across it.
Mukdeeprom calls the solution — a large, floating, clear acrylic platform
— “so simple,” noting, “The court had to be strong enough for the actors
to run on it, and high enough for the camera to go underneath.”
Golden Hours
To help with lighting continuity, the cinematographer also wanted each
set in the Challenger match to be filmed at a certain time of day. “For this
scenario, we needed a storyboard,” he says, “and it was really helpful.”
The mandate meant confining the shoot to a few hours each day,
Top: Mukdeeprom used red however. “For the final sequence — the last 10 minutes of the match —
lighting to heighten the tension we could do no more than two to four hours a day,” he recalls. “I would
between Patrick and Tashi
say it involved a total of 35 hours of shooting spread over eight days.”
during their encounter in a
windy parking lot. Middle and
This section, the third set of the match, “falls into the golden-hours
bottom: The friends’ irresistible light,” Mukdeeprom says, noting that due to the movie’s flashback struc-
attraction to Tashi stirs up the ture, the match starts amid the third set before flashbacks take the au-
turmoil and tests the trio’s bond. dience to the first set and other moments in the characters’ past before
they return to the climax of the match. So, as Guadagnino notes, “The
movie is really framed by this golden light that is going through the be-
ginning [of the movie] to the end.”
To supplement the natural light, Mukdeeprom positioned two 100K
SoftSuns on one side of the court.
Establishing the Characters

Art and Patrick are introduced to us as two seasoned pros who appear to
be at vastly different points in their careers: Art is a high-achieving star
weathering a losing streak as he recovers from an injury, and Patrick is
barely scraping through minor tournaments.
It was crucial to establish a camera language that emphasized the
characters’ differences — one clean-cut, the other a slob; one rich, the
other broke; one a nice guy, the other a bit of a scamp.
The solution was maintaining a distance, a style that comes naturally
to Mukdeeprom, whose work is often defined by patient, observational
medium shots and wides. Guadagnino explains, “I needed to see them
from far away so I could show the difference and the distance between
the two of them … and, basically, the glue that is going to bring them
together, which is Tashi. So, we see them [in] wide shots of the game
at the beginning; [then] we go behind the umpire, and we walk and go
straight to her. Then we know that these two [men] are meant to be there
because of [her].”
The shot he refers to is a dramatic reveal of Tashi, who’s seated at
center court, an active participant in the drama even though she’s not
playing the game. “The camera goes across the court and surpasses the
shoulder of the umpire — it goes from high to low in the middle of the
court while the balls are going [back and forth],” the director explains.
“It’s an impossible point of view, so we used a dolly track with a zoom,
along with CGI.”
Mukdeeprom notes that the sequence had to be broken up into piec-
es. “We separated the shot into sections, filmed those sections one at a
time, and then CGI did its job. In reality, the positions of the actors, the
58 / JUNE 2024

JUNE 2024 / 59

CHALLENGERS: AN INTENSE COURTSHIP
During matches, the camera frequently flies from a spectator in the

crowd back to the court, pushes over the net, or flies up to take a bird’s-
eye view of the action. The sweeping shots facilitated by the crane help
accentuate both the tension of the game and the tension of the personal
relationships.
The cinematic camera language in Challengers is distinctly different
from the conventional presentation of tennis on television broadcasts,
which can employ a minimum of six cameras to ensure total represen-
tation of a match. Instead, Julian Collazo Bass, who served as a camera
assistant on a portion of the shoot that took place at Arthur Ashe Stadi-
um in Queens, N.Y., helped to plan a three-camera setup that was often
implemented to film the gameplay sequences, with one camera on the
crane and the other two covering the players on either side of the court.
Doubles were used for the actors during complicated tennis action, cap-
turing them in wide shots before moving in for close-ups of the primary
actors.
Director Luca Guadagnino mimics a volley while planning a shot.

Getting Inside the Game
Guadagnino says that it was while watching the actors’ doubles repeat
width of the court, the length of the move [were things] we needed, and action on the court over and over that he began to understand how to
things that were in the way of the move were limitations. If we wanted to “get inside” the game of tennis. “I started to understand the game, what
go beyond that, we needed help from CGI.” it meant, and how it was also the game of love, the game of sex and the
Guadagnino says he prefers using visual effects to create the illusion game of tension within the characters.”
of reality rather than more fantastical visual elements. “I’m not very into When the action moves off the court, the tension of the characters’
CGI for creating the illusion of weightlessness; I prefer to feel the weight rivalry intensifies. A pivotal scene between Tashi and Patrick takes place
of things.” in a windy parking lot at night. Though no wind was called for in the
script, Guadagnino conceived a huge storm barreling through the region
Tried-and-True Technologies for the Challenger finale. “I thought that for these three people, it could
Mukdeeprom, who favors shooting film, photographed Challengers with be another beautiful way of creating a visual metaphor for what they are
Arricam ST and LT cameras in 3-perf 35mm on Kodak’s Vision3 500T going through,” he says.
5219. He notes that he tends to stick with technology that’s familiar. “The As Tashi and Patrick are whipped by the wind, the scene is suffused
Arricams are very well designed, robust and reliable,” he says. with blinking light, and the characters’ movements grind into slow
Mukdeeprom usually had the camera on a dolly whether it was sta- motion.
tionary or moving. He avoided Steadicam for the tennis action, instead Guadagnino describes how the scene evolved: “We shot that on the
deploying a Scorpio 45 crane with a Libra head. “It was better because outskirts of Boston, and Sayombhu had this great idea of making the
we could do a tilt, which a Steadicam doesn’t do as well,” he observes. car’s red brake lights a protagonist in the scene to heighten the tension
Spotlight on Optics | Vintage Imaging

In choosing lenses for Challengers, Mukdeeprom turned to some The Super Speeds used on the production were rehoused by
old favorites. “The Arriflex/Zeiss Standard Speed T2.1 and Arriflex/ Gecko-Cam in Germany, and are known as the Stealth Zeiss HS
Zeiss Super Speed T1.3 are always our main lenses simply because I series. These lenses included an 18mm, 25mm, 35mm, 50mm,
am so familiar with them,” he says. “They’re small and fast enough to 65mm and 85mm. “They’re rehoused vintage lenses and they’re
give me the ability to deal with the lighting style we love to create.” beautiful,” Bass says. “You’re zoomed in on the match from the
The tennis matches were captured with a combination of zooms stands and then you turn it around, and then you’re on their faces
and primes. “I feel like a lot of what Luca shoots is kind of voyeuris- watching their reactions. The imagery is beautiful. The vintage
tic,” says camera assistant Julian Collazo Bass, recalling the way lenses pair really well with the classic game of tennis.”
flashbacks of Tashi, Art and Patrick competing in a juniors tournament Mukdeeprom captured a lot of the Challenger match with the
were filmed. “Obviously, we’re watching a match, so we’re watching show’s Scorpio 45/Libra head pairing and an Angénieux Optimo
players and we’re in the stands, and it’s a lot of over-the-shoulder and zoom. “The Optimo 24-290mm is another workhorse,” he says.
tight shots that show the match happening, so we really used a mix of “Combining a zoom with the crane arm extend/retract was particu-
primes, primes with some extenders, and zooms.” larly useful on the court.”
Mukdeeprom says the wide lenses were the workhorses for tennis — Sarah Fensom
action, and that the Super Speeds were particularly good for capturing
the actors’ reactions after an action shot.
60 / JUNE 2024
p. 56-63 Challengers V4.indd 60 5/6/24 1:16 PM

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JUNE 2024 / 61

CHALLENGERS: AN INTENSE COURTSHIP
Tech Specs: 1.85:1

Cameras | Arricam ST, LT; Photo-Sonics (for high-speed work)
Lenses | Arriflex/Zeiss Standard Speed; Gecko-Cam Stealth Zeiss HS (rehoused Arriflex/
Zeiss Super Speed); Angénieux Optimo zoom; Arri/Zeiss Ultra Prime; Canon telephoto;
Century Series 2000 zoom; Arri Macro
Film Negative | Kodak Vision3 500T 5219
Above: Guadagnino finds an angle on Faist for a ferocious overhead

slam at the net. Bottom: DJI Ronin rigs were deployed on both the
show’s Arri cameras and a drone to help capture, respectively, the
show’s tennis sequences and an aerial cityscape.
between the two characters.” enough footage and information to create the effect in post.
The filmmakers also sought to lend the sequence a kind of “strobing” During editing, Guadagnino slowed the motion down even further,
effect that would blur the characters’ movements. The director adds, almost to freeze frames. “I wanted to have an almost impossible erot-
“Then I thought to myself that the motion of the wind and the dynamic icism happening between the two. They play cat and mouse in the car;
of the characters moving away from each other, going toward each other they clearly want to do something together that is erotic; and they can’t,
[and] spitting at each other would be stronger if we ‘froze’ them. That’s because they’re fighting and can’t admit [their feelings for each other].
when I decided to shoot everything in hyper-slow motion.” But then they surrender to [the moment]. In order to see that moment,
Mukdeeprom says the filmmakers tried this, but shooting at very we made it very slow.
slow speed (with a Photo-Sonics high-speed camera) made the result- “I love cinema and I love to use the tools,” he adds, “but I always think
ing action too slow to create the desired effect. In the end, they shot the first in emotional terms.”
sequence at various speeds to give the production’s visual-effects team
62 / JUNE 2024

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ALL PHOTOS BY DANYAEL M. ALCARAZ FOR THE ASC UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED.
Lifelong Lessons
Personal passions and varied perspectives enrich the
ASC Master Class program, which offers education
and inspiration in equal measure.
By David E. Williams
F
rom the latest virtual-production tools and methods, to instructors are going to cover the same topic the same way,” says Lieber-
the basics of portraiture lighting, to subverting “technical man. “That’s the strength of our program: It’s always surprising — even
perfection” through unconventional means, the subjects to us — and things go in directions we never would have anticipated.”
taught in the ASC Master Class cover a wide gamut. ASC members who have recently volunteered to teach in the Master
And that reflects the instructors themselves. Class program include Natasha Braier, Alice Brooks, Vance Burberry,
“The depth of our curriculum is the result of our mem- Steven Fierberg, Steve Gainer, Tommy Maddox-Upshaw, Sam McCurdy,
bers who teach,” says Charlie Lieberman, ASC — who Boris Mojsovski, Michael M. Pessah, Wally Pfister, Christopher Probst,
serves as co-chair of the Master Class Committee with ASC President Newton Thomas Sigel, David Stockton, Roy H. Wagner, Mandy Walker
Shelly Johnson and Society members Michael Goi and Craig Kief. and Robert D. Yeoman. Each devised a unique lesson plan.
In curating each session, Lieberman and Johnson strive to offer a For a recent seminar on virtual production, Probst leaned into his long
wide range of experiences and perspectives. “The instructors are all very history as an educator, which includes writing and editing for American
distinct individuals and artists, and each bases their respective lessons Cinematographer, teaching at the Global Cinematography Institute, and
on what they personally feel is important or interesting and speaks co-authoring The Cine Lens Manual (2022) with ASC associate Jay Hol-
from their on-set experiences, so it’s virtually impossible that any two ben. Probst’s session was hosted by Synapse Virtual Production, an L.A.
64 / JUNE 2024
p. 64-71 ASC Master Class V5.indd 64 5/6/24 1:20 PM

TOP PHOTO BY CHARLIE LIEBERMAN, ASC.
Opposite: Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF (front
row, center) with her class on stage at MBS.
Above: Christopher Probst, ASC instructs
at his facility Synapse Virtual Production. At
left, his team demonstrates how high-quality
LED-screen assets combine in-camera with
practical set pieces and props.
company in which he is a partner. fighting that because the illusion doesn’t really work,” he continues.
“Making sure the class was a success was all about the prep,” he says. “I didn’t want to have to ask the class to ‘fill in the gaps,’ so to speak.
“It was three weeks of breaking down the process we use here and cre- And because I’m a partner here, I could really optimize everything with
ating a PowerPoint presentation that would serve as a reference for the our facility and team. So, for example, as I was explaining something
whole day. in response to a question, you could see — in real time — changes to
“For most of the class participants, this was the first time they had the screens to support what I was discussing or describing. That helped
been on a virtual-production stage, and that can be overwhelming, but make everything work smoothly, which also helps the teaching process,
I took that into account in my prep, so the PowerPoint walked through and I think our class appreciated that.”
every element of the process and defined all our terms. That allowed the Braier, who recently taught her first two ASC sessions, says she “was
class to really focus in the moment to absorb the demo and then later so grateful” to have the opportunity to volunteer. “I had been approached
mentally walk their way back through it.” many times before,” she notes, “but my schedule just had not cooperat-
Also key was Probst’s use of professional-quality virtual assets com- ed. The stars finally aligned!”
bined with screen-ready physical props and set pieces that had been cre- With teaching experience at the AFI Conservatory and the National
ated for a prior Synapse production. He explains, “The concept of virtual Film School in London, among other places, Braier was experienced in
production can be much more easily absorbed if you’re teaching with designing a lesson plan, but the ASC Master Class posed a unique chal-
assets that truly look convincing when they come together in the camera lenge: “It is unlike a traditional film school setting, as each teacher is
and you see the effect on the monitor. only given, at most, one day out of a five-day session schedule, so you
“Often, demos are done with pretty simplistic assets that never look must be concise in your concept.
quite right — because that’s what they have — and as a teacher, you’re “In my class,” she continues, “I wanted to connect with my early years
JUNE 2024 / 65

ASC MASTER CLASS: LIFELONG LESSONS
BRAIER AND BURBERRY PHOTOS BY CHARLIE LIEBERMAN, ASC.

Clockwise from top left: Braier (center) demonstrates her use of special lens filtration; Vance Burberry, ASC, ACS sets
a shot during his lighting class; Scott Cunningham, ASC reveals his approach to product photography; Michael Goi,
ASC, ISC’s workshop revolved around lighting to create mood for horror stories.
as a still photographer working in the darkroom to create images that some [cinematographers] will say yes to shooting at every opportunity
were less naturalistic and more expressionistic. That’s something I car- to gain experience, and that’s one pathway. But you’re building a body of
ried over [into my work] as a cinematographer. I don’t want my images work that you will be known for, so I choose to curate that very carefully;
to look ‘perfect,’ but rather to tell us something about the emotion of the it represents me as an artist, and people will know what I might bring
scene or our characters and accentuate that in a visual way. I describe it to a production. Meanwhile, I can experiment on commercials and other
as ‘destroying’ the perfectness of the clean digital image, or ‘f---ing it up.’ projects while making a living.
I want to move toward impressionistic poetry rather than just represen- “I felt it was important to explain this perspective to the class because
tation of my subject.” saying no can sometimes be very difficult. But that’s also part of shaping
Braier walked her class through some of the methods she has used to your career.”
accomplish this, unpacking boxes of fabric, glass beads and other ma- Burberry, who was recently inducted into the ASC but has long taught
terials that she uses in front of the lens to affect the image by creating elsewhere, observes, “Teaching is fundamental to the job of being a cin-
streak, flare and focus effects in camera. “On films, this is a creative jour- ematographer, whether it be with your director, producer or crew.”
ney that started on my first shorts and continues today. I want to dirty One of Burberry’s passions is underwater cinematography. “We
up reality and add layers of subjectivity and expressionism. I want the couldn’t do an underwater class this time out,” he says with a smile, “so I
digital image to feel more like film — or at least more organic. wanted to focus on how I approach the basics of lighting, the foundation
“I choose my feature projects and directors very carefully, as I am try- of everything we do. Often, one can get lost in all the technical details of
ing to build a body of work that represents my vision,” she adds. “I choose the gear — and I’m guilty of it as well — but it’s the core principles that
to not compromise on that. The commitment to shooting a feature is all will save you when you’re pressed for time and have to rely on instinct.
encompassing, so I must be 100-percent engaged, and the director must All cinematographers can relate to that. Time is not a luxury we often
be as committed to the look we agree upon. Starting out in their careers, enjoy on set.”
66 / JUNE 2024

JUNE 2024 / 67
p. 64-71 ASC Master Class V5.indd 67 5/3/24 4:22 AM

PESSAH PHOTO BY CHARLIE LIEBERMAN, ASC.
Above, from left: ASC instructors Michael M. Pessah and Roy H.
Wagner, who recently taught a well-received session on motion-
picture history, including the founding of the ASC.
Speaking to the tradition of cinematographers being both lifelong

educators and students, Burberry recalls, “A few years ago, I was at
Camerimage to receive a lifetime-achievement award for my work in
music videos, and there was Stephen Burum [ASC], also getting a life-
time-achievement award, so I had a chance to talk to him a bit. More
importantly, I had the opportunity to thank him, because about 30 years
ago, he’d been my teacher in a way. I was a gaffer at Propaganda Films,
and I had a question about color and secondary color in film, and he
made the time to talk to me and was super helpful. I was so grateful
to him and other iconic cinematographers I met as I was coming up,
Top: Markus Förderer, ASC, BVK (center, with mic) on stage at MBS. including Allen Daviau [ASC]. They were all happy to share, and I always
Above: Charlie Lieberman, ASC (right) instructs a student at the remembered that.
ASC Arri Education Center on the society’s campus in Hollywood. “For me, teaching is about trying to help someone on their path to
self-discovery to grow on their own,” he adds. “We’re just giving them
some tools to help them on their way, as well as some encouragement.”
“Teaching is about trying to help
In a recent Master Class session that focused on shooting film, Gain-
someone on their path to self-discovery er — curator of the ASC Museum Camera Collection and an expert in
to grow on their own.” vintage production tools — combined his shooting experience with his
68 / JUNE 2024

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JUNE 2024 / 69

ASC MASTER CLASS: LIFELONG LESSONS
Having stepped off the stage,

Winehouse performs amid
love of history. “Hand cranking and operating a vintage motion-picture
her fans’ adulation.
camera is a unique, tactile experience,” he says. “It’s completely different
than the interaction we have today with digital cameras. And that can
lend itself to creative possibilities.”
In a demonstration conducted at MBS Outpost, Gainer shot camera
TOP PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER CHOMYN, ASC.
tests with model Nancy Cantine using a 1912 Pathé Professional fitted
with a 35mm Goerz Hypar f/3.5 lens, and a 1921 Mitchell Standard (for-
merly owned by the great Charles Rosher, ASC) paired with a 50mm
Gundlach Ultrastigmat f/1.9 lens. The film was Kodak 5222 Double-X,
with processing and transfer work later done by FotoKem.
“What really left an impression on the class was the quality of the
images that can be created with these early film cameras and lenses,”
says Gainer. “Our perception of the silent era has been largely shaped by
the prints that have survived, and many of those are in rough shape. And
possibly, they didn’t even look that great back in the day because print
stocks and exhibition were quite primitive. But looking at the images
we created, scanned right off the camera negative, you can see how very
capable these systems were in skilled hands. That concept might stick in
someone’s mind, and maybe they’ll use it in a new creative way.”
Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC recently employed Martin Scorsese’s own
Bell & Howell 2709 hand-cranked unit for sequences in their Oscar-nom-
inated feature Killers of the Flower Moon.
“The quality of Master Class is all about the people who teach it, and
that’s a reflection of the ASC as well,” Lieberman concludes. “A founding
principle of the Society in 1919 was to share information and help better
everyone’s work. And today, that’s where the generosity of our members
— freely sharing their time and experience — really makes the differ-
For a recent Master Class demo on shooting film, Steve Gainer, ASC, ASK
ence.”
(top) employed hand-cranked Pathé Professional and Mitchell Standard
cameras (resulting in the images above, left to right, respectively).
Below: Instructor Sam McCurdy, ASC, BSC with his class on stage at For more information about the ASC’s signature education program,
MBS during a session that took place in May. visit theasc.com/education/master-class.
70 / JUNE 2024

cinegearexpo.com
JUNE 2024 / 71

Clubhouse News
Latest Bulletins From the Society
Society Hosts AFI Students Benning and Bricker Welcomed as

The ASC Education & Outreach New Society Members
Committee welcomed second-year Toronto native Jeremy Benning,
cinematography students from ASC, CSC developed a passion
the AFI Conservatory and their for visual storytelling at a young
instructor Valentina Martinico, AIC age. His practice of creating
to the Clubhouse on Jan. 26 (photo candid photo essays led to film
above). studies, and then he worked as a
Committee Co-Chair Paul Steadicam operator and became
Maibaum, ASC moderated a lively an early adopter of digital-capture
panel discussion that includ- technologies before launching his
ed his fellow Society members cinematography career. Jeremy Benning, ASC, CSC
George Mooradian (committee His most recent work includes
co-chair), Nathaniel Goodman, the Amazon series Cross (on which
Stephen Lighthill (head of the AFI he is returning for a second season
PORTRAITS COURTESY OF THE CINEMATOGRAPHERS.

cinematography faculty), Tommy this year), the Fox/Hulu series
Maddox-Upshaw, Polly Morgan, Accused and the upcoming indie
David Perkal, Cynthia Pusheck and feature 40 Acres.
Sandra Valde-Hansen. Benning is also known for the
Maibaum began the discussion sci-fi series The Expanse, which
with a lightning round of questions wrapped its sixth and final season
for all the ASC participants, and in 2021; he was the series’ main
then opened the floor to questions cinematographer and visual adviser
from attendees. A wide range of all six years. His television and
work/life-balance questions were streaming credits also include
asked, and the two-hour event flew episodes of Amazon’s The Boys,
by. the National Geographic Channel’s Adam Bricker, ASC
The Long Road Home (working with
72 / JUNE 2024
p. 72-75 Clubhouse News V4.indd 72 5/3/24 4:24 AM

NAB PHOTOS BY DANYAEL M. ALCARAZ, COURTESY OF THE ASC.
ASC at the NAB Show

Society members took part in
discussions and demonstrations
during the recent National Asso-
ciation of Broadcasters Show in
Las Vegas (April 13-17), including
Jon Fauer, Markus Förderer,
Craig Kief, Steven Poster,
Christopher Probst, Roberto
Schaefer, Steven Shaw and Roy
H. Wagner.
On the show floor were Dean Cundey, ASC (top left), welcoming attendees to the ASC booth; Michael Goi, ASC, ISC (top right) speaking
to aspiring filmmakers; Shane Hurlbut, ASC (bottom left) detailing his approach to lighting at the Nanlux booth; and ASC President Shelly
Johnson (bottom right, at far left) moderating a panel at the Sony booth regarding the miniseries Masters of the Air with sound mixer
Michael Minkler, Lux Machina president/virtual-production advisor Phil Galler, VFX supervisor Stephen Rosenbaum, cinematographer Jac
Fitzgerald and executive producer Gary Goetzman.
director Mikael Salomon, ASC), the Children, and CSC Awards for Lost of the board of the Canadian School of Cinematic Arts, where he
Disney Plus feature Spin and the in Motion II, The Family: Inside the Society of Cinematographers and fell in love with cinematography.
Netflix series Guillermo del Toro’s Manson Cult and The Great Sperm proudly gives back to the LGBTQS+ Bricker’s most recent work
Cabinet of Curiosities. He shot two Race. The latter two also received community. includes the Max series Hacks, for
episodes of the latter, “Lot 36” (di- Gemini Award nominations for Best Based in Los Angeles, Adam which he received two ASC and
rected by Guillermo Navarro, ASC) Photography in a Documentary Bricker, ASC hails from Chicago, Emmy award nominations; the Net-
and “The Outside,” and received Program or Series. where he was raised on a film diet flix series Chef’s Table, for which he
an ASC Award nomination for “The Benning produced and shot that included The Fugitive, Jurassic earned an ASC Award nomination;
Outside.” portions of the 2019 feature doc- Park and City Slickers. His first and the Netflix mockumentary
Benning won an ASC Award for umentary Alone Across the Arctic, camera was a MiniDV Handyc- American Vandal.
the period drama Killing Lincoln in which won numerous festival am, a gift from his parents for his His series work also includes
2014. He has also been honored awards around the world and is 13th birthday, and his first credits #BlackAF, Sorry for Your Loss and
with a Canadian Screen Award for streaming on Amazon Prime and included shorts starring his three Brockmire. His feature work has
Best Photography in a Docu- Apple TV Plus. younger sisters. He studied cinema premiered at the Tribeca and South
mentary Program for We Were Benning is an active member at DePaul University and the USC by Southwest film festivals.
JUNE 2024 / 73
p. 72-75 Clubhouse News V4.indd 73 5/6/24 1:15 PM

Clubhouse News
Kodak Film Awards at the ASC Referring to the film’s Imax exhibi-
Kodak honored cinematographer tion in select cities, he added, “They
Hoyte van Hoytema, ASC, FSF, have shown that they’re willing to
NSC; directors Ava DuVernay, An- pay a premium to see them project-
drew Haigh, Celine Song and Petra ed the way they were shot.”
Collins; independent production DuVernay (Origin) and Haigh (All
company Killer Films, and the Am- of Us Strangers) each received an
azon comedic miniseries Swarm at Auteur Award for their directorial
the 6th Annual Kodak Film Awards, accomplishments, and Song was
which were hosted by the Society honored with the Debut Feature
Tony Gaudio, ASC shooting Oil for The Lamps of China (1935). on Feb. 23. Award for Past Lives. Killer Films
Oppenheimer director Christo- co-founder Christine Vachon
pher Nolan congratulated Lumière accepted the Film Production Com-
The Lost Legacy of Tony Gaudio feature-film work, including Hell’s Award recipient Van Hoytema via a pany of the Year Award; her recent
Screens at Clubhouse Angels, The Adventures of Robin Super 8 film shot at Nolan’s home. producing credits include Past Lives
ASC members convened on April 2 Hood, The Amazing Dr. Clitterhouse He noted, “[Hoyte’s] joy in working and Todd Haynes’ May December.
for a special screening of The Lost and The Red Pony. Also noted are with photochemical film has been Collins received the Music Film
Legacy of Tony Gaudio — a docu- the cinematographer’s invention such an important part of my Director Award for Olivia Rodrigo’s
mentary that charts the life of early of the viewfinder used on the creative experience over the last 10 “Vampire,” and Swarm was honored
Society member Tony Gaudio, ASC earliest Mitchell cameras and his years.” with the Television Series of the
from his journey to the U.S. as an role in pioneering precision-lighting Taking the stage, van Hoytema Year Award, which was accepted by
immigrant from Cosenza, Italy, and techniques. asserted that his passion for cel- co-creator Janine Nabers.
explores the mystery surrounding Attendees at the Clubhouse luloid was shared not only by the The event also celebrated many
the disappearance of his Oscar screening also included Tony’s Oppenheimer crew, but also by the recent acclaimed productions shot
statuette for Anthony Adverse great-nephew Gino Gaudio, who many moviegoers who sought to on film, including Killers of the
(1936). appears in the film, and Gino’s wife, experience the film in an optimal Flower Moon, Maestro, Poor Things,
Tony’s brother, Eugene Gaudio, Mary Reid Gaudio, who served setting. “Audiences have proved to Saltburn, Succession and Winning
ASC, co-founded the Society in as an executive producer on the us that they have a strong desire to Time: The Rise of the Lakers
1919 and passed away soon after, project. Following a post-screen- see good films in theaters,” he said. Dynasty.
while Tony was elected president in ing Q&A, the pair expressed their
1924 and had a very long career. gratitude to the ASC for its support
THE ASC. ARCHIVAL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ASC ARCHIVE.

KODAK AWARDS PHOTOS BY DANYAEL M. ALCARAZ, COURTESY OF
The film considers Tony’s endur- of the project and committed to
ing artistic influence, and interviews funding an ASC Master Class schol-
with Society members Richard arship through the Tony Gaudio
Crudo, Richard Edlund, Mauro Foundation for the Cinematic Arts, a
Fiore, Steve Gainer and M. David non-profit that champions emerging
Mullen help shine a light on his talent.
Hoyte van Hoytema,

ASC, FSF, NSC Petra Collins
Eugene Gaudio, ASC (at camera), shooting Kitty Kelly, M.D. (1919).
Janine Nabers Christine Vachon

74 / JUNE 2024
p. 72-75 Clubhouse News V4.indd 74 5/6/24 1:15 PM

Hollywood CPR Students Visit business and unions for underrep- (co-chairs of the Education & Out- “It was moving to see the stu-
Clubhouse resented students. Geary McLeod, reach Committee), as well as Javier dents reacting to the reel and being
The ASC Education & Outreach ASC, who serves on the organiza- Aguirresarobe, Christopher Baffa, in the Clubhouse for the first time,”
Committee welcomed Hollywood tion’s board, was the liaison for the Nathaniel Goodman, Craig Kief, says Mooradian. “Their questions
Cinema Production Resources stu- event, which marked Hollywood Patti Lee and Robert D. Yeoman. and our members’ life experiences
dents and instructor Jeanie Lorman CPR’s first visit to the Clubhouse. ASC President Shelly Johnson made for a potent exchange.”
to the Clubhouse on March 15. Joining the panel with McLeod welcomed the group after screening Lunch was provided by Nanlux,
Founded in 1997, Hollywood were ASC members George a reel of iconic camerawork done by represented by ASC associate
CPR is a conduit into the film/TV Mooradian and Paul Maibaum ASC members over the years. member Mark Bender.
ARCHIVAL PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE ASC ARCHIVE.
JUNE 2024 / 75
p. 72-75 Clubhouse News V4.indd 75 5/3/24 4:24 AM

New Products and Services
The latest tools and technology for motion-imaging professionals.
Vū | Network Expansion ROE Visual | Obsidian

Vū Technologies is expanding its studio network in North America, ROE Visual has announced Obsidian, an LED display designed for
Europe and Asia to include more than 40 stages worldwide. in-camera use.
New regions served by the Vū Virtual Studio Network include The panel features a 2.6mm pixel pitch, deep-black masking
New York; Los Angeles; Toronto; Dallas; Washington, D.C.; Grand and 2,500-nit brightness. Its reinforced frame design allows for
Rapids, Mich.; Milwaukee, Wis.; Mexico City; Tokyo; Barcelona; the removal of LED modules at any time, facilitating the creation
Seoul; Warsaw; Berlin; Frankfurt; Amsterdam; and Paris. of access holes for additional equipment. The LED structure
For more information, visit vu.network. can be extended with an access platform of adjustable height
to create easy access for technicians who need to work on the
volume.
For more information, visit roevisual.com.
Litepanels | Astra IP
Litepanels has launched the Astra IP Bi-Color LED panel range, an
environmentally resilient evolution of the fixture.
The Astra IP is available in three sizes: the Astra IP Half delivers
Arri | L-Series Plus
Arri has announced the L-Series Plus, a new generation of LED
1,500 lux at 10'; the Astra IP 1x1 outputs 3,000 lux at 10'; and the
Fresnels that offers direct network data input and the intuitive
Astra IP 2x1 delivers 5,500 lux at 10'.
onboard control interface of the Arri SkyPanel.
The Astra IP provides accurate white light from 2,700-6,500K
The fixtures come in two sizes: the L5-C Plus, featuring a 5"
at any intensity level with or without diffusion and is IP65-rated for
Fresnel lens, and the L7-C Plus, featuring a 7" Fresnel lens.
protection against dust and water ingress.
For more information, visit arri.com.
For more information, visit litepanels.com.
76 / JUNE 2024
p. 76-79 New Products V4.indd 76 5/3/24 4:26 AM

Zero Density | Evo II Duclos Lenses | Nisi Athena Primes
Zero Density has introduced the Evo II render engine. Duclos Lenses has added three focal lengths to the Nisi Athena
Part of the Reality5 real-time virtual-production platform, Evo cinema-lens line: the 18mm (T2.2), 40mm (T1.9) and 135mm
II combines the robustness of professional servers with the agility (T2.2).
of high-end gaming engines, enabling users to consistently render The lenses are available individually ($1,268 each), as a set of
and composite at exceptionally high quality in real time. three ($3,499) or as part of a complete eight-lens set ($8,999).
The engine features an Nvidia RTX 4090 graphics card, an For more information, visit ducloslenses.com.
AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D processor, a custom-designed power-
distribution platform and a quiet cooling system.
For more information, visit zerodensity.io.
Blackmagic Design | 3 Solutions

Blackmagic Design has released Cloud Store 1.2, a 16TB
Blackmagic Cloud Store Mini and Blackmagic Camera 8.6 Public
Beta.
Cloud Store 1.2 offers administrator-controlled access to read,
write and edit privileges through secure user logins. The update
also includes better syncing to Dropbox and improved sync speed
to Google Drive accounts.
The 16TB Cloud Store Mini features a 10G Ethernet connection
and four internal M.2 flash-memory cards operating in parallel
RAID 0.
Blackmagic Camera 8.6 Public Beta adds support for cloud
workflows on Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera and Cinema
Camera 6K, among other enhancements.
For more information, visit blackmagicdesign.com.
DZOFilm | 3 Pavo Additions

DZOFilm is growing its Pavo 2x anamorphic-lens series with Macro
65mm (T2.8), 135mm (T2.5) and 180mm (T2.8) lenses.
The Pavos are compatible with gimbals, Steadicam and drones,
allowing for a wide range of applications.
The 135mm and 180mm list for $5,499 each. The Macro 65mm
lists for $6,879.
For more information, visit dzofilm.com.
JUNE 2024 / 77

Teradek | Ace 750
Teradek has introduced the Ace 750
wireless video system for HDMI cameras
and workflows.
Tiffen | 58mm iPhone
The lightweight, compact solution with Filter System
built-in antennas is designed to be used The Tiffen Co. has unveiled the Smartphone
with mirrorless cameras, camcorders, 58mm Filter Mount for the iPhone.
action cameras and A/V workflows. It With Apple’s MagSafe Technology, users
sends uncompressed 4Kp30 HDR video can secure the filter mount to the back of
and audio with up to 750' of range, is an iPhone magnetically — no tools required.
cross-compatible with Bolt 4K and Bolt The mount will accept any Tiffen 58mm
6 in 5GHz and 6GHz modes, and is fully filter (sold separately).
compliant with FCC and CE frequency- The Tiffen Smartphone 58mm Filter
usage and power-output guidelines. Mount is made of black anodized aluminum
The transmitter and receiver units and is compatible with iPhone 14/15, 14/15
automatically detect and select the Pro, 14/15 Plus and 14/15 Pro Max models. It
5Ghz or 6GHz RF channel with the least lists for $29.99.
interference, and employ auto-frequency For more information, visit tiffen.com.
switching to maintain optimal signal quality.
For more information, visit teradek.com.
DJI | Dock 2 Tilta | Khronos for iPhone 15

DJI has released the Dock 2, a lightweight “drone in a box” that Tilta has unveiled the Khronos iPhone 15 Ecosystem, a camera-
flies automatic missions with an exclusively designed DJI Matrice cage-inspired smartphone case and series of accessories.
3D/3TD drone. The system’s mounting options enable integration with such
Measuring 22.4" long x 22.9" wide x 18.3" tall, Dock 2 weighs 75 accessories as focus side handles, a quick-release USB-C hub, a
pounds and can be carried by two adults. It requires maintenance universal SSD holder, cooling modules, a mini LED panel and filters.
every six months. The Tilta Khronos iPhone 15 Ecosystem is available in four kits:
DJI Matrice 3D/3TD drones feature RTK antennas, Lightweight ($179), Basic ($251), Advanced ($332) and Ultimate
omnidirectional obstacle sensing, and automatic obstacle bypass. ($512).
They have a 50-minute maximum flight time, a 6-mile operating For more information, visit tilta.com.
radius and an IP54 rating for wind and dust. They can recharge for
400 cycles.
For more information, visit dji.com.
For more of our latest tech reports, visit theasc.com/american-cinematographer/articles
78 / JUNE 2024

Your Super 8 and 16mm
Film Lab for 50 years
CAMERAS.
FILM.
MTI Film | Cortex 6.0 PROCESSING.

MTI Film has announced Cortex V6.0, an update of its workflow-management platform
that introduces artificial-intelligence technology. SCANNING.
The AI technology is based on the company’s MTAI framework, a system of tools
for automating project management, dailies, quality control, content packaging
and other postproduction tasks. Cortex V6.0 offers advances such as MTAI Prompt
Interface, which will make workflow management more intuitive, and MTAI Watch Folder
Management, which will facilitate fully automated workflows.
For more information, visit mtifilm.com. 818.848.5522 • pro8mm.com
Ad Index
Abel Cine Tech 45 Peacock TV LLC C2-1, 9, 13
AC Manual 4 Pro8mm 79
AC Subscription 6 Rip-Tie Inc.79
Ancient Optics 38 Roe Visual Co. Ltd. 59
AOTO Electronics LLC 29 Samy’s DV & Edit 25, 27
Arri Inc. 21 Sigma Corp. of America 53
ASC Toland Shirt 55 Sony Electronics Inc. 11, 41
Band Pro Film & Digital Inc. 5 Starz 7
Blackmagic Design Inc. 17 The Studio - B&H 69
Chapman/Leonard Studio Equip. 23 Tiffen 35
Chauvet & Sons LLC 49 Tilta Inc. 67
Cine Gear Expo 71 William F. White International Inc. 61
Eastman Kodak C4
Ernst Leitz Wetzlar GmbH 43
Filmotechnic USA 63
Godox Photo Equipment Co. Ltd. C3
J.L. Fisher Inc.75
Metropolis Post 78
Nanguang Photo & Video Systems/
Nanlux/Nanlite 31
Netflix Opposite Cover, 3, 15
Old Fast Glass 39
Opertec UA 51
JUNE 2024 / 79

Wrap Shot
Salvador (1986)
Robert Richardson, ASC was behind the camera for Oliver Stone’s harrowing, unflinching
feature about photojournalists covering a revolution in Central America. After graduating
from the American Film Institute (AFI), Richardson shot The Front Line, a 1982 documentary
about El Salvador’s civil war that placed him in mortal danger while filming military death
squads. The cinematographer came under fire multiple times and called the experience
“life-changing” in a Feb. 2019 AC profile penned by Patricia Thomson.
Several years later, the risk paid off when Oliver Stone was crewing up Salvador. The
director was looking for a cinematographer who could deftly execute handheld camerawork,
and two AFI alums recommended Richardson. After reviewing the footage Richardson had
captured for The Front Line, Stone hired him. Plus, the director told Thomson, “I liked him. I
liked his attitude. He was raw. He was volatile. He was interesting. We got along very well.”
As Richardson told Jana Hojdová, a Czech writer-cinematographer who is currently pre-
paring a book and documentary about him, “I recognized immediately that I was not going
to shoot what would be called a ‘beautiful’ film. I let go and absorbed the harsh conditions.
Made the shadows characters. Made the grit characters. Bring on the grain.”
Richardson went on to shoot 10 more features for Stone, earning an Academy Award for
JFK and nominations for Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. In total, the cinematogra-
pher has earned 10 Academy Award nominations and three wins — and in 2019 he received
the ASC’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
— Stephen Pizzello
80 / JUNE 2024
p. 80 Wrap Shot V2.indd 80 5/3/24 4:27 AM

Cover 3_IBC.indd 3 5/3/24 3:57 AM
THE BIKERIDERS
IN THEATERS JUNE 21
Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2023 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.
FILM.
GET MORE FROM EVERY FRAME.
KO DAK V I S I O N 3 50 0T 52 19
KO DA K V I S I O N 3 2 5 0 D 5207
#THEBIKERIDERS
©Kodak, 2024. KODAK, VISION and the KODAK logo are trademarks of Kodak.
Cover 4_OBC.indd 4 5/3/24 3:58 AM

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