November 28, 2025

DP Jess Hall’s retro look on The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 335: Jess Hall

Cinematographer Jess Hall, ASC, BSC reunited with director Matt Shakman to bring the retro-future world of The Fantastic Four: First Steps to life. The two had collaborated on several projects together, such as Marvel’s Wandavision. “I have a lot of faith in Matt Shakman,” says Jess. “I went into it with a lot of goodwill behind me. I was very aware that this was one of the original Marvel, it is the first family of Marvel, so I took that responsibility very seriously. I got very well prepared and I made sure that I was making choices that I thought would bring success to the project as well as tell the story that Matt wanted to tell.”

Fantastic Four: First Steps required a higher level of pre-production planning than most, involving intense collaboration with the special effects team and production design. Many complicated sequences were prevised to meticulously establish the intended 1960s aesthetic. Jess achieved this period look through his lighting, camerawork, and lens choices. For the majority of the cinematography, he chose the relatively new Panavision Ultra Panatar II lenses, which coved the IMAX camera and were customized to his specifications. He also used a 16mm camera and Hasselblad lenses for some of the newsreel sequences.

Color was crucial for establishing the 1960s aesthetic, and Jess infused it with a comic book vibrancy. He was inspired by a 1968 Fantastic Four comic book, creating a unified color palette for the LUT that featured blue, green, orange, and pale blue.

Complex lighting setups were essential, incorporating miniatures, bluescreens, blackscreens, and motion capture performances. Jess opted for tungsten lights on Mr. Fantastic’s (Pedro Pascal) lab set—a deliberate, retro choice that grounds the technology in the past. He found controlling the light challenging on bluescreen and blackscreen stages, as the lack of background required him to carefully conceive and control the light sources to maintain a sense of photorealistic depth.

The production team prioritized creating as much of the film practically as possible to achieve the photoreal look director Matt Shakman wanted, with characters and scenes enhanced with VFX in post. Both Ben Grimm “The Thing” (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) performed in motion capture suits. Rather than working on a volume stage, blue screens and black screens were used for the space sequences. A miniature scale model of the Fantastic Four’s ship helped bring it to life, while a realistic 1960’s Times Square set was built for the New York action sequences. For the planet-eater Galactus, Jess had a unique practical concept: treating him like a miniature. An extremely detailed costume was constructed, and Galactus moved through a small-scale set. Jess used specialized lighting and camerawork on his suit to create the illusion of the villain’s immense, terrifying size.

Find Jess Hall: Instagram: @metrorat
See The Fantastic Four: First Steps streaming on Disney+

SHOW RUNDOWN:
01:56 Close Focus
13:10-59:54 Interview
01:00:08 Short Ends
01:10:09 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

By Illya Friedman

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In Cinematography Podcast, Latest Posts, Podcast Episodes

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January 3, 2025

Phedon Papamichael: Unveiling Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown

We welcome back Phedon Papamichael, ASC, GSC for the fourth time on The Cinematography Podcast.

Cinematographer Phedon Papamichael started preproduction on A Complete Unknown with frequent collaborator, director James Mangold in 2019, before being postponed by the pandemic. They began prepping in summer 2023 and shooting in earnest by the early spring of 2024, which worked well for capturing the changing of the seasons in New York. The long lead time was a huge benefit for both the cast and crew. Phedon and the production team had time to research the time period, create an extensive lookbook of period photos and mull over the script and characters. Actor Timothee Chalamet had time to practice guitar and harmonica and was able to perform most of the songs live.

Phedon was very familiar with the music of Bob Dylan, and grew up listening to the artist. He wanted to capture how Dylan evolved and developed as a musician. The set was very intimate, and Chalamet completely absorbed the character of Bob Dylan, frequently watching playback on set, then finding something new with each take. “It was very much this organic process of us capturing and him discovering the character,” says Phedon. “And you could just see it was so enjoyable for every crew member. Everybody was inspired by it.”

A Complete Unknown used very few sets and stages, and the production designers transformed two blocks of New York City streets into the 1960’s. Phedon shot digitally on the Sony Venice 2 camera, which was then scanned to a film negative and then scanned back to digital. Influenced by the films Klute, The Godfather and The French Connection, he wanted A Complete Unknown to have the Kodachrome look with an earthy color palette. Phedon used lighting that was appropriate for the time period as well, using white and tungsten lights, enhanced with numerous practicals on the set. He embraced the mood of the nightclub scenes, with a single source spotlight hitting the performers on stage and the audience lit with candles on the tables. As the movie progresses into the ’60’s and Bob Dylan becomes more famous, Phedon began to change the look of the film. “It becomes a little bit more expressionistic, a little more aggressive,” he says. “The stage lights become a little bit bigger, the highlights are a bit hotter, the contrast and shadows are more extreme.”

Phedon’s ultimate goal as a cinematographer is to stay subtle. “I never want anybody to perceive or feel that I’m lighting something,” he says. “I never want it to feel like there’s a craftsman behind it. I always like the photography to just allow us to focus on the character, and really not distract from it.”

Find Phedon Papamichael: Instagram @papa2

Hear our previous interviews with Phedon Papamichael on The Trial of the Chicago 7, Ford v. Ferrari, and our live podcast interview.

You can see A Complete Unknown currently in theaters.

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: https://hotrodcameras.com/
Sponsored by Venus Optics, Laowa lenses: https://www.venuslens.net/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

By Illya Friedman

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In Cinematography Podcast, Latest Posts, Podcast Episodes

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0 comments