December 11, 2024

Anora’s distinctive style: cinematographer Drew Daniels

Anora is the story of Brooklyn, New York exotic dancer, Anora, who meets Ivan, the son of a Russian oligarch at the strip club. They impulsively marry, and once the news reaches Ivan’s parents, their henchmen kidnap Ani in order to force her and Ivan to get the marriage annulled. Anora won the 2024 Palme d’Or at Cannes, and is a potential 2025 Oscar nominee.

Cinematographer Drew Daniels first started working with director Sean Baker on the film Red Rocket. Drew was a fan of Baker’s for years- he liked his sensibility and humanity, and his unconventional ethos behind his filmmaking approach. Drew attended the University of Texas film school, where filmmakers Robert Rodriguez and Richard Linklater are alums. He appreciated the UT film program’s independent, DIY approach. When Drew had the opportunity to work with Baker on Red Rocket, he said yes before he even read the script. “What’s so refreshing about working with Sean is, you’re flying by the seat of your pants, but you’re also the leader of this passionate little rag tag army,” says Drew.

Drew and Baker began talking about Anora during the editing of Red Rocket. Baker had a very specific idea of what he wanted, so they began testing and research scouts very early, driving to locations and discussing the movie before the script was fully written. Rather than an extensive shotlist, Drew and Baker scouted and blocked out scenes on the shoot locations. The film’s striking imagery, from gritty urban landscapes to opulent mansions, was shot on Kodak 35mm film with Lomo anamorphic lenses. “Anora is different than a lot of Sean’s films, because Sean’s films often deal with people who are on the fringes, or people who are in a lower socioeconomic standing,” says Drew. “It takes on oligarch wealth and opulence, so it needed to be a bigger, more magical format- something that will fully embrace the scope of that mansion.”

Choosing to film on 35 elevated the story of an exotic dancer like Ani into something beautiful and elegant, but Drew also wanted to reflect her attitude and scrappiness. He and Baker were influenced by 1970’s New York films such as The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3, to find the right amount of gritty imperfection. “Sean is a social realist filmmaker, but he wants his films to have a look and style,” says Drew. “He’s very visual, and we constantly talk about the edit, the pacing, the energy, how it’s going to cut.”

Find Drew Daniels: Instagram @drewalandaniels

Anora is currently in theaters, on VOD, and will be available to stream on Hulu.

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January 5, 2021

Best Of 2020 featuring Bradford Young, Kira Kelly, Greig Fraser, Anthony Dod Mantle, Wally Pfister, Brendan Davis, Don Coscarelli, Frederick Wiseman, Iris Ng, Bruce Van Dusen, Julie Taymor and Ron Howard

In our first-ever Best Of compilation episode, we have a dozen clips of listener favorites from 2020 and some of our selects as well.

Cinematographer Bradford Young goes deep into his filmmaking philosophy and influences, such as on Selma; Kira Kelly talks about making the documentary 13th with director Ava DuVernay; Greig Fraser on Lion, Star Wars and The Mandalorian; Anthony Dod Mantle describes exploring New York City for The Undoing; Wally Pfister on his early career working on Roger Corman movies; Brendan Davis on leaving China as the pandemic hit; director Don Coscarelli remembers working with cinematographer John Alcott on The Beastmaster; legendary documentarian Frederick Wiseman talks about his process of assembling his films; cinematographer Iris Ng on making documentaries that are personal narratives; commercial director Bruce Van Dusen tells an anecdote from an Ex-Lax commercial; director Julie Taymor on the visual language of The Glorias; and finally director Ron Howard on directing the documentary Rebuilding Paradise versus his approach to narrative films.

Be sure to check out the full episodes, and let us know what you think!

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Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com/bestof2020/

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Website: www.camnoir.com
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December 9, 2020

Anthony Dod Mantle, Academy Award winning cinematographer on the HBO series The Undoing, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, Rush, Danny Boyle, Lars von Trier and more

Cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle, ASC, BSC, DFF thinks most cinematographers start out hoping and praying that the right script would come along that will spark a great film. His most recent project, the HBO series The Undoing, features New York as a central character in the story and explores the upper echelons of wealth.

While Anthony loves the film format, he’s become known for his pioneering style with digital cameras after working with directors Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and Harmony Korine, who all embraced the Dogme 95 film aesthetic. The collective set out to make films strictly with story, acting and theme, without the use of big budgets or special effects.

Anthony had tried and tested many different digital cameras when Danny Boyle called him to shoot his film, 28 Days Later. Boyle and Anthony decided to shoot the zombie movie with the Canon XL1. Using such a small format digital camera takes advantage of the stuttering effect of the shutter, and it was easy to multi-shoot with the tiny camera and the equally minuscule indie art film budget.

Slumdog Millionaire is widely known to be the first digitally shot movie to win an Oscar for cinematography. Anthony had spent a good amount of time in Mumbai, and his familiarity and ease with the city helped him and director Danny Boyle move quickly and react to a large cast of non-actors.

Anthony also brought his experience to the film Rush. He had been a fan of Formula One racing ever since childhood, and he loved working with director Ron Howard, who came to him with an open heart and a collaborative spirit, since Howard had to learn about the sport. Rush was extremely technically complicated and was mainly shot with only practical effects.

You can watch The Undoing on HBO Max. https://www.hbo.com/the-undoing

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com/ep104/

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March 25, 2020

DP Stefan Ciupek on Guns Akimbo, the challenges of Russian Ark, working with Anthony Dod Mantle on Slumdog Millionaire and 127 Hours

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 68: Stefan Ciupek

Stefan Ciupek became interested in film while growing up in East Germany, but his options were limited in what was then a Communist country. His family managed to escape to Poland, and movies became a refuge from difficult times. In fact, Stefan and his mother were able to pirate Western films and re-sell them as bootlegs. His family managed to move to West Berlin, and by the age of 16, Stefan had a videocamera and started studying film in Germany. Stefan became one of the first adopters of digital camera technology, and became an early digital imaging technician (DIT) and colorist. He helped pull off an amazing achievement with 2003’s Russian Ark, a 90 minute film shot entirely in one take, in one location. After his accomplishments on Russian Ark, cinematographer Anthony Dod Mantle found him and the two worked on several projects, including 127 Hours and Slumdog Millionaire, which became the first digital film to win an Academy Award for Best Cinematography and Best Picture. As digital technology became more technical, Stefan decided he wanted to be more involved in the creative process and returned to cinematography. He shot director Lulu Wang’s first film, Posthumous, as well as several episodes of the upcoming season of The Spanish Princess on Starz.

For Guns Akimbo, Stefan read the script and immediately knew how he would shoot it. Everything in the action movie is highly exaggerated and over-the-top. Stefan used the Red Monstro camera, a variety of different lenses and high key lighting to highlight some of the humor.

You can see Guns Akimbo streaming now on Vudu and Amazon. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOFatKD0Vzo

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com/ep68/

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