May 7, 2025

Scott Siracusano’s inventive cinematography on Control Freak

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 309: Scott Siracusano

The Hulu original horror film, Control Freak, plunges audiences into the unraveling world of Val (Kelly Marie Tran), a motivational speaker tormented by an unrelenting itch on the back of her head. Is it a manifestation of her own mind, or is she falling prey to a parasitic demon from her homeland? Control Freak is a body horror film that delves deep into themes of control, perfectionism, mental health, and generational trauma.

Cinematographer Scott Siracusano has known Control Freak writer and director Shal Ngo since 2019. The two made a short, The Box, which went to the prestigious Cameraimage Film Festival in Poland. Their creative partnership continued on another short film, Control, for season two of Hulu’s Bite Size Halloween. When Ngo was invited to expand Control into a feature-length film, Control Freak was conceived. Scott was captivated by the script and eager for the creative challenges it presented. Unfortunately, the film hit several roadblocks and delays before shooting was finally greenlit by the network. As a first-time feature DP, Scott had to meet with producers and pitch himself as the best cinematographer for the film. Championed by Ngo, Scott meticulously prepared a lookbook and presented his scene-by-scene shooting strategy in an hour-long meeting, ultimately securing his role as the film’s cinematographer.

One of the most significant cinematographic challenges on Control Freak was executing its underwater sequences. Due to a limited budget, there wasn’t enough time or money to shoot the actors in real tanks of water. Scott chose to use dry for wet film techniques, where smoke, specialized filters, and dynamic lighting effects are skillfully combined to simulate an underwater environment. Inspiration for this approach came from Dan Laustsen’s masterful work in The Shape of Water. “What I realized is that it is truly a less is more situation,” Scott says. “We need to have the caustics of water and moving lights that you would feel on your subject in tandem with atmosphere, and particles that could be added as effects. I was like, ‘I think we could pull this off. I think we could actually do this.’” The biggest concern was creating realistic hair and body movement floating in water, so the actors’ hair was tied back for these scenes. The production team found a music performance space where they could build a wire rig, enabling the actors to “float.” For close ups, Scott found simply having the actors sit and move around on a yoga ball effectively created a floating effect. Two projectors helped simulate water patterns, and the room was filled with atmospheric haze. Subtle fill light and slight camera movements completed the effect. Ultimately, these practical in-camera effects were so successful that the film required minimal visual effects for its underwater scenes.

The lighting and color palette of Control Freak were crucial in establishing a claustrophobic atmosphere and exploring the film’s central duality between sanity and madness. “We really wanted to lean into the surrealism and the dreamlike state of everything,” explains Scott. “Moonlight definitely allowed us a little bit more shaping, and being able to hide the monster. I really wanted to have rich, detailed shadows that were never true black—always some detail, no matter how dark the shadows.” Val’s house was intentionally kept as an enclosed space, with curtains constantly drawn, immersing the audience in her confinement and heightening their sense of being trapped alongside her.

As a horror fan himself, Scott loved creating the look and feel of Control Freak. “It’s so cool and fun being on set, in the actual world with the creature there.” His takeaways from lensing his first feature included the importance of faithfully executing the director’s vision while remaining adaptable to the unpredictable nature of filmmaking. “Going into a feature, you do everything you can to prep, but you know, just understand that things aren’t always going to go according to plan, there’s going to be happy accidents, there’s going to be things that are just straight up accidents.”

Find Scott Siracusano: https://scottsiracusano.com/
Instagram: @scott_siracusano

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: https://hotrodcameras.com/
Sponsored by Aputure: https://aputure.com/

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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October 23, 2024

Capturing the essence of The Substance: Benjamin Kracun, BSC

In The Substance, Elisabeth Sparkle (Demi Moore) is an aging celebrity fitness instructor who’s fired once she turns 50. She injects herself with a black market drug that creates Sue (Margaret Qualley), a younger, more perfect version of herself. While initially tempted by the promise of renewed youth and fame, she soon realizes that the drug comes with a set of unexpected and dangerous side effects. The body horror film explores unrealistic beauty standards and the dangers of worshiping fame and youth.

Though he wasn’t a horror fanatic, cinematographer Benjamin Kračun grew up with David Cronenberg and John Carpenter movies. Ben admired visionary director Coralie Fargeat’s work on Revenge. Likewise, she was impressed with his work on Promising Young Woman. Ben read through the script of The Substance, then immediately read it again. “I felt emotional reading it,” says Ben. “I don’t usually feel that when reading these types of genre scripts. Even though it speaks more to women aging, I think everybody can relate to the fact that we’re all aging, everyone has issues. The minute I read it I was just so in tune with Elisabeth.”

Together, Ben and Fargeat have crafted a film that’s equal parts grotesque and darkly satirical, a twisted reflection of our obsession with youth and beauty. The Substance begins in a glamorized Hollywood world that feels romantic and timeless but quickly descends into a nightmare. Ben and Fargeat chose to go old school, using a Translight backdrop on the apartment soundstage for the view overlooking Los Angeles. To differentiate Elisabeth’s world from Sue’s, Ben used a special pink swirl lens to emphasize color and vibrance on Sue. In contrast, he chose to light Elisabeth with hard light and cooler, bluer colors. Ben found that spherical lenses worked best for the numerous closeups in the film and against the Translight backdrop. As Elisabeth’s world crumbles, so do the camera angles, and Ben tested them all during prep. Initially, the frames are meticulously centered, reflecting the order she desperately clings to. But as chaos ensues, the angles become more extreme, mirroring her unraveling sanity.

The set for Elisabeth’s bathroom was huge and completely white, and a good deal of the action takes place in that room. It was challenging to shoot in that space, but it became a white canvas for Ben’s masterful use of camera movement. Fargeat meticulously storyboarded every gruesome transformation, ensuring seamless transitions between practical effects and subtle digital tweaks. All the special effects in the movie were done practically, with special builds, makeup, prosthetics, and movie blood. Digital VFX was used only to help stitch together or smooth out some of the makeup and prosthetic effects.

Rather than use a second unit, Ben shot every single frame alongside Fargeat, who wanted to give the film her full attention. This included many top down perspective shots throughout the film, along with several inserts and close ups. Once the cast was wrapped, Ben and the crew moved on to the close-up shots and inserts of the lab on a soundstage where “the substance” is created. In the end, it was the longest shoot he’d ever done at over 100 days.

When The Substance premiered at Cannes, Ben was amazed at the audience’s reaction. “No one had seen it. We didn’t know what the reaction was going to be,” he says. “It was amazing to see it come together in the cinema. That film stands out, it changes with a large audience. When they understand it’s satirical, they laugh through the third act.”

The Substance is in theaters now.

Find Benjamin Kračun: www.benjaminkracun.com
Instagram: @benkracun

Hear our previous interview with Ben Kračun on Promising Young Woman: https://www.camnoir.com/ep116/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: https://hotrodcameras.com/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

By Illya Friedman

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In Cinematography Podcast, Latest Posts, Podcast Episodes

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