November 7, 2025

Cinematographer Dan Laustsen brings Frankenstein to life

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 332: Dan Laustsen

For nearly 30 years, cinematographer Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF and director Guillermo del Toro have produced one of cinema’s most visually distinctive collaborations. Sharing a deep affinity for rich colors and dark themes, their partnership has yielded five films characterized by an unmistakable aesthetic.

Del Toro’s idea for Frankenstein had been discussed since their work on Crimson Peak in 2015. Finally, del Toro let Dan know he was ready to get to work on Frankenstein. Dan re-read Mary Shelley’s original work before reading the screenplay. While the script proved a very faithful adaptation, certain scenes were adjusted to better serve the cinematic format. “Because I think Guillermo is a genius director, when he asked me to do Frankenstein, of course I wanted to do that,” says Dan. “His approach to everything is so fantastic. And to me it’s a story of love and forgiveness, it’s father and son, it’s not a horror at all. For me it’s much more beautiful, for me it’s really about father-son relationships and forgiveness.”

As with every Guillermo del Toro movie, the color palette for Frankenstein was extremely important. Red, steel blue, cyan and amber dominate the film, but the beginning features creamy white and warm, romantic colors to represent the creature’s innocence and the initial bond between Frankenstein and his creation. Crucially, these colors were not altered in post-production. Dan explains, “When we are coming into the D.I. (digital intermediate) of course, we are cleaning it up, but the color palette is exactly the same.” Changing the colors post-shoot would ruin the integrity of the design. “The whole color palette of the movie, the lights, the costumes, the hair and makeup, and the set design is so specific, that if we change anything in post, in the D.I., the whole color palette will change. So we never do that.”

Del Toro also enjoys using timeless filmmaking techniques, preferring to use practical effects and capture as much as possible in-camera. Nearly all the sets were meticulously built in Toronto, minimizing the need for bluescreen. Exterior scenes were shot on location in Scotland, and the iced-in ship in the Arctic was a massive set mounted on a gimbal to allow for authentic motion. Dan and a specialized crew even shot all the castle exteriors in miniature, featuring practical explosions done on the small set.

The Frankenstein sets were designed so that all lighting could be built in, either with practical fixtures or with external lights placed specifically through set windows. For the castle dungeon, Dan and his gaffer had to design a special rig to effectively simulate skylights shining from above.

Dan kept the camera movement fluid and floating, shooting the entire film on very wide-angle lenses. “Our idea was to shoot a period movie, but shoot it very modern. The camera is a part of the storytelling,” he notes. The camera becomes the third dimension to the storytelling, lending it the ability to be part of the action rather than a stationary, distant observer. Every shot was specifically designed and executed with a crane, a hothead, or a Steadicam, using just one camera. The wide lenses captured the entire set, which was critical to Dan. “Because the set is so beautiful, and the costumes are amazing. Everything is very organic, and we really like to see that as much as we could. And to move the camera again is storytelling in a dramatic way.”

Through his enduring partnership with del Toro, Dan has framed Frankenstein and his Creature’s story not in shadow, but in the unforgettable light of forgiveness. “Love and forgiveness are very strong things in the movie and the world,” he says. “For me, it’s not a horror movie at all, it’s a love story.”

See Frankenstein now streaming on Netflix.

Find Dan Laustsen: Instagram @dan.laustsen

Hear our previous interviews with Dan Laustsen: https://www.camnoir.com/ep152/
https://www.camnoir.com/ep36/

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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October 31, 2025

Tobias Datum: creating the sci-fi world of Murderbot

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 331: Tobias Datum

Murderbot is the story of a security unit, part-human and part-machine, that has hacked its governing module to act in its own free will: mainly to be left alone to watch TV shows. Cinematographer Tobias Datum views the Apple TV+ series as a visual exploration of a synthetic being’s journey toward humanity and self-discovery.

Tobias worked closely with show creator and director Paul Weitz, continuing a collaboration that spans over ten years with Paul and his brother, Chris Weitz. The production team included production designer Susan Chan, VFX supervisor Sean Falden, and colorist Tim Vincent. As a cohesive group that had worked together before, they were instrumental in establishing the show’s distinctive visual identity.

Working with the team, Tobias set the visual tone during pre-production to ensure a smooth, consistent flow throughout the shoot. He faced the challenge of lighting and shooting a cohesive environment that spanned multiple, drastically different settings. Murderbot takes place on an alien planet, on space ships and space stations, and in Murderbot’s own head as it watches its favorite galactic soap opera, Sanctuary Moon.

For the alien planet, the goal was to ground the setting in a believable, “earthly reality” where human life could exist, all while adhering to the production’s budget and schedule. A volume stage was extensively used for scenes shot inside the ships, space stations, and for the stylized Sanctuary Moon segments. Exterior planet scenes were shot on location at a sand quarry pit in Ontario, Canada. A large, two-story exterior set for the habitat was constructed there, while the habitat’s interiors were built on a separate soundstage.

The diverse settings of Murderbot presented unique lighting issues. Fortunately, the design of the planet was grounded in reality, so Tobias lit for a desert planet with minimal vegetation. He used a translight as a backdrop and integrated practical lighting directly into the sets. The main habitat, designed as a translucent bubble with many windows, required careful management of its natural glow. Tobias used negative fill to strategically tone down the intensity. Dr. Mensa, the human leader of the group, acts as an anchor for the story’s emotional stakes. To maintain narrative focus, Tobias consistently lit and framed her with clarity, regardless of her position relative to the other characters. At first, he was concerned that lighting the Murderbot character would be problematic, especially when it wears its highly reflective helmet. “Murderbot’s a mirror ball, you know,” he explains. “So that meant lighting is going to be visible, and you don’t want every shot to be a VFX shot. Once I saw the very first stage of that suit, I was like, ugh. But then when we started doing tests, it’s kind of forgiving. I don’t think we had a lot of equipment removal from Murderbot’s helmet.”

Tobias’s journey began at film school in Berlin before he was accepted into AFI as a graduate student. There, he began building his portfolio while working on his colleagues’ films. He credits a strong work ethic—constantly taking jobs and learning through experience—with his success as a director of photography. He reflects on his career with gratitude. “It’s a great privilege and we’re getting paid for this stuff. It’s like every time I walk on a set, I’m just like, am I lucky. This is a great way to make a living.”

See Murderbot on AppleTV.

Find Tobias Datum: https://tobiasdatum.me/

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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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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March 23, 2022

Jenelle Riley, Variety’s Deputy Awards and Features Editor, discusses the 2022 Academy Awards nominations

Long-time friend and colleague Jenelle Riley of Variety magazine chats with Ben and Illya for our third annual Oscar nominations special. They discuss what they liked, what will win, what should win, and their favorite movies of the year that may not have been recognized.

Here’s a rundown of some of the nominations discussed in this episode, as well as great films that were not nominated this awards season. Listen to our interviews with some of the nominated DPs and other noteable films of the year!

Annette
The Sparks Brothers
The Power of the Dog, Ari Wegner
Jane Campion
Zola
Dune, Greig Fraser
Denis Villeneuve
Nightmare Alley, Dan Laustsen
The Tragedy of Macbeth, Bruno Delbonnel
Westside Story, Janusz Kominski
Steven Spielberg
King Richard, Robert Elswit
Cyrano, Seamus McGarvey
Licorice Pizza, Paul Thomas Anderson
Belfast, Haris Zambarloukos

Find Jenelle Riley on Instagram and Twitter: @jenelleriley and Variety: https://variety.com/

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com/oscars2022/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

By Illya Friedman

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February 16, 2022

Catch The Fair One director Josef Kubota Wladyka and actor/screenwriter Kali Reis

Catch the Fair One is about Kaylee “K.O.” Uppashaw, a mixed Indigenous boxer who is searching for her sister, Weeta, who has been missing for two years. K.O. sets off on a dark and dangerous journey as she willingly allows herself to be exploited by a sex trafficking ring to find out what happened to her sister. Catch the Fair One is the second feature for Josef Kubota Wladyka, who has also directed episodes of Narcos, Fear the Walking Dead and The Terror. It’s the acting debut for Kali Reis, who is an Indigenous/Cape Verdean world champion boxer and activist for missing and murdered Indigenous women of North America.

Josef met Kali through a friend’s boxing gym. Watching her train and box helped Josef form an idea for the story of Catch the Fair One and he wanted a collaborative partner who could help shine a light on the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women. With such dark subject matter, Kali and Josef knew they wanted the film to be a thriller, with themes of pain, loss, and regret that intentionally draws the audience in. Kali enjoyed being a part of the creative writing process. Though she had never written a script before, she feels she drew on her ancestors’ tradition of storytelling and it felt natural. Kali was able to write her own character, building Kaylee from the ground up. Josef and Kali shoot a lot of rough footage, working out different character and script ideas. Kali also trained at an acting boot camp to help her learn acting and character work. Josef felt fortunate to work with Darren Aronofsky, who came on board as executive producer, and he gave Josef feedback on the movie to help bring it into focus.

Find Kali Reis: Instagram: @ko_ndnbxr
Twitter: @KO_Reis86

Catch The Fair One opened February 11th in theaters and on demand. https://www.catchthefairone.movie/

Learn more about Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women: https://www.nativewomenswilderness.org/mmiw

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com//ep159/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by Aputure: https://www.aputure.com/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

By Illya Friedman

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December 21, 2021

Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF on Nightmare Alley, working with director Guillermo del Toro

Cinematographer Dan Laustsen’s latest movie with director Guillermo del Toro is the film noir psychological thriller, Nightmare Alley. Unlike many of del Toro’s previous films, Nightmare Alley features no monsters or creatures, exploring instead the drama of the monsters within humans. Dan and del Toro had extensive prep and discussion about how to tell the story in a classic film noir way, except with lush vibrant colors instead of in black and white. Part of the movie takes place in the carnival world, so del Toro and Dan had extensive discussions about the color palette. Del Toro had a very precise idea of what colors he wanted and he uses very little color correction in post. Dan decided to paint with light, and draw attention to the beautiful sets as much as possible. The movie was shot mainly at night and indoors so they were able to carefully control the lighting. They chose to light using mainly a single source, and lit the character of Lilith Ritter, played by Cate Blanchett, like a classic movie star. Her lighting was important to the storytelling so the audience sees her as a powerful force in the film. In fact, the lights would also move on a dolly track with Blanchett, or Dan would use a small 1K as a follow spot. For the camerawork, Dan and del Toro wanted all of the shots in Nightmare Alley to be on the move-everything is shot either on a dolly, with a Steadicam or from a crane.

Del Toro & Dan first began working together on Mimic, and they found what Dan considers a similar European sensibility of lighting with a single source, keeping things very dark and having the courage to not show everything. The two didn’t work together again until Crimson Peak but del Toro and Dan have a great rapport, and Dan found that they could pick right back up again.

Find Dan Laustsen: Instagram @dan.laustsen

You can see Nightmare Alley in theaters.

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com//ep152/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Sponsored by Assemble: Assemble has amazing production management software. Use the code cinepod to try a month for free! https://www.assemble.tv/
Be sure to watch our YouTube video of Nate Watkin showing how Assemble works! https://youtu.be/IlpismVjab8

Sponsored by DZOFilm: https://www.dzofilm.com/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

By Illya Friedman

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October 9, 2020

War Stories Vol. 4: Tales from the Set featuring Quyen Tran, Mike Figgis, Dan Laustsen, Abe Martinez, Bill Wages, Larry Fong, Vanja Černjul, Rachel Morrison, Linus Sandgren, Stefan Ciupek, Matty Libatique

Special: The Cinematography Podcast- War Stories Vol. 4

In our fourth War Stories Special, we feature eleven guest’s harrowing, hilarious or heartwarming stories they had while on set, or a formative career experience that led them to cinematography.

Find full interviews with each of our featured cinematographers in our archives!

Cinematographer Quyen Tran on her life-changing experience after 9/11 in New York; Mike Figgis and a nearly disastrous screening of Timecode; Dan Laustsen tells the story of how his sister influenced him to go to film school; Abe Martinez serendipitously found the perfect house while staying in Kenya; Bill Wages was dissuaded early on from becoming a National Geographic Magazine photographer; Larry Fong talks about getting his big break with JJ Abrams on Lost; Vanja Černjul on his secret to decompressing after wrapping on a big shoot; Rachel Morrison’s story of making a huge mistake as a set P.A. with Matty Libatique; Linus Sandgren on his early days working as a gaffer with a seasoned electrician; Stefan Ciupek talks about the blooper in the single-take film, Russian Ark; and finally, Matty Libatique on getting real concert footage for A Star Is Born.

Do you have a War Story you’d like to share? Send us an email or reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram!

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com/warstories4/

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com
Website: www.camnoir.com
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

By Illya Friedman

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June 5, 2019

Ep 36 – Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF – The Oscar Nominated Cinematographer of Shape of Water, Dives into John Wick 3, Shooting Film and His Career

Acclaimed Danish cinematographer Dan Laustsen talks to Illya about working with Guillermo del Toro on The Shape of Water, Crimson Peak and Mimic.  Del Toro’s frequent collaborator discusses the ease of shooting digital cinema now vs. the old days of relying on a lab to process the film correctly.  For the John Wick films, lens choices and tricks played a big part in how he and director Chad Stahelski accomplished a flare effect on the films.  In John Wick-Chapter 3- Parabellum, Dan discusses shooting mainly at night and created a glistening, rainy look.

By Illya Friedman

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In Cinematography Podcast, Film Festivals, Latest Posts, Podcast Episodes

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