December 2, 2024

Special Episode: A tribute to Adam Somner, Assistant Director, Producer for Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Alejandro González Iñárritu

We were incredibly saddened by the loss of 1st Assistant Director and producer, Adam Somner. You can hear his fantastic energy, enthusiasm and entertaining storytelling as a guest on The Cinematography Podcast. Here we have re-posted his 2021 episode in memorial and tribute to his blockbuster career. He will be greatly missed.

The job of the assistant director is to work in concert with the director and the DP to get everything done on a movie set. As a 1st AD, Adam Somner is trusted by the industry’s top directors to anticipate their needs, motivate the crew, figure out the schedule, and drive the entire production forward to finish each day on time. He finds the best way to keep everything moving smoothly on set is though humor, high energy and uniting everyone as a group, persuading people to do things on the schedule and timeline needed to complete the job.

Adam’s father, Basil Somner, worked for MGM Studios in England, and through him, Adam got a job as a runner/production assistant at age 17. He began working on movies in the late ’80’s, like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Superman IV, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? He worked under many assistant directors, observed how they took charge on set, and decided he was really interested in becoming an AD.

Adam has worked on eight Ridley Scott films to date, as well as several of the late Tony Scott’s films. He was first hired on a Ridley Scott film as a third assistant director on 1492: Conquest of Paradise and White Squall, then moved up to second assistant director on Gladiator, (with DP John Mathieson) where he learned how to manage a huge crew of extras and background action from the 1st AD, Terry Needham. On Black Hawk Down, Adam was promoted to first assistant director for the second unit. Black Hawk Down was shooting in Morocco, and the second unit was responsible for most of the helicopter sequences, with lots of moving parts and extras, involving real Black Hawk helicopters and real U.S. military soldiers. After Black Hawk Down, Adam got the call to begin working with Steven Spielberg on War of the Worlds, where he quickly learned to read Spielberg’s mind and keep an eye on the details. He’s worked with Spielberg on ten films now, including Munich, Lincoln, and Ready Player One.

A 1st AD is responsible for coordinating most of the background action. Adam’s ability to work on big sets with lots of action, extras and special effects led director Paul Thomas Anderson to hire him for There Will Be Blood, and Anderson has since become a personal friend. Adam finds Anderson’s on-set approach to be very thoughtful and measured. Unlike the action-heavy films Adam has worked on, he knew it was important to keep the crew and background actors quiet and subdued on Anderson’s films with heavy dialog, such as The Master and Phantom Thread.

For The Wolf of Wall Street, Adam was thrilled to work with director Martin Scorsese. Scorsese and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto had Adam sit in during their preproduction shotlisting process, so they were all thoroughly prepared. Scorsese loves shooting scenes with complex background action, and Adam delivered. He carefully rehearsed all the extras in different stages of panic as the brokers watched the stock market crash. For the famous in-flight orgy scene, Adam wasn’t totally sure how he wanted to deal with not just one sex scene, which is hard enough, but several at once. So he decided to hire a choreographer to help rehearse and plan all the action, making sure each background player knew exactly what they were doing and taking care that everyone was comfortable with their role in front of the camera.

Adam was excited to work with Alejandro González Iñárritu on some of Birdman, and as the 1st AD on one of the may units shooting The Revenant, where Iñárritu and the DP Emmanuel Lubezki “Chivo” wanted everything shot and rehearsed during magic hour. Rehearsals were incredibly important on both Birdman and The Revenant, since Iñárritu and Chivo shot many scenes in one single shot.

Adam’s most recent project was director Steve McQueen’s Blitz, and his last film with director Paul Thomas Anderson will be out in 2025.

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras: www.hotrodcameras.com

Website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheCinematographyPodcast
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

June 26, 2024

Baby Reindeer cinematographer Kryzsztof Trojnar

Netflix’s Baby Reindeer is a dark comedic thriller that chronicles the true story of a struggling comedian, Donny (Richard Gadd) as he’s stalked by a seemingly harmless woman named Martha (Jessica Gunning). As her pursuit of him escalates and becomes progressively unhinged, the audience learns more about why Donny may be so passive about stopping her advances.

Cinematographer Kryzsztof Trojnar reunited with his fellow Polish film school classmate, director Weronika Tofilska, on Baby Reindeer’s first four episodes. The show’s unique origin, a one-man stage play, proved a valuable resource for Kryzsztof. He immersed himself in the audio recording alongside the script, capturing the story’s rhythm and intensity. “It was all about how we create that intensity, how we create the intrusion of Martha, how we show her overtures in that pub.” says Kryzsztof. “It all has to be really close and really intense that as an audience you feel that intrusion.”

Both Kryzsztof and Tofilska were inspired by Coen brothers movies and Paul Thomas Anderson’s Magnolia, admiring their treatment of character-driven narratives. Kryzsztof made sure to keep the perspective of the story firmly in Donny’s first person point of view. Wide-angle lenses frequently frame him in the center, and the use of Steadicam shots keep up the frantic pace of Donny’s increasing unease.

Kryzsztof and Tofilska chose lighting and a color palette they jokingly called “decomposing body” for Baby Reindeer. It creates a stylized world with a LUT heavy on earth tones of yellow, brown, and green. Against those colors, naturally lit moments and other hues stand out with a jarring vibrancy. Kryzsztof also favored unflattering, hard lighting for Donny as he feels more haunted and hunted by Martha. Martha, on the other hand, is lit in a flattering way, as she admires and flirts with Donny, making him feel adored.

Find Kryzsztof Trojnar: Instagram: @krzysztof_trojnar

Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com

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

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

May 19, 2021

Adam Somner, first assistant director, on Ridley Scott, Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, Paul Thomas Anderson, Alejandro González Iñárritu, movies Black Hawk Down, War of the Worlds, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Revenant, and more

The job of the assistant director is to work in concert with the director and the DP to get everything done on a movie set. As a 1st AD, Adam Somner is trusted by the industry’s top directors to anticipate their needs, motivate the crew, figure out the schedule, and drive the entire production forward to finish each day on time. He finds the best way to keep everything moving smoothly on set is though humor, high energy and uniting everyone as a group, persuading people to do things on the schedule and timeline needed to complete the job.

Adam’s father, Basil Somner, worked for MGM Studios in England, and through him, Adam got a job as a runner/production assistant at age 17. He began working on movies in the late ’80’s, like Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Superman IV, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit? He worked under many assistant directors, observed how they took charge on set, and decided he was really interested in becoming an AD.

Adam has worked on eight Ridley Scott films to date, as well as several of the late Tony Scott’s films. He was first hired on a Ridley Scott film as a third assistant director on 1492: Conquest of Paradise and White Squall, then moved up to second assistant director on Gladiator, where he learned how to manage a huge crew of extras and background action from the 1st AD, Terry Needham. On Black Hawk Down, Adam was promoted to first assistant director for the second unit. Black Hawk Down was shooting in Morocco, and the second unit was responsible for most of the helicopter sequences, with lots of moving parts and extras, involving real Black Hawk helicopters and real U.S. military soldiers. After Black Hawk Down, Adam got the call to begin working with Steven Spielberg on War of the Worlds, where he quickly learned to read Spielberg’s mind and keep an eye on the details. He’s worked with Spielberg on ten films now, including Munich, Lincoln, and Ready Player One.

A 1st AD is responsible for coordinating most of the background action. Adam’s ability to work on big sets with lots of action, extras and special effects led director Paul Thomas Anderson to hire him for There Will Be Blood, and Anderson has since become a personal friend. Adam finds Anderson’s on-set approach to be very thoughtful and measured. Unlike the action-heavy films Adam has worked on, he knew it was important to keep the crew and background actors quiet and subdued on Anderson’s films with heavy dialog, such as The Master and Phantom Thread.

For The Wolf of Wall Street, Adam was thrilled to work with director Martin Scorsese. Scorsese and cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto had Adam sit in during their preproduction shotlisting process, so they were all thoroughly prepared. Scorsese loves shooting scenes with complex background action, and Adam delivered. He carefully rehearsed all the extras in different stages of panic as the brokers watched the stock market crash. For the famous in-flight orgy scene, Adam wasn’t totally sure how he wanted to deal with not just one sex scene, which is hard enough, but several at once. So he decided to hire a choreographer to help rehearse and plan all the action, making sure each background player knew exactly what they were doing and taking care that everyone was comfortable with their role in front of the camera.

Adam was excited to work with Alejandro González Iñárritu on some of Birdman, and as the 1st AD on one of the may units shooting The Revenant, where Iñárritu and the DP Emmanuel Lubezki “Chivo” wanted everything shot and rehearsed during magic hour. Rehearsals were incredibly important on both Birdman and The Revenant, since Iñárritu and Chivo shot many scenes in one single shot.

Adam is currently working on Killers of the Flower Moon with director Martin Scorsese.

Find out even more about this episode, with extensive show notes and links: https://camnoir.com/ep125/

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

Website: www.camnoir.com
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNQIhe3yjQJG72EjZJBRI1w
Facebook: @cinepod
Instagram: @thecinepod
Twitter: @ShortEndz

November 18, 2019

Mihai Mălaimare Jr.- DP of Jojo Rabbit, The Master, The Hate U Give, Youth Without Youth on working with Taika Waititi, Francis Ford Coppola, Paul Thomas Anderson

Cinematographer Mihai Mălaimare Jr. discusses his experience of shooting three films with Francis Ford Coppola and working with Paul Thomas Anderson on The Master. For his most recent film, Jojo Rabbit, Mehai and director Taika Waititi developed a very vibrant and colorful look for the film to emphasize Jojo’s fantasy world.