October 30, 2024

The creepy cinematography of Smile 2: DP Charlie Sarroff

In the horror film Smile 2, pop star Skye Riley, preparing for a world tour, encounters a troubled friend who passes on the sinister “Smile” curse. As Skye’s life spirals into chaos and her sanity deteriorates, she must confront the terrifying entity and its deadly grip before it consumes her and everyone around her.

Cinematographer Charlie Sarroff and director Parker Finn wanted to be sure that the sequel to Smile was more than just a rehash of the same basic idea. They wanted to push and elevate the basic storyline into something bigger, while keeping what worked in the first film intact. Smile 2 definitely has a much bigger scale, with stage lighting and live performance sequences for pop star Skye Riley (Naomi Scott). Early on, Charlie knew he would have to film and light stage performances. He worked closely with lighting designer Brian Spett to get the stage lighting just right. Together, Charlie, Finn, and production designer Lester Cohen created a color palette consisting of reds with silver and blue elements. “Being a cinematographer is about surrounding yourself with great people and then asking them for help,” says Charlie.

Charlie wanted some scenes to “bloom” more, almost so that they looked overexposed. Some parts of Smile 2 were shot on Kodak film to create this effect, and then the film went through a skip bleach process to add to the bloom effect. Then the film was outputted to digital for mastering and further color correction to really make the reds pop. Charlie feels that the process adds a lot to the look. “It smooths out the film, and adds twinkle to the lights. It just infuses into the image a little bit more. I think it can help effects and makeup, too, without being super grainy.”

Smile 2 used many of the same camera movements and lenses as Smile, including plenty of zooms to add to the discomfort. Charlie used a very specific lens for people with the smiling curse. “I shot each smile on a very wide lens, a 28mm- when you’re that close up on that lens, it makes people feel extremely uncomfortable. We never used long lenses,” he adds. “I used a lot of zooms, for specific moments when heavy things are going down to hone in on something. Zooms provoke a different emotion, especially at the end (of the film.) Zooming in shows that Skye is getting closer to the curse.”

Smile 2 is in theaters now.

Find Charlie Sarroff: https://charliesarroff.com/
Instagram: @charliesarroff

Hear our previous interview with Charlie Sarroff on Smile: https://www.camnoir.com/ep187/

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

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

July 10, 2024

Building the world of Fallout: cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh, ASC, NZCS

The post-apocalyptic TV show Fallout is based on the 1997 videogame, which was a huge commercial and critical success. Centuries after a nuclear war, Lucy (Ella Purnell) must venture out of her sheltered underground Vault dwelling into the dangerous Wasteland of Los Angeles to find her kidnapped father (Kyle MacLachlan.) She encounters strange characters, including a Ghoul bounty hunter (Walton Goggins) and Maximus (Aaron Moten) a member of the militaristic Brotherhood of Steel.

Cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh is best known for his work on the 1993 film, The Piano, for which he received an Academy Award nomination. It opened up opportunities for him outside of New Zealand, and he frequently worked with women directors like Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux) and Susan Seidelman (Sex and the City TV pilot.) Stuart also shot Bridget Jones’s Diary, The Runaway Bride, and the New Zealand indie film Once Were Warriors. He particularly enjoyed working with director John Sayles on the 1996 western mystery drama, Lone Star. Stuart’s cinematography captured the vastness and beauty of Texas. The low budget forced him to use “poor man’s process” an old film technique used for staging a driving sequence.

When Stuart read the script for Fallout, he watched play throughs of the game to get an idea of what it should look like. “I had some idea what the basis is, because the game has been around for 30 years. I pulled a lot of images and built a Pinterest board, which turned out to be completely wrong, because I’d gone very atmospheric, very gamey with my references.” says Stuart. “And Jonathan (Nolan) said ‘No, I don’t want to do it that way. I want to play it real, not too many tricks. There’s going to be enough crazy stuff in this movie content-wise- play it straight, and just make it nice.’”

Fallout creator Jonathan Nolan chose to shoot on 35mm film, using ARRI cameras and anamorphic lenses. The show is set in three main spaces, each with its own distinct color palette and look: the underground vault, the wasteland, and the past, before the nuclear disaster. The vault is lit entirely by artificial lighting and Stuart worked closely with the art department to make sure the visible lighting provided enough ambient light to shoot film. It allowed the camera freedom of movement within the space. By contrast, for the wasteland, Stuart leaned into the Western genre the show evokes, balancing the washed-out, desolate surroundings with the vibrancy of pre-war remnants. The wasteland was shot in several different locations including Namibia, the Utah salt flats and upstate New York.

Find Stuart Dryburgh: Instagram @stuartdryburgh

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

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com
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