STRANGER THINGS 3

"This is one of my favorite frames from Stranger Things 3. It was shot on the RED MONSTRO (8K with 7K extraction) with Leica Thalia lenses. For Season 3, we moved up to this large-format system and the Duffers and I were excited to take advantage of the sensor wherever we could really show it off. The sentimental feel of this backlit scene recaptures the innocence that we cling to on our show as the kids move from childhood firmly into their teenage years. When we initially scouted this very remote location, I GPS’d where the sun would be at the end of the day and saw the opportunity to capture something special with the sun falling between the trees looking out to the distant valley forest. As lovers of cinema, we like to think of this shot as a little tip of the hat to the famous digging for the “Well of Souls” scene from Raiders of the Lost Ark, photographed by Douglas Slocombe, ASC, BSC, OBE. Because of the limits to this remote location, I used a 12x12 silk with neg and positive fill only for previous shots when the sun was higher, no lights. A 50-foot techno on a Taurus base climbed the hill to get all the work done here. This was just a nice slow crane down; with restraint I might add. The MONSTRO/Thalia combo captured this naturally lit high-contrast scene beautiful as well as all the mixed artificial lighting we threw at it for our mall work, all with fantastic results." - CINEMATOGRAPHER: Tim Ives, ASC

UNBELIEVABLE

"In watching the performance of Kaitlyn Dever, I noticed she was hanging her head very low and shaking her knees and wringing her hands. I wanted a more intimate camera angle to capture those nuances. So, I chose to bisect the frame with the table at which she was being interrogated, further trapping her in the nightmare of being attacked once again, but this time by the investigators. By lighting the whole room with large units placed outside the windows, and by shooting two cameras simultaneously, I could move quickly from the wide into the closeup, allowing Kaitlyn to not break character in such a sensitive scene with as few intense takes as possible." - CINEMATOGRAPHER: Quyen Tran

GLOW

"This was one of those shots where I felt that everything fell into place where I wanted it to, and that the cinematography was working very well in concert with what was happening in the show. It feels sexy, dangerous and fun. This theater was one of our big set builds on this season of GLOW, and building a large set for a season is always a challenge because you are trying to anticipate every possible lighting/compositional situation you may find yourself in. So, you try to light the space in a way that will create the right atmosphere and also give you the maximum amount of flexibility to shape faces and spaces. This was a moment where the footlights for the stage were fantastic for lighting Betty Gilpin, and where all the practicals and theatrical lighting was able to be dialed in so nicely that there was no need to supplement it with additional lighting on stands, which always feels like a win for me." - CINEMATOGRAPHER: Chris Teague

LOST IN SPACE

"This frame of Parker Posey and Molly Parker reminds me of how the show has always written strong female characters with honest and strong stories. The concept behind the frame was to show our two female leads standing up to one another, yet at the same time, feel a sensitivity to each other that both find hard to share. Shot on the RED MONSTRO sensor with COOKE S5i lenses, the combo gave us a softness and a warmth in shadows and highlights that really provided the subtlety I wanted, but still held a strong silhouette to convey the strength of the characters and the situation. The scene was lit with LEDs within the set build that we had total control of via our dimmer board, a vast amount of negative fill behind the camera as the inside of the ship is predominately light grey in color, and a flare rig that we had built 'on camera' that allowed us to create a full circumference flare as the camera pushed in. It was all in the timing!" - CINEMATOGRAPHER: Sam McCurdy, BSC

MINDHUNTER

"It’s difficult to pick one favorite frame from Mindhunter as the show’s style is very much defined by the aggregate of many shots working in concert in long and often complex scenes. In this frame Edmund Kemper (played by Cameron Britton) is holding court with FBI agents Tench and Ford. Director Andrew Dominik placed him under the cross in the prison chapel, lending his advice about an active serial killer; metaphorically preaching to his congregation. The lighting is simple and meant to be institutional, with the set mostly lit by the fluorescents behind Kemper’s head and a little ambient top light. It was shot on RED HELIUM in 8k with a Leica Simmulux-C 29mm prime. I think it’s a great example of what we were trying to achieve visually with Mindhunter." - CINEMATOGRAPHER: Erik Messerschmidt, ASC

NEVER HAVE I EVER

“This shot reminds me how amazing it was to work with this crew. It was part of a longer sequence of shots showing Devi’s character losing control. All the departments were working at 110% to help us achieve a sense of danger by shooting during blue hour. The AD’s got us on the street just before sunset with all the cars arranged. The electricians lit up all the windows and streetlights on the Universal backlot. The grips rigged the cart for Steadicam, and the camera team was ready with the RED HELIUM S35 with specially tuned Panavision Panaspeeds. This combo and the ability to work at higher ISOs gave us plenty of time to shoot the sequence as it got dark. Director Tristram Shapeero and I built a custom LUT that pulled all the blue tones to cyan which added to the sense of unease in the scene. The crew was instrumental in achieving the look and feel we had envisioned.” - CINEMATOGRAPHER: Rhet Bear

YOU

“This shot represents exactly what the director and I were trying to convey in this particular episode – isolation. Joe, our main character, is very much alone on the strange journey that he goes through in this episode. At the same time, Love, our female lead, is feeling isolated from her family. In this scene, Love has confronted her mother and eventually leaves the table. We cut to a slow pull back as Love exits toward the camera, leaving her mother sitting alone in the center of this wide frame. I wanted to light the scene with as few ‘movie’ lights as I could so that we could get this wide. It’s mainly lit with the table practicals and some very soft top/backlight. I also had this idea of a large mural that I could silhouette our characters against, so I spoke with Hugh Moody, our production designer, showed him some references and he liked the idea. The final product came out great and his amazing team really delivered.” - CINEMATOGRAPHER: Seamus Tierney

The Baby-Sitter’s Club

"The response to the show's release has been really gratifying, and this frame captures a lot of what we were going for with the photography. This episode was all about Claudia's character (played by Momona Tamada) and in this story beat the wide frame and shallow depth help isolate her in school during a moment of conflict. We shot on RED MONSTRO in 7K with Master Anamorphics, and the minimal distortion and subtle flaring allowed us to get quite close to her with a wider lens, keep the shot simple and natural, and capture the emotional tone that EPs Rachel Shukert, Lucia Aniello and I were going for. All the support from our producers and creative and technical departments helped create something special that has really resonated with fans." – CINEMATOGRAPHER: Adam Silver