The Surgeon’s Cut profiles four ground-breaking doctors from around the world, each with a visionary approach to their craft. Through the individual stories of these experts, the series explores how our understanding of the human body is constantly being reinvented by new discoveries and techniques.
The show received a 2021 Royal Television Society Award for best Science and Natural History program. The judges noted, “It was beautifully made – sensitive and poignant, and offered an astonishing insight into a fascinating subject.” The docuseries, a BBC Studios Production, is executive produced by Andrew Cohen and James Van der Pool, with episodes directed by Lucy Blakstad, Stephen Cooter, James Newton and Sophie Robinson.
RED spoke to the cinematographers who captured the dramatic images. Relying on RED GEMINIs, they leaned into the emotional journeys of these doctors and patients. Below, they share their visual motivations as well as reveal their approach to shooting intimate and emotionally charged scenes.
EPISODE 1: Cinematographer James Newton on “Saving Life Before Birth” featuring Dr. Kypros Noclaides
“I am very proud of this show. The type of surgery I was filming influenced how I composed my shots. Dr. Nicolaides is a pioneer in fetal medicine. We focused on a keyhole surgery of twins in the womb. What makes this type of surgery unusual is that the mother is awake for the whole procedure, watching on a screen as the babies are operated on inside her womb! It was an incredible honor to be able to film this type of surgery.”
“Before shooting, we sat with the family and explained the show’s concept and how we would approach filming the operation. We had a two-stage consent process – first, the family gave permission to film. Then, at a later date, we would ask permission to broadcast. This approach gave reassurance to the family that they had control over this very intense situation.”
“In the operating theater you would have a father and sometimes other family members in the room observing anxiously. As you can imagine, this creates a very intense atmosphere. Adding to the intensity is the fact that the expecting parents and doctors all know that the baby’s life depends on this operation, and it’s all playing out with a film crew in the room. In order to respect the sensitivity of the moment, I was determined not to heighten the atmosphere any further. I made the decision to be as invisible as possible. It was just me in the room and I had the sound person radio-mic everyone in advance.”
“I also made the decision to shoot with prime lenses, choosing vintage Nikon lenses, which are very small but have lots of character. The depth of field that you get when you are shooting wide open on prime lenses gives an intimate and sympathetic look. I needed to be able to change the lenses quickly and quietly in order to adjust the shot size. I used individual lens bags with 18mm, 24mm, 35mm, 50mm, and 105mm lenses strapped to my belt, picking the shot size based on which lens would best illustrate what was happening. I loved the 18mm wide as it captured the expecting mother in the middle, doctor on the other side, and the anxious father at the end of the bed.”
“The rooms we were in were small; I was never more than a foot or two away from patient. I liked filming on 35mm or 50mm lenses up close. There is a lot of emotion in the room, and if an operation takes a bad turn, it can be quite overpowering. In this type of situation, I would change lens to the 105mm and make myself as small as possible so as not to distract the doctor. Because the doctor uses ultrasound, he liked the rooms to be very dark to allow him to get the best detail from the screen. The GEMINI camera with its dual ISO would have worked by itself, but augmented with a small LED panel light attached to a Magic Arm hanging off a Polecat over the patient’s bed. It gave a beautiful soft sauce light over the doctor and patients. I feel filming with the GEMINI camera really brought a cinematic quality to the series that you wouldn't get with a normal documentary camera. I loved working with the RED camera.”
Colorist Ross Baker adds, “The story in this episode was very unique from a color perspective. The surgeries being performed are cutting edge and very risky. We didn't want to remove the viewer from that personal and emotional aspect. We opted to stay away from cool colors during the surgery and focused on creating an intimate feeling. The edited footage focused on either the doctor or the patient. We crafted the shots to envelope them in a warm, nurturing atmosphere. For the rest of the episode, we kept the feel neutrally warm and playful to help the viewer feel compassion for the patients. In contrast, when Dr. Nicolaides is on his own tackling the emotions of his job, we reduced the saturation and vignetting.”
EPISODE 2: Cinematographer Patrick Smith on “Sacred Brain” featuring Dr. Alfredo Quiñones-Hinojosa
“We shot in Florida and Mexico to chronicle Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa’s journey from migrant farm worker to top neurosurgeon.”
“To capture his brain surgeries, we shot with RED GEMINI cameras mounted with Atlas anamorphics and Canon Sumire spherical lenses. The anamorphics lent a dream like look to the beauty and constructed imagery while the Sumire lenses gave a lighter smaller focus for the surgery and observational scenes.”
“Our 1st AC Ben Crossley would glide through the corridors of the hospital with our specially made cart. We had to move efficiently through the hospital from consultation to anesthetics to the surgery, so we slimmed the gear kit down to one trolly that provided the power, media, cameras, lenses and support for both ‘doctor and ‘beauty’ shots.”
“We shot a mock-up of surgery in a training building, which gave us the opportunity to practice lighting the scene and giving it a sense of heightened reality. I fired as much light as possible at the camera giving lovely flares and making the most of the anamorphic lenses. I also kept things contrasty while applying the same camera movement and feel I would use for the observed real-life surgery. The protocols in surgery are obviously of huge importance and we were very aware of what we could and couldn’t do.”
Baker notes, “The real beauty of Dr. Quiñones-Hinojosa is his humble beginnings and the journey to becoming one of the world’s best in neurosurgery. We wanted to create an earthy warm feel for most of this episode as it reflected the softness and kindness of the doctor. I pushed the grade to have more golden light to romanticize his past life. We kept the surgeries cool again to contrast his past. As the edit cut back and forth from past to present with very similar framed shots, this approach added visual color separation for these moments.”
EPISODE 3: Cinematographer Amy Newstead on “Living Donor” featuring Dr. Nancy Ascher
"Our challenge was to find good angles in the operating room, whilst giving the surgery team the space they need. Although everyone’s attention is closely focused on the operating area, there’s a lot going on around Dr. Ascher as her team worked to support her, so we looked to capture the activity in the room, searching for striking compositions and movement. A short slider helped accentuate the flow of the operating teams movements, like the passing of tools back and forth.”
“When you think of an operating theater one of the first images that comes to mind is the bright lights above the table. This is set against a very flatly lit room full of white walls and blue gowns. It was great knowing the GEMINI sensor’s latitude would expose for the brightest points and still give me a decent exposure in the lower contrast areas. The colorist, Ross Baker, then did a fantastic job bringing in more contrast and shape to the light.”
“Sophie (Robinson), the director, wanted to convey the sheer determination and excellence of Dr. Ascher finding success in a field that is traditionally male dominated, and I think you can see that in this shot – the way Dr. Ascher moves through the hospital is so powerful. She marches everywhere, and everyone has to keep up with her.”
“Sophie also wanted to capture the dark and more surreal side of looking at transplant surgery, which Dr. Ascher acknowledges herself. As a child her mother used to take her to watch horror films, and Sophie threaded that through the film, in archive footage and we filmed at the Castro Cinema in San Francisco. It was amazing to shoot in such an iconic location, and so much fun to play around with using the 35mm projector as a light while Dr. Ascher watched an old horror film in the empty cinema.”
“It was great using the 2.40:1 aspect ratio on the GEMINI for a documentary as things instantly look more cinematic which can really help out in a rather plain location like a hospital. We had to shoot a lot in beige rooms with no control over lighting and move quickly. The joy of this format is that angles and framing jump out at you easily because the frame is just more graphic. Shooting wider compositions could be tricky for sound, but our brilliant sound recordist Lucy Pickering had it covered. The texture of the film and the impact of the images is so important.”
Baker reveals that “Sophie was very keen to play on Dr. Ascher’s connection to old B&W horror films and the macabre during the grade because that is such a part of who she is. We discussed how we would bring elements of this into both the surgery and her everyday life. Looking at modern-day horror color palettes and the strong contrast of B&W, we played heavily on greens and blues in the deep blacks and a warmer yellow for the highlights to bring this feeling to the narrative.”
EPISODE 4: Cinematographer Julius Brighton on “Heart & Soul” featuring Dr. Devi Shetty
“In documentary filmmaking, we have to respond to real locations and accommodate what is really taking place. These constraints are my starting point. It’s obvious during surgery that there’ll be a huddle of medics around the patient’s torso, so getting clear shots was always going to be a challenge. We used a Feather Crane (with the RED GEMINI) to achieve the over-head top shot. This was always intended to be a release shot from the main camera. Depending on which lens we used it could show the procedure but not be too explicit. The medical team was so accommodating, allowing me to scrub-up, robe-up and squeeze in shoulder to shoulder and shoot handheld for the more intimate close ups that were needed. On a few occasions I used the GEMINI on a tripod with the legs bunched together to act like a monopod. This was essential to enable steady shots, up beside the table, and capture the procedure with extreme close ups.
“The RED GEMINI with an Atlas Orion 100mm anamorphic lens, though not the lightest set up, has a relatively small form factor which enabled us to get in nice and close. Handheld operating also enabled me to get right next to the action, occasionally filming from the hip, getting as low as possible and almost looking back up past the patient at Dr. Shetty. This was essential as this is his main portrait whilst at work. Though I have to say, when I was this close, dropping something off the camera into the open heart cavity kept me awake at night!”
“We also had a gimbal and a slider at our disposal. The form factor of the GEMINI is perfect for gimbal work. I found it was good for following our cardiac surgeon around the hospital and covering other supporting scenes. The slider proved to be an absolute winner in the operating room where we spent 4-5 hours at a time. It was perfect at the foot of the operating table to cover the wider to mid shots. We could also shift very quickly its position around to cover different events as they unfolded without the ‘y-axis bounce’ and fatigue a gimbal arrangement can induce. It was important to keep the shots smooth and moving all the time.”
“The combination of camera and lens choice, the exposure latitude and judicious use of hard back lighting would occasionally offer up that blue streaked anamorphic flare associated with the sci-fi genre. It worked well for telling our dramatic story in a clinical setting. Also, the ‘god theme’ was explored during the filming. Dr. Shetty is virtuous in his life endeavors, and saints, gods, emperors and other holy people throughout history have been depicted with a halo around their heads. At one point I got a low angle looking up at our surgeon emulating a patient’s perspective. Putting the round surgical light behind his head mimicked that halo, God-like effect, plus I knew the chosen lenses would do something special for us!”
“The RED GEMINI with its dual ISO offers incredible ability to render low light images. I personally feel sometimes a bit of grain/noise texture can make the image can feel more authentic. In documentary environments we’re always stealing or at least borrowing light to make a shot work. But in all honesty, I no longer worry about low light or exposure latitude when using RED cameras. With the high ISO and R3D workflow you can just get on with framing the action knowing you have images that retain the beauty and character of the subject matter in front of your lens without the quality degrading.”
“My job affords me such wide and varied experiences. I consider The Surgeon’s Cut to have been one of my most privileged. It was in no way lost on me that as the patient said goodbye to loved ones, especially as the anesthetist put them under, that it was possibly the last time. To stand beside the surgeon at work, being part of such storytelling, is the apex of my career. I feel I’ve contributed in a small way to telling a truly valuable tale. I’ve also filmed a number of documentary’s with RED cameras over the years. As far as I was concerned, it elevated normal scenes to fairy-tale reality for this show. When the capture format is paired with Super 35mm cine glass, you’re obliged to adopt a more classic approach to filming, and the whole process becomes more filmic.”
Baker explains, “Being that this episode was about a brain surgeon, we focused on his mental space before he goes into surgery. In the grade, we chose to use a very high contrast look with defused highlights for these moments. For the surgery shots, we used cool tones but emphasized the colors within the flare to separate the two.”
“To contrast this, we played on the warmth of the heart and graded the beauty shots of India much softer and warmer.”
The Surgeon’s Cut is available to stream on Netflix.