photographing a scene. We always made sure to show everything that Jonah was witnessing without judgment.” Judgment factors mightily into Monsters and Men, a Brooklyn-set Competition film, shot by Patrick Scola. The story begins with a local man, Manny Ortega (Anthony Ramos), using his phone to film a white police officer gunning down a street hustler. The video poses a dilemma from which everything moves forward: release the clip and bring unwanted attention to Manny’s family, or do nothing and be complicit in police violence? Writer/director Reinaldo Marcus Green tells his story through its impact on three local men. Although the shooting is the catalyst, the story is more about its “ripples,” with each ripple moving slightly farther from the actual event. “Photographically, I wanted to use this idea of proximity to define the camera language,” Scola describes. “For the characters closest to the event, the lenses are wider, and the camera is closer, reflecting a world that is more raw and rough. For those a few steps removed, the lensing becomes longer, and the life of the camera is less noticeable. As the ripples get further away, they become calmer and ultimately disappear.” Because smartphone videos of police violence have (unfortunately) become so ingrained in American culture, Scola says he and Green felt there was no need to put it on screen. What was necessary, and the biggest challenge for Scola and a Guild crew that included Camera Operator Nick Timmons and 2nd AC Zachary Grace, was a large protest scene with hundreds of BedfordStuyvesant residents. “It was the most sensitive (and expensive) location, and we only had one night to light, rehearse and shoot,” Scola reveals. “We had three Condors with soft boxes lighting all shooting directions so we could quickly switch [angles and setups] with minimal reset time. This also allowed the scene to play out like a ‘live event,’ and with multiple cameras running, takes could be upwards of seven to eight minutes.” Scola credits line producer Charles Miller with helping to fill the location with 300 extras for the first half of the night, which meant [the scene] required no CG or tiling, and the camera language could remain consistent with the rest of the film. “We had one or two crane moves to establish the scale of the event in comparison to other [protests] in the film,” Scola concludes. “The very last shot of the movie represents the full arc of the
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camera’s relationship. During a big decision for our last character, it stays back and is detached, almost ready to drift to the next person in this community.” Community is at the heart of a pair of films set in Oakland, CA – a city struggling with rapid change and uniquely modern problems, like “hipsterization.” Robby Baumgartner has spent decades gaffing for the likes of Robert Elswit, ASC; Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC; Janusz Kaminski, and Emmanuel Lubezki, ASC, AMC; before becoming a 2nd Unit DP. Blindspotting, directed by Carlos López Estrada and co-written and co-starring Daveed Diggs and Rafael Casal, is Baumgartner’s 5th feature as a 1st Unit DP, and his first in Competition at Sundance. The story, about a pair of best friends – one white, the other black – navigating their hometown as everything changes around them, was shot in 22 days, due in large part, Baumgartner says, to his bringing on Guild vets like 1st AC (A-camera) Steve Cueva, 2nd AC (A-camera) Sam Lino, and 1st AC (B-camera) Patrick McArdle. “The combined years of skill of all those guys, plus [DIT] Sin Cohen, [2nd AC B-camera] Shannon Bringham, and Reid Murphy operating A-camera, was the reason I could get the coverage and look on such a low budget,” Baumgartner adds. “We used an ALEXA Mini and ALEXA XTS, with the Mini living full-time on the MōVI ; I had shot a commercial with Reid, who works with MōVI Rentals, Inc. in L.A., and it was clear he would save us so much time on this film. Using the MōVI with a Ready Rig, Reid got amazing shots with a small footprint, and in a timely way. Lori Killam at Panavision set us up, and I managed to have some quality time with lens guru Dan Sasaki, who introduced me to the newly de-tuned Primo spherical lenses, which are fantastic!” Baumgartner’s first thought for the film’s look was that of a gritty Sundance indie, Fruitvale Station (shot by Rachel Morrison, ASC), but Diggs, Casal and López Estrada cited Do The Right Thing (directed by Spike Lee and shot by Ernest Dickerson, ASC) for its warm, neighborhood feel. “We ultimately blended both styles,” the DP recounts. One such example was a sequence inside a beauty parlor, where Casal’s character (Miles) is selling hair irons to a group of female customers, as Diggs looks on. For that, López Estrada had noted the iconic Sal’s Pizza location from Lee’s film. “I did remind Carlos that Spike and Ernest had a bit more money and could use