ICG Magazine - December 2023 - Generation NEXT

ICG MAGAZINE

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HOYTE VAN HOYTEMA ASC , FS F, N SC

RICHARD ROEPER

A FILM BY CHRISTOPHER NOLAN

G O TO W W W. E X P E R I E N C E O P P E N H E I M E R .CO M F O R M O R E

© 2022 UNIVERSAL STUDIOS

CONTENTS GENERATION NEXT December 2023 / Vol. 94 No. 11

DEPARTMENTS first look ................ 12 depth of field ................ 14 exposure ................ 18 production credits ................ 92 stop motion .............. 98

SPECIAL Generation NEXT .... 70

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FEATURE 01

A SONG IN MIND

Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF, and Director Blitz Bazawule reimagine Alice Walker’s award-winning novel as a musical journey for the heart (and head).

FEATURE 02 MIRROR, MIRROR Director of Photography Christopher Blauvelt’s first feature with New Queer Cinema pioneer Todd Haynes is dark, uncomfortable…and (surprise!) funny.

FEATURE 03 ISLAND KEEPER Lachlan Milne, ASC, ACS, NZSC, hits the pitch with Taika Waititi to tell the ultimate (true-life!) underdog story.

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42 54

PRESIDENT’S LETTER

P hoto by Scott Everet t W hi t e

The Light Ahead

Baird B Steptoe National President International Cinematographers Guild IATSE Local 600

Coming out of two debilitating work stoppages and moving into the holiday season, it’s a blessing to have family – of any kind. We have this family, Local 600 (which are, as I write this, gathering in our various regions across the country for in-person holiday parties), and our larger IATSE film family, who, thankfully, are looking ahead to a very busy 2024. We have our loved ones at home – spouses, children, parents, relatives, and good friends, who have been in our lives forever. And, perhaps, even most importantly – we need to love ourselves.

Expressing love for all the different family members we hold dear is, in my opinion, the best way to move forward from a year that (I’m sure) many of us want to leave behind.

Of course, our on-set working family is what this union is all about. I’m extremely encouraged by the various regional production reports that show the pace of employment picking up as we head into 2024. Dozens of new projects, some with firm start dates, some still in prep, will be marked on Local 600’s calendar for 2024 – from Seattle to Albuquerque, Chicago to Boston, and many points in between. The promise – or the hope, I should say – of all of us returning to the jobs we love is reflected in this December issue of ICG Magazine. The Guild members profiled in Generation NEXT represent the past, present and future all in one package. Many were mentored – or at least influenced – by the experienced Guild members who came before them. Many are beginning to carry on

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that tradition of mentorship to even younger members just entering the union. All of them carry the knowledge of those they have worked with on their various journeys. And that intersection is, I am sure, what will keep this local, and the art and craft of cinematography, strong for decades to come.

Strength will also be required in preparing for the upcoming contract negotiations, a massive job that actually started before the WGA strike, in May 2023. In preparation for renegotiating the Basic Agreement, we’ve had town halls for both “on-call” and “on-set” workers, and soon-to-be town halls for those involved in the Videotape Agreement. These informative sessions took months of preparation, and there will be more in early 2024. We’re working closely with the International and all the other Hollywood Production Locals to create an equal (if not even stronger) sense of solidarity that was shown for the WGA and SAGAFTRA this past year. We’ve also approached hundreds of ICG member volunteers to formulate our Contract Action Team (CAT) and better increase two-way communications.

Member feedback is critical in identifying the priorities leading into the 2024 negotiations.

I want to wish everyone happy holidays and a healthy (and very busy) new year and leave you all with one key takeaway from this very difficult year behind us: We can see the light at the end of the tunnel, and to my eyes, it’s pretty darn bright!

Publisher Teresa Muñoz

December 2023 vol. 94 no. 11

Executive Editor David Geffner Art Director Wes Driver

STAFF WRITER Pauline Rogers

COMMUNICATIONS COORDINATOR

Tyler Bourdeau

COPY EDITORS

Peter Bonilla Maureen Kingsley

CONTRIBUTORS David Geffner Margot Lester Bruce McBroom Barbara Nitke Valentina Valentini Jalisco Wayne

IATSE Local 600 NATIONAL PRESIDENT Baird B Steptoe VICE PRESIDENT Chris Silano 1ST NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT Deborah Lipman 2ND NATIONAL VICE PRESIDENT Mark H. Weingartner NATIONAL SECRETARY-TREASURER Stephen Wong NATIONAL ASSISTANT SECRETARY-TREASURER Jamie Silverstein NATIONAL SERGEANT-AT-ARMS Betsy Peoples NATIONAL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Alex Tonisson

COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

John Lindley, ASC, Co-Chair Chris Silano, Co-Chair

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ADVERTISING POLICY: Readers should not assume that any products or services advertised in International Cinematographers Guild Magazine are endorsed by the International Cinematographers Guild. Although the Editorial staff adheres to standard industry practices in requiring advertisers to be “truthful and forthright,” there has been no extensive screening process by either International Cinematographers Guild Magazine or the International Cinematographers Guild.

EDITORIAL POLICY: The International Cinematographers Guild neither implicitly nor explicitly endorses opinions or political statements expressed in International Cinematographers Guild Magazine. ICG Magazine considers unsolicited material via email only, provided all submissions are within current Contributor Guideline standards. All published material is subject to editing for length, style and content, with inclusion at the discretion of the Executive Editor and Art Director.

Local 600, International Cinematographers Guild, retains all ancillary and expressed rights of content and photos published in ICG Magazine and icgmagazine.com, subject to any negotiated prior arrangement. ICG Magazine regrets that it cannot publish letters to the editor.

ICG (ISSN 1527-6007) Ten issues published annually by The International Cinematographers Guild 7755 Sunset Boulevard, Hollywood, CA, 90046, U.S.A. Periodical postage paid at Los Angeles, California.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to ICG 7755 Sunset Boulevard Hollywood, California 90046 Copyright 2021, by Local 600, International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employes, Moving Picture Technicians, Artists and Allied Crafts of the United States and Canada. Entered as Periodical matter, September 30, 1930, at the Post Office at Los Angeles, California, under the act of March 3, 1879. Subscriptions: $88.00 of each International Cinematographers Guild member’s annual dues is allocated for an annual subscription to International Cinematographers Guild Magazine.

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Photo by Sara Terry

WIDE ANGLE

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irst things first: a big shout-out to the entire Local 600 membership, who stood valiantly by their brothers and sisters in the WGA and SAG-AFTRA (for more than 180 days) in solidarity with those essential crafts guilds to win the gains they so rightly deserved. Those Guilds’ work actions dominated industry headlines throughout the spring, summer and fall of 2023, severely challenging everyone in the world of scripted film/TV and other genres, and the ICG has much to be proud of in allowing no daylight in its shoulder-to-shoulder support for its union kin.

What makes our ICG Magazine staff so happy is knowing that many of those Local 600 members who walked picket lines with their WGA and SAG-AFTRA colleagues have been featured in past issues of this Generation NEXT issue. So, it’s no accident that longtime ICG freelance writer Margot Lester found this year’s class filled with pro-labor voices, all of whom shared how their lives have been profoundly changed since COVID19 shut the industry down in 2020, right on through to the end of this year’s dual work stoppages, just a month ago.

What also raises spirits – after learning of the passing of 54-year ICG member, John Bailey, ASC (Stop Motion, page 98) – is the knowledge that the celebrated filmmaker would have been the first person in line to mentor, guide and nurture all 10 members of the 2023 Generation NEXT class.

Although Bailey’s long and storied career, which included Lifetime Achievement Awards from Camerimage and the ASC, and two SOC awards, was spent mostly inside the Hollywood studio system, his heart wholly belonged to the indie/art house/documentary world, from which many of our stories (and ICG members) in this December issue are drawn.

I remember a conversation with him back in 2009 in Park City while attending the premiere of The Greatest, the first of two low-budget indie features Bailey shot for Writer/Director Shana Feste. I asked: “After having worked so long with Hollywood legends like Lawrence Kasdan, Paul Schrader, Harold Ramis, Herbert Ross and

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Ken Kwapis (just to name a few), why shoot a low-budget Sundance film now, with a first-time director?” Without missing a beat, John replied: “Docs and indie films have always been my first love. The passion, energy, and creativity in these projects, along with getting to support the visions of new directors like Shana, is incredibly satisfying.”

Also, pretty satisfying is being able to highlight a movie like Next Goal Wins (page 54). My feature on this feel-good soccer comedy, written and directed by New Zealander Taika Waititi, highlights the terrific union crew base on the island of Oahu, along with ICG Director of Photography Lachlan Milne, ASC, ACS, NZCS, who helped propel the 2020 indie feature Minari to six Academy Award nominations, along with the Grand Jury Prize and Audience Award at Sundance.

I saw Minari at its Sundance premiere and was blown away by the “quietly beautiful” photography, which never whispered any louder than its unique story. After seeing the loving, respectful depiction of Pacific Island life (Oahu standing in for American Samoa) in Next Goal Wins, I was excited to reconnect with Milne and his Hawaii-based camera team. After speaking with B-Camera 2nd AC Kaimana Pinto and veteran 1st AD Josh McLaglen, it occurred to me that “Lachie” is the kind of filmmaker John Bailey loved: patient, funny, kind and fast, who insists on letting the story and performance shine (even if that means a lot of DI work for Fotokem Colorist Dave Cole, given Hawaii’s ever-changing skies and lighting conditions).

As Milne told me: “I’d never been to Hawaii, let alone shot there, so it was a priority to have as many local hires as possible. Not only does it help legitimize the story you’re trying to tell, but no one knows the island better than the [union] crews who live and work here. I’d be crazy not to follow their lead.”

Crazy (not in a good way) has been the operative mindset for so many people these last few years. What settles the mind is the knowledge that sacrificing for the larger good – as John Bailey, Lachlan Milne, all ten ICG members profiled in this month’s Generation NEXT issue, and every union worker who toughed out the recent work actions have done – is always the right choice.

C O N T R I B U T O R S

Barbara Nitke Generation NEXT “I thought it would be interesting to do a portrait of Katie Harris on a set somewhere, but just coming out of the SAG strike there were very few jobs shooting in New York. Instead, I asked Katie if there was anywhere that held special significance for her, and she suggested an Irish pub in the Village where a lot of her colleagues go after work. We got there just as they were opening for the day, so there was plenty of light and very few people.

I loved the space, and the dark wood walls suited Katie perfectly.

Jalisco Wayne Generation NEXT “Truly grateful for the opportunity to work with my colleague and friend, the talented and hardworking Sophia Basiliadis. Since we are both proud Texans, I tried to include some of that country flavor into the frame.”

ICG MAGAZINE

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David Geffner Executive Editor

Email: david@icgmagazine.com

Cover Photo by Eli Ade´, SMPSP / Warner Bros.

F O R YO U R C O N S I D E R AT I O N I N A L L CAT E G O R I E S I N C LU D I N G

BEST PICTURE

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY

MATTHEW LIBATIQUE, ASC

“AN ABSOLUTE MARVEL AND ONE OF THE FINEST FILMS OF THE YEAR. The black-and-white lensing, courtesy of ace cinematographer Matthew Libatique, recalls Hollywood’s Golden Age. Libatique’s camera dances like violins in a concerto.”

FILM.NETFLIXAWARDS.COM

FIRST LOOK

12.2023

JOMO FRAY DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY

BY PAULINE ROGERS PHOTO COURTESY OF JOMO FRAY

Jomo Fray calls himself a child of the “diaspora” – growing up in Massachusetts but spending much of his early life bouncing between the East Coast and the Caribbean (his parents’ homeland). He says his fascination with empathy fed his desire to be a filmmaker.

“It is a chance to live a thousand lives,” Fray reflects. “I wanted to understand all the different ways humans could live – feel all the different emotions humans were capable of feeling.” For much of his teenage years, Fray would shoot movies with his friends on weekends, while also working at a local public-access television station, where he’d practice editing and getting familiar with cameras.

The budding filmmaker strengthened his creative voice at Brown University and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. “One of my undergrad mentors, Professor Anthony Bogues, introduced me to a set of thinkers that I would forever be in conversation with (Fanon, Hegel, Barthes, Foucault),” Fray recalls of his college years. “He pushed me to formulate my own beliefs and theories, which was an invaluable gift. He helped me to believe I had a voice worth cultivating.”

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Early in his career, Fray connected with Local 600 Director of Photography Shawn Peters, and the project was enlightening. “Despite the rough terrain and being covered in mud for most of the day, it felt like every cell in my body was vibrating,” Fray laughs. “I was seeing an entirely new world. After we wrapped, Shawn was kind enough to explain his thought process as to how he built the look the way he did. The level of thought he was putting into each image felt inspiring. Shawn was able to inscribe himself within every frame. At that moment, I saw the infinite configurations cinematography could take.”

Over time, Fray developed his style. In a way, he calls what he does “experiential storytelling. I think about the movies that don’t just show me their world but pull me into it,” he adds. “Film school taught Fray to “show, don’t tell,” from which he created a philosophy of “feel, not show. To create an image so full of emotion,” he shares, “that the viewer can’t help but be pulled into the story and invited to imbue those images with their own life/emotions.

“For example, the long dolly moves in Wong Karwai’s In the Mood for Love are so emotion-laden,”

Fray continues, “that the slow camera moves match the weight of characters’ unrequited feelings for one another. They are weighed down with their own emotions. The first time I saw the film, I stopped reading the subtitles and fell completely into the story. It felt like I was being communicated with telepathically.”

Fray, who joined the ICG in 2020, feels like he is now in the cadre of some of the best working artists in the world. And his work measures up to that bar, mesmerizing festival audiences from Sundance (2019’s Selah and the Spades and 2023’s All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt), Cannes (2019’s Port Authority), Tribeca (2020’s No Future) and TIFF (2022’s Runner) to SXSW (2023’s The Young Wife) and beyond. Most recently, Fray was at the Indie Memphis Film Festival, participating in a Q&A with director Raven Jackson following the screening of All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt.

“Indie Memphis has always been so supportive,” he states strongly. “I had a young man come up and say he was usually into action-oriented films. He was at a loss for words, trying to describe what he had seen and why it moved him. Part of the magic of festivals is people ending up at movies they wouldn’t normally see.”

Fray feels the indie festival circuit is a great space to connect with other filmmakers. “They are an important part of our ecosystem and fun places to meet like-minded artists,” he describes.

“Cannes and Sundance almost have a summer camp-like energy. For a few weeks every year, you get to see everyone in the independent film world in one place. Along with connecting with filmmakers, they are also a great place to catch up with all the institutions that support our work – rental houses, lens manufacturers and festival organizers. I’ve ended up working with so many folks I first met while attending film festivals.”

When Fray is not on set, he is always experimenting with different tools and new technologies. “It’s like the jazz tradition of ‘woodshedding,’” he explains, “where an artist would practice their craft privately to be able to work in a more improvisational fashion when they played at the clubs. Most recently, I have been experimenting with the ARRI Trinity and the new Libra Mini in mimic mode. Sometimes the simplicity of being in a position that would be impossible for a human body but still feeling the lightest handheld movements from the mimic can change the tenor of an image. Taken alone, these changes may not have large effects, but in concert, I believe these choices can create a very different-feeling image.”

For an artist always eager to challenge convention, Fray says his goal is to create images that “push past the surface differences between us and get to a purer form of communication.

Cinematography is a language all its own,” he concludes, “that I believe has the power to reach deep parts of the human psyche. I think throughout my life I’ve been searching for ways to connect and truly communicate with people – cinematography presents that opportunity.”

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ONE TREE PLANTED LOCAL 600 SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE’S “IN MEMORIAM”

BY PAULINE ROGERS PHOTOS COURTESY OF ONE TREE PLANTED

“The last few years have rocked our membership with the deaths of many young members along with well-known colleagues and old friends,” shares Allison Elvove, the National Chair of Local 600’s Sustainability Committee. “We felt we needed to make a gesture as the Board to recognize these challenging times and to honor the important work our brothers and sisters have contributed to the film and television industry.”

It began in 2021, when Local 600 Unit Still Photographer Katherine Bomboy brought awareness of the nonprofit organization One Tree Planted to the attention of the Local 600 Sustainability Committee. The Sustainability Committee, with the help of the Active Engagement Committee, spearheaded a grassroots campaign to plant 9,000 trees representing our approximately 9,000 union members. In the end, Local 600 members raised $9,646 to plant 9,646 trees. At the January 2022 National Executive Board meeting, Elvove shared details of the campaign’s success. NEB Member

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Rocker Meadows suggested the Union continue a relationship with One Tree Planted by planting trees on behalf of Local 600 members who have passed.

One Tree Planted’s Angèle Dostie set the tone by noting, “It’s a beautiful and heartwarming tribute in remembrance of your friends and colleagues.

Your gift will have a tangible impact on nature and communities, which is fitting as they have impacted so many lives.” From all of these efforts, Local 600’s “In Memoriam” charitable donation to One Tree Planted was born.

At the February 2023 NEB, the Board approved the Local 600 Sustainability Committee’s proposal to plant trees in honor of the 31 Guild members who passed away the year prior, in 2022. The number of trees planted was based on the person’s age when they passed. For instance, if the member was 65 years old, 65 trees were donated. At $1 per tree, $2,161 was donated, which meant 2,161 trees were planted. Instead of donating a standard amount – say $50 per person – the Board felt it would be more

meaningful for the families if the Local 600 members were honored by the specific number of trees related to their ages. Working with Local 600 staff, the Sustainability Committee spent months researching the members, to learn more about their families and lives, to ensure the number of trees accurately reflected each member.

For 2022, the Sustainability Committee chose to “plant where it’s needed most.” One Tree Planted selected the Southeast 2023 Species Conservation and Longleaf Pine Restoration project. The planting project established 2,500 acres of new longleaf pine and improved 5,500 acres of existing longleaf forest. Planting was done across Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia. More than 34,000 trees have been planted in Florida’s Seminole State Forest to support not only the community but also the diverse wildlife – helping to ensure a natural and functioning ecosystem. This area contains nearly all of Central Florida’s naturally occurring

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For screenings and special content please visit www.wbawards.com

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vegetative communities, making it a critical habitat to be preserved. Reintroducing the Longleaf Pine species will stabilize the uniquely diverse and fragile ecosystem and improve forest management to reduce future wildfires and protect the area’s wildlife, including black bears, pine warblers, woodpeckers, gopher tortoises, and more.

As Elvove says, “We hope to continue this In Memoriam donation in the years to come.” At the time of this publication, 45 Local 600 members have passed away in 2023, and the NEB has approved 3,243 trees to be planted in their memory.

“Our Local 600 mission statement says we are dedicated to ‘respect for craft and retirement with dignity for our members and their families using every tool at our disposal,’” Elvove continues.

“An ‘In Memoriam’ tree planting is one way we can fulfill our mission. In addition, this donation helps us create a safe workplace for the health and safety of

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our current and future members. We are supporting efforts for clean air and global reforestation, which directly contributes to the quality of the air we breathe when we work long hours, whether it is outdoors on location or indoors on a stage.”

The reaction from family members and friends when they receive a copy of their digital tree planting certificate has been heartwarming. “I appreciate you sharing the information regarding the generous and thoughtful donation Local 600 has made in memory of Herb,” Sharon Chalklett, News Photographer Herb Thomas’ partner, wrote. “I am certain Herb would be pleased as horticulture gardening was one of his favorite pastimes.”

“What a lovely idea to plant trees for the members,” shared Marie Schwiebert for Chris “Burdell” Schwiebert, operator and one of the founding members of the SOC. “It’s a sign that the Union is a brotherhood and family.”

As Elvove concludes: “Gunnar Mortensen was the Co-Chair of the Active Engagement Committee, along with Waris Supanpong, at the time of the 2021 grassroots campaign to plant 9,000 trees for our 9,000 members, and he helped me reach out to members to raise the money. It felt so sudden and tragic when Gunnar died in 2022, and yet the fact that we ended up planting trees in his memory in 2023 feels like a beautiful tribute and we’ve come full circle on this project.”

Gunnar’s wife, Keely Maroney, adds, “My husband was beyond dedicated to Local 600 and trade unionism. He worked so hard on set, but as an NEB member he knew that the benefits that Unions win don’t just go to the Union members. They become the standard. He was proud to be part of Labor’s fight, a fight to set the standard for the rest of us. Thank you, Local 600 for recognizing the solid qualities that make such a fine man as Gunnar Mortensen.”

“ It is as VARIED and as JOYOUS as all the CINEMATIC INSPIRATIONS COURSING THROUGH THE FILM’S DNA and as much of a TECHNICAL CHALLENGE to pull off as anything coated in prestige instead of pink. The camera in Barbie Land treats life in plastic with the same COLOR-DENSE ARTISTRY AND WONDER that make Jacques Demy films like stepping into a painting, only more.”

INDIEWIRE / Sarah Shachat

For screenings and special content please visit www.wbawards.com

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Rodrigo Prieto D EC E M B,E RASC, 20 2 3 AMC

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EXPOSURE

12.2023

CHRISTINE VACHON PRODUCER | MAY DECEMBER

BY DAVID GEFFNER PHOTO COURTESY OF BRIAN BOWEN SMITH / NETFLIX

If there were such a crown as the “Queen of Indie Film” (no pun intended), Producer Christine Vachon would be first in line to be anointed. Dating back to her groundbreaking debut feature, the queer-themed Poison in 1991, with Writer/Director Todd Haynes and Director of Photography Maryse Alberti, Vachon’s had more Sundance (and Cannes, London, Toronto, Berlin, etc.) premieres than she can remember. The newest feature she’s produced for Haynes, May December (page 42), is, like so many other indies Vachon’s been involved with: edgy, provocative, challenging and – above all – entertaining.

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With a résumé that includes Safe, Kids, Happiness, I Shot Andy Warhol, One Hour Photo, I’m Not There, and Velvet Goldmine, and a list of directors of photography that would turn any director into a hyper-excitable 10-year-old at Disneyland – Ed Lachman, ASC; Ellen Kuras, ASC; Reed Morano, ASC; Nancy Schreiber, ASC; Bruno Delbonnel, ASC, FSC; Fred Elmes, ASC; Jim Denault, ASC; Mauro Fiore, ASC; Jeff Cronenweth, ASC; and Enrique Chediak, among others – Vachon’s claim to the indie hall of fame is 100 percent secure.

Remarkably, May December explores new psychosexual territory even Vachon and Haynes had yet to enter. (The story is loosely based on the sensational true-crime story of Mary Kay Letourneau, a sixthgrade teacher who pleaded guilty to felony rape of her 12-year-old student – a boy she bore two children with and later married.) Like so many of the films Vachon and her partner at Killer Films, Pamela Koffler, have overseen, May December – starring Haynes’ longtime muse, Julianne Moore, along with Natalie Portman and Charles Melton – debuted at Cannes, where, according to Vachon, “it took off like a rocket ship.” Ever since Poison, Vachon’s career (she’s EP’d all of Haynes’ work) has seen a comparable trajectory, and indie film fans around the globe are better for it.

I want to take you back 30-plus years to the first indie feature you produced, Poison, which won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance in 1991. It was also Todd Haynes’ first feature and very early days of that festival. What stays with you all these years later about that premiere? Christine Vachon: Well, you say early days, and I just learned yesterday, during another interview, that 1991 was the first year Sundance called itself “Sundance.” Up until that year, it was called the “USA Festival.” It’s interesting to note that Poison went into Sundance with distribution.

Zeitgeist Films, which didn’t put any money up front, did quite well with the film, and all its investors made their money back. That was a nice way to start both Todd’s and my feature filmmaking careers. As for being at Sundance in the early 90s, it’s mostly the small things I remember. We had to share a condo with another movie, and the jury was only three people. We were thrilled to win the Grand Jury Prize, but we didn’t really know what that meant at that time.

What the Grand Jury Prize did was trigger an article that the movie that won Sundance was a “gay movie.”

That prompted the American Family Association to condemn the film because it had received some national arts grants. That, in turn, generated this huge national discussion about whether the arts should be funded, which catapulted Poison into another category, in terms of its distribution and audience.

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What do you remember about making the movie?

I remember that it was very 90s New York City, very DIY. And that many of the people who were part of the production went on to have terrific careers – Kelly Reichardt, for example, and Karim Aïnouz, who’s a Brazilian filmmaker, and Maryse Alberti, who shot the film, is obviously an extraordinary cinematographer. It was the kind of movie that brought a lot of people together who would later determine where independent film was headed.

Poison wasn’t just radical because of the content (inspired by Jean Genet), it took a lot of risks cinematically, including highly stylized cinematography by Maryse, as you mentioned.

Would that film be as challenging today as it was in 1991? I’m not sure how to answer that question.

I’ve been asked the same thing about a film like Happiness [Todd Solondz’s 1998 indie feature, also shot by Alberti]. Poison did get made – more than 30 years ago – and it inspired a lot of other directors, designers, and DP’s. So, it’s hard to separate that, like, “What if John F. Kennedy had never been killed?” I will say there are filmmakers my age who will [lament] that nothing is innovative anymore. But I know there is some kind of great underground scene happening, and why would I know about it?! I’m 60 years old. I didn’t care what anyone thought when I was in my late twenties, when Poison was made.

So why do we assume [cinematic innovation] isn’t happening? I like to assume it is, and at some point, some of those filmmakers, storytellers, content creators – whatever we’re calling them – are going to bust out with work that feels wholly original, just as Poison was in its day.

Poison has been credited as one of the prime drivers of what was later called the “New Queer Cinema.” Did you feel something bigger happening around you? I don’t think I did. But I would also wonder if anybody in a movement is aware of that momentum. In hindsight, you can look back and say how interesting it was that all of those things lined up. In 1991, at Sundance, there was Poison and Paris Is Burning. One year later at Sundance, if memory serves, there was The Living End, Looking for Langston, some of Sadie Benning’s shorts, and The Hours and Times. There were plenty of regional festivals, but Sundance was the first American festival to make its mark on a national scale, and people were starting to take notice of movies with queer content. What gets divorced from that discussion is the AIDS crisis. People talk about [the advent of] New Queer Cinema as an artistic revolution. But for us, and all those other movies I just mentioned, there was a sense of urgency.

Like if we don’t tell our stories now, we never will.

What I see now in all the attention to New Queer

Cinema – I guess it must have just had some kind of anniversary, because I’m seeing a lot about it [laughs] – is how little is mentioned of the social and political context in which those films were made.

And that kind of astonishes me.

Your partnership with Todd Haynes, which now includes May December (page 42), is unique for its longevity. How did you meet, and what has sustained it? We both went to Brown [University] and had friends in common, but we often heard of each other more than we interacted. When we both got to New York City, a common friend, Barry Ellsworth, asked us to start a production company. Every generation thinks they invented the wheel, but it was an amazing time in New York City and the birth of a certain kind of independent film. When I was in college there were Hollywood movies and experimental films, and nothing in between. Experimental films tended to be aggressively anti-narrative, and to me, aggressively anti-entertainment. [Laughs.] In the mid-80s, filmmakers like Spike Lee, Betty Gordon and Jim Jarmusch started telling personal stories through film that required production. It wasn’t just some guy with a Super 8 camera filming his toes anymore. Todd made a movie called Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, and when we started our production company, Apparatus, he was finishing that film. I helped Todd finish the sound edit on the film as I had some experience in that area. Superstar was provocative, wholly original, and entertaining. And I thought: “That’s it! I want to make movies like this.”

After the film, I asked Todd the question I’ve asked him a million times since, maybe a million times every year [laughs]: “What are you doing next?”

The first film Ed Lachman, ASC, shot for Todd Haynes was Far From Heaven, more than 20 years ago, and he’s done every one of Todd’s projects since – except for May December. (Lachman was injured and Chris Blauvelt filled in.) What was the spark for that partnership, and why has it lasted so long? Ed was a bit of a legendary figure when we met. He had the hat and the black suede jacket, and we’d see him at film gatherings, where he’d already shot for so many great filmmakers. When he sat down with Todd to talk about shooting Far From Heaven, Ed said: “I won’t need a gimmick to find that 1950s look.” That was appealing to Todd. We shot the movie right after 9/11, and it had a profound effect on everyone’s mental health. It kind of saved us. It was fantastic to have something to focus on; in a world that was struck by an act so terrible and meaningless, it felt so good to be making something that resonated and had a lot of meaning. Yeah…

Let’s look at the list of DP’s you’ve worked with.

We mentioned Ed Lachman, Maryse Alberti,

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also Ellen Kuras, Denis Lenoir… Can I just say that Ellen Kuras and Maryse Alberti both shot their first narrative feature films for us…

That’s incredible! Reed Morano, Nancy Schreiber, Bruno Delbonnel, Fred Elmes, Jim Denault, Mauro Fiore, Jeff Cronenweth, Enrique Chediak…that’s… impressive. What, in your mind, separates the great ones from the good ones? It’s an interesting question…I remember interviewing a DP for the class I teach at SUNY Stony Brook, and he was talking about the fact that most DP’s never get to see another DP work. He was talking about doing a series where they were doing two episodes at the same time and what a revelation it was to walk over and see the other DP [laughs]. Great DP’s come in many different flavors because so much of it is about the story and the director. Having said that, we do work with a lot of first-time directors, and not every DP likes that situation. I’m not saying that as a criticism so much as the reality that it’s a unique challenge to support someone who’s doing it for the first time. So, you want to find a DP who finds joy and pleasure in that challenge. Shabier [Local 600 DP Shabier Kirchner] on Past Lives had an extraordinary collaboration with [Writer/Director] Celine Song, and it was fun to watch. But someone other than Shabier may have found it frustrating, like “This is not what I signed up for.” One of the things that marks Ed and Todd’s relationship – that people don’t quite understand – is they tussle a lot. They’re like: “This is the best! No, this is the best!” And out of that comes something even greater than its parts. I will say that when Maryse and Ellen shot their first films for us, the below-the-line crews were overwhelmingly male.

It’s better now. It still has a way to go, but it’s better.

Sometimes I think back on how daunting that must have been for both of them in so many ways and how they met that challenge. What I tried to do for them – in those days – was just be as supportive as I possibly could. Just be there for them at every turn.

Starting with Poison, you haven’t shied away from material that you knew would challenge audiences, even upset them: Safe, Kids, Happiness, I Shot Andy Warhol, One Hour Photo, right up to May December, to name just a few. What’s the attraction to those kinds of stories? Those movies we made, and continue to make…I don’t think we’re intentionally provocative. The stories we’re drawn to are tricky – they may have ambiguous heroes; they take a lot of license with how they tell their stories – and those are all things that are interesting to me. What’s happened over the last 10 to 15 years is that movies moved

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toward the middle and television moved to a much riskier place. I keep telling myself that audiences do enjoy a challenge. Obviously it has to be the right kind of challenge, as not every provocative film is successful. And then you see things that are successful, that ask an audience to stretch and grow, and that’s fascinating – and gratifying.

Talking about Ed Lachman, and now Chris Blauvelt, who shot May December, and other department heads you’ve worked with a lot – like Editor Affonso Gonçalves and Production Designer Mark Friedberg – they’ve done some of their best work for Killer Films. What’s the environment you help create that lets them soar?

Obviously, a lot of it is the director and the story that we’re telling. It’s always hard to get these movies made, and they are always too ambitious for their budgets. Listen, I don’t want to be the kind of producer that only ever comes from the place of “no.” We signed onto the project because it was ambitious. And it’s our job to figure out how to help the filmmakers embrace those ambitions as creatively as possible, while still within the box that’s been built for them in the marketplace. And by the way, most great filmmakers are aware of their market and their stories, and finding that narrow path that allows them the most freedom possible.

They understand they may have to give something up to achieve that. I remember making Robert Altman’s penultimate film [The Company, 2003], and he wanted to spend more money than the budget could really bear. People weren’t shooting on digital yet, and Pam and I said: “You know, Bob, the way you could access more money is if you didn’t shoot on film!” And he was like: “Go on…” If ever there was a medium that was exactly right for Robert Altman, it was shooting on digital. He was almost 80 years old at the time, and he embraced that change wholeheartedly. It was inspirational to see. There are so many filmmakers – half his age – who are dragged kicking and screaming into anything that feels too innovative. [Laughs.] I’m not sure I even answered your question. But there I went.

Going back to where we started this conversation, I discovered Poison in a theater, as did most of my friends. That doesn’t feel possible today with indie movies. And that feels like a loss, especially for the camera teams who make up our Guild. I’m not nostalgic. I’m kind of like, that train has left the station, you’re not putting that genie back in the bottle – I could think of a few more clichés. I can’t go forward with the thought that everything used

to be so much better [for indie filmmaking]. It’s just different. I remember back in the 80s and 90s, we would almost compete to see how many Fassbinder films we could see because you could only see them in the theater. You had to wait until the Film Forum did a retrospective or the Thalia did a German week.

I don’t think it’s so terrible that today, some kid in Nebraska can discover Fassbinder’s films online versus the cinema. Right?

People would say that’s better than not discovering them at all. Yeah. And I feel the theatrical experience is not going away, it’s just going to change. I get tremendous pleasure knowing that the Metrograph, in New York City, is full all the time. And it’s a lot of young people. My daughter asked me what’s the difference between the Film Forum and the Metrograph. I said: “At the Film Forum, I’m the youngest person in the room. At the Metrograph, I’m the oldest.” [Laughs.]

And they both program really good films.

I don’t know if you know how many films you’ve premiered at Sundance… I don’t… …and at so many other indie film festivals.

I’m wondering how important you think these festivals have been in your overall career arc.

If they hadn’t been there, would your path have been different? That’s a what-if question, and it’s hard to say, of course. They certainly have been important in different ways, and that’s also morphed and changed. At the beginning of my career, films like Poison, Swoon, Go Fish, that network of gay and lesbian film festivals was incredibly important because… they were all over America…and they helped bring the community together to support these kinds of movies. There are many fewer of those festivals now, I believe. As for Sundance, that’s become very important as a marketplace – for American independent films. The last film we brought to Sundance and sold was Josephine Decker’s movie Shirley, just before COVID. There’s also a lot of attention on Sundance, both domestic and international, so it’s a fantastic place to launch a film.

We launched Past Lives there [in January 2023], and that was extraordinarily successful. May December went to Cannes – not Sundance – and was sold there. It blew out of that festival like a rocket ship. It’s always about gathering community. That’s changed from the beginning of my career up until now, but the effect of it hasn’t changed. You want to gather critical mass and gain support – all of those things that help you make the kind of noise that makes people want to see your film – no matter where that may be.

A BOLD NEW TAKE ON THE BELOVED CLASSIC FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES INCLUDING

STEVEN SPIELBERG, p.g.a. OPRAH WINFREY, p.g.a.

SCOTT SANDERS, p.g.a. QUINCY JONES, p.g.a.

DAN LAUSTSEN, ASC, DFF For screenings and special content, please visit www.wbawards.com

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Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF, and Director Blitz Bazawule reimagine Alice Walker’s award-winning novel as a musical journey for the heart (and head).

BY VALENTINA VALENTINI PHOTOS BY ELI ADE´, SMPSP ∞ SER BAFFO ∞ LYNSEY WEATHERSPOON FRAMEGRABS COURTESY OF WARNER BROS.

IN MIND PHOTO BY ELI ADE´, SMPSP

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The Color Purple began its life in 1982 as a Pulitzer Prizewinning novel by Alice Walker, the first Black woman to win that award for fiction. Three years later, it became a Steven Spielberg-directed film, featuring Oprah Winfrey in her breakout role alongside Whoopi Goldberg. That movie’s 11 Oscar nominations tied it with 1977’s The Turning Point as the film with the most nominations and no wins. Twenty years later, in 2005, an original stage production of The Color Purple ran for three years on Broadway, earning another eleven nominations at the 2006 Tony Awards. A 14-month Broadway revival saw it win Tony’s Best Revival of a Musical a decade later, and there have been nine national and international tours of The Color Purple over the last 15 years. So, when director Blitz Bazawule wanted to bring Walker’s muchadapted story back to the screen as a musical, it made sense to ask: why now? Why again?

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t’s a great question,” replies the Ghanaian filmmaker, author, and rapper, who gained recognition for his directorial debut, The Burial of Kojo, and was Grammy-nominated for directing Beyoncé’s visual album Black Is King. “When I went back to the book, the biggest thing that came out of it for me was Celie’s sprawling imagination. The book begins with, ‘Dear God,’ and anyone who understands God as an abstract has an imagination. Our job in this film was to emphasize the imaginative part and to go deeper into Celie’s head.”

With digital technology and non-linear storytelling now the norm, one can argue that today’s media renders stories that can go deeper into characters’ psyches than ever before – with audiences who are more receptive to such storytelling techniques than ever before. The Color Purple, which follows the lifelong struggles of Celie (Fantasia Barrino) over four decades in rural Georgia during the early 1900s, dives deep into institutional and personal trauma, abuse, and ultimately triumph.

Bazawule says that traumatized people are not docile beings needing saving – even if that’s how they present.

But, rather, they’re constantly working to free themselves – it’s just all happening in their heads.

“For me, the opportunity to give Celie an imagination was the biggest and most important thing I feel our contribution to the canon is,” Bazawule continues. “[The audience] has seen every part of the externalities of Celie’s journey; they haven’t seen how she worked her way through that trauma…that was all headspace work and not externally visual.”

Although Director of Photography Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF, had never shot a musical, he didn’t miss a beat when Bazawule asked him to come on board. “I never went to watch the first film and never saw the Broadway show,” Laustsen recounts. “This was a musical with fantasy aspects, and I never wanted to have the first film [or show] in my mind because I wanted to do Blitz’s film, nothing else. He wanted something completely different.”

Bazawule’s directive was to have the story oscillate between reality and imagination with clear conduits in and out of those two worlds. Shot in Georgia (with on/ off scheduling due to COVID stoppages), Celie’s physical world is her rural hometown and the house she moves into with her abusive husband (Colman Domingo).

But her imagination takes her to places like a bathtub revolving on a giant gramophone and a big-band stage setup. A key element of this reality/fantasy switching for Bazawule came in choosing a DP like Laustsen, who had proven his ability to swipe between epic staging (the John Wick franchise) and more intimate moments (The Shape of Water).

“We connected immediately on our love of the blackand-white film I Am Cuba,” shares Laustsen, referencing the 1964 movie shot by Sergey Urusevskiy. “Our discussions were about how to write with the camera and paint with the light – we wanted to make it organic and emotional. I like single-source lighting and so does Blitz, and we were not afraid of the contrast. We wanted to show the relentless heat of Georgia [juxtaposed with] the dark scenes, which were never just dark to be dark;

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PHOTO BY LYNSEY WEATHERSPOON ABOVE/BELOW/OPPOSITE: LAUSTSEN SAYS HE AND DIRECTOR BAZAWULE CONNECTED IMMEDIATELY ON A SHARED LOVE FOR THE 1964 BLACK-AND-WHITE FILM I AM CUBA, SHOT BY SERGEY URUSEVSKIY. “OUR DISCUSSIONS WERE ABOUT HOW TO WRITE WITH THE CAMERA AND PAINT WITH THE LIGHT,” LAUSTSEN RECOUNTS. “I LIKE SINGLE-SOURCE LIGHTING AND SO DOES BLITZ, AND WE WERE NOT AFRAID OF THE CONTRAST. “ PHOTO BY ELI ADE´, SMPSP

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they told the story and the emotion of what was happening to Celie.”

“I Am Cuba is incredibly dexterous in its camera movement, so any artist who gravitates towards it is my kind of person,” Bazawule adds. “I see the camera as a living, breathing part of our apparatus. Also, the movie takes big chances and big swings – long takes, novel framing – and I admire movies that are inspired in that way. Not every DP is up for that, but Dan likes to live in the scene and likes the camera to be a part of long takes.”

From the first frames of The Color Purple, the Local 600 camera team’s ALEXA LF is on the move, weaving its way from an overhead shot of a man on a horse into a huge Great Angel Oak tree, gliding around the hanging Spanish moss to capture two girls sitting on the branches. “We wanted to keep the camera moving, [but] we wanted to make sure it had purpose,” describes A-Camera Operator/Steadicam Tim Fabrizio (The Hate You Give, A Man in Full). “Dan took me on his location scouts – which never happens for an operator – because he wanted us to understand the locations and be on the same page. Throughout the shoot, we rehearsed a lot, watched playback, and fine-tuned our camera moves so that we would enhance the mood of the scenes and these incredible performances.

As operators, we try to make our camera moves

invisible, but at the same time create moods with these little pushes and drifts. Dan had a saying we all adopted: ‘Every frame, a painting.’

I embraced that and went into blocking with that in mind.”

Fabrizio was on a 45-foot Scorpio crane with a Matrix stabilized remote head. Dolly Grip Rob Berrey was on the arm, Cinemoves’ Mike Howell operated the crane on the extension and Fabrizio’s head tech, Pat Redmond, was on the roll axis. “We were using all three axes,” Fabrizio continues. “We started boomed all the way up, pointing straight down, tracking along with the horse as the rider played his banjo. We were upside down, twisting, turning, with the camera doing everything to track this horse – all four of us working in sync, all the while timing it with music, to find Young Celie and Young Nettie [Halle Bailey and Phylicia Pearl Mpasi] up in the tree at the perfect moment in the song. We were a little under the gun to get the light because Dan was using the sun, which was going behind clouds, so we had to find the window.”

Laustsen’s plan from the outset was to incorporate traditional lighting with new LED technology. Chief Lighting Technician Anthony “Nako” Nakonechnyj, who’s worked on three movie musicals before Purple – Hairspray, Rock of Ages, and Burlesque – grew up in the world of Dinos and Maxi Brutes, so reverting to that classic movie-set lighting was well within his visual language. But the challenge came in

blending the various families of lights. Laustsen wanted 10Ks and 20Ks to give the feel of a projected light source – that bright hot Georgia sunlight streaming through windows, heating the buildings from the outside in. In one onlocation church scene towards the end of the film, Nakonechnyj used LRX Singles to stream big shafts of light through the windows. He used a dichroic filtration on the 18K HMI PAR’s, and CTO on the actual fixture, to give it that warmth.

On stage for such scenes as those taking place inside Celie’s house, they used 20Ks coming through windows or 10Ks for little shards of light.

“We would add a half CTO, or, on some occasions, a full CTO,” says Nakonechnyj. “There were some scenes that Dan wanted a late-day feeling with low-angle light sources – a powerful light coming across with those colors. He had a strong sense of what he wanted and how it was going to work within his color scheme. We also had Creamsource Vortex 8s and SkyPanels on hand to give some color [when needed].”

Color was a key element in switching back and forth between the two worlds. Bazawule describes period films as often being deceptive in how they are presented because they’re based on surviving photography, most of which is sepia tone, black and white, or faded. “A lot of us process the past through that lens,” he offers, “when in fact, people were deeply immersed in

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ABOVE/OPPOSITE: “AS OPERATORS, WE TRY TO MAKE OUR CAMERA MOVES INVISIBLE, BUT AT THE SAME TIME CREATE MOODS WITH THESE LITTLE PUSHES AND DRIFTS,” SHARES A-CAMERA OPERATOR/STEADICAM TIM FABRIZIO. “DAN [LAUSTSEN] HAD A SAYING WE ALL ADOPTED: ‘EVERY FRAME, A PAINTING.’ I EMBRACED THAT AND WENT INTO BLOCKING WITH THAT IN MIND.”

color – there wasn’t air conditioning or fans, so, people sweat [and even] their skin reflected color.”

To capture Celie’s big picture world (while also being able to see a bead of sweat on her brow), Laustsen wanted to shoot with a largeformat sensor, mainly for the shallower depth of field. Working with A-Camera 1st AC Doug Lavender, he tested four lens packages – Leica Thalias, DNA’s Atlas Orion anamorphics, ARRI’s vintage 765s, and ARRI Signature Primes, ultimately opting for the Signature Primes.

“They don’t make any surprises for you,” says Laustsen. “They’re very sharp and behave well, and the close focus is amazing because you go so far in and there’s no, ‘Oh, we got a flare,’ or something. If you want to have a flare, you have to make it. [The Signature Primes] are sharp and not forgiving lenses, and I like that.”

To slightly taper that sharpness, Laustsen had Lavender put a diffusion filter inside the camera. “I’ve done that a couple of times before,” adds Laustsen, citing Nightmare Alley as the first time, “and I like it because you keep the black, but the highlight diffuses, especially the skin tones; the way the light shapes the faces is very nice with that diffusion field inside the camera.” Adds Lavender, who began working with Laustsen on Nightmare Alley in 2020 and has worked on all the DP’s films since: “Because [the Signature Primes] are spherical, you can get very close shots without having to

use diopters. Dan was one of the first people to use the rear diffusion filters on the back of the Signature Primes, which means you can get very close to actors without a matte box or any filter on the front.”

That was important for Lavender, Fabrizio, and B-Camera Operator Chris Mosley when they were at practical locations around Georgia, which often had small rooms. Case in point was the juke joint, built on an actual swamp

by Production Designer Paul Austerberry (who designed The Shape of Water with Laustsen), and Celie’s house.

The film’s choreography was another important facet to achieving Bazawule’s vision. Emmy-nominated producer and awardwinning choreographer Fatima Robinson is a prolific dancer and music-video director who has worked with Beyoncé and Michael Jackson and choreographed Save the Last Dance (2001) and Dreamgirls (2006). She began her work on The Color Purple with a skeleton crew of dancers, trying her best to figure out where the choreography would live within the story.

“Is it in a town?” Robinson asks. “Does it feel like it’s connected to one shop? Are they walking down a road? We would come up with all these different ways in which we felt like it needed to work, and from there, Dan was instrumental in making that come to life with lighting and how the cameras would move through that world.”

Before Laustsen would make those

decisions, Robinson would film the dancers in her scaled-down rehearsals, edit the footage, and give it to Bazawule. In effect, Robinson was helping Laustsen and Bazawule with scene beats of when to go wide, what characters to follow, and when to go small on foot stomps or hand snaps or a handkerchief coming out of a jacket pocket. While this did not dictate framing (and the work was always fluid between department heads), Robinson’s efforts were a starting point for all the creative conversations that followed.

“As a choreographer,” she continues, “I work so closely with the cinematographer because at the end of the day, I don’t want to do all that hard work and then our dance isn’t seen. The DP, and then the editor, have to be my best – bookend – friends because not only do I want the dance to get captured, but the dance has to move the story forward in a way that doesn’t take you out of the experience of the movie.”

One of the biggest numbers, and a moment Bazawule calls a “pendulum swing” that marks a shift in both the visuals and the narrative, is “Shug Avery Comin’ to Town.” Robinson pushed to have more than 100 dancers for the ensemble scene that takes place in the center of town – shot in Grantville, a nearly-deserted whistlestop about an hour outside of Atlanta that Austerberry dressed for each era over

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ABOVE/BELOW/OPPOSITE: BAZAWULE SAYS THE LOOK OF PERIOD FILMS CAN BE DECEPTIVE, BECAUSE THEY’RE BASED ON SURVIVING PHOTOGRAPHY, “MOST OF WHICH IS SEPIA TONE, BLACK AND WHITE, OR FADED,” HE NOTES. “A LOT OF US PROCESS THE PAST THROUGH THAT LENS, WHEN IN FACT, PEOPLE WERE DEEPLY IMMERSED IN COLOR – THERE WASN’T AIR CONDITIONING OR FANS, SO, PEOPLE SWEAT [AND EVEN] THEIR SKIN REFLECTED COLOR.”

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PHOTO BY SER BAFFO

the 40 years the film stretches. The scene was shot over three nights, and though Robinson knew her dancers were tired, “with every take everyone just kept bringing more and more. I’m proud of that,” she says.

Before Shug Avery’s (Taraji P. Henson’s) arrival, much of the story is in the daytime and rural spaces; very little happens in the urban steel-blue light. And the musical palette reflects the shift. Before, it was mostly gospel and blues, and “Shug Avery Comin’ To Town” is more jazz, which the film stays in until the end, when they switch back to gospel.

“I was very intentional about making sure that it was going to be a timestamp for the audience,” Bazawule recounts. “And the minute we saw Fatima’s edited rehearsal video, Dan and I knew how to tell a story in the song with the camera.”

Laustsen used Steadicam and crane capture to not only fly through the dancers and be part of their story but also to pull out and see their full bodies. Neither Laustsen nor Bazawule wanted a choppy narrative. Both felt it was more believable if you saw everyone in a syncopated fashion and revealed the work put into such a massive scene.

For Robinson, who had helped create the story of that number – which involves the camera floating through a shoeshine stall, a barbershop, and out into the street, around the car that Shug arrives in and into the dance number – she was grateful the camera never cut away.

Still, it was a challenge for all involved, with Fabrizio pulling double duty on Steadicam

and crane. Noting that his CineMoves crane team was indispensable, Fabrizio recalls the first sequence where the camera pulls back through men shining shoes, a flipping dancer, and the barbershop. The camera makes a hard left, tracking into the barbershop where the plate glass window and frame in the wall were removed so Fabrizio could go through it, and then pushes in past the dancers in the chairs. Standby Carpenter Charles Armbrust put the wall back in and then dove onto the floor to get out of the shot as Fabrizio pivoted and tracked backward out through the door and into the street.

“It was an honor to work with Fatima because she created these dance numbers that had so much movement and energy,” Fabrizio recalls. “During rehearsals, she would come up behind and grab me by the back of my vest, lead me to where she wanted me to be at certain points during the number. Or she would tap me on the shoulder to cue the whip pans. Our music team, Nick Baxter and Jordan Carroll, were so helpful. They could add clicks to the music playback on-the-fly to assist us in timing our camera with the performance.”

As the camera never stops moving, Lavender had his work cut out as well. “I’ve never done a musical movie,” reflects the AC, who became known as the “outdoor guy” after his first film, Alive. “But it really helped to have the music there because it gave me a sense of the timing; focus is more about timing than it is about strictly keeping something in focus. I’m shifting from person to person and object to object, so having

the music playback kept me on those beats during what could have felt like overwhelming shot sequences.”

As for Nako’s team, they needed to light an entire city block to cover the huge dance number.

From behind one side they put up three 135foot Condors, each with two Raptors that were checkerboarded with steel blue dichroic glass filters and no color correction. As backlights, Nakonechnyj had 200-foot construction cranes with six Raptors that were 300 feet away, with the (four) closer Raptors about 200 feet away.

“We also used what is called a lull or a Pettibone, with 12 Creamsource Vortex 8s that we diffused with a big frame as fill push,” he explains. “The advantage with the Creamsource fixture is that we could shift the color with a few keystrokes; whereas the challenge of using the Raptors is committing to a color because our time would never allow us to bring the lights down from the crane and change the color during the shoot day.”

With nearly a dozen musical numbers, ranging from one character in front of a store to dozens of people inside a small juke joint over a swamp to hundreds of extras in the middle of a town center, The Color Purple was unlike anything Laustsen had filmed in his 40-year career. “There were no doubts about not having filmed a movie musical before,” he concludes. “For me, it’s always about how the director wants to tell the story. I have my ideas and he has his ideas, but as long as we’re in the same ballgame from the beginning, everything will be okay.”

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LOCAL 600 CREW Director of Photography Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF A-Camera Operator/Steadicam Tim Fabrizio, SOC A-Camera 1st AC Doug Lavender A-Camera 2nd AC Matt Matches B-Camera Operator Chris Moseley B-Camera 1st AC Ross Davis B-Camera 2nd AC Lauren Gentry DIT Nicholas Kay Loader Anna-Marie Aloia Digital Utility Aimee Casey Still Photographers Eli Adé, SMPSP Ser Baffo Lynsey Weatherspoon Unit Publicist Evelyn Santana 40

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MIRROR, Director of Photography Christopher Blauvelt’s first feature with New Queer Cinema pioneer Todd Haynes is dark, uncomfortable…and (surprise!) funny.

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, MIRROR

BY VALENTINA VALENTINI ∞ PHOTOS BY FRANÇOIS DUHAMEL / NETFLIX

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Oscar nominee Todd Haynes’ new film, May December, deals in conflicting feelings – not just for the characters inside the story (written by Samy Burch), but also for the viewer. Set in 2015, we meet Elizabeth (Natalie Portman), a famous actress who travels to Tybee Island, GA, to meet and observe Gracie (Julianne Moore), the woman she is going to play in an upcoming biopic. Twenty years prior, Gracie became famous for a notorious, tabloid-heavy love affair she had with a middle schooler two decades her junior – a man, Joe (Charles Melton), whom she then married and raised three children with. (The set-up is loosely based around the sensational 1990’s true-crime story of Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau.)

As played by Haynes’s longtime muse, Moore’s Gracie is unsettled by Elizabeth’s presence (and so are we). But while May December revolves around serious subject matter, the film never takes itself too seriously. The score – by Marcelo Zarvos with adaptations from Michel Legrand’s work on 1971’s The Go-Between – pounds and punctuates in time with dramatic zooms that lead into lines like, “we’re gonna need more hotdogs,” letting us know that just because we’re watching complex, uncomfortable conversations and situations, we should also feel free to laugh.

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or the past two decades, on films like the Oscar-nominated and Spirit Awardwinning Far from Heaven (2002) and the Oscar-nominated Carol (2015), which won BAFTA’s best cinematography and the Emmy-winning series Mildred Pierce (2011), Haynes has worked with Director of Photography Ed Lachman, ASC. But when Lachman broke his hip in late 2022, Haynes’s next call was to someone he’d circled since the beginning of his career but had never worked with, Christopher Blauvelt. Blauvelt has been Sundance darling Kelly Reichardt’s go-to DP since Meek’s Cutoff in 2010 and went on to shoot her standout films Certain Women and First Cow, among others. When Haynes left New York City in 2000 for Portland, Oregon, he and Reichardt (also based in Oregon) became dear friends. Haynes was also close with the late Harris Savides, ASC, who was a mentor to Blauvelt and whom Blauvelt worked for as an assistant. Over the years, Haynes and Blauvelt would have frequented many of the same gatherings, so it was only a matter of timing and circumstance before the two worked together.

“Initially, I was called in because Ed was going to miss prep,” says Blauvelt. “I said: ‘I don’t even need a credit, I’ll do anything for you guys!’ They’re my idols, they’re legends.” But it was quickly clear that Lachman’s injury was going to take a long time to heal properly, so Blauvelt took over DP duties on May December. “I would talk to Ed weekly just to keep him in the loop. He was a big part of it still, like a spirit for us.”

When both Haynes and Blauvelt describe their inaugural project, they use the same words: “knowledgeable, passionate, specific, thoughtful.”

However, Blauvelt says it was Haynes’ maniacal laugh while listening to the score at full blast that won him over. For Haynes, it was new territory after the security of Lachman over the past eight projects together.

“It was a great process to talk through the shots I was thinking about, scene by scene, and how I was thinking of visualizing this movie,” Haynes recounts, “but having to do it in a way that I hadn’t had to do with Ed in a long time. [This] was a new relationship, and so we were feeling each other out. I feel like I was checking my thinking and instincts, [but Chris] got everything. He knew where I was coming from and knew what the sources were and knew why we were here. It felt organic, but it also felt solidifying. When you work with somebody for a long time, like I did with Ed, you work a bit more autonomously; Chris and I needed to bind up and keep touching down with each other. And that ended up being such a great confirmation of the creative ideas circulating on this film.”

When Haynes read the script – Burch’s first feature screenplay – Ingmar Bergman’s Persona was an obvious point of reference. The 1966 drama (shot by Sven Nykvist) tells of a nurse who finds it increasingly difficult to distinguish herself from her famous actress patient; that film became a visual instigator for Haynes, informing much of his lookbook that all department heads, including Blauvelt, received.

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Haynes also had an immediate connection to another of Bergman’s films, Winter Light, where Ingrid Thulin reads a letter to the camera the same as in the May December scene, where a monologue is given into the camera by Elizabeth (as Gracie, reciting a letter to Joe). “[Thulin] delivers an unrequited love letter, and she just reads it plainly to the lens of the camera in a medium, symmetrically framed shot with a neutral background,” Hayes recalls. “I remember being completely floored by that when I saw the movie as a teenager. When I read May December, I was like, ‘I just want to make this movie so I can shoot that scene that way.’”

Prep lasted five weeks in Savannah, GA, in October 2022, and subsequent principal photography was only 23 days – one of the shortest features of Blauvelt’s career. Yet the DP says he felt that the speed lent itself to the minimalistic approach Haynes was after.

“Our guiding principle for every decision was to find the simplest way to frame or compose a shot,” Blauvelt describes. “So, we would let people go in and out of frames, and try to find a way to shoot with the least amount of angles. We choreographed the actors’ movements to achieve what we wanted to feel, like an unimposing window into a real experience happening in real time. Also, I think there’s confidence and sophistication with an image that’s locked; it has a strength when you’re not imposing unnecessary camera movement or lighting. Plus, with our actors being as amazing as they are, we weren’t doing more than two or three takes of anything. That helped us make our days.”

In keeping with the minimalist approach, it was a fairly low-tech shoot. Shot on the then-new ALEXA 35 with Kowa vintage primes and an Angénieux 25–250mm zoom for a few particular scenes, there was no Steadicam (except for the last scene in the film when they deliberately broke their rule about unnecessary camera movement to portray a movie set where Elizabeth is acting in the biopic), a Technocrane for a couple of days, and the few tracking shots accomplished with dolly or a Ronin 2; the follow shots on Elizabeth in the pet store and the high school were handheld on a rickshaw.

“The shooting style required me to unlearn operating habits I had developed over the years,” reflects A-Camera Operator Paul Atkins, who worked with Terrence Malick on The Tree of Life and the IMAX documentary Voyage of Time, and who had only recently moved to Savannah after 40 years in Hawaii. “Todd was not a fan of low- or high-tilting camera angles,” Atkins adds. “The camera needed to be leveled, except for a few extremely high overhead shots; pans following the movement of actors were performed without tilting. Your normal operating instinct is to make tilt adjustments to maintain the frame while panning with an actor. During the first week of shooting, I can still hear Todd and Chris watching the monitor – ‘Lock that tilt, Paul!’ And sometimes, by being forced to avoid tilting, you would discover new and unusual compositions.”

One old habit Atkins had to refresh was performing a usable zoom within a shot. Inspired by

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ABOVE/BELOW: “OUR GUIDING PRINCIPLE FOR EVERY DECISION WAS TO FIND THE SIMPLEST WAY TO FRAME OR COMPOSE A SHOT,” BLAUVELT DESCRIBES. “WE WOULD LET PEOPLE GO IN AND OUT OF FRAMES, AND TRY TO FIND A WAY TO SHOOT WITH THE LEAST AMOUNT OF ANGLES.”

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“ZOOM LENSES, TODAY, ARE MOSTLY USED AS VARIABLE FOCAL LENGTHS, AND ZOOMING WITHIN A SHOT IS CONSIDERED PASSÉ, OR IF DONE AT ALL, THE ZOOM IS HIDDEN WITHIN A PAN OR TILT MOTION. NOT SO WITH THIS FILM.” A-CAMERA OPERATOR PAUL ATKINS

Jean-Luc Goddard, Bergman, and other 1970s films, Haynes had intimate scenes with long, slow zooms from a static camera position.

“Zoom lenses, today, are mostly used as variable focal lengths, and zooming within a shot is considered passé,” Atkins continues. “Or, if done at all, the zoom is hidden within a pan or tilt motion. Not so with this film. The zoom on the Angénieux needed to be subtle with no noticeable speed changes during the take.

This required me to determine the zooming speed carefully to finish with a precise frame on a precise line of dialogue, or in the case of the sex scene between Elizabeth and Joe, at the moment of climax. To get a high overhead angle in this scene, we placed the camera on a high hat with a riser on top of a 10-foot ladder, hovering above the lovers. We used a similar technique to film Elizabeth imagining having sex in the back room of the pet store.”

Chief Lighting Technician Jesse Wine had a fairly large ask. In addition to an extensive inventory of tungsten fixtures, his team carried a “two of everything” HMI package from 18Ks down to Pocket PAR’s. They also had a full inventory of LED’s with ARRI SkyPanels 360, S60, and S30; Creamsource Vortexes; LiteMats 1, 4, and 2L; Astera NYX bulbs and Astera Titan and Helios tubes; and Rosco DMG Dashes, which came in handy for little accent lights and eye lights. Much of the interiors were lit with LED’s, all of which were on wireless CRMX technology with console programmer Tommy Rodgers at the helm. With full-spectrum LED’s and wireless control, changing color, triggering lighting cues and intensity without having to walk to each unit, saved Wine a lot of time.

“Making a movie in 23 days is hard, especially when the budget doesn’t allow for

full-time rigging crews,” observes Wine, who has worked with Blauvelt for more than 20 years as Best Boy and started lighting for him in 2017 with Mid90s. “This means that the shooting crew must bring it all in, then light, shoot and strike. It’s a grueling way to work for consecutive days, [but] my crew makes all the difference; my Best Boy, Harley White, is amazing and never lets details slip.”

Wine says May December was tricky because he knew that Blauvelt and Haynes wanted to have a milky, texturized look. With actors like Moore and Portman, who are also spokesmodels for beauty products and fashion brands, that meant there was a delicate balance between keeping it real but not trying to make it look like a commercial.

“In our many camera tests, we discovered a few things,” Wine adds. “First of which is that both Julie and Natalie look great no matter how we light them. But we noticed that Julie looks especially amazing if we light her with cooler light. Her makeup artist knows this and worked with us closely to achieve her optimal look. Because we had lots of full-spectrum LED’s in our package, we were able to infinitely tweak color until we got the right temperature, and then just match all the other lights. Then our DIT, Sean Goller, would change the color on the monitors to warm everything up again, and the results were amazing.”

All of the on-set color management ran through Goller’s Livegrade system. Once lighting was most of the way there, Blauvelt could adjust color balance, contrast, and saturation to complete the look. “Often these were small shifts to dial things into taste,” shares Goller, who has been working with Blauvelt for ten years on films that include Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot, First Cow, and the recently finished Hot Milk. “But when

we found ourselves up against restrictions of practical locations, losing the light, or other elements out of our control, Chris, Jesse, [Key Grip] Gerrell [Boone], and I used all our toolkits in unison to strategize the most efficient way to get the desired image. As image-makers, we often start with manipulating the light to serve the camera, but we also have the ability to adjust the camera to complement the light.”

Although Blauvelt is known for shooting on film (and May December has a film-like milkiness and hint of grain), using celluloid was not a consideration. Still, the DP says his goal was to make the viewer think they were watching a movie shot on film. “We wanted it to feel texturized,” Blauvelt describes. “We wanted to give the feeling of this place where the windows are covered in a marine layer, and there’s all this haze, and sunlight warming things, and leaving moisture between window panes. We embraced it and never cleaned a window. We were shooting through screen and brush, which helped to give a filmic look.”

One key challenge for Goller was figuring out the in-camera diffusion. It was their first movie on the ALEXA 35, and Goller knows, coming from decades of working with film, Blauvelt prefers to stay away from overly digital images.

“We landed on the Schneider Optics Radiant Soft filter set,” says Goller. “They brought a creaminess to skin texture and softened the image as a whole without blooming the highlights or creating any aberrations in the bokeh. We pushed the levels of diffusion – the set starts at 1/4 and goes up to 5, and in certain scenarios, we even stacked levels of filtration in front of one another. We also pushed the sensor in this way, which the ALEXA 35 could handle. We were constantly evaluating, experimenting and discussing our results.”

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Blauvelt and Goller worked closely with Colorist Adrian Seery at Harbor Post to create custom LUT’s in preproduction, using the camera tests and footage shot at some of the key locations. Seery, whose extensive music-video work includes the artists Jamiroquai, George Michael, Sia, and Madonna, also did the grade on Blauvelt and Reichardt’s most recent film, Showing Up. For May December, Blauvelt wanted a solution that would work well in all locations/ lighting scenarios; he and Seery ended up with two LUT’s that Seery felt were “manageable.”

Blauvelt considers it a luxury to be able to meld on-set DIT efforts with postproduction coloring.

“When we go to the final DI, it’s seamless because everybody’s aware of the formatting,” he remarks. “It all speaks to each other from the moment we start prepping, and it speeds up our DI because nothing gets lost in translation.”

“These particular LUT’s were low contrast but with no particular color bias,” Seery adds. “To be honest, the color science was complicated because it was the first feature we’d worked on that was shot on the ALEXA 35. ARRI hadn’t released any LUT’s yet, so our

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color science team devised a pipeline that made technical as well as creative sense, which allowed us to work like we were used to working while benefiting from the improved images produced by the camera.”

Haynes doesn’t watch dailies until production is wrapped. He leaves that job to his editor, Affonso Gonçalves, who creates a rough full pass for Haynes to have when principal photography is concluded. Gonçalves began editing for Haynes in 2011 on the HBO series Mildred Pierce and has done all five of his features in the last 12 years. As Gonçalves describes, “It’s a deep, personal and intense relationship – creatively and personally.”

As filming was happening in Savannah, Gonçalves was receiving dailies in Los Angeles to assemble the first pass. He would give feedback only if he felt that something was missing or technically amiss. “Todd doesn’t want to get influenced by what’s happening on set [that he may see in dailies] and wants to keep the full picture in his head,” the editor

shares. “When he does eventually watch the dailies, he takes precise notes and gives those notes to me, scene by scene, and we’re then in the room together for the entire edit.”

Gonçalves paid careful attention to getting the right tone for May December, which he felt was specific given the story’s evolution.

“There’s a shift in the mood,” Gonçalves continues. “It starts one way, but by the end, we travel so much into these people’s lives, and there’s a dark humor that comes from the writing and the acting. So, we needed to make sure the tone was correct at all times.”

The movie has long scenes with no cuts, with characters staring just past the lens – all of which could make for a slower-feeling film, but one never feels stuck despite these optical constraints. Gonçalves says he did play with the rhythms of beginning and ending a scene and would keep the pace up by going into a scene a little later and coming out a little earlier than he normally would on a Todd Haynes film.

“Part of my job as an editor is to pick the right performance,” says Gonçalves. “I need to be super delicate and precise when I pick a

HAYNES (ABOVE) DREW FROM CLASSIC BERGMAN FILMS LIKE WINTER LIGHT, WHERE HE RECALLS HOW “[THULIN] DELIVERS AN UNREQUITED LOVE LETTER, AND SHE JUST READS IT PLAINLY TO THE LENS OF THE CAMERA IN A MEDIUM, SYMMETRICALLY FRAMED SHOT WITH A NEUTRAL BACKGROUND. WHEN I READ MAY DECEMBER, I WAS LIKE, ‘I JUST WANT TO MAKE THIS MOVIE SO I CAN SHOOT THAT SCENE THAT WAY.’”

particular performance because I’m looking for everything – does it read right? Is the movement right? Is the pace correct? Are they doing the right thing? A line read from one take might fit somewhere in [the scene I’m assembling], but we didn’t want any cuts like that in this film.”

This was particularly important in a scene about halfway through when Elizabeth and Gracie are in a dressing room at a clothing store where Mary (Gracie’s daughter, played by Elizabeth Yu) is trying on dresses for her high school graduation. There is one establishing shot for the room and only two cuts in the scene: a mirror reflection shot of Elizabeth and Gracie in which two Gracies are visible because of the bifold mirrors, and one when Mary comes in from the side to show the dresses she’s tried on.

“I love talking about this scene,” says Blauvelt, pointing to the team effort it took to get it just right. “Todd was interested in what it means to show up to observe someone through that perspective – letting the audience be in an intimate relationship with the characters when they’re looking right into the lens as if it’s a mirror.”

Though there are multiple mirror scenes throughout the film, including a sexually tense one with the two women in Gracie’s bathroom, the dressing room scene was one of the only scenes using an actual mirror. The others used the camera as a mirror, with actors looking into the lens as if they were looking into a mirror.

Blauvelt placed a static camera in the center of the frame behind the two actors as they were seated facing the mirrors in the dressing room.

The camera was hidden behind a two-way mirror. Set design, mirror angles, and lighting to compose the frame were the heroes of what the crew says was a simple but complex scene. “[It] was one of the most challenging scenes to light,” recounts Wine. “There were so many mirrors that hiding lights, stands or cable was tricky. Most lights had to be rigged up high just out of frame. Fortunately, we used primarily LiteMats, DMG Dashes, Titans and NYX bulbs, so whatever didn’t have onboard batteries was either powered by just a zip cord or by a stinger, which is much easier to rig and hide.

Wherever we used the NYX bulbs it just looked like architectural lighting or real practical

light fixtures. Also, the LiteMats were a big win here because they are bright enough but light enough to make rigging easier. Because many of the mirrors reflected the giant front windows of the store, we were not able to even put 18Ks out front for a big push because they would be seen. So, we tried to time out certain camera angles before we lost the sunlight that was streaming into the store.”

For Haynes, simplicity, austerity, and constraint are all words he would use to describe the way the camera holds back to let scenes unfold – sometimes in just a single shot. Even when they’re not using mirrors or reflections in glass, he and Blauvelt never wanted traditional coverage. “And that is a risk,” Haynes concludes. “Because it means you don’t have anywhere to go. You can’t cut to something else if it doesn’t work or if you start to feel tired of being in this one shot. We were definitely playing without a net on this movie.

It was thrilling because it was risky, [but I] knew I had the best possible actors with me and the most exquisite DP, as well as a fantastic team all around to make it happen.”

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LOCAL 600 CREW Director of Photography Christopher Blauvelt A-Camera Operator Paul Atkins, ASC A-Camera 1st AC Laura Thompson Robinson A-Camera 2nd AC Brian Tam Phan B-Camera Operator Jeff Tanner B-Camera 1st AC Brian Tam Phan Digital Loader Rinny Wilson DIT Sean Goller Still Photographer François Duhamel, SMPSP

“WHEN YOU WORK WITH SOMEBODY FOR A LONG TIME, LIKE I DID WITH ED {LACHMAN, ASC], YOU WORK A BIT MORE AUTONOMOUSLY,” DESCRIBES HAYNES (RIGHT) OF HIS PARTNERSHIP WITH CHRIS BLAUVELT (MIDDLE). “CHRIS AND I NEEDED TO BIND UP AND KEEP TOUCHING DOWN WITH EACH OTHER.52 AND THAT ENDED SUCH D EC E M B EUP R 20BEING 23 A GREAT CONFIRMATION OF THE CREATIVE IDEAS CIRCULATING ON THIS FILM.”

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ISLAND

Lachlan Milne, ASC, ACS, NZSC, hits the pitch with Taika Waititi to tell the ultimate (true-life!) underdog story.

BY DAVID GEFFNER PHOTOS BY HILARY BRONWYN GAYLE SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES FRAMEGRABS COURTESY OF SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES

KEEPER

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I first became aware of New Zealand filmmaker Taika Waititi almost 10 years ago at the Sundance Film Festival, when our ICG Magazine staff attended a screening of the “Park City at Midnight” entry What We Do in the Shadows. This “horror mockumentary” was wildly weird and funny, and I’d wager, unlike anything even the adventurous programmers at Sundance had seen. Its camp, often hilarious send-up of low-budget horror movies earned the film (and Waititi) raves across the international festival circuit. But, looking back with hindsight, now that Waititi has directed two Marvel films (Thor: Ragnarok and Thor: Love and Thunder), won an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Grammy, and has been named

by Time Magazine as one of the “100 most influential people in the world,” what is remarkable is how consistent What We Do in the Shadows is in theme with the filmmaker’s later triumphs.

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ll of Taika’s projects revolve around team, family and culture in one way or another,” describes Australiaborn Local 600 Director of Photography Lachlan Milne, ASC, ACS, NZCS, who first met Waititi when they were both making commercial spots in New Zealand. “And I feel like that spirit also filters down the crew.”

For Waititi’s new feel-good sports film, Next Goal Wins, centered around the true-life story of the American Samoa football team, whose 2001 loss to Australia in a World Cup Qualifier was the most lopsided in soccer history, Milne traveled to the island of Oahu where, he says, he’d never visited, let alone shot a film. “Much like what Taika and I did on our first feature together, Hunt for the Wilderpeople [another Sundance premiere, in 2016],” Milne adds, “there was an effort made to involve local hires. Our camera department had [B-Camera 2nd AC] Kaimana Pinto, [Digital Imaging Technician] David Crans, [Digital Utility] Kahea Kahaulelio, [A-Camera 2nd AC] Richard Dabbs [from Oahu and now based in L.A.] and [C-Camera Operator] Don King, who were all local to the islands. Also, like Hunt for the Wilderpeople, this film had a large cast of Pacific Islanders. And you want to ground these kinds of projects with as much local crew as possible.”

Milne, whose breathtaking work on the indie feature Minari [ICG Magazine April 2020], helped propel that film to the U.S. Dramatic Grand Jury Prize and the U.S. Dramatic Audience Award at Sundance 2020, says the main photographic challenge on Next Goal Wins was the large number of day exteriors, all executed under Hawaii’s constantly changing weather and lighting conditions.

“The script dictated a lot of day exteriors, along with many different skin tones, a lot of primary colors from the wardrobe side – all reds, greens and blues,” he continues. “Throw in the vibrant green vegetation and deep blue water anywhere you go in Hawaii, and that’s a lot to consider. I knew going in that scheduling was our best friend. But given we shot in summer, the sun was up for a huge part of the day, and there’s only so much you can do.”

Adding that he tries not to “impose too much photographically,” Milne and Waititi talked about utilizing multiple camera coverage “and just trying to respond to what’s happening on the day because Taika

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loves improvisation,” Milne smiles. “He’ll often turn up with new pages from the night before. So, I’ve gotten used to being very adaptable from the camera side of things and allowing the performances to drive our choices.”

Milne has a longstanding relationship with Camtec, the Burbank, CA-based rental house that outfitted Next Goal Wins for a multicam workflow. “This was my first big project [with Camtec], and I love their approach to lensing, as well as their terrific customer service,” Milne continues. “I knew we’d need the flexibility of longer lens zooms, given all the soccer – up to four cameras for the bigger football scenes. We used the Falcon rehoused Canon FD Primes, and then several Angénieux zooms, which are warmer than the Canons and had to be tweaked

by Camtec to cool down. We shot with ALEXA Mini LF’s [and standard] LF’s, depending on the required frame rate, all letterboxed for 2:39.”

The DP also says he prefers to acquire at the highest possible resolution to have more options in post. “I’ve been in situations where the concept of grading for HDR comes up during production,” Milne reflects. “So, I’ve learned to sort-of future-proof and have as many cards available as possible. I always try to shoot RAW; the weather/lighting conditions were so unpredictable that I felt having the full large-format sensor would be helpful in post.”

Ironic [given Milne’s preference for shooting RAW], is a scene where Thomas Rongen (Michael Fassbender), the real-life former USMNT coach who was exiled to American Samoa, arrives at the tiny island airport and is immediately interviewed by a camera operator/reporter (Oscar Kightley) shooting the island-wide TV show, Who’s on the Plane? [Kightley’s character is also the head of the American Samoa men’s soccer team, as well as the owner of a local restaurant where several of the players work.]

“American Samoa is like a time warp, with the local stores renting movies on VHS, and the only local TV show shot on Super VHS,” Milne recounts. “I wanted [Rongen] shooting with a real SVHS camera, but as it would have been hard to find tape stock and digitize it, we simply took a feed out from the camera. That is a real show on that island – and it’s hilarious. So, it was important to see the SVHS camera in the scene.”

Not as many laughs were provoked by Hawaii’s everchanging skies and the need for a robust show LUT; Milne has worked consistently with Fotokem Senior Colorist David Cole, and their shared history proved key on this film. “Lachie and I went right from Minari into Love

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OPPOSITE/RIGHT: FOTOKEM COLORIST DAVE COLE SAYS DIRECTOR WAITTI WANTED THE ISLAND TO FEEL ALMOST “HYPERGREEN IN THAT IT WAS VERY LUSH. SO, WE HAD TO THREAD A NEEDLE BETWEEN THIS POSTCARDENHANCED GREEN AND SOMETHING THAT LOOKS LIKE IT’S BEEN KEYED IN PHOTOSHOP.”

and Monsters, and he was shooting on both, so we did the DI’s remotely,” Cole shares.

“We were talking throughout about how to approach this film – kind of a look and LUT development stage. Once Lachie started sending me tests from Hawaii, I realized we’d need a very broad LUT, at least for the dailies, that could account for all the varying weather conditions – rain, sun, clouds, et cetera, often within the same shot.”

Cole says the goal of the main show LUT was to give “an idealized island paradise feel.

We wanted a picture-postcard look. These characters all have personal challenges but come together on the pitch, and that’s always sunny and tropical,” he adds. “We did a lot of testing with the colors of the different jerseys seen during the games – they needed to pop but not completely break up. We would do different iterations, particularly with the shirts, to see how far we could go.”

Fotokem’s dailies system allowed for Milne to share color-corrected frame grabs – on pre-calibrated iPads – with Cole throughout production. “The system lets the DP make alterations to stills pulled from dailies, and those changes will come up live on my iPad as they are made,” Cole adds. “We didn’t do much of that, per se, as most of the communication I got from Lachie was: ‘I’m really sorry! The weather got us again!’”

“There are some interiors in this movie,” Cole smiles, “but so much of the story is on the soccer pitch. Shooting in Hawaii, where you have four different seasons in the same day, made it tough for Lachie because he had to be wide to cover the gameplay. Controlling the lighting in a static day exterior is hard enough; controlling it in a wide shot when people are running all over a soccer pitch is nigh on impossible. Lachie did incredible work

chasing the light, but we both knew going in there would be a lot of match work in the DI.” Milne says he never monitors in Rec.709.

“But the default color space in ALEXA is 709; so, particularly in an environment like Hawaii, the image can turn ‘electric,’” he explains. “And with all that foliage, we had to be careful not to render something that looked pixelated, like bad video.” Cole says Waititi wanted the island to feel almost “hyper-green in that it was very lush. So, we had to thread a needle between this postcard-enhanced green and something that looks like it’s been keyed in Photoshop.

“And it wasn’t just the greens,” Cole continues. “Not only did we have the red jerseys; but one of the characters has a beautiful red dress that very easily could turn over into a screaming electronic red. We had to achieve ‘poppy’ but not ‘electronic.’ Also unique to the reds was the concern with skin tones, which Taika wanted to be accurate and true. Having to pull back on the reds meant the skin tones could go ashen-looking. So, it was skin tone first, and then wardrobe and environment.”

Although captured RAW, Cole says once the material comes into the DI suite, it’s transcoded to half-float EXR, “which is still the full range, but we’re making the decision of how we debayer the material to hand off to VFX for a unified pipeline,” he explains. “This movie does have some film emulation – flicker, grain, softening, halation – and we tailored the LUT so the reds had a nice tonal curve. Getting that color tonality right was a big part of what Lachie and I worked on in developing the initial LUT.” Milne says matching the day exteriors on the pitch was always going to be the biggest challenge. “The World Cup qualifier was shot over four days and had to look like one afternoon,” he laments. “Even putting up a 40-

by-40 silk on a construction crane would only give you a patchwork of the entire pitch. I think Dave did a fantastic job balancing all that out.

For the record, I did warn him how much of that he’d have to do.”

Cole says finding a way into the overall color grade was tricky. “I’m not sure how I landed on this idea,” he remembers, ‘but in the very early days of color television, when most sets were still black and white, you could buy a gel for your TV that had a blue strip at the top, a green strip at the bottom, and a warm yellow strip in the middle. I somehow imagined that as a way to derive the color separation for all the action on the pitch, since we often had blue sky at the top, green grass at the bottom of the frame, and the middle tones throughout.

I would tweak as needed, but this was a way to impose a general grade and free up more time to balance everything else out.”

As to how Milne attempted to light the gameplay, he says he was already “not a fan of using movie lights for day exteriors,” much preferring passive tools and controlling the sun whenever possible. “Because we needed to shoot wide, and fit as many people and environments into the frame as possible,” he explains, “you lose control from the lighting side and have to pick your battles. We filled for close-ups and diffused the top light for medium angles. But most of the time it was all about scheduling by our terrific UPM, Kate Dean, to manipulate the sun. Our Gaffer, Jerad Molkenthin, hauled an [ARRI] 360 with a bag on it and an 18K for 30 days, but we only turned it on a few times.”

As for preparing non-actors/soccer players (as well as actors without any football experience) to play at a World Cup level,

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Milne credits 1st AD Josh McLaglen, who has worked many years with EP/Director Shawn Levy, whom Milne knew from Stranger Things.

“Josh is so great at marshaling a large group of people,” Milne notes about McLaglen, whose credits include three X-Men films, four Night at the Museum films, Avatar and Titanic. “He set up a soccer camp a month before production to help create a structure [on the pitch] when we got to principal photography. I went to a few of those practices, as it was helpful to get an idea how to cover the soccer, as well as feel out the personalities of each cast member. At some point, they all get their moments on the pitch.”

McLaglen [ICG Magazine 2011] met Waititi while working on the Levy-directed feature Free Guy (2021), which Waititi acted in. The 1st AD says his partnership with Milne was integral to making the football scenes work.

“Taika says in the trailer that he knew little about soccer going into the movie, and even less when we finished,” McLaglen laughs. “So, Lachie and I had to figure out the best way to accomplish all the soccer play – on a very low budget, a very short schedule, in locations where the light was always changing. We were lucky in that our technical advisors happened to be the producers of the [2014 British-made] documentary about the real American Samoa team. We ran plays and tried to make each hour count, and Taika was happy for us to do that.”

The ask for McLaglen was to build a variety

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of soccer teams, including American Samoa’s archrival, Tonga; a team from New Caledonia; an Australian team (who are seen overlapping with real documentary footage during American Samoa’s record-breaking loss); and the “hero team,” whom Rongen first meets on the local training pitch as a group of rougharound-the-edges, perennial losers. “Each team had a different look and feel,” McLaglen adds. “So, we created a ‘boot camp’ at this beautiful facility adjacent to Pearl Harbor, and had tryouts, with soccer players from all over Hawaii. Our hero team had to look like they didn’t have much skill in the beginning, and then evolve into this cohesive unit. Taika, who was keyed in on finding humor in the moment, gave us the comedic beats. Then we mostly ran plays that were drawn up by our advisors, some which were taken from the documentary.”

McLaglen cites a “similar boot camp” he created for Steven Spielberg’s The Fablemans (shot by Janusz Kaminski), “where the little boys had to be trained to be soldiers for the World War II stuff,” he notes. “For [Next Goal Wins], I have to give Lachie so much credit as he knew how much coverage Taika wanted and was amenable to working as fast and as [flexibly] as possible. Lachie always just kept the ball rolling so we could make our days. He’s sensational, and I can’t wait to work with him again.”

The modest Milne deflects the praise,

noting that “having as many cards as possible and ready to play” is in his DNA. For the ambitious finale – American Samoa’s win over Tonga in a World Cup qualifying match – Milne says, “We had three cameras and a drone.

One would live on the 45-foot Scorpio crane with a short zoom, one on 50-to-600 zoom on the sidelines, and then Steadicam as well [operated by Andrew “AJ” Johnson], with the goal of working as quickly as possible. I knew we were renting a football field, with hundreds of extras, and, at this budget level, there’s pressure for time. You’ve got to react quickly in that environment to maximize the money being spent.”

“The big Tonga match was choreographed and shot in pieces,” McLaglen adds. “It wasn’t free flow, where they would just go play soccer and we’d cover all the action with a dozen cameras – which we didn’t have. I think the key was training the actors to look like soccer players and integrate with the real athletes we had culled from the tryouts. Getting that mix of people to look and play like a team together was a fun challenge.”

Speaking of teamwork, B-Camera 2nd AC Kaimana Pinto, who is based in Kailua (on Oahu’s eastside), says Next Goal Wins was “blessed” with fairly good weather and “accessible” locations, relative to some of the

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ABOVE/BELOW/OPPOSITE: MILNE SAYS THE SCRIPT DICTATED “A LOT OF DAY EXTERIORS, ALONG WITH MANY DIFFERENT SKIN TONES, AND A LOT OF PRIMARY COLORS FROM THE WARDROBE SIDE. THROW IN THE GREEN VEGETATION AND DEEP BLUE WATER ANYWHERE YOU GO IN HAWAII, AND THAT’S A LOT TO CONSIDER. I KNEW GOING IN THAT SCHEDULING WAS OUR BEST FRIEND.”

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treacherous, remote terrain where Pinto and other Hawaii-based ICG members have worked in recent years.

“We can get very harsh rain and wind at any time,” Pinto reflects. “I’ve been in the jungle, in Kualoa Valley [aka Jurassic Valley on Oahu’s windward coast], and knee-deep in mud [for Hawaii Five-O]. Compared to that, this show was pretty smooth. We shot at a corner store in Punalu’u, right near where I grew up, and I went to day camp at the YMCA location we used for one character’s home. The soccer field in Kāne’ohe, where the hero team trains, is where I played as a kid,” Pinto smiles. “My cousins all came down for those shooting days and were extras in the film.”

Another key location was an abandoned military site perched high atop a cliff. Rongen challenges his players to hike to the top in a group bonding exercise, only to pass-out from exhaustion and have his players carry him to the peak. “It has a sheer drop and is where paragliders will hike up and launch,” Pinto adds. “We had a stripped-down crew with AJ on Steadicam covering the hike up to the top.

[Focus Puller] Nigel Nally and I were tucked away in the bushes, and Lachie and Taika were on a small handheld monitor.”

McLaglen recalls how the crew was shooting another scene in the old military barracks at the bottom of the cliffside location.

“One thing about Taika is you cannot rush

him,” he smiles. “But I knew we had to get up the hill, so I asked when he was going to finish, and Taika pulled out a guitar and started strumming, which meant ‘Don’t rush me.’”

Milne says in reading the script, the clifftop scene “was a clear opportunity” to showcase the island world the film’s characters treasure so much. “And because we were shooting Oahu for American Samoa, we had to be careful to avoid the island’s more built-up infrastructure,” he notes. “We did a lot of drone work, and I tried to push for the time of day that looked the best. It had this kind of over-the-top kitschy Mission feel, which developed as we were doing the scene. Fassbender did some great improvisation.”

For the big match against Tonga, Pinto says longtime Hawaiian water shooter Don King was brought in to operate C-Camera.

“We would spend one whole day covering the soccer,” Pinto recounts. “Taika had story points for how American Samoa scored its first goal [in international competition], which we also covered with three cameras. We used the 11-1 [zoom lens] on the deck to follow the game and get close-ups on the field. We also went up through the stands with AJ on Steadicam covering faces and did a half-day with the team in the locker room. The exciting part for me was just how many local people – Tongans, Samoans, and Hawaiians – came out for the crowd scenes. We used the soccer

pitch in Waipio where all the high school state championships are played.”

Pinto says working on a Taika Waititi film was an experience like no other. “We often shot longer takes because Taika loves having the actors improvise in the moment. We’d see him with the megaphone on the massage table or an inflatable couch, just calling out different things to them. His ability with comedy is incredible, and I loved seeing how that kind of evolved throughout each scene.”

As for Waititi’s choice of location, Hawaii has been a favorite of filmmakers for more than a century. Starting with Universal Pictures’ one-reelers in 1913 on through to the first network series ever shot on location, CBS-TV’s Hawaii Five-O, in 1968, Hollywood has embraced these jewels of the Pacific. And the list of blockbuster features shot since Actor/ Producer Jack Lord arrived in Honolulu more than fifty years ago is staggering. Everything from Raiders of the Lost Ark to King Kong, most of the Jurassic Park franchise to Pearl Harbor, and some two dozen episodics, Hawaii has supported a proud Local 600 workforce.

Pinto is a prime example of the family atmosphere of working in the Islands, a quality Waititi sought out for the family-friendly Next Goal Wins. “I joined the union in 2015 via a documentary company called Co Creative,

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co-founded by [Local 600 Camera Operator] Scott Mason,” Pinto explains of his history with Local 600. “Scott was able to get me onto Hawaii Five-O as a camera utility, and I worked four years with that crew. That was an incredible learning experience, as we shot a lot in Kualoa Valley, in the jungle. Working in that environment, you learn what it means to ‘be ready to go.’ You need weather bags, you need the right clothing, and everything from the truck has to be with you on the Polaris because it’s a 45-minute slog back through mud and rain if you forget something.”

Pinto credits 18-year Hawaii-based Guild member Brian Matsumura (aka “2Blocks”), 13-year ICG Member Kanoa Dahlin, 23-year ICG member Mike Prioste, and 17-year Guild member Warner Will Wacha, with guiding him through Hawaii Five-O. “We did a bunch of features after that show – too many to remember,” Pinto laughs, “and then Brian and Kanoa went over to Magnum P.I. [ICG Magazine Feb/March 2019], and I followed.

When Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. came to town, we jumped on that show for two seasons. After Season 3 of Magnum, our team moved over to NCIS: Hawaii. All the 600 members in Hawaii know each other; so, you end up working with the same people and learn how to get things done. Except for Key Grip [Chris Birdsong from Atlanta] and his Best Boy, Alex ‘Stone” Eremin, all the grip and electric crew on Next Goal Wins was local.”

Given the vagaries of Hawaii’s weather, water and locations, Pinto, who also does union drone work with his brother’s company, “Skies the Limit,” says “the shows that are most successful in Hawaii are the ones [that] are receptive to the way we work. People like Kanoa Dahlin are ambassadors for the Islands.

Kano will break down the safest ways to shoot on the beach or in the mountains; how to weatherproof your equipment for salt, wind,

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sun, and mud. One thing I’ve looked up to as a union member is that the Hawaiian crews will always stand up and say something if they feel a shot is not safe. We have a very systematic way of working, and once you learn that system, things go great.”

What also worked out great was Milne’s reunion with Waititi, from whom the DP says he’s learned a lot about storytelling. “Taika’s good at hitting the marks for every generation, all in the same film,” Milne muses, “which isn’t an easy thing to do. In a typical scene, we’ll look at the blocking, and then I’ll run through different angles on my iPhone and present them to Taika. It’s a way to show how the shot can evolve with multiple cameras, like on Next Goal Wins. The beauty of [using a smartphone] is you can get a number of people looking at it at the same time. And you can share the file with everyone – key grip, gaffer, assistant director – so they have real-time access. It’s quite handy.”

Milne says the way Waititi blends personal journeys within a socio-cultural framework, in this example the world of Pacific Islander football, is what made Next Goal Wins so rewarding. He recalls a quiet scene on the beach where Rongen has lunch with Jaiyah (Kaimana), a non-gender-identif ying Fa’afafine and the team’s best player.

“It’s a gentle, warm moment where these two characters, who have been at odds and have preconceptions about each other, come to a mutual understanding,” Milne concludes. “The setting reflects the culture – local and rural, without a lot of bells and whistles. They’re at this little table on the sand and just beyond are the palm trees and ocean. It’s paradise, which contrasts with the pain and anger Rongen has brought to the island from the struggles with his family. I like the opening wide shot as it reminds you how close the water is at all times.

It’s a simple scene that says a lot.”

“ONE THING I’VE LOOKED UP TO AS A UNION MEMBER IS THAT THE HAWAIIAN CREWS WILL ALWAYS STAND UP AND SAY SOMETHING IF THEY FEEL A SHOT IS NOT SAFE.” B-CAMERA 2ND AC KAIMANA PINTO

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LOCAL 600 CREW Director of Photography Lachlan Milne, ACS, NZCS A-Camera Operator John Rex Woodward A-Camera 1st AC Richard Dabbs B-Camera Operator Andrew “AJ” Johnson B-Camera 1st AC Nigel Nally B-Camera 2nd AC Kaimana Pinto C-Camera Operator Don King C-Camera 1st AC Chris Strauser C-Camera 2nd AC Olivia Montano DIT David Crans Digital Utilities Isaiah Alvarez Kahea Kahaulelio Still Photographer Hilary Bronwyn Gayle, SMPSP Unit Publicist Jackie Bissley

“ALL OF TAIKA’S PROJECTS REVOLVE AROUND TEAM, FAMILY AND CULTURE IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER,” DESCRIBES MILNE (RIGHT) WHO FIRST MET WAITITI (CENTER) WHEN THEY WERE BOTH MAKING COMMERCIAL SPOTS IN NEW D EC E M B E R 20 2 3 69 ZEALAND. “AND I FEEL LIKE THAT SPIRIT ALSO FILTERS DOWN THE CREW.”

Featuring Portraits by: Adrian S. Burrows Zach Dilgard Troy Harvey Barbara Nike Spencer Pazer Kent Smith Lara Solanki James Van Evers Jalisco Wayne Wilson Webb

POWER

AFTER A GLOBAL PANDEMIC, TWO LONG-TERM WORK STOPPAGES, AND DRAMATIC SHIFTS IN ON-SET WORKFLOWS, THE 2023 GENERATION NEXT CLASS INSISTS THAT STANDING TOGETHER IS THE ONLY WAY FORWARD. BY: MARGOT LESTER

It’s been a tough few years for union film and television workers. First, a global pandemic brought production to a complete standstill; then, as work slowly resumed, a raucous national conversation ensued, leading into a new contract cycle, only to be followed by not one but two major work stoppages. Thankfully, many of these challenging events have ended well for all the union crafts guilds. But as the 2023 Generation NEXT class collectively shares in their profiles below, they have not been without major lessons learned and a shift in priorities that has forever changed this industry.

Whether it’s addressing a safety issue on set, racial or gender bias in hiring, or a hostile work environment, the next generation of Local 600 members – which includes directors of photography; operators; assistants; DIT’s; unit still photographers; unit, studio, and independent publicists; and much more – all see unity as the only path forward.

Or, as Director of Photography Katelin Arizmendi describes of her maturation: “I’ve grown up a lot from what I used to tolerate on set or the situations I’ve put myself in,” the New York City-based ICG member offers.

“My crew’s safety concerns are my number-one priority on set, and I hire key department heads who feel and execute the same attitude. This is not an easy industry to navigate. We all need to recognize that and stand together to fight for each other’s welfare.”

BROKERS

CURTIS DIGITAL IMAGING TECHNICIAN ICG MEMBER: 14 YEARS HOME BASE: PITTSBURGH, PA

ABBOTT PORTRAIT BY WILSON WEBB

“Filmmaking in Pennsylvania is wonderful; we are a small community that is growing tremendously,” describes DIT Curtis Abbott, who’s lived in “the Burgh” since attending the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for digital media production.

Abbott, who is an NEB alternate and member of ICG’s Eastern Region Council, says union filmmakers in PA “are like one big family. During the work stoppage this year, we all kept in touch, planning activities and trying to look out for one another.” [Tradespeople banding together is nothing new in Pittsburgh. The American Federation of Labor, now the AFL-CIO, was founded there in the late 1880s.]

An early user of the RED ONE, Abbott landed the loader job on The Perks of Being a Wallflower. He showed the UPM, Jim Powers, his work on the RED, and Powers recommended him to DIT on Lovestruck: The Musical and The Maze Runner. Abbott honed his digital chops with DIT Jeff Garton. Now Abbott is showing others the ropes.

“Curtis cares about the well-being of everyone around him and in his industry,” notes Director of Photography Tobias Schliessler, ASC. The German DP first worked with Abbott on Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom in 2019 [ICG Magazine December 2020], and most recently on Rustin.

“He’s amazing at leading his department, but also working with everyone else on the crew. Whether that’s his friends, family, or his IATSE colleagues, Curtis goes out of his way to support everyone to enhance their life and work.”

“Having someone to call when something doesn’t seem right helps keep us safe,” Abbott notes. “I am a strong advocate for all union members; I have put my job on the line to try and save crew members’ jobs and to speak up to productions when issues arise.”

He’s also known as a problem-solver. While working on Archive 81, during COVID, Abbott developed new workflows to keep everyone safe. No longer able to stand shoulderto-shoulder with the cinematographer and chief lighting technician, Abbott fashioned a small DP cart with a monitor for Director of Photography Julie Kirkwood. “She had full control to switch between cameras and video routing as well as a color panel to make fine adjustments to the image,” Abbott explains. “We were all on HME in our own tents.”

That’s all part of the job for Abbott. “When I see something and there is something I can do about it, I try my hardest to correct it,” he concludes. “That can mean talking with producers, the union, whoever can help address an issue and make it better for all of those involved. I believe the union is most effective if we are all active and engaged.

We are the union, all of us. Together we are stronger and have more control over our working conditions. When we all stand together we have the power.”

“I BELIEVE THE UNION IS MOST EFFECTIVE IF WE ARE ALL ACTIVE AND ENGAGED.”

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DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY ICG MEMBER: 5 YEARS HOME BASE: BROOKLYN, NY

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KATELIN

“ MY CREW’S SAFETY CONCERNS ARE MY NUMBER-ONE PRIORITY ON SET, AND I HIRE KEY DEPARTMENT HEADS WHO FEEL AND EXECUTE THE SAME ATTITUDE.” PORTRAIT BY SPENCER PAZER

“I was obsessed with movies as a kid and would always make VHS films with my neighbors – either recreations of our favorite films or original ideas,” recounts Director of Photography Katelin Arizmendi, who left her hometown of Oakland to attend film school at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

The coastal school had an emphasis on experimental film that appealed to Arizmendi, who later earned her Master’s degree in cinematography from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

Arizmendi started her career in commercials before making the jump to narrative with a film called Cam, followed by Swallow, Charm City Kings, Monica, and her latest National Anthem. She also worked a 2nd unit gig on Dune with Greig Fraser, ACS, ASC, where Arizmendi says she learned “on such a grandscale set how to manage crews of that size and light spaces that large, and about new LED technology.”

Arizmendi also lensed four episodes in the final season of Succession. “I was such a big fan of the show and joked about how it was the only TV I would shoot,” she laughs. “Then one day the job came to me, and it didn’t feel real.”

Notes Director Lorene Scafaria, “The people who seemed to work best on Succession were the ones who were game to try new things – anything – and Kate fit in perfectly. She paints with light and is so good at making subtle changes that have a huge emotional impact. Kate finds new textures in the air and brings out the fabric in faces.”

Scafaria also appreciated Arizmendi’s ability

to meet every challenge with enthusiasm, including choreographing three cameras for a 17-minute take and managing a 7-camera day. “Kate’s obviously highly skilled, technically, but I think it’s her boundless curiosity, her playfulness, and her love of life and people that make her so naturally adept at digging out the humanity,” Scafaria adds. “She really sees people and wants to show characters in ways they maybe haven’t been seen before.”

Those talents earned Arizmendi multiple cinematography accolades for Swallow, which chronicles a pregnant mother’s (Haley Bennett) obsession with swallowing dangerous objects. The film received dozens of nominations and wins in various categories on the film festival circuit.

Since COVID, Arizmendi says she values her time off and personal life – all while confronting the precarity of the current labor environment. “Many crew and actors put in countless hours of physical work and are still barely supporting their families.

We must support each other in times like these,” she asserts.

“I’ve grown up a lot from what I used to tolerate on set or the situations I’ve put myself in,” the New York City-based union member concludes.

“My crew’s safety concerns are my number-one priority on set, and I hire key department heads who feel and execute the same attitude. This is not an easy industry to navigate. We all need to recognize that and stand together to fight for each other’s welfare.”

ARIZMENDI

“THE BACK-TO-BACK LABOR ACTIONS REALLY LIT MY FIRE OF SELF-WORTH, AND I’M GRATEFUL FOR THAT INSPIRATION.”

2ND AC ICG MEMBER: 2 YEARS HOME BASE: FORT WORTH, TX

SOPHIA BASILIADIS PORTRAIT BY JALISCO WAYNE

Sophia Basiliadis was a successful freelance videographer in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, where she grew up. She produced and shot in-theater ads and story-driven vignettes for a dine-in movie theater chain, worked on commercials, and was the on-call camera assistant for HGTV’s One of A Kind. She’d had her most lucrative year in 2019, and then – COVID hit.

“It all went away,” the Southern Methodist University graduate laments. “And my career hit the reset button. My money awareness has grown, but more importantly, my self-value has grown. As the industry began to reopen, there were production companies that would try to take advantage of the desperate want and need for Texas crews to return to work. Because of this, I’ve become better at negotiating what’s fair for me and my efforts. The back-to-back labor actions really lit my fire of selfworth, and I’m grateful for that inspiration.”

During her years of non-union work, Basiliadis

encountered discrimination, sexual harassment, and unsafe work conditions. But she felt she couldn’t speak up out of fear of being fired and/or blacklisted.

“In some instances, I was lucky enough to have others speak up for me,” she shares. “But I wish I had done more, or at least felt protected in some manner to speak out. Since I joined the union, I’ve been much more conscientious during productions, and there have been a few instances where I have been vocal, or even taken action. What I’ve learned most surviving my years of silence is that I can make a difference on any set and can most certainly voice any level of concern at any time.”

When Netflix’s How to Be a Cowboy was looking for camera assistants, Basiliadis landed the gig.

“Thinking about it now, it was great training for the slew of cowboy shows and ranch life I’ve been embedded in since then.” She parlayed that into her first job within the Taylor Sheridan/Yellowstone ecosystem, as a digital utility on 1883, lensed by

Director of Photography Christina Voros [ICG Magazine December 2022], who is also a director/ producer on the series.

“Being a member of our camera team was an extreme sport,” laughs Voros. “The show was massive and six cameras rolling at once was an almost daily occurrence.” Voros and Key 1st AC Tim Clarke entrusted Basiliadis to build and manage an elaborate video village. “Sophia’s technical skill is as impressive as her kindness,” Voros continues. “She supplies thoughtful leadership and has poise under pressure.” So much so, the team kept her on as Key Camera Utility and recurring 2nd AC on Yellowstone and Lawmen: Bass Reeves.

“Sophia continues to shine as a technician,” Voros concludes. “She’s a graceful leader and mother hen to the entire department, and I am so grateful to watch her rise! I can’t wait to see where her career goes, as I believe there is nothing she cannot do.”

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PORTRAIT BY JAMES VAN EVERS

“The definition of a go-getter.” That’s how Megan Bendis, executive vice president of global publicity at Universal Pictures, describes her former assistant Ryleigh Blachley. “She is highly motivated, proactive and ambitious.”

Between working a restaurant job and completing her degree in communications and PR at Cal State Fullerton, Blachley interned in radio, documentary, and field marketing. After graduation, she worked a temp job at Disney before going to Universal Pictures. During an extended publicity temp role in the awards office there, she capitalized on the opportunity. “I gave my résumé to everyone who would take it, and it got into the hands of the head of the office, John J. Smith,” Blachley recounts.

“He interviewed me and hired me as the second person to the two-person awards team.”

Blachley worked on For Your Consideration (FYC) campaigns including Get Out, Green Book, NOPE, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, and Oppenheimer. She was promoted to senior publicist of global publicity and awards. But soon after she started working, the pandemic put a temporary end to the face-to-face interactions that are so vital to FYC campaigns. “We pivoted from traditional in-person publicity efforts to executing virtual activations such as screenings, interviews and Q&A’s, which resulted in [our] reaching a wider global audience,” she says.

Earning a union card was an important milestone. “The feeling that overcame me when I

was first promoted into the Guild was overwhelming, and I’m so proud to be a part of it,” Blachley describes. “The best thing about being a part of IATSE Local 600 is the membership of film and TV lovers who you become joined with. There is a sense of community that is so important to have when working in the industry.”

Blachley is a member of Universal Pictures Film Marketing’s Diversity and Inclusion Steering Committee. In that role, she has overseen several employee activations, including moderating an employee panel on the bi-racial experience and spearheading a culture chat with co-director Januel Mercado and voice actor Harvey Guillén about diversity in animation tied to Puss In Boots: Last Wish.

“My passion and drive to accurately represent myself, the people I work for, and the projects I work on will always be extremely important to me,” explains Blachley, who hails from Ontario, Calif.

“As a Latina being the first person in my family to graduate college and work in this industry, I stand on the shoulders of generations who have made sacrifices that allow me to be here and inspire why I wake up and work so hard,” she adds. “I have had to be extremely diligent and dedicated to create my unique career path, and I have been in rooms where I am the only diverse voice. I am so proud to see that more people in my generation, of many different backgrounds, are starting to pave their way in this industry and break down barriers as well.”

“I’M SO PROUD TO SEE THAT MORE PEOPLE IN MY GENERATION, OF MANY DIFFERENT BACKGROUNDS, ARE STARTING TO PAVE THEIR WAY IN THIS INDUSTRY AND BREAK DOWN BARRIERS.”

RYLEIGH BLACHLEY STUDIO PUBLICIST ICG MEMBER: 2 YEARS HOME BASE: PASADENA, CA

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ANTHONY The day before the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Director of Photography Anthony Brooks had just wrapped production in the Holy City on The Jerusalem Joy Manifesto, which he calls a milestone. “I always told myself that I’d accomplish a major career goal once a project takes me out of the country for a while – a way to continue the nomadic experience that has shaped me since my youth,” Brooks explains.

Born in Baltimore to a military family, Brooks’ formative years were spent in Guantanamo Bay; Sicily; and Jacksonville, FL; where he attended Jacksonville University to study film. “I had to completely uproot from one environment into a totally new one for most of my youth – well into my teens,” he continues. “In these situations, you’ve got no choice but to be a quiet observer, because the dynamics of life are significantly different in each new place.”

After a few years of freelance postproduction, smallscale VFX and lensing his own projects on the side in L.A., Brooks began shooting commercials, indie films, and political campaign work. That led to bigger projects, including the Amazon Studios long-form documentary series Top Class: The Life and Times of the Sierra Canyon Trailblazers, a show executive produced by NBA legend Lebron James that earned a Critics Choice Award nomination for Best Sports Show.

“Anthony has seen things that most young directors of photography have not,” describes Todd Dos Reis, ASC, who mentors Brooks in the ASC Mentorship Program.

“His foundation has a world view and an international feel. For someone relatively new to the union, his body of work shows that he has been honing his skills for years.

Anthony’s website has a variety of genres and looks that create a uniqueness for the next generation.”

Brooks describes his work as “a visceral approach to creating moving images, mixing moods, colors and natural landscapes of each place I’ve lived that has impacted me the most.” He feels the pandemic created opportunities for people to work differently and with different people, while also revealing the “vast disconnect” between filmmakers and the companies that contract them.

“We all collectively took varying levels of losses in these situations – the labor community is the first to get hit hard by cutbacks,” he concludes. “When you look at the real metrics of how much money is being circulated throughout the film industry versus the time, sweat and working conditions on some film sets, it absolutely should give way to the betterment of our rules. There’s always room to shed light upon the parts of the working experience that not everyone is inclined to talk about in the open – until unions, thankfully, get into action.”

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DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY ICG MEMBER: 2 YEARS HOME BASE: LOS ANGELES, CA

“THERE’S ALWAYS ROOM TO SHED LIGHT UPON THE PARTS OF THE WORKING EXPERIENCE THAT NOT EVERYONE IS INCLINED TO TALK ABOUT IN THE OPEN – UNTIL UNIONS, THANKFULLY, GET INTO ACTION.”

BROOKS

PORTRAIT BY TROY HARVEY

CAMERA OPERATOR ICG MEMBER: 8 YEARS HOME BASE: LOS ANGELES, CA

RACHEL PORTRAIT BY LARA SOLANKI

DUSA

“This career comes with a level of privilege and responsibility to the stories we choose to tell. I feel most proud when it’s being utilized in a way that embraces and pushes our humanity,” states Operator Rachel Dusa, who is an NEB alternate and member of ICG’s Western Region Council. “I’m proud that many of the projects I’ve worked on over my career have given a voice and a platform for exposure to underserved communities and people.”

Two examples: The L Word: Generation Q, lensed by Sandra Valde-Hansen, ASC, continued showcasing queer stories and relationships and won an Outstanding Drama Series GLAAD Media Award. Justin Bieber’s Intentions video, which earned a 2020 MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best Pop Video, raised funds for the Alexandria House transitional home for women and children in L.A. Dusa has also experienced rapid professional growth through the camera department, with a resume that includes Ted Lasso, Modern Family, With Love, Minx, Waffles + Mochi, and Room 104.

Dusa is also working toward better representation of APIDA and South Asians on screen and on set. “She understands the more we can encourage and teach future women, nonbinary and POC crew, the more we can finally reach parity in this very unbalanced industry,” Valde-Hansen describes. “We need global exposure to more stories that represent these communities and the diversity and complexity that we encompass,” Dusa adds. “Part of that

journey is ensuring that we have Indian Americans behind the camera to tell those stories. I’m a proud second-generation Indian American, but sadly one of only a handful of members that share Indian descent – that I’m aware of – in this Guild. Part of my ongoing work is ensuring it’s not so hard for those like me in the future.”

To that end, the Scotts Valley, CA, native leads workshops for up-and-coming crew members and would like to see the union create more formal internships and visa sponsorships to bring greater diversity to Local 600.

Dusa is also an outspoken advocate for workers’ rights and safety. She says there’s never a reason to be unsafe on set. “There’s always a creative way to get a shot safely – that’s part of why we are creative professionals,” Dusa insists.

“Everyone deserves to be able to perform well at their jobs and go home to their loved ones. When working as a HOD, I take that responsibility very seriously. Make the reflective vest fashion during road work, take the ride or room after that long day, create a department [text] thread to check in after long days of overtime, do what you have to and always have each other’s backs.”

For Dusa, union membership isn’t just about holding a card.

“It’s the ability to constructively disagree and agree with it, help shape it, vote, and be active,” she concludes. “It can and should be a place where members want to gather to foster education and speak about their craft and its evolution.”

“EVERYONE DESERVES TO BE ABLE TO PERFORM WELL AT THEIR JOBS AND GO HOME TO THEIR LOVED ONES.”

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PORTRAIT BY BARBARA NITKE

“ DON’T SETTLE FOR ANYTHING LESS THAN WHAT IS DESERVED AND ALWAYS BE VIGILANT IN SUPPORTING THOSE AROUND YOU.”

KATIE HARRIS

We all wish for at least one transformational project in our lives. For Katie Harris, that project was I Heart Jenny. The small, self-funded film, which won Best Documentary at the 2019 Green Bay Film Festival, chronicles Jenny Vanderlinden’s experience with ovarian cancer. “It proved to be an incredible story with the utmost inspiring effect,” Harris recalls.

“I learned so much about life, love and the pursuit of happiness from Jenny. She became a second mother and best friend.

“Until her final breaths, she trusted me and [Director/Producer] Blake Babbitt to tell her story and share the hardships that ovarian cancer causes to both the woman and the family. The film stands as my proudest accomplishment so far because of the positive impact Jenny had on me and the world around her.”

Connecting is Harris’ signature, notes Director of Photography Adrian Peng Correia, who first collaborated with her on a SUNY Purchase thesis film in 2008, when Harris was studying at the University of Arizona. “Katie wears her heart on her sleeve and brings to work the kind of dedication and exuberance that I look for,” Correia describes.

“She’s totally genuine and compassionate towards everyone. She tries to be the shelter in the storm for a lot of people, and I admire her greatly for that kind of humanity. I often say that in the industry where I see my crew often more than I see my family, I need my crew to be family. Katie is family.”

Harris is also active in the New York Local 600 community.

“We are only as strong as our weakest link when it comes to creating equity and equality within the film industry,” she says. “Whether it’s hiring more women on set or people of color or supporting other unions such as SAG-AFTRA or WGA with achieving their needs, we all have to support each other.” A veteran of both narrative and unscripted genres, including Florida Man [ICG Magazine July 2023], The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live, Project Runway and Chopped, Harris is an outspoken advocate for unionizing unscripted shows. “When on a non-union unscripted set, it’s unfortunate to see how fast producers want things done; and because of that, safety standards fall.”

This motivates the Tucson, AZ-born Harris. “If there are any lessons to be learned from all the hardships, it’s to be grateful for the work and to remain steadfast in pursuing your goals,” Harris concludes. “It’s so easy to give up when things get hard, which they have been for over three years now in our industry. It takes a strong mind to push through and remember what drives us. Don’t settle for anything less than what is deserved and always be vigilant in supporting those around you because you never know when the tables will turn.”

CAMERA OPERATOR ICG MEMBER: 13 YEARS HOME BASE: JERSEY CITY, NJ

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JALEN

Jalen Marlowe had enough hours to join the union as a digital utility after working on Tyler Perry’s Camp Quarantine when Unit Still Photographer Chip Bergmann suggested he consider that classification instead.

It wasn’t that much of a leap. “My Pops, Jamie Marlowe, has been in 600 since I was a child,” Marlowe explains. “He put a camera in my hand just to shoot around, eventually to capture my little sisters doing their extracurriculars, to just going out and documenting life.” After graduating from Wingate University with a degree in psychology, the younger Marlowe continued documenting and shooting pop-up events and concerts before getting into film.

His first unit stills gig was on Young Dylan, subbing for a sick crew member. “It was a new set of challenges but a change of pace from checking Teradeks and wrapping cables,” he laughs. Marlowe followed that with an assignment on Disney’s The Haunted Mansion [ICG Magazine August 2023], where he worked closely with Unit Publicist Carol McConnaughey.

“This project, in particular, had a lot of moving parts in terms of its lineage within the Disney theme parks and translating it all onto the big screen,” McConnaughey remembers. “I was throwing a lot of requests for additional photo coverage Jalen’s way, and he handled it all with this Zen composure that is rare on a busy film set. I think it’s his secret weapon.”

PORTRAIT BY KENT SMITH

Marlowe says the learning curve on Haunted Mansion was “fast and steep to be efficient and consistent in my work, whether it be navigating a setup on set, making sure I had the necessary equipment to work properly or that I was capturing strong images every day. Once we wrapped there was a feeling of accomplishment on many different levels. I try not to romanticize my job, but coming from covering concerts and live events to completing a feature film was a wild feeling.”

His most recent project was Ironheart, the latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The action-adventure miniseries follows Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne), the teenage crime-fighting successor to Ironman.

Born in Far Rockaway, Queens, Marlowe’s been active in his adopted home, which some call “The New York of the South.”

“There is always something going on in Atlanta,” Marlowe notes. “Making connections with crew members to get together outside of work has been a cool way to get plugged in with what’s going on in different areas of the city.”

Marlowe has also attended local union trainings and meet-ups. “It’s important for laborers across all industries to negotiate for a fair wage for the work,” he insists. “It’s better for all trades to come together and make sure that all kin are being treated and compensated fairly, understanding that a united front is stronger than an individual.”

“IT’S BETTER FOR ALL TRADES TO COME TOGETHER AND MAKE SURE THAT ALL KIN ARE BEING TREATED AND COMPENSATED FAIRLY.”

UNIT STILL PHOTOGRAPHER ICG MEMBER: 3 YEARS HOME BASE: ATLANTA, GA

MARLOWE

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“ AS A DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY, IT’S EXTREMELY IMPORTANT FOR ME TO MAKE SURE MY TEAM IS REPRESENTATIVE OF THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.”

PEDRO

GÓMEZ MILLÁN DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY ICG MEMBER: 4 YEARS HOME BASE: LOS ANGELES, CA

PORTRAIT BY ZACH DILGARD

Before the pandemic, Pedro Gómez Millán, AMC [ICG Magazine September 2023], was working nonstop and also “feeling like I wasn’t being challenged artistically and professionally,” he recalls. The shutdown presented an opportunity to reset. “I learned how important it was to take time off in order to come back stronger and more focused,” the Mexico City native remembers. “It’s crucial for me to keep myself hungry, curious, and inspired,” Millán adds. “Part of what makes this job so incredible is the necessity to keep exploring, testing, and experimenting. I used to struggle with time off in between jobs; now I am trying to schedule real time off throughout the year to get inspired and gain some perspective in my career and personal life.”

After graduating from the film program at NYU, Millán began shooting indie films and TV, including Gentefied, Lincoln Lawyer and 2019’s House of Flowers, which accumulated multiple PRODU nominations, including Best Cinematography. His current project is a show for the Marvel Cinematic Universe that will debut next year.

Millán is an active union member who advocates for parents and diversity. “I am frustrated that this industry makes it so hard for individuals to raise families,” he laments. “It is unacceptable that people have to choose to either become a filmmaker or a parent, and we should be supporting people that decide to raise kids. We need to be proactive and fight for

our rights, if not for ourselves at least for future generations coming after us.” Leading into the last contract negotiations, Millán adds that, “we all knew communication and solidarity amongst Local 600 and other Guilds was essential. I am proud of our camera team for standing strong alongside our sister unions, and I think it should be acknowledged that deals were reached thanks in part of the unity of IATSE crews.

Another priority, Millán feels, is consciously working to make crews more diverse. “As a Director of Photography, it’s extremely important for me to make sure my team is representative of the world we live in,” he describes. “I’m also keenly aware of how important those first opportunities are and how transformative they can be.”

Actor/director/producer America Ferrera knows this firsthand. She met Millán on X/Y, a film written, directed, and co-starring Ferrera’s husband, Ryan Piers Williams. The movie earned a Best Cinematography nomination at 2014’s Tribeca Film Festival.

As she recounts: “It was a very intimate piece and Pedro was like the third leg of our tripod, holding us up and cheering us on from behind the camera.” When Williams was in a scene without her, Ferrera would be at the monitor in his place. “I remember Pedro came to me and said ‘You’re a natural. When are you directing?’ He was the first person who said that to me and it made an impact.”

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“IT’S GREAT TO SEE UNIONS FIGHTING AS MUCH AS THEY CAN TO GET WHAT THEY DESERVE.”

Chicago has a long history of industrial and trade unionism, and Local 600 has a strong presence in the City of Big Shoulders. “I like the union community in Chicago – especially the Young Workers Committee and those around that who are incredibly involved.

We look out for each other,” describes 2nd AC Laney Naling, who hails from nearby Joliet, IL. Naling entered the industry during IATSE’s hectic lead-up to the 2021 contract vote, when the local camera cage recommended her as a camera P.A. on Amazon’s Night Sky, which was shooting in the city. “What struck me immediately about Laney was her enthusiasm and commitment to learning,” offers Director of Photography Ashley Connor [ICG Magazine Deep Dive Live, April 2023], who lensed the show. “She came in and wanted to absorb as much information as possible.”

That included technical knowledge, of course,

and advocacy. “Laney witnessed conversations about power, abuse and exploitation firsthand from our own team’s experience,” Connor continues. “She heard some complex and diverse opinions on where we should be headed as a union, on what we believe our industry should value, and how the pandemic helped to clarify those points for so many members.

She immediately saw the value of the union and how important it is to make your viewpoint known.”

Naling most recently worked on The Bear [ICG Magazine September 2023], first as a digital utility for Season 1 and moving up to 2nd AC for B-Camera in Season 2. “It was incredible learning in a fast-paced but fun environment,” she recounts. “We enjoyed making a show with so much hype while having a fun time on set. I’d say my biggest ‘sub-accomplishment’ this season was eating steak and focaccia that was made on-camera.”

Joining the industry during COVID protocols and labor actions, Naling entered a more activist work environment. “I’ve been surrounded by crew members who remind one another to take care of themselves,” she reflects. “Whenever we go over or have to fight over turnarounds, the crew will be at the frontlines with the contract in their hand and ready to fight for our safety and well-being. It’s admirable, and I hope to do the same. It’s always going to be a long and tough battle against the big guys in this industry. But it’s great to see unions fighting as much as they can to get what they deserve. I’m so happy that the WGA and SAG-AFTRA reached their goals in negotiation.

We’re on the same team.”

Adds Connor, “This year has been so hard on so many crew members, and so many of us have suffered through the strikes. I know Laney continues to be a supportive presence for the people in her life.”

PORTRAIT BY ADRIAN S. BURROWS

LANEY NALING 2ND AC ICG MEMBER: 2 YEARS HOME BASE: CHICAGO, IL

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PRODUCTION CREDITS COMPILED BY TERESA MUÑOZ The input of Local 600 members is of the utmost importance, and we rely on our membership as the prime (and often the only) source of information in compiling this section. In order for us to continue to provide this service, we ask that Guild members submitting information take note of the following requests: Please provide up-to-date and complete crew information (including Still Photographers, Publicists, Additional Units, etc.).

Please note that the deadline for the Production Credits is on the first of the preceding cover month (excluding weekends & holidays).

Submit your jobs online by visiting: www.icg600.com/MY600/Report-Your-Job Any questions regarding the Production Credits should be addressed to Teresa Muñoz at teresa@icgmagazine.com

20TH CENTURY FOX “AMERICAN HORROR STORIES:

CAMERA UTILITIES: ANTONIO SILVA, ANDRES VILA LOADERS: NESTOR CESTERO, ARIEL FERRER

HAMPTONS” SEASON 12

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TIM NORMAN, ANDREI SCHWARTZ OPERATORS: AILEEN TAYLOR, GERARD SAVA ASSISTANTS: BRADEN BELMONTE, JOHN REEVES, CAROLYN WILLS, SARAH SCRIVENER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: GUILLERMO TUNON LOADERS: OFELIA CHAVEZ, VINCE FERRARI TECHNOCRANE TECH: CRAIG STRIANO STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: MICHAEL PARMELEE, ERIC LIEBOWITZ

FRB PRODUCTIONS, INC. “MTV UNPLUGGED: HIP HOP”

OPERATORS: ELI CLARKE, GERARD CANCEL, DAVE DRISCOLL, JAMES SCURTI, BOB HAGERTY, LESLIE HANKEY STEADICAM OPERATOR: KAT KALLERGIS JIB ARM OPERATOR: JAY KULICK STEADICAM ASSISTANT: JAMES TOMLINSON JIB ARM TECH: STEVE THIEL CAMERA UTILITIES: JOHN ROLLMAN, RAMSEY ALKAYSI, CHRISTOPHER CONOD

BEACHWOOD SERVICES, INC. “DAYS OF OUR LIVES” SEASON 59

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID MEAGHER OPERATORS: MARK WARSHAW, MICHAEL J. DENTON, JOHNNY BROMBEREK, JOHN BOYD, STEVE CLARK CAMERA UTILITY: GARY CYPHER VIDEO CONTROLLER: ALEXIS DELLAR HANSON

DAVE’S COMEDY SPECIAL, INC. “UNTITLED DONNELL RAWLINGS SPECIAL 2023”

OPERATORS: MATTHEW FLEISCHMANN, ELI CLARKE, TIM QUIGLEY, PHILIP SALANTO, CHRIS WAIREGI, CARLOS RIOS CAMERA UTILITIES: JOHN ROLLMAN, RAMSEY ALKAYSI, ROBERT BENEDETTI, ROBERT YORK DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: PAUL ANDREW SCHILENS HEAD TECHS: PABLO BARRERA, JOHN NASH “UNTITELD TONY WOODS SPECIAL”

OPERATORS: MATTHEW FLEISCHMANN, ELI CLARKE, TIM QUIGLEY ASSISTANT: NIKOLAS FELDMAN CAMERA UTILITIES: JAMES WASHBURN, RAMSEY ALKAYSI, ROBERT BENEDETTI, ROBERT YORK DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: PAUL ANDREW SCHILENS

DUTCHMAN FILM, INC. “THE DUTCHMAN”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: FRANK DEMARCO OPERATORS: TODD ARMITAGE, MICHAEL BURKE ASSISTANTS: JEROME WILLIAMS, BLACKFORD SHELTON, BEHNOOD DADFAR, ALFONSO DIAZ CAMERA UTILITIES: JANAE HARRISON, THOMAS FOY DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: PETER SYMONOWICZ LOADER: PARKER RICE STILL PHOTOGRAPHERS: ATSUSHI NISHIJIMA, SPENCER PAZER

ELLA ES EL 7, LLC “ELLA ES EL 7 AKA LUCY ES EL 7”

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: WILFREDO BERRIOS MARTINEZ, ROBERT PEÑA MATEO OPERATORS: EDUARDO MARIOTA, BRENDALIZ NEGRON COLON, HECTOR ARMANDO SANTOS, CHRISTIAN RAMIREZ COLL ASSISTANTS: CARLOS GARCIA, JULI SILVER TARACIDO, NATASHA LUNA, DANIEL VELEZ VARGAS, ZORAIDA LUNA LUNA, WILLIAM MONTANEZ, JORGE RODRIGUEZ MALDONADO, THATIANA HERNANDEZ

NETFLIX PRODUCTIONS, LLC “THAT ‘90S SHOW”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GARY BAUM, ASC OPERATORS: DAVID DECHANT, LANCE BILLITZER, JON PURDY, BRIAN GUNTER ASSISTANTS: JEFF ROTH, YUKA KADONO UTILITIES: DAN LORENZE, RICHIE FINE DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: DEREK LANTZ VIDEO CONTROLLER: JOHN O’BRIEN STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: PATRICK WYMORE

SONY PICTURES TELEVISION “JEOPARDY!” SEASON 39

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF ENGEL OPERATORS: DIANE L. FARRELL, SOC, MIKE TRIBBLE, JEFF SCHUSTER, L. DAVID IRETE JIB ARM OPERATOR: MARC HUNTER HEAD UTILITY: TINO MARQUEZ CAMERA UTILITY: RAY THOMPSON VIDEO CONTROLLER: JEFF MESSENGER VIDEO UTILITIES: MICHAEL CORWIN, JEFF KLIMUCK STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: TYLER GOLDEN “WHEEL OF FORTUNE” SEASON 40

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF ENGEL OPERATORS: DIANE L. FARRELL, SOC, L.DAVID IRETE, RAY GONZALES, MIKE TRIBBLE HEAD UTILITY: TINO MARQUEZ CAMERA UTILITY: RAY THOMPSON VIDEO CONTROLLER: JEFF MESSENGER VIDEO UTILITIES: MICHAEL CORWIN, JEFF KLIMUCK JIB ARM OPERATOR: STEVE SIMMONS STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: CAROL KAELSON

STAMFORD MEDIA CENTER AND PRODUCTIONS, LLC “KARAMO” SEASON 2

OPERATORS: CHARLES BEDI, DOMINICK CIARDIELLO, VICTOR MATHEWS, RONALD RIGOLI, JON ROSE, ED STAEBLER, RON THOMPSON, THOMAS TUCKER JIB ARM OPERATORS: RICHARD FREEDMAN, ANTHONY LENZO CAMERA UTILITIES: JESSE JAMES MEHRMANN, ROBERT FRITCHE, ANTHONY DEFONZO, FRANK CAIOLA, ROBERT BENEDETTI CHYRON OPERATOR: DAVID KATZ DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JOE MANCUSI

JON ROSE, ED STAEBLER, RON THOMPSON, VICTOR MATHEWS, CHARLES BEDI, GERARD CANCEL, DOMINICK CIARDIELLO JIB ARM OPERATORS: ANTHONY LENZO, RICHARD FREEDMAN CAMERA UTILITIES: MIKE MORAN, ROBERT FRITCHE, ANTHONY DEFONZO, FRANK CAIOLA, ROBERT BENEDETTI, RAMSEY ALKAYSI, KEITH CONOD CHYRON OPERATOR: DAVID KATZ DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JOE MANCUSI

WARNER BROS “THE CLEANING LADY” SEASON 3

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ALAN CAUDILLO, VANESSA JOY SMITH OPERATORS: MATTHEW PEARCE, DEMIAN SCOTT VAUGHS ASSISTANTS: SEBASTIAN VEGA, RYAN BUSHMAN, TAYLOR HILBURN, RYAN EUSTIS STEADICAM OPERATOR: MATTHEW PEARCE STEADICAM ASSISTANT: SEBASTIAN VEGA DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: RAFEL MONTOYA LOADER: JONAS HUERTA DIGITAL UTILITY: ELLEOTT HERRERA

COMMERCIALS ARTS & SCIENCES “ALDI”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MIHAI MALAIMARE ASSISTANTS: ETHAN MCDONALD, JOHN RUIZ, JORDAN PELLEGRINI, ROBYN BUCHANAN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ELI BERG

BISCUIT “FOX SPORTS”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: TIM HUDSON OPERATOR: BRAD RICHARD ASSISTANTS: ERIK STAPELFELDT, KALEB STAPELFELDT, LAURA GOLDBERG, DAISY SMITH DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: ERIC YU

CMS PRODUCTIONS “ALPEN”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: DAVID JONES ASSISTANTS: ETHAN MCDONALD, JORDAN PELLEGRINI DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: KYLE HOEKSTRA “HOTELS.COM”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: KAI SAUL OPERATOR: JACOB PINGER ASSISTANTS: NICOLAS MARTIN, ROBYN BUCHANAN, DANNY MING DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: CHARLES ALEXANDER “VALLEY TOYOTA”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MICHAEL SVITAK ASSISTANT: RYAN RAYNER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: NINA CHADHA

“STAMFORD MEDIA CENTER-WILKOS” SEASON 17

OPERATORS: MARC NATHAN, RONALD RIGOLI,

DECEMBER 2023 PRODUCTION CREDITS

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COLORS “CAROLINA HERRERA PUIG”

DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MACEO BISHOP, ANDRE CHEMETOFF ASSISTANTS: JOHN CLEMENS, PETER MORELLO, RICHARD GIOIA, SCOTT HALL MILLER, NATHAN MCGARIGAL, JORDAN LEVIE STEADICAM OPERATOR: YOUSHENG TANG DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JEFFREY FLOHR

LEO GALLAGHER, JOHN JENNE STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ERIC ESPINO

NOAH GLAZER, KELLY SIMPSON DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JOHN SPELLMAN

HAMMER START, LLC

SANCTUARY CONTENT

“OFFSHORE WIND”

“TOYOTA TACOMA”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES SIMEONE ASSISTANT: RICHELLE TOPPING

OPERATOR: JOSEPH CICIO ASSISTANTS: COREY BRINGAS, SARAH LANKFORD, THOMAS BARRIOS, MARK CONNELLY, SETH PESCHANSKY, CHAD NAGEL DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: NINA CHADHA PHANTOM TECH: ROHAM RAHMANIAN

MOXIE PICTURES “TGL SOFI”

CONDUCTOR PRODUCTIONS, LLC DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: NATHAN SWINGLE ASSISTANTS: JILL TUFTS, DANIEL MASON, KYRA KILFEATHER, MICHAEL RODRIGUEZ TORRENT

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAMES WHITAKER, ASC ASSISTANTS: CHRISTIAN HOLLYER, JAMIE FITZPATRICK STEADICAM OPERATOR: MATT FLEISCHMANN DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: MATT DORRIS UTILITY: JOE CHRISTOFORI

DUNCAN FILMS

PARTIZAN ENTERTAINMENT

“NUTRYSYSTEM”

“NBC/OLYMPICS”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: SCOTT DUNCAN OPERATOR: NICOLAS MARTIN ASSISTANTS: ROBYN BUCHANAN, DAVE THOMAS, ANDIE GILL DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: EDUARDO EGUIA TECHNOCRANE HEAD TECH: PHILIP HALLFORD TECHNOCRANE TECH: DAVID HAMMER, CHRIS GARCIA

“AIRSUPRA”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JON CHEMA ASSISTANTS: JOSEPH SORIA, JORDAN OGLESBY STEADICAM OPERATOR: NICK MULLER DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: NINA CHADHA HEAD TECH: SIMON SHIN STILL PHOTOGRAPHER: ERIN SIMKIN

STATION FILM “WALMART”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MATTHEW J. LLOYD ASSISTANT: DAVE EDSALL DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: CHARLES ALEXANDER

SWEET RICKEY “FIDELITY INVESTMENTS”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JULIA LIU ASSISTANTS: JILL TUFTS, TALIA KROHMAL

PRETTY BIRD PICTURES, INC./DE LA REVOLUCION

FRAMESTORE PICTURES

“NBA 1ST ANTHEM”

“INGREZZA”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: MATTHEW J. LLOYD ASSISTANTS: RORY HANRAHAN, KELLON INNOCENT DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: THOMAS WONG CRANE TECH: PAUL MCKENNA

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ROB HAUER ASSISTANTS: TIFFANY AUG, VANESSA GUFFEY, ALAINA MCMANUS, ERIN ENDOW DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: JUN LI DIGITAL IMAGING TECH: RAFFI VESCO

RADICAL MEDIA “HONDA”

GIFTED YOUTH, INC. “ANDROID”

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: LUKE GEISSBUHLER OPERATOR: JONATHAN MILLER ASSISTANTS: JASON KNOBLOCH, DANTE CORROCHER,

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: ERIC SCHMIDT OPERATORS: JOHN PINGRY, COLLIN DAVIS, GILBERT SALAS, XAVIER HENSELMAN ASSISTANTS: LILA BYALL, BILL ROBINSON, CARRIE LAZAR, KARLA CHRISTENSEN,

ADVERTISERS INDEX COMPANY PAGE AMAZON PRIME 5, 7, 9, 19 AMAZON STUDIOS 53, 97, 99, 100 CINE GEAR NY 96 MPB 21 NETFLIX 11 PARAMOUNT 13 UNIVERSAL 3 SUNDANCE FF 2 WARNER BROS 15, 17, 23

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WWW.CONSIDERAMAZON.COM WWW.AMAZONMGMSTUDIOSGUILDS.COM WWW.CINEGEAREXPO.COM WWW.MPB.COM WWW.FILM.NETFLIXAWARDS.COM PARAMOUNTPICTURESFYC.COM WWW.EXPERIENCEOPPENHEIMER.COM WWW.FESTIVAL.SUNDANCE.ORG WWW.WBAWARDS.COM/SCREENINGS/

DECEMBER 2023 PRODUCTION CREDITS

ADVERTISING REPRESENTATIVES WEST COAST & CANADA ROMBEAU INC. Sharon Rombeau Tel: (818) 762-6020 Fax: (818) 760-0860 Email: sharonrombeau@gmail.com

EAST COAST & EUROPE ALAN BRADEN INC. Alan Braden Tel: (818) 850-9398 Email: alanbradenmedia@gmail.com

DECEMBER 2023 PRODUCTION CREDITS

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DECEMBER 2023 PRODUCTION CREDITS

DECEMBER 2023 PRODUCTION CREDITS

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STOP MOTION

12.2023

JOHN BAILEY, ASC 1942 - 2023 Photo from In the Line of Fire (1993) by Bruce McBroom

Filmmakers of a certain generation were hit especially hard by the news of the November 10 passing of John Bailey, ASC, whose career honors included ASC and Camerimage Lifetime Achievement Awards, as well as the SOC’s Governor’s and President’s Awards. The Missouri native, who was raised in Los Angeles and graduated from the University of Southern California’s film school in 1968, landed squarely in the cross-hairs of a new generation of moviemakers influenced as much by art house features and independent documentaries as the Hollywood system where many spent their careers.

Directors Francis Ford Coppola, George Lucas, and Paul Schrader (for whom Bailey shot five films) and cinematographers Néstor Almendros, ASC, and Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC (both of whom he apprenticed

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with), all held a love for a personalized style of filmmaking Bailey championed throughout his fivedecades-long career. Two-time Oscar winner John Toll, ASC, recalls meeting Bailey in the back of a 10ton camera truck in the early 1970s “while John was downloading a 400-foot Arriflex film magazine. We were both working as 1st AC’s on a TV commercial.

No loaders or seconds, as the 1st AC’s did all the work. As aspiring cinematographers, we immediately connected.” Bailey’s classmate at USC, Oscar-winner Caleb Deschanel, ASC, adds that “John and I agreed on a lot. But I loved it when we disagreed, just so I could listen to John’s passion for some obscure, rarely-seen movie. Sometimes I walked away convinced he was right and sometimes not. But I will always have great affection for John’s love of movies.

He and his talent will be missed terribly.”

Bailey’s departure will also resonate deeply with the many union members he partnered with, as well as co-workers at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), where Bailey served for two years as president. With a résumé that included such Oscar-winning/-nominated hits as Ordinary People, The Big Chill, and The Accidental Tourist, and beloved classics including Groundhog Day, As Good As It Gets, and Racing with the Moon, it’s easy to slot-in Bailey, whom Toll calls an “influential cinematographer as well as an articulate film historian,” with other iconoclasts of his era, all of whom changed Hollywood from the inside. But Bailey’s passing may well have the biggest impact on a generation yet to make its mark – they won’t ever get the chance to benefit from his boundless love for, and knowledge of, moviemaking.

“the lushness of the imagery is exquisite, turning the visual language of a psychosexual thriller into the evocative work of an old master”

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION IN ALL CATEGORIES INCLUDING

BEST PICTURE BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY LINUS SANDGREN, ASC, FSF

AmazonMGMStudiosGuilds.com

FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

IN ALL CATEGORIES INCLUDING

BEST PICTURE

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY ROBERT RICHARDSON, ASC

“The Definition of Carefully Considered, Precisely Told Film-making” Kevin Maher,

“The Ultimate Example of the American Dream” Peter Debruge,

“Superbly Crafted” Brian Truitt,

WRITTEN BY

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