THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH•TOMMY MADDOX-UPSHAW ASC
STARMAN
Images: Aimee Spinks/Showtime. Copyright 2021 Showtime Networks Inc. All rights reserved.
Maddox-Upshaw says that, for a good while now, the Sony Venice camera has been his weaponof-choice, as he prefers its colour separation,
By Ron Prince
T
he task of bringing earthly gravitas to a space oddity – using alternative, world-building looks to clearly signal narrative separations, intersections and beats across the story arc – was something that American DP, Tommy Maddox-Upshaw ASC, threw himself into wholeheartedly, when it came to considering the visual aesthetics for Paramount+’s The Man Who Fell To Earth series, created by Alex Kurtzman and Jenny Lumet. Not to mention a little bit of cult history in the mix too. “I had worked on succeeding seasons of big TV shows before, building on what others had created previously, but The Man Who Fell To Earth was my first real shot at world-building from scratch,” says Maddox-Upshaw, whose high-end TV credits include, Fox’s Empire S6, Netflix’s On My Block S2, and Snowfall S3/S4 for which he was honoured with an ASC Outstanding Achievement Award. “With this show, I was given the time and the space to develop the different scenarios in the storytelling, with the aim of delivering something engagingly different.” The ten-part The Man Who Fell To Earth series is a continuation of the story from the 1963 sci-fi novel by Walter Tevis and Nicolas Roeg’s iconic 1976 film starring David Bowie, about an extra-terrestrial who lands on Earth seeking a way to save the people on his home planet, which is suffering from severe drought, only to find himself at the mercy of human vices and corruption. The 2022 TV series takes up the action some 45 years later, as another alien (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who goes by the name of Faraday, crashes into the oilfields of New Mexico. He is on a mission to find the brilliant, but shunned, cold-fusion scientist, Justin Falls (Naomie Harris), the one woman on Earth who can help save his species, and possibly the human race too. Whilst Faraday struggles to adapt to his earthly surroundings, and Justin’s faith in humanity couldn’t be lower, the CIA and a family of eager entrepreneurs are in hot pursuit of the visitor from outer space. Maddox-Upshaw reveals that he was engaged on the project after having been initially interviewed, and then subsequently passed-over, by Kurtzman to shoot Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (DPs Magdalena Górka/Glen Keenan). However, a few months later Kurzman reconnected with Maddox30 MAY 2022 CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD
Upshaw, with the request that he read the first three screenplays for the impending series. “I read those scripts and, oh my gosh, the writing was phenomenal,” recounts the DP. “Alex and I met again, when I made a presentation and we had constructive, in-depth discussions about the project. He then sent me the remaining scripts, which I ripped through. “Things went quiet for a while, until Alex asked me to get ready to fly to the UK and Spain for the shoot. I began prep in October 2020, and Alex and I spoke about the shoot in detail every week via Zoom, due to the pandemic, over the course of five months. We met physically for the first time in London when we had boots-on-the-ground ready to start shooting in March 2021.” As for the vision of the show, and worldbuilding in particular, Maddox-Upshaw says, “We talked about this ethereal being, Faraday, and his relationship with the Falls family, versus the people tailing him, the CIA and the Hatch family of tech entrepreneurs. “We considered how we could depict and counterpoint a grounded intimacy on the one hand, and juxtapose that against the idea of institutions and others chasing this wanted person on the other – all while giving the audience visual clues to easily understand the crossover between different narratives in the often non-linear storytelling, and the emotions and empowerment in different scenes.” In terms of the visual language, the surreal imagery of New Mexico landscapes in Roeg’s 1976 movie, shot by cinematographer Anthony Richmond BSC ASC, were a good, historical starting point. “I have known Tony and his family for many years, and love what he did on that iconic movie,” says Maddox-Upshaw, “but I wanted to push what he had achieved even further in terms of shooting a drama in a sci-fi space, the extreme nature of the storyline and our central characters.” Other references included Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland (2020, DP Joshua James Richards) for its use of Steadicam and handheld in grounding the narrative in New Mexico, plus No Country For Old
TOMMY MADDOX-UPSHAW ASC•THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH
Men (2007, DP Sir Roger Deakins CBE BSC ASC) to inspire the colour of the desert scenes. Additionally, The Game (1997, dir. David Fincher, DP Harris Savides ASC) and Michael Clayton (2007, dir. Tony Gilroy, DP Robert Elswit ASC) both proved insightful for their widescreen Anamorphic framing and use of different palettes to relay the narrative. Setting out on his quest to define the worldbuilding looks for the show, Maddox-Upshaw worked with Panavision optical gurus Dan Sasaki and Guy McVicar on his lens choices. To convey the intimacy and rapport between Faraday and the Falls family, he selected large-format Varial spherical lenses, which offer close-focus capabilities, and had them adjusted to yield warmth in colour, plus texture via what the DP describes as “bleeding flares”. He also opted for a Laowa 24mm f/14 2X Macro Probe for extreme close-ups on eyes and ears to illustrate Faradays observation and adjustment to the world, as if he were an inquisitive child.
rendition of skin tones, and abilities to deliver colour integrity in over- and under-exposed areas of the image, as compared to alternative digital capture devices. The show was shot at 6K in 16-bit X-OCN XT (extended tonal range Original Camera Negative) to deliver high-quality imagery overall and especially for the visual effects work in the show, as each episode features around 300 VFX composite shots. “Celebrating the broad diversity of brown, as well as white, skin tones was very important to me in this
production,” he says. “For example, Faraday, Justin and Justin’s father all have different complexions and shades of brown skin, and the Sony Venice does such a great job of representing that colour separation – at both ends of the exposure spectrum – whether it’s a dark or bright scene.” Production on The Man Who Fell To Earth took place between March and November 2021. Locations around London and nearby countryside doubled for the show’s Seattle and Langley, Virginia, settings, whilst a quarry outside the city stood-in for New Mexico. Interiors were shot in a large warehouse, since bulldozed, near Wembley, North London, with the season finale shoot incorporating The Royal Albert Hall. The New Mexico exteriors were shot in Almería, Spain. Maddox-Upshaw framed for a widescreen 2.40:1 extraction, to bring a sense of the epic, make the most of the landscapes, and provide storytelling opportunities with single and multiple characters in the frame. Most scenes involved two-cameras, with Andrei Austin operating
A-camera/Steadicam assisted by Rene Adefarasin on focus, and George Grieve on B-camera supported by Joanne Smith. Maddox-Upshaw oversaw the cinematography on the first four episodes, plus half of episode 10. The other DPs were Adam Gillham, who shot episodes 5, 6 and 9 and the other half of episode 10, with Balazs Bolygo BSC HSC shooting episodes 7 and 8. The gaffer was Wayne Shields. “The different lenses, LUTs and ways of moving the camera, all combined to create the foundational building blocks of the visual story arc right across the show, which Adam and Balasz easily picked-up and absolutely rocked,” he remarks. “We went spherical, more close-up, warm and intimate for Faraday and the Falls, and shot Anamorphic and more clinical and cooler when we see Hatch and the CIA. “Of course, things got more complicated when the storylines entwined and the characters interacted in the same space. When there was a scene involving with both sets of characters, but the scene was empowered by the Hatch’s or the CIA, we shot Anamorphic using a LUT somewhere between the two set looks. When Faraday and Justin have the emotional upper-hand, we would capture them in spherical with a warmer-looking LUT.” The final DI was graded jointly by colourists Pankaj Bajpai and Sam Chynoweth in London. Maddox-Upshaw participated remotely from his home in LA, using a calibrated iPad in a room fitted with black-out curtains. The work mainly revolved around finessing the colour of the different storylines, as well as integrating the final VFX shots, overseen by VFX supervisor Simon Carr. “I loved the challenge that Alex set for this show,” remarks Maddox-Upshaw. “He works fast, and I stayed close to him so that we could communicate clearly and respond quickly to make adjustments. He has a positive creative energy that made things fun, and we developed a great relationship that has endured way beyond the production. We talk and text most weeks and share thoughts about movies that we have seen.”
Celebrating the broad diversity of brown, as well as white, skin tones was very important to me By way of contrast for scenes involving the CIA and the Hatch family, Maddox-Upshaw selected Panavision G-series Anamorphics, which were also slightly tweaked to deliver comparatively colder, sharper, more clinical and institutionalised-looking imagery. The different looks from the two groups of lenses optics were compounded with a small set of LUTs, developed his regular colourist, Pankaj Bajpai at Technicolor (now Picture Shop, a Streamland Media company). CINEMATOGRAPHY WORLD MAY 2022 31
