The Cinematography Podcast Episode 339: Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC

Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC was first introduced to director Ryan Coogler through fellow DPs Bradford Young and Rachel Morrison. After their successful collaboration on Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Coogler sent her the script for Sinners, a supernatural horror-action film. The film tells the story of twin brothers who return home in the 1930's to open a juke joint, only to encounter the ancient evil of the undead. Autumn's epic cinematic camerawork on Sinners integrates the vampire story with the spiritual power of Black American rhythm and blues music. 

Though Coogler initially envisioned shooting in 16mm, the team realized a larger format would better facilitate the complex "twinning" effects required for Michael B. Jordan’s dual roles. After rigorous testing, they landed on a historic combination of 70mm and IMAX. “I think one thing with Ryan, when you're standing next to someone that's a brave filmmaker, you feel like you can do anything.” Autumn says. “He's open to anything. He's excited about doing things for the first time. He creates an environment where people have power and the collaboration is at the highest level.”

The production was a logistical marathon. The massive IMAX cameras were frequently rigged to cranes or mounted on Steadicams, all while the crew battled the volatile Mississippi summer. Between the oppressive heat, sudden rain, and thick mud, the physical act of filming became an exercise in endurance. “We've seen those movies like Lawrence of Arabia, and everybody out there with big cameras trying to tell a story with scope,” notes Autumn. “You know, you're in the land. You then become a person that's a part of the structure of the land. And you have to be able to work in it, with the elements to get the most beautiful images. It's not easy.”

Perhaps the film’s greatest technical feat is the juke joint sequence set to the song “I Lied To You.” What appears as a seamless “oner” is actually several complex shots threaded together. The sequence required months of storyboarding, pre-visualization and camera rehearsals in the space to execute. By placing the heavy IMAX rig on a Steadicam, the team rehearsed every beat to ensure the emotional momentum remained unbroken as the camera moved from an interior stage setup to an exterior shot of a burning mill. The final roof collapse was a practical plate shot on the final day of principal photography, later enhanced by VFX.

Seeing that scene still makes Autumn feel emotional. “I get very teary-eyed when I watch that because I'm proud of everybody, and you can really feel the music in the theater.”

See Sinners in select theaters and streaming on HBO Max.

Find Autumn Durald Arkapaw: Instagram @addp

Hear our previous interview with Autumn Durald Arkapaw. https://www.camnoir.com/ep193/

SHOW RUNDOWN:

00:00 Intro

01:38 Autumn Durald Arkapaw interview

52:08 Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 338: Bryan Fuller and Nicole Hirsch Whitaker

Bryan Fuller has one of the most recognizable visual signatures in modern television. Whether he’s dealing with a forensic pathologist who bakes pies (Pushing Daisies) or a sophisticated cannibal (Hannibal), his work consistently balances the grotesque with the gorgeous. His style of hyper-stylized morbid surrealism was influenced by French maximalism in the 90's, such as Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Delicatessen, Amelie). “Between Delicatessen, City of Lost Children, and Amelie, there was this experience I had in the 90's and early aughts watching those films that gave me permission to push harder and go further in aesthetics that were on television,” Bryan explains.

With his latest project, Dust Bunny, Bryan makes the leap from showrunning to feature directing, bringing his unique aesthetic to a dark fantasy-thriller. His decades of experience absorbing highly visual cinema have all led to this moment. “When I look at Dust Bunny, I'm like, that's a Barry Sonnenfeld shot. That's a John Carpenter shot. That's a Spielberg, because I've consumed all of these things and digested them and pooped out Dust Bunny.”

Despite Bryan's self-deprecating description of the creative process, he was extremely meticulous about the filmmaking process. Cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, ASC presented a comprehensive pitch deck that became the roadmap for the film’s visual identity. “After the meeting, presenting her whole board with all of these images... she wanted the job and did a lot of work to show how she wanted the job,” says Bryan.

Nicole, who shares Bryan’s reverence for the same films, dove deep into the script to pull references ranging from The Professional and The Haunting (1963) to the raw, intimate photography of Nan Goldin. “I do think that it's important to make a good impression,” she says. “The deck is an impression of yourself as an artist that you leave behind.”

During the interview, Nicole shares the pitch deck she made for Dust Bunny and discusses it in detail. Watch on YouTube or link to it here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m0i5QVEarDFL248Vqvm3T-8a0watskba/view?usp=sharing

The most radical visual choice in Dust Bunny is its aspect ratio. It's shot in an extreme 3:1 format (three squares wide), which is almost unheard of in modern cinema. This creates a triptych feel, where the frame is so wide it feels like a mural. It forces a sense of vertical claustrophobia, crushing the top and bottom of the frame. The camera emphasizes the floorboards and the space under the bed—precisely where the monster hides.

This discovery occurred while Bryan and Nicole were testing lenses. Once the framing matte came off the lens, revealing the open gate width of the sensor, Bryan realized the wider view fundamentally changed the film's psychology. A subject centered in a 3:1 frame felt isolated in a way they hadn't before, sharpening the camera's emotional point of view. To further isolate the characters, Nicole tuned the ARRI Alpha anamorphic lenses to fall off at the edges, ensuring the audience’s focus remains locked on the performance.

While Dust Bunny was shot over 44 days in Budapest, the film’s visual language was decades in the making. For Nicole, the challenge was translating a legendary showrunner’s mental gallery into a physical reality. For Bryan, it was a homecoming to the cinematic influences that first gave him permission to be “too much.”

See Dust Bunny in theaters.

Find Bryan Fuller: Instagram bryanfullergram

Find Nicole Hirsch Whitaker: Instagram: @nicolewhitaker.dp

SHOW RUNDOWN:

02:23 Close Focus

07:01 Bryan Fuller interview

24:46 Nicole Hirsch Whitaker interview

01:06:23 Short ends

01:13:16 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 337: Eric Lin and Lyle Vincent

Rosemead tells the tragic, true story of Irene (Lucy Liu), a terminally ill single mother, and her son, Joe (Lawrence Shou). As Joe battles schizophrenia and urges toward violence, Irene is left isolated from her Chinese American community in Southern California, facing impossible choices without a safety net.

After decades behind the camera, director Eric Lin connected deeply with the personal nature of Rosemead. He grew up in Southern California and frequently visited the San Gabriel Valley, where the film takes place. Producer Mynette Louie, who he'd know since NYU Film School, sent him the script, and Eric decided to take it on as his first directorial feature. “I've shot a lot of features and I've been side by side with directors, watching how difficult it is to make a feature,” he says. “The thing that sort of lured me into the director's chair was that it's a story that I felt like I'd never seen before on screen.”

Recognizing the film's nuanced demands, Eric knew he didn't want to pull double duty as cinematographer. Instead, he asked Lyle Vincent, another NYU alum with whom he shared a cinematic shorthand. “Knowing what a DP does, especially on a film like this, where I felt like I had to be so present, that would be a fatal mistake,” Eric explains. Lyle appreciated the trust, describing Eric as a director who “is extremely visual and who has amazing visual references and language.”

Together the two shotlisted and discussed each scene emotionally and visually. To capture the film's emotional landscape, Lyle chose a subjective camera style. Handheld camerawork and portrait lenses help mirror Joe’s psychological state and the looming sense of danger. Using E-series anamorphic lenses, he created a shallow depth of field that softened the background, forcing the viewer’s focus onto the characters. This gritty reality contrasts sharply with Joe’s memories of the idyllic time he spent with his parents in a hotel. His flashbacks are rendered in warm tones, evoking a surreal, dreamlike nostalgia.

See Rosemead in theaters.

Find Eric Lin: Instagram @holdtheframe

Find Lyle Vincent: Instagram @lylevincent

SHOW RUNDOWN:

01:38 Close Focus

13:20-01:03:54 Interview

01:04:13 Short ends

01:13:09 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 336: Alice Brooks, ASC

For cinematographer Alice Brooks, ASC, shooting both Wicked and Wicked: For Good concurrently was a huge feat. The giant sets, precise camerawork and complex, live lighting cues for the musical numbers required detailed planning and prep. But first, Alice and her long-time collaborator, director Jon M. Chu, broke down the scripts and discussed the emotional intentions for each scene. “When we first start talking about a movie, we talk about emotion,” says Alice. “I love getting an emotional cue for the camera the same way an actor would. What is the emotional intention in the scene? An actor gets to tell the story through their breath and through their looks and through their being. And I get to tell the story, the emotional story, through camera and lenses and lighting.”

Separation, seclusion and surrender were the emotional themes in Wicked: For Good. “It became very clear that the first movie would live in this ever-present daylight,” explains Alice. “And the second movie would have this weight and complexity and maturity and density to it and live in the shadows.” 90% of Wicked takes place in the daytime, with the sun setting as Elphaba (Cynthia Erivo) embraces her power, sings “Defying Gravity” and flies away. In contrast, Wicked: For Good takes place mostly at night, in the shadows, forest, and underbelly of Oz while Elphaba is in hiding.

Alice chose to frame the characters Glinda and Elphaba in contrasting ways for the story. Now separated from Elphaba, Glinda (Ariana Grande) is central to the world of Oz. Alice kept her center punched, carefully composed and choreographed. Elphaba is framed always to the right or left, with tight close-ups and static hand-held shots, to emphasize her loneliness. When the two are together, Alice repeated the same motifs from the first movie, with Ephaba framed to the right and Glinda to the left, often holding hands.

Though Wicked: For Good is a huge fantasy movie, Alice and the production crew tried to do as much practically and in camera as possible. The “Girl in the Bubble” dance sequence was done entirely with carefully choreographed mirrors and flyaway walls that were removed as Glinda dances. Alice planned it out using her daughter's bath toys and her husband's shaving mirror. The art department storyboarded it, then the special effects team was able to figure out all the mirror technology needed to pull it off. The camerawork had to be very precise, with many of the frames exactly matching the last, combining both a Technocrane and a Steadicam.

Unreal Engine was an indispensable tool for Alice to aid the film's sophisticated lighting and shot design. She used the software to pre-visualize outdoor sets, making sure the sun was at the right angle for perfectly backlighting Glinda in her bubble over Munchkin Land. It also helped her discover where the sun would hit tall buildings and spires of the Emerald City. Unreal assisted with pre-lighting, finding where practical light sources could be integrated and built into interior sets. She even tested different camera lenses to see how they would look in the space under certain lighting conditions and at various angles and heights.

Alice is the cinematographer for the upcoming animated Spiderman: Beyond The Spider-verse as well as an animated version of the Dr. Seuss book, Oh The Places You'll Go with director Jon M. Chu.

See Wicked: For Good in theaters.

Find Alice Brooks: Instagram @_alicebrooks_

SHOW RUNDOWN:

01:22 Close Focus

08:41-51:09 Interview

51:36 Short ends

01:01:40 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 335: Jess Hall

Cinematographer Jess Hall, ASC, BSC reunited with director Matt Shakman to bring the retro-future world of The Fantastic Four: First Steps to life. The two had collaborated on several projects together, such as Marvel's Wandavision. “I have a lot of faith in Matt Shakman,” says Jess. “I went into it with a lot of goodwill behind me. I was very aware that this was one of the original Marvel, it is the first family of Marvel, so I took that responsibility very seriously. I got very well prepared and I made sure that I was making choices that I thought would bring success to the project as well as tell the story that Matt wanted to tell.”

Fantastic Four: First Steps required a higher level of pre-production planning than most, involving intense collaboration with the special effects team and production design. Many complicated sequences were prevised to meticulously establish the intended 1960s aesthetic. Jess achieved this period look through his lighting, camerawork, and lens choices. For the majority of the cinematography, he chose the relatively new Panavision Ultra Panatar II lenses, which coved the IMAX camera and were customized to his specifications. He also used a 16mm camera and Hasselblad lenses for some of the newsreel sequences.

Color was crucial for establishing the 1960s aesthetic, and Jess infused it with a comic book vibrancy. He was inspired by a 1968 Fantastic Four comic book, creating a unified color palette for the LUT that featured blue, green, orange, and pale blue.

Complex lighting setups were essential, incorporating miniatures, bluescreens, blackscreens, and motion capture performances. Jess opted for tungsten lights on Mr. Fantastic's (Pedro Pascal) lab set—a deliberate, retro choice that grounds the technology in the past. He found controlling the light challenging on bluescreen and blackscreen stages, as the lack of background required him to carefully conceive and control the light sources to maintain a sense of photorealistic depth.

The production team prioritized creating as much of the film practically as possible to achieve the photoreal look director Matt Shakman wanted, with characters and scenes enhanced with VFX in post. Both Ben Grimm “The Thing” (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) performed in motion capture suits. Rather than working on a volume stage, blue screens and black screens were used for the space sequences. A miniature scale model of the Fantastic Four's ship helped bring it to life, while a realistic 1960's Times Square set was built for the New York action sequences. For the planet-eater Galactus, Jess had a unique practical concept: treating him like a miniature. An extremely detailed costume was constructed, and Galactus moved through a small-scale set. Jess used specialized lighting and camerawork on his suit to create the illusion of the villain's immense, terrifying size.

Find Jess Hall: Instagram: @metrorat

See The Fantastic Four: First Steps streaming on Disney+

SHOW RUNDOWN:

01:56 Close Focus

13:10-59:54 Interview

01:00:08 Short Ends

01:10:09 Wrap up/Credits

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 334: Jeff Cutter

Cinematographer Jeff Cutter first collaborated with director Dan Trachtenberg on 10 Cloverfield Lane. Their successful partnership continued on the Predator prequel, Prey, which became Hulu's most-watched streaming premiere. Jeff and Trachtenberg found they had a strong bond over their mutual interests, such as films like Die Hard with “muscular” camerawork. As gamers, the two often use cinematic moments and cutscenes from both videogames and movies as visual references during pre-production meetings.

For Predator: Badlands, Tractenberg created a previsualization (previs) of the major sequences. He and Jeff then discussed the overall visual tone and the right approach for the camerawork. A key thought exercise they use is determining how each scene could be shot as a oner, even if the final plan doesn't involve a single-take sequence. Jeff explains, “The exercise just lets us, it really lets you figure out who is the scene about? What is the context and what is the subtext?” He finds that it's a creative way to focus and narrow down the visual choices to make each scene distinct.

Jeff built upon the visual foundation he established for Prey. For that film, he and Trachtenberg wanted to subvert audience expectations of a Predator movie, focusing on a naturalistic approach that relied as much as possible on natural daylight, firelight, and moonlight as the primary sources.

Defining the Predator: Badlands look by color palette:

-The Yautja Planet (Predator Home World): Jeff chose a distinct brown and blue palette accented with warm tones. The look is designed to evoke a sense of harsh but beautiful reality, defined by sandy deserts and stark rock formations.

-The Planet Gena: Shot partly on location in New Zealand, this environment called for a greener, more naturalistic look, with a bluer color for nighttime scenes.

-The Weyland-Yutani Base: This section connects Predator: Badlands to the larger Alien universe, notably through the Weyland-Yutani corporation and its synthetic main character, Thia (played by Elle Fanning). Inspired by the industrial, ominous atmosphere and moody lighting of films like Aliens and Prometheus, Cutter aimed for an industrial look dominated by cyan, blue, and green tones.

See Predator: Badlands in theaters

Find Jeff Cutter: Instagram @jeff_cutter

SHOW RUNDOWN:

01:53 Close Focus

12:01-1:04:42 Interview

01:05:03 Short Ends

01:13:10 Wrap up/Credits (with a little blooper at the end)

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 333: Jeff Cronenweth

Two-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer Jeff Cronenweth, ASC is known for visually defining modern classics like Fight Club and The Social Network. With TRON: ARES, he melded three distinct realities: the digital Grid, the gritty real world, and the retro feel of the grid in the original TRON.

Jeff’s involvement with TRON: ARES began through his long-standing relationship with Jared Leto. After working together on Fight Club, Leto, who stars as Ares and is a producer on the film, personally asked Jeff to meet with director Joachim Rønning. Jeff found that Rønning had established a remarkably clear vision for TRON: ARES from the start by storyboarding every scene. Having a clear plan was crucial, given the complexity of the environments and the technical demands of the shoot, which included a challenging seven weeks of night shooting in downtown Vancouver.

Jeff chose ARRI DNA LF lenses for their character, flare, and artifacting, even for the digital setting, and the film was framed for IMAX. The core challenge for Jeff was using visual language to differentiate the film’s three central environments, drawing inspiration from the franchise's past while exploring something new.

1. The Main Grid: Predictable Perfection

Referencing the "pristine" aesthetic of TRON: Legacy, the new film's main Grid environment is defined by machine code—a world that is predictable and perfect.

Look: Sharp, clean lines, saturated colors, and a highly geometric, mechanical feel.

Color Coding: The classic blue/gray/white color palette is reserved for the good guys, while the presence of the bad guys is immediately signaled by the use of red.

2. The Real World: Embracing the Grit

In TRON: ARES, for the first time, the computer programs emerge into the real world. Reality required a darker, grittier visual separation from the digital realm.

Look: Shooting in Vancouver's downtown allowed reflections in large glass buildings to enhance the environment's texture. Practical locations, like a chase that concluded with lightcycles crashing into bales of recycled paper on a pier, further grounded the action.

3. ENCOM/Mainframe Grid: A Nod to the Original

To connect back to the franchise's roots, the scenes where the character Ares ventures into the original ENCOM grid to find Flynn needed to match the look of the 1982 film.

Reference: The 1982 TRON's grid scenes were shot in black and white and then hand-painted to achieve the glowing effect.

To mimic this analog feel, Jeff intentionally doubled the amount of grain and desaturated the color, creating a look that closely matches the original. 

Light is both a symbol and a weapon in Tron: Ares. To get the look, visual effects, costumes, props and cinematography had to work closely together. LED lights were installed in costumes, props and sets, and practically controlled through a dimmer board. This gave the VFX team a base to build upon. The lightcycles, some of which were built as practical, towable props, had LEDs built in and connected to dimmer boards as well. The lights provided real, interactive reflections on the actors and surrounding environment. Jeff also used light beams on set to simulate a recognizer scanning a high-rise office. The VFX crew could then track and enhance these practical effects in post-production.

Jeff's choices were crucial for the post-production team. “We all knew what the goals were and what the scenes were going to be about,” he says. “It was a wonderful experience because it took all of us to be in harmony all the time.”

See TRON: ARES in theaters

Jeff is currently shooting The Social Reckoning, with director Aaron Sorkin.

Hear our previous interviews with Jeff Cronenweth:

https://www.camnoir.com/ep150/

https://www.camnoir.com/ep72/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 332: Dan Laustsen

For nearly 30 years, cinematographer Dan Laustsen, ASC, DFF and director Guillermo del Toro have produced one of cinema's most visually distinctive collaborations. Sharing a deep affinity for rich colors and dark themes, their partnership has yielded five films characterized by an unmistakable aesthetic.

Del Toro's idea for Frankenstein had been discussed since their work on Crimson Peak in 2015. Finally, del Toro let Dan know he was ready to get to work on Frankenstein. Dan re-read Mary Shelley's original work before reading the screenplay. While the script proved a very faithful adaptation, certain scenes were adjusted to better serve the cinematic format. “Because I think Guillermo is a genius director, when he asked me to do Frankenstein, of course I wanted to do that,” says Dan. “His approach to everything is so fantastic. And to me it's a story of love and forgiveness, it's father and son, it's not a horror at all. For me it's much more beautiful, for me it's really about father-son relationships and forgiveness.”

As with every Guillermo del Toro movie, the color palette for Frankenstein was extremely important. Red, steel blue, cyan and amber dominate the film, but the beginning features creamy white and warm, romantic colors to represent the creature's innocence and the initial bond between Frankenstein and his creation. Crucially, these colors were not altered in post-production. Dan explains, “When we are coming into the D.I. (digital intermediate) of course, we are cleaning it up, but the color palette is exactly the same.” Changing the colors post-shoot would ruin the integrity of the design. “The whole color palette of the movie, the lights, the costumes, the hair and makeup, and the set design is so specific, that if we change anything in post, in the D.I., the whole color palette will change. So we never do that.”

Del Toro also enjoys using timeless filmmaking techniques, preferring to use practical effects and capture as much as possible in-camera. Nearly all the sets were meticulously built in Toronto, minimizing the need for bluescreen. Exterior scenes were shot on location in Scotland, and the iced-in ship in the Arctic was a massive set mounted on a gimbal to allow for authentic motion. Dan and a specialized crew even shot all the castle exteriors in miniature, featuring practical explosions done on the small set.

The Frankenstein sets were designed so that all lighting could be built in, either with practical fixtures or with external lights placed specifically through set windows. For the castle dungeon, Dan and his gaffer had to design a special rig to effectively simulate skylights shining from above.

Dan kept the camera movement fluid and floating, shooting the entire film on very wide-angle lenses. “Our idea was to shoot a period movie, but shoot it very modern. The camera is a part of the storytelling,” he notes. The camera becomes the third dimension to the storytelling, lending it the ability to be part of the action rather than a stationary, distant observer. Every shot was specifically designed and executed with a crane, a hothead, or a Steadicam, using just one camera. The wide lenses captured the entire set, which was critical to Dan. “Because the set is so beautiful, and the costumes are amazing. Everything is very organic, and we really like to see that as much as we could. And to move the camera again is storytelling in a dramatic way.”

Through his enduring partnership with del Toro, Dan has framed Frankenstein and his Creature's story not in shadow, but in the unforgettable light of forgiveness. “Love and forgiveness are very strong things in the movie and the world,” he says. “For me, it's not a horror movie at all, it's a love story.”

See Frankenstein now streaming on Netflix.

Find Dan Laustsen: Instagram @dan.laustsen

Hear our previous interviews with Dan Laustsen: https://www.camnoir.com/ep152/

https://www.camnoir.com/ep36/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 331: Tobias Datum

Murderbot is the story of a security unit, part-human and part-machine, that has hacked its governing module to act in its own free will: mainly to be left alone to watch TV shows. Cinematographer Tobias Datum views the Apple TV+ series as a visual exploration of a synthetic being's journey toward humanity and self-discovery.

Tobias worked closely with show creator and director Paul Weitz, continuing a collaboration that spans over ten years with Paul and his brother, Chris Weitz. The production team included production designer Susan Chan, VFX supervisor Sean Falden, and colorist Tim Vincent. As a cohesive group that had worked together before, they were instrumental in establishing the show's distinctive visual identity.

Working with the team, Tobias set the visual tone during pre-production to ensure a smooth, consistent flow throughout the shoot. He faced the challenge of lighting and shooting a cohesive environment that spanned multiple, drastically different settings. Murderbot takes place on an alien planet, on space ships and space stations, and in Murderbot's own head as it watches its favorite galactic soap opera, Sanctuary Moon.

For the alien planet, the goal was to ground the setting in a believable, "earthly reality" where human life could exist, all while adhering to the production's budget and schedule. A volume stage was extensively used for scenes shot inside the ships, space stations, and for the stylized Sanctuary Moon segments. Exterior planet scenes were shot on location at a sand quarry pit in Ontario, Canada. A large, two-story exterior set for the habitat was constructed there, while the habitat's interiors were built on a separate soundstage.

The diverse settings of Murderbot presented unique lighting issues. Fortunately, the design of the planet was grounded in reality, so Tobias lit for a desert planet with minimal vegetation. He used a translight as a backdrop and integrated practical lighting directly into the sets. The main habitat, designed as a translucent bubble with many windows, required careful management of its natural glow. Tobias used negative fill to strategically tone down the intensity. Dr. Mensa, the human leader of the group, acts as an anchor for the story's emotional stakes. To maintain narrative focus, Tobias consistently lit and framed her with clarity, regardless of her position relative to the other characters. At first, he was concerned that lighting the Murderbot character would be problematic, especially when it wears its highly reflective helmet. “Murderbot’s a mirror ball, you know,” he explains. “So that meant lighting is going to be visible, and you don’t want every shot to be a VFX shot. Once I saw the very first stage of that suit, I was like, ugh. But then when we started doing tests, it’s kind of forgiving. I don’t think we had a lot of equipment removal from Murderbot’s helmet.”

Tobias's journey began at film school in Berlin before he was accepted into AFI as a graduate student. There, he began building his portfolio while working on his colleagues' films. He credits a strong work ethic—constantly taking jobs and learning through experience—with his success as a director of photography. He reflects on his career with gratitude. “It’s a great privilege and we’re getting paid for this stuff. It’s like every time I walk on a set, I’m just like, am I lucky. This is a great way to make a living.”

See Murderbot on AppleTV.

Find Tobias Datum: https://tobiasdatum.me/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

Facebook: @cinepod

Instagram: @thecinepod

Blue Sky: @thecinepod.bsky.social

The Cinematography Podcast Episode 330: Pål Ulvik Rokseth

Pål Ulvik Rokseth, the Norwegian cinematographer behind director Paul Greengrass's gripping drama The Lost Bus, faced a singular challenge: how to transform one of the deadliest wildfires in California history into a visceral, cinematic character. The film dramatizes the true story of bus driver Kevin McKay and schoolteacher Mary Ludwig. The two heroically navigated 22 schoolchildren to safety during the devastating 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise, California.

The partnership between Pål and Greengrass began on another harrowing true-life drama, 22 July, about a deadly terror attack on a summer camp in Norway. Greengrass asked Pål if he'd be interested in working in the United States on The Lost Bus. Just a few weeks later, Pål was prepping in New Mexico, eager to tackle the director's signature action-packed, docu-style storytelling.

Pål's vision was to give the fire a palpable presence. "Paul wanted this fire to be a character," he explains. "It has its own cinematic tool as a character that evolves through the story and then gets closer to our characters." The cinematographer expertly captured the increasingly darkening skies, the ominous amber light, and the raw terror as the fire's destructive force grew. To achieve this visceral power, Pål worked closely with visual effects supervisor Charlie Noble, melding the practical and digital inferno into something that felt immediate and real.

When he first read the script, Pål was uncertain how they were going to shoot the story on a bus with 22 kids surrounded by fire. His solution was an artful manipulation of natural and artificial light. To depict the moment the smoke enveloped the town, the crew shot exterior scenes at dusk, cleverly capturing a darkness that felt both realistic and unsettling.

Real wildfires produce a distinct, saturated amber and reddish light. Pål reproduced this effect using 5k tungsten Skypans to illuminate the environment. The crew didn't shy away from practical effects either, using piped-in propane gas and smoke machines to simulate the omnipresent threat of the blaze. They built controllable, flammable sections of buildings, like the school set, and even an on-set "forest" that could be intentionally lit to capture the immediate impact of the fire. The entire set—including the re-created hills and forest—was constructed on a backlot in New Mexico, with only a few exterior scenes shot near Santa Fe in Ruidoso, where the natural mountains and trees provided authentic backdrops for the bus's journey. Adding to the realism, actor Matthew McConaughey often personally drove the bus when a stunt driver wasn't required.

Pål's preparation initially included plans to use a volume stage to generate realistic fire backgrounds, but Greengrass quickly decided he preferred the grounded look of shooting on the backlot. This forced a pivot. While they abandoned the volume stage, Pål did shoot certain sequences on a stage with the bus mounted on a gimbal against a bluescreen for fire visual effects.

Greengrass always prefers a realistic, documentary style, and most of the cinematography was handheld. Pål himself often operated one of the cameras, choosing the ARRI Alexa 35 paired with Canon Super 16 lenses. This combination was selected specifically for its ability to capture the complex depth and color palette of fire.

For Pål, shooting documentary style is both the biggest challenge and the best reward. He enjoys being able to pre-light and shotlist, but he had to embrace the non-precision of Greengrass's style. "I tend to like to be on a dolly and frame up and light it, and it's very comfortable," he notes. "But with this way of doing it, you have to just follow the characters in their environment and then suddenly you find yourself being in this close-up, and it looks beautiful. I think it's very liberating to tell the story with the camera dynamically."

Find Pal Rokseth: https://www.xo.film/dop/pal_ulvik_rokseth_fnf

Instagram: @palulvikrokseth

See The Lost Bus on AppleTV.

Hear our previous interview with director Ron Howard and DP Lincoln Else. Their documentary, Rebuilding Paradise is about the town of Paradise rebuilding after the Camp Fire. https://www.camnoir.com/ep86/

The Cinematography Podcast website: www.camnoir.com

YouTube: @TheCinematographyPodcast

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