DP David Herrington brings dark realism to Netflix's "Frontier"

DP David Herrington brings dark realism to Netflix's "Frontier"

Neil Matsumoto

 

Frontier is a Canadian historical drama that chronicles the North American fur trade in the late 1700s. The six-part series, which stars Jason Momoa, Alun Armstrong, Allan Hawco, Landon Liboiron, Zoe Boyle and Jessica Matten, is the Discovery Channel’s first original scripted production and was acquired by Netflix for international distribution.

Filmed in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Cornwall, England, Frontier was shot by cinematographer David Herrington (Republic of Doyle, Warehouse 13) in 4K with Panasonic VariCam 35 cameras. [Herrington had previously shot Republic of Doyle for the CBC Network.] According to the DP, one of the biggest challenges in shooting the gritty-looking series was capturing the time period without having lived in it. “It was a brutal time because there was such an extreme divide between power and poverty,” says Herrington. “The scripts were brutally honest and that was what we were trying to maintain without getting too graphic.”

"Frontier" is a Canadian-American historical drama television series co-created by Brad Peyton, Rob Blackie, and Peter Blackie, chronicling the North American fur trade of the 1700s. (Photo courtesy Netflix)

To develop Frontier’s look, Herrington researched historical paintings by Caravaggio, Constable and Turner, as well as watched movies set roughly in the same time period, including director Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner (2014) and John Schlesinger’s Far from the Madding Crowd (1967). Being a fan of cinematographer Dante Spinotti, ASC, AIC’s lighting, he also viewed Michael Mann’s 1992 epic adventure, The Last of the Mohicans.

True 4K Shooting

Before selecting a camera, the production was told by both Netflix and Discovery Network that they would need to shoot with a true 4K camera system. Clairmont Camera’s Deny Clairmont suggested Herrington meet up with cinematographer Theo Van De Sande, ASC, who just shot a pilot with the VariCam 35. “I met with Theo and I saw some of his footage,” says Herrington. “I then shot my own tests with some candles and individuals to see how I could capture closely represented skin tones. I also wanted to see whether the candles themselves would bloom so I wouldn’t see any detail around the corona of the candle itself. This always disturbs me when I see that on television. Having set up those tests and viewing them, I thought, ‘Oh, this camera is stunning.’”

Filmed in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Cornwall, England, "Frontier" was shot by DP David Herrington in 4K with VariCam 35 cameras. (Photo credit: Duncan De Young)

Herrington shot mainly with Cooke S4 primes and did not apply filtration unless he was shooting day exteriors, applying either a .6, 1.2, or 1.8 ND filter. “I love the lenses,” he says of the Cookes. “They’re nice and sharp and they don’t give you as many flares when you are shooting wide-open.”

The show was captured in UHD (3840 x 2160) in AVC Intra 422 at 23.98-fps in the 2:1 aspect ratio. According to Herrington, because they were shooting the majority of the show handheld, they decided not to shoot in RAW because the Codex V-RAW recorder would have added a little extra length and weight. The only time Herrington was not shooting handheld were scenes in which they were shooting people in power. “For Lord Benton, who plays the leader of the Hudson Bay company, we had the camera mounted on a dolly just to stabilize and make it the seat of power,” he explains.

Michael Smyth (Landon Liboiron) and Declan Harp (Jason Momoa).​ ​(Photo credit: Duncan de Young)

Lighting Darker

For the first two episodes, Herrington discussed the look with director Brad Peyton, who wanted a look and style that was gritty and dark. “I started lighting a lot darker than I had ever lit before,” explains Herrington. “You always want to maintain some depth in there – some reference or part of the frame that you can still see. The VariCam’s chip still showed me that, even when I was underexposing by 3- or 4-stops.”

Since there was no gas lighting at the time, Herrington had to make his interiors look as if they were entirely lit by candle. “We were also trying to discern between wealthy people, who had enough money to buy lots of candles and have big windows because they could afford the heat, with people who couldn’t afford that so their windows would have been smaller, making the rooms darker and more subdued. It had to look as though there were two different environments.”

According to DP David Herrington, since there was no gas lighting at the time, he had to make his interiors look as if they were entirely lit by candle. (Photo credit: Duncan De Young)

Most of Frontier was shot in the winter and Herrington wanted to show the cold with icy breath in the air. For night exteriors, Herrington lit many of the scenes using firelight (candles and torches) and used a minimal amount of light on trees lit from condors. “I was lighting by eye generally,” he says, “and I didn’t want a ‘Hollywood’ effect of rim-lighting everything with huge moonlight.”

In terms of his ISO settings, Herrington would be set at native 800 ISO and would occasionally dial his gain up to 1,200. He would also use the camera’s native 5,000 ISO setting and dial down to 1,600. He would try and shoot at a 2.8 but when shooting on a long lens following an actor, he would give his AC a higher ISO rating so he could get a 4 or 5.6 stop, which allowed his AC easier focus pulls while still lighting minimally. “My B-camera guys were just in love with this camera,” says Herrington. “Sometimes I would be shooting at a 2.8 or a 4 inside a bar, which was one of our main sets and it was dark. There is so much latitude on the chip itself, I just loved having the darker feel – rather than over lighting and bringing it down in post.”

With his light meter at hand, DP Herrington worked at low light levels on the “Frontier” set. (Photo credit: Duncan De Young)

Frontier was posted at Technicolor in Toronto. According to Herrington, some scenes were “a little bright” so he took them down using power windows. During shooting, he generally put his skies at around 75% on his vector scale so he would still have highlight detail in post. “Instead of doing a lot of flagging on a lot of areas, I just left it open so we can put a vignette or some sort of grad in the frame,” he explains. “It was very similar to what they did on The Revenant.

“It’s really about the performance and writing more than anything else,” concludes Herrington. “My goal was to make sure that the set was the best it could be in terms of showcasing the actors and actresses’ best performances so we tried to keep a quiet set. Their performances show that.”

For more information on David Herrington’s work, please visit http://www.davidherringtondp.com/.

To watch Frontier, visit www.netflix.com. (You must have a Netflix subscription to view episodes.)

Here's the official trailer for Frontier...

Here’s a behind the scenes video put together by Discovery Canada’s Daily Planet. (Cool footage of the VariCam 35 at around the 3:08 mark.)

Capturing Crazy Rich Asians with the VariCam Pure

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Capturing Crazy Rich Asians with the VariCam Pure

5 minutes Neil Matsumoto

Crazy Rich Asians is a romantic comedy-drama film, which is based on the best-selling novel by Kevin Kwan, and tells the story of an Asian American woman who meets her boyfriend's family, only to find out they are one of the richest families in Singapore. The Warner Bros film was directed by Jon M. Chu (Now You See Me 2, G.I. Joe: Retaliation) and features an all Asian cast, including Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Ken Jeong, Michelle Yeoh, and many others. It is the first Hollywood studio film to feature Asians in leading roles since director Wayne Wang’s 1993 film, The Joy Luck Club.

The film was shot by cinematographer Vanja Černjul, ASC, HFC (The Perfection, The Deuce, Marco Polo) with VariCam Pure cinema cameras. Černjul discovered cinematography at film school at the University of Zagreb, Croatia. After graduation, he became a cameraman for international news outlets like the BBC, CNN, and NBC during the conflict in ex-Yugoslavia. “There was no internet available to us in 1991, so we had to distribute all the footage from the location to the networks via a satellite link, which was very expensive,” explains Černjul. “There was also a great time pressure because it didn’t matter how amazing your footage was if it wasn’t delivered before deadline. That taught me a lot about in-camera editing and shooting under various conditions, always utilizing available light.”

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It was Černjul’s experience working in South East Asia where he had shot two seasons of the Netflix series Marco Polo that played a role in getting Crazy Rich Asians. During the Marco Polo shoot, he met producer Tim Coddington who got involved with Crazy Rich Asians right after production wrapped. “I fell in love with that part of the world and was looking forward to going back,” says Černjul. “Tim connected me with director Jon Chu,” explains Černjul, “and I loved Jon’s approach to the story. Jon was very passionate about the project and told me he wanted Crazy Rich Asians to be the most beautiful film he ever made. He is a visual director and I was excited by the challenge. It turned out to be one of those rare experiences that were both pleasant and fun to shoot and turned to be a successful film of cultural importance that exceeded everything we hoped for. It was not easy to make, but the camaraderie and good vibes inside our very international crew made it enjoyable.”

According to Černjul, it was essential to capture and heighten the beauty of the locations. “I knew from my previous experience that the weather in that part of Asia dramatically changes throughout the day, especially during the monsoon season,” he explains. “We ended up with 38 locations in 42 shooting days and we had to move around quickly with a large cast, who had to look their best and were dressed in amazing costumes all the time. You can imagine that the heat, humidity, and daily storms weren’t going to be helpful. Luckily, our production designer extraordinaire, Nelson Coates, found ways to protect us from rain as much as possible.”

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Chu collaborated with Černjul, as well as production and costume design, to create a visual portfolio for all the departments with specific guidelines how each part of the story should look and feel. “The color palette for New York had to be contrasted with the tropical megacity of Singapore,” reveals Černjul. “Within Singapore, there were different cultural and socio-economic environments that also needed visual distinction. I am very happy how coordinated we all were despite a very short prep. We looked at a lot of classic Hollywood romantic comedies from the genre’s heyday, specifically because we didn’t want Crazy Rich Asians to look anything like that. We wanted a timeless cinematic look for the film.”

Černjul discovered the VariCam a year before starting on Crazy Rich Asians while working on the HBO series The Deuce, which he shot with VariCam 35s. On The Deuce, Černjul was impressed with the VariCam’s performance on high ISO settings which were going to help him for the series’ low-light shooting style. “After that experience, I knew VariCam was the right tool for the challenges of Crazy Rich Asians because of its versatility and robustness, especially with the Codex VRAW2 recorder for VariCam Pure,” says Černjul. “The option of capturing the film in 4K VRAW on a sensor I trusted and knew well made this choice a no brainer.”

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Černjul captured uncompressed VRAW 4K files in anamorphic that was de-squeezed to 2:39:1 aspect ratio. He worked with his longtime collaborator D.I.T. Matt Selkirk and following advice from colleague Dado Valentic, they decided early in the preproduction to work in the ACES color space. Selkirk created a bulletproof ACES LUT that they used for the entire film. “Matt’s partner from Frame Logic Digital, Nick Kay, had some fresh experience with ACES and VariCam, and his input was very valuable since we had very little time to figure things out,” explains Černjul. “Once we had the LUT, we tested it under different ISO settings and decided that the range between 800 ISO (from 800 Base) and 2500 ISO (from 5000 base) was right for the look we were going for. I felt comfortable mixing different ISO settings from within that range even inside a single scene. It was liberating not being held hostage by light levels from practical sources.”

Working with the Pure’s VRAW flexibility, Černjul wanted to capture widescreen cinematic images and having an anamorphic feel was important. “We didn’t want to crop the image and lose the resolution, which we would have to do if we went with full 2:1 anamorphic lenses,” explains Černjul. “The only choice left was the Hawk 1.3x Anamorphic lenses. Fortunately, I had a lot of experience with those lenses and I was very comfortable working with them.”

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The film’s finale was shot in Singapore’s Gardens by the Bay, which according to Černjul, is an amazing landmark and was a privilege to work in. The entire cast was in the scene, as well as hundreds of extras in black tie and heels. Since it was a major tourist destination and pride of the city, the production was only allowed a limited amount of time to shoot at the location. For Černjul, it was important that Chu and the actors had maximum freedom to move around. They also wanted to see as much of the environment and the city behind it, so the light levels had to be low and fine-tuned – both in intensity and color.

“Our great gaffer Julian White and his best boy, Nico Kalimerakis, came up with a great solution,” says Černjul. “They mounted 12 moving lights on the catwalks between the Super Trees (iconic tree-like vertical gardens, measuring between 25 and 50 meters tall) all fully controllable via an interface on Julian’s iPad. The whole scene was shot with a combination of existing light coming from the environment and the pre-rigged moving lights. We would still be shooting that scene if they didn’t come up with this great idea. I never used moving light before, but now they are a standard part of my package.”

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The film was graded at Company 3 by colorist Stephen Nakamura. During principal photography Černjul lit the film with the ACES LUT and Selkirk applied CDL corrections to every shot. This made their color grading sessions more efficient and gave Nakamura more time to work on creative color decisions rather than fixing inconsistent looks.

Overall, Černjul was very pleased with the way Crazy Rich Asians turned out. “Besides being an important milestone on the road towards more equal representation in Hollywood, the film was received overwhelmingly positive by both audience and critics so far,” he says. “I am happy I had a chance to be a part of what is being described as not only a film, but a movement.”

Shooting By Moonlight With The VariCam 35

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Shooting By Moonlight With The VariCam 35

4 minutes Neil Matsumoto

Premiering at the 2017 Austin Film Festival where it won Best Narrative Short, Demon tells the story of a desperate man emerging from the night where he encounters a solitary shack in the middle of the desert. It is in this night setting where he discovers a dark secret that the property owner possesses on his property. The supernatural drama/thriller, directed by Caleb Slain, was shot by cinematographer Drew Dawson with the VariCam 35 camera just outside Joshua Tree National Park.

The Demon script had the setting as a desert landscape with a full moon. According to Dawson, the goal was to capture the entire film with moonlight, practicals, and minimal film lights. One of Slain and Dawson’s biggest influences for the look of Demon was the Dogme 95 filmmaking movement from the ‘90s. Created by Danish filmmakers Lars von Trier and Thomas Vinterberg, Dogme 95 was a collective where filmmakers would take a "vow of chastity" by rejecting visual effects, post modifications, or technical gimmicks. Dawson found a happy medium between Dogme 95 while still using professional production tools. “Every choice in the cinematography needs to adhere to the story and the characters,” explains Dawson. “It was a great experience for me because I learned so much about story and working with actors. I think it was just a working style that we knew was adhering well to the way we wanted to tell a story. It was just reverse engineering everything to approach a project.”

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Along with Dogme 95, another big influence for the look came from Pablo Picasso’s Blue Period. In the color grade, colorist Chad Terpstra added some green to the moonlight which was captured at 4250K in camera. According to Dawson, by shifting the moonlight to be a little greener gave them the feel as if there was a kind of sickness out there in the desert.

Dawson and Slain tested many cameras, including the Sony A7S and A7SII, before selecting the VariCam 35, which they rented out of Panavision Hollywood. During prep, Dawson did a bracketed exposure test at different ISOs to see how far he could push the image. He also took the camera out to Joshua Tree to shoot a moonlight test. “I sent the footage to Chad and he took our 12-bit 444 V-Log files and graded them in Da Vinci Resolve and sent me ProRes HQ files back,” explains Dawson. “I screened the footage on my D.I.T.’s cart and was able to figure out what settings yielded the best image, including the signal-to-noise ratio, grain structure, where was the color landing, and how Chad could massage it,” reveals Dawson. “We decided not to go with native 5000 ISO, but instead setting the camera to 5000 base and dialing down to 3200. We found that was the sweet spot for our lighting environment. Chad de-noised a little bit, but only the chroma, not the luma noise. The result is a more textured image while removing some of the dancing color snow. We left a little of that texture because we wanted to embrace a rougher image – more gritty. It was very much like film grain structure in the end, which Caleb and I both like. The VariCam can really handle these extreme lighting situations, so Chad had a good digital negative to work from.”

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For the shoot, Dawson captured AVC Intra 4K DCI (4096x2160) in 23.98 and finished the film in the 2:1 aspect ratio. “I had been playing with the idea in creating a viewing LUT,” explains Dawson, “and I was using the low-contrast curve at first, but a lot of time, I was monitoring in V-LOG because of the extreme nature of the exposure. I wanted to make sure we weren’t clipping the flames and bright headlights, but also getting enough exposure in the tow for all the shadows of the scene. After a couple of set-ups, I viewed V-LOG for the rest of the shoot. That way I could monitor the waveform and know that we had a healthy digital negative to work from later.”

For lenses, Dawson used Panavision Ultra Speed Z T1.3 lenses. He typically set the T-stop one line closed to wide open to try and pull out chromatic aberrations and some of the softness rather than shooting fully wide open. “They’re an interesting set because the Ultra Speed Z’s were the only collaboration between Zeiss and Panavision,” explains Dawson. “They were made in the ‘80s and they have some characteristics of Zeiss lenses, but also characteristics of Panavision so they’re a really interesting hybrid.”

For lighting the interior of the cabin, Dawson wanted to motivate light from above so wherever the camera was, he would retain some detail on faces. He used a single LITEGEAR LiteMat1 with ¼ CTS wrapped in bleached muslin with a lighting control grid, as well as two LITEGEAR LiteStix in the ceiling. “LiteStix are these single pixel enclosures of Lite Ribbon. I had two six inch bi-color sticks, and a one foot bi-color stick,” says Dawson. “We dialed them down to almost the lowest input they could give us.”

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For an ambitious Steadicam shot where the character walks out of the cabin and into the desert night exterior towards a truck, Dawson lit the entire sequence with a six-inch LiteStick that he placed in the interior of the truck’s dome light, as well as practical light coming from a handheld lantern, fire pit, headlights and the moon. “We could have simply turned the dome light on,” reveals Dawson, “but I decided since we had an extra stick, why not use it? The beautiful thing about LiteStix is that they’re so small. It’s hard to notice, but that stick is in the shot. When the car drives away, it reveals the great desert expanse. We were able to shoot a deep night time desert scene with a great amount of detail. These are images that we’ve never seen before in a movie.”

Demon was finished in 2.8K so they could do post zooms and re-frames. For Slain, if he saw something special in a performance, but maybe the camera was too wide, they were able to push in 10 or 15% to get the exact framing he wanted.

 

Drew Dawson

“The main attribute that I love about VariCam is the richness of the color and the ability to grade the image,” concludes Dawson. “The camera has a really unique sensor, and for me, that opens up creative avenues. For this project, it was the only camera that I could shoot and light with.”

Dawson is a 2018 ICG ECA Award Honoree and will be screening Demon at the ECA Awards on September 30, 2018, at the Directors Guild of America Theater, with additional screenings in New York (10/28), Atlanta and Chicago (11/4), as well as Cameraimage (date TBD).

For more information on VariCam 35, click through here.