For Ozark, Kutchins became involved because he had previously shot a film together with actor Jason Bateman, who has directed several episodes of the series. “He’s an incredibly intelligent filmmaker,” reveals Kutchins. “His ability to have a relationship with the camera was something that I haven’t seen from a whole lot of actors. When Ozark came up, we jumped at the opportunity to work together again.”

Ozark is shot in Atlanta, GA. In developing the look of the series, Kutchins worked with Bateman and cinematographer Pepe Avila del Pino, who shot the first two episodes of season one. “Traditionally, a DP will come in and shoot the pilot and then someone else will come in and replicate that look for the series,” says Kutchins. “This was a unique situation in that I was invited to be a part of the process of developing the look. It was me, Jason, and Pepe talking about the show’s look and testing out different cameras and lenses.”

The team used a lot of visual references for different elements for the look and feel of Ozark, including the 2010 Australian feature, Animal Kingdom, which they were influenced by the film’s camera movement, blocking, and use of minimal coverage. They also watched films by director David Fincher as reference for tonal qualities. “One of the things we were most interested in early on was how little coverage we could get away on a TV show without getting fired,” says Kutchins. “It was all about pushing the cinematic boundaries for television.”

With Netflix’s 4K mandate, the production tested out the latest RED and Sony cameras, but according to Kutchins, the VariCam 35 had the filmic qualities they were looking for, as well as the ability to capture in low light. “We almost went with the VariCam Pure for the second season, but we ended up just doing what we did before,” reveals Kutchins. “We were really happy with the look that we achieved in season one.”

Kutchins captured 4K DCI (4096x2160) 12-bit 4:4:4 AVC Intra files in V-Log at 23.98-fps. For exhibition, they went with a 2:1 extraction. For season one, Kutchins and Avila del Pino worked with a D.I.T. to develop a viewing LUT, which Kutchins developed further throughout the season. “The LUT lifted the blacks a bit, added contrast in the mids, brought down the highlights, created deep cyan in the shadows, and a little warmth in the highlights,” reveals Kutchins. “What I was trying to do was mimic an old Fuji film stock that I used to use back when I was shooting stills. Working at Lucasfilm, I inherited a huge box of expired film and it was one of the discontinued films in that box.”

For lensing, Kutchins shot mainly with a set of Cooke S4 prime lenses, as well as older Zeiss Super Speeds. “The Cookes perform really well close to wide open, which I preferred for the look. I like the idea of not knowing what’s happening in the background focus-wise, even on a wide lens because it adds to the danger and mystery of the show. I also like that the S4s are simultaneously sharp yet have enough flaws and character to bring another element. I’m mixing and matching the S4s with the Super Speeds for the extra grittiness that they bring and lack of depth of field. Sometimes I’m looking to get something a little dirtier than I can get with the S4s.”

Kutchins used the VariCam’s native ISO 5000 sparingly but was impressed with the results when he did use it. “I’m a bit of an old school cinematographer and I find things that I like, and I continue doing that,” he says. “I don’t really feel the need to shoot things at 5000 just because it’s there. A couple of times, I used it for a surveillance look. I was hoping it would be grainy but there was no grain at all, so I had to add a ton of grain in post. There were a few times that I had a crazy setup on a crane and didn’t have quite enough light, or enough time, to add a bunch of light. We basically switched the native ISO to 5000 and I was really impressed with the results. When I went into the DI to finish it, I would be hard pressed to figure out which shots were done at 800 or 5000.”

In lighting Ozark, Kutchins believes each scene has its own heartbeat. “As a lighting strategy, I tend to use a single soft source, whether it’s sun, or a practical base like a single lamp in a room,” explains Kutchins. “I’m using small LEDs to augment, generally soft light to wraparound and get a little glint in the eye, or to give that little suggestion of a silhouette. It’s the idea of using big, broad strokes and then small touches to accent where I want you to look in the frame. Jason and I don’t mind if the actors fall off in the shadows. We like to leave just enough information out there to let the audience wonder what’s happening.”

Kutchins takes that idea even further in post and according to Kutchins, this is one of the VariCam 35’s biggest strengths. “There’s been a few times where I wanted to bring up a shadow,” says Kutchins, “and I tend to underexpose ¾ of a stop to 2 stops as a baseline. With the VariCam, if I want to bring up a shadow in post, it’s been very rare that I’ve been limited on how much I could bring it up before the image got noisy."

The color grade is performed at Company 3 by colorist Tim Stipan, who graded both season one and two. “It’s his first TV show and I think he brought a really cinematic look to it,” says Kutchins. “For the grade, I don’t think we’re changing the look, but I think we’re taking it 10 steps further in post than we’re able to on set. On a TV schedule, you don’t have time to do all the tweaks you want to do and I’m taking all those ideas into the DI. Fortunately, Tim is a great collaborator and a great artist. Things can be as dark as you want them to be as long as there is somewhere for you to look and the audience feels comfortable looking at the frame.”

For more information on the VariCam 35, click through here.

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”

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.”