American Cinematographer - April 2017 - 38
◗ Between Heaven and Hell Above: Custer prepares to baptize his former partner in life and crime, Tulip O' Hare (Ruth Negga). Right: The crew captures the scene. time with Rogen and Goldberg was condensed. "We did a shot list for the whole episode because our two-week shooting schedule was so intense. We hashed it out in three days. The three of us acted it out and mock-photographed one another, then we just took off and kept to that shot list," the director of photography says. 38 April 2017 He describes the directing team as a two-headed monster. "They both chime in. They're super-easy to get along with and you laugh all the time," Pope says. "They're also super-economical. They're open to ideas on the day, but it was a crunch-time schedule. They cut things to the bone before you even go out, and they stick to it." American Cinematographer The cinematographer says that although the pilot is true to the comics' transgressive characters, the source material was not referenced much in discussions about look. For example, the tongue-in-cheek CGI opening scene in which Genesis traverses the solar system - penetrating Saturn's rings and taking out a satellite along the way - seems inspired by vintage astronomy-class films. "Seth and Evan are willing to do anything that's surprising and funny," Pope notes. Genesis first inhabits the body of a dodgy African preacher (Irungu Mutu), leading to the unfortunate man's explosion, and then has a similar experience at a satanic temple in Russia. Both locales are iconically represented - Africa bursting with a variety of deeply saturated colors and bright sunlight, and Russia cold, blue and snowy. "They wanted a different look for each city," Pope says. "They wanted the viewer to feel they're being transported to different places like in a James Bond movie. It's full-on. It's very 'comic book' - that's archly what it is." He adds that in Texas, where the main action transpires, "They wanted to capture the feeling of the desert: the sepia-toned, empty Texas of the movies, with dust blowing and the whole nine yards." Although the pilot is set in the present, the filmmakers were inspired by the look and spaciousness of Tonino Delli Colli's work in Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in the West. They wanted to shoot in the same widescreen 2.35:1 aspect ratio and take advantage of the rack focuses and aberrations of anamorphic lenses, but distributor Sony Pictures Television resisted. Working with Sony also meant originating on the company's proprietary F65 and PMW-F55 CineAlta cameras. Both cameras can capture at 4K, which was a crucial consideration for the series' availability on Netflix, which wants Ultra HD content, as well as its suitability to Sony 4K Ultra HD TV sets. And that was fine with Pope. "I was intrigued by the F65,