American Cinematographer - October 2017 - 28

Above: Red smoke fills the air as Killer Mike
performs. Left: Connor trains the camera
toward Killer Mike.

discussed constantly," Connor recalls. "We
would get to the monitor and ask, 'Hey, is
this too blue? Should we bring something
else in or pull this back?' It pays off to have
the themes in mind, but then you can wing
it on set a little and give it some life." Barber
adds, "I like dual-tone setups where you see
a little pop of green or blue in the background with red foreground elements. The
idea was always to add color to the scene
without the color being overwhelming. I
wanted things to pop without feeling oversaturated."
Barber's philosophy on color for the
project was influenced by a wide array of
visual references that ranged from anime
and Japanese yakuza films to Game of
Thrones and Park Chan-wook's Oldboy. "I
wanted a 'gumbo' of ideas, combining
dystopic urban visuals with Japanese yakuza
hard-boiled themes," Barber explains. "It
keeps people watching when things are just
28

October 2017

off-center, not quite on-the-nose, so I try to
blend things that might not obviously go
together. I kept sending John references
from all these films, and then we added
Fincher to the mix when we looked at some
of the interior lighting for Fight Club and
Seven. We wanted something a little darker
and edgier than the typical rap video - not
quite so bright and lively."
Connor notes that although he and
Barber ultimately tried not to be beholden to
any of their influences, the visual references
gave him an idea of where to go in terms of
the lighting. "I could see from Bryan's
images that we would be flaring the lenses,
but we tried not to make it too obvious. We
wanted it to be somewhat 'accidental,'" he
notes. Connor shot on Arri Alexa Minis with
Cooke S4 primes. The cinematographer
notes that "the 14mm is a favorite, [and it
was] used in the scene where I had the
talent holding the camera in the car - but I
use the range, 14mm to 135mm, depending on the vibe from Bryan. For a few shots
I used a 65mm Atlas anamorphic, but the
Cookes had a softer, older feel that worked
for the majority of the shoot. They made
everyone beautiful, and we shot wide-open
for some falloff."
The Minis recorded ProRes 3.2K to
CFast cards for the 2.39:1 aspect ratio,
"bouncing between the 16:9 and 4:3
sensor," Connor says.
For all of the video's ambition in
terms of its diverse looks and locales, Barber
insists that sometimes keeping things simple
American Cinematographer

is best, particularly when it comes to camera
movement. "Often in videos a cameraman
will start moving counter to the dancers,
almost like the camera is dancing with the
dancers," he explains. "It's dangerous
because the dancers are moving too much
and there's too much energy for the viewer
to focus. When the dancers are doing something exciting, I just like to find frames and
let the performers provide the energy. I
might move the camera, but then I'll find a
frame and hold it instead of arbitrarily
moving just to give a false sense of energy.
The result of that can be the opposite of
what's intended."
The final color grade was performed
by Marshall Plante at Ntropic with Blackmagic Design's DaVinci Resolve.
Connor and Barber have collaborated before "Kill Jill" and plan to do so
again, possibly on a feature. The cinematographer notes that the two worked together
for the first time on a music video for Big
Grams - comprising Big Boi and electronic
duo Phantogram - and that he and Barber
"most recently shot the new Wiz Khalifa
video. I've shot a few videos with a mutual
friend, Rock Jacobs, [who is] also a director.
Bryan saw what I was bringing to the table
on his videos, as [did] another mutual friend,
Jamie Foxx," for whom Connor recently
served as cinematographer on the upcoming feature All-Star Weekend - Foxx's directorial debut.
"It's such a pleasurable experience
working with Bryan, because he's passionate," Connor adds. "The most important
thing for me is to work with people who are
passionate not just about the technical side,
but about storytelling."
Barber adds, "People sometimes
forget that the goal of a video is to push the
song and get people to buy the music, and
we're so oversaturated right now that it
takes a lot to get people's attention. For me
it's all about pushing boundaries as much as
possible, and about telling a story that will
keep people coming back. I look at a video
as an opportunity - even if you only have
12 hours to shoot something, it's an opportunity to make a short film. I want it to be
something more interesting than just watching people dance and rap toward the
camera. I always try to keep a narrative
●
thread."

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