American Cinematographer - March 2017 - 52

◗

Spirit Awards Salute Cinematography

the story,'" she says. "We talked about
the world of the film and it was clear it
was a place where the devil is real and
can be anywhere, and the spirit of Jesus
and the Holy Ghost can literally touch
you. I'm not a religious person, but the
concept of spiritual forces moving
through our worlds makes a lot of sense
to me, and finding that POV was one of
the guiding principles of the cinematography."
Having been raised in a
Pentecostal household, Mahaffy
explained to Berkofsky that people of
that faith believed that the devil could
literally come into the house through a
picture on the wall or static on the television, an idea that informed a key
sequence in the movie. "There's a point
in the film," the cinematographer
explains, "where there is ambiguous
danger for Melva, and Abe visits her in
the middle of the night to be sure she's
safe. The scene is one shot, and starts on
the static of the television and slowly
pulls out into Melva's apartment, revealing her asleep next to the window. It
continues to travel back from the television and across the barrier of the
window as Abe comes into the apartment. As the camera continues to travel
back into the dark apartment complex, it
watches Abe and Melva through the
window, appearing to be lit by the static
from the TV. We accomplished the shot
on a very limited budget by doing a 2052

March 2017

foot dolly pullback from just outside the
window of the apartment on both a
180mm prime and then again on an
85mm prime. The shots were blended to
give the effect of moving backwards
from inside the room to the outside in
one shot. My goal was to let the spiritual
world dictate the logic of the camera."
Berkofsky alternated between
handheld work and more formal
compositions, depending on the
demands of each given scene. The
church sequences were shot with nonactors, who were members of an actual
Pentecostal congregation, and Berkofsky
took advantage of the verisimilitude.
"We used handheld when we wanted to
connect to the rapturous energy of the
church experience," she recalls. "At times
I would find myself moving unplanned
through the worshipers, and at other
times I was doing more choreographed
moves. Having the camera on my body
felt like the best way to give the viewer
the most immersive experience possible,
and it felt natural because there was a
really well-balanced camera on my
shoulder, so super-long takes were no
big deal.
"We shot on the Alexa Classic
with Zeiss Standard Speeds, which are
really compact," she continues, "and my
focus puller, David Mellow out of
Nashville, was wonderful and very intuitive." The production recorded 2K 4:4:4
ProRes files to SxS cards.
American Cinematographer

In scenes set outside of the
church, Berkofsky often used more
locked-off frames to create a sense of
claustrophobia, boxing the characters in
using frames within frames. "I
frequently shot through things like
scratched-up windows or sheer curtains
to involve the textures of the environment in the image, but also to give a
sense of something watching the story
unfold," she says.
Berkofsky adds that the church
sequences created unexpected benefits
for the production, which included
moments that her background in documentary filmmaking had prepared her
for. "There are magical things that
happen when you're working with nonactors, that you can't control," she
asserts. "I was once shooting a wide
from the back of the church during a
service scene, and the guy in front of me
had forgotten the camera was behind
him and felt moved to stand up directly
in front of the camera and jump up and
down. It completely blocked the
camera's view, and he didn't care at all. It
felt real and magical, and when he
started to dance around the room, I
followed him to where our protagonist
Abe was sitting. The shot then became
about Abe as part of this larger congregation, and it happened in a very natural
way."
For Berkofsky, moments like this
summed up both the challenges and the

Berkofsky photo by Braden King.

Left: Benny (RaJay Chandler) is challenged
with extreme autism, causing his mother to
turn to the church for help in Free in Deed.
Above: Cinematographer Ava Berkofsky
shoulders the camera.
American Cinematographer - March 2017

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2017
