American Cinematographer - March 2018 - 60

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Spirit Awards Honor Indie Cinematography
The Rider
Director: Chloé Zhao
Cinematographer:
Joshua James Richards

Above: Elio
(Timothée Chalamet,
left) develops
feelings for Oliver
(Armie Hammer)
when the latter is
hired by the teen's
father in Call Me by
Your Name. Right:
Director Luca
Guadagnino (center)
explains the shot he
wants while
cinematographer
Sayombhu
Mukdeeprom (right)
lines up the camera.

lights and staging for a 35mm lens. "Not
too big, not too small," Mukdeeprom
describes. "It gave you a very good place
to put the camera, so you could see
several layers inside, and the outside
also." Floor-to-ceiling windows helped
with lighting logistics, but also made the
rooms seem airy, inviting, and perfectly
in tune with an indolent summer.
"Italian architecture is very good at this
kind of thing," the cinematographer
says. "They really thought of how the
environment affects the human."
Pushing light into a room with old,
textured walls and graceful architectural
curves "creates a good result already. You
don't have to fight that much."
Mukdeeprom is currently trying
to stick to film capture, and just wrapped
another
35mm
feature
with
Guadagnino - a remake of Dario
Argento's 1977 horror film Suspiria. It's
not that he disparages digital; as an
60

March 2018

operator, he simply prefers the optical
viewfinder on film cameras and the
connection he feels with the light. "I can
respond to everything faster, more
precisely," he notes.
That said, Mukdeeprom was
among the first Thai cinematographers
to shoot digitally. In addition, he and
several colleagues founded White Light
Studio - a postproduction facility used
by most of the independent filmmakers
in Thailand - where the DI for Call Me
by Your Name was performed. In fact,
White Light nearly made a bid when
Technicolor in Bangkok put itself up for
sale. "We were going to buy the equipment, the building, the land,"
Mukdeeprom recalls. "We had a green
light from our investor, but at the end I
had the feeling that, 'Damn, I want to
stay low-profile! I want to shoot movies
and continue to do what I love.'"
- PT
American Cinematographer

Director of photography Joshua
James Richards forged a strong bond
with director Chloé Zhao when they
worked together on her debut feature,
Songs My Brothers Taught Me, which
was shot on the Pine Ridge Reservation
in South Dakota. When Zhao
approached Richards about returning to
the location for The Rider - a modernday Western in which a cast of nonactors would play versions of themselves
- he jumped at the chance. "I had been
back and forth to the reservation many
times and had become well acquainted
with the cowboys there, in particular
Brady [ Jandreau, the star of the film]
and his family," Richards remembers.
"When Chloé came to me with an
outline, I didn't hesitate."
There was no conventional script
for the movie, just an outline indicating,
as Richards puts it, "a female perspective
on masculinity and the cowboy persona,
exploring a vulnerability rarely seen and
with total authenticity. The iconography was there, yet Chloé was approaching it with the conviction of capturing
real life as it happens."
Richards and Zhao carried over
many of the references and influences
from their previous collaboration.
"Andrew Wyeth's stark landscapes were
helpful for the palette and texture, and
Nan Goldin's intimate and often
vibrant interior scenes were very relevant," Richards explains. "There were
various Westerns that you can't help
but be influenced by - The Misfits, The
Searchers, Unforgiven - yet Chloé also
wanted the film free of too many references, to be its own unique thing and as
modern as possible. The goal was a
naturalistic and experiential approach
that we hoped would feel raw yet
tender. Soft, natural light that isn't
showy or overly designed - a muted
and limited color palette, and a
commitment to allowing mistakes to
happen."

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - March 2018