American Cinematographer - May 2016 - 63

American Cinematographer: Can
you elaborate on the concept of
'swamp noir'?
Ryan Samul: Director Jim
Mickle and I originally explored the
concepts of 'pulpy Southern noir,'
'Southern gothic' and 'chicken-fried
noir' in Cold in July. Both take place in
the fictional town of Laborde, Texas, in
the Eighties, so we wanted this show to
feel like it was set in that same world.
We looked at some of our influences for
the feature - Blood Simple, No Country
for Old Men, Red Rock West, The Long
Goodbye and Night of the Hunter - but
we also wanted to delve into the look of
Eighties genre films like Razorback and
52 Pick-Up, which this time around
brought us to our main visual influence
of [ASC member] Juan Ruiz Anchía's
work on At Close Range. The latter film
has such a specific tone that, to me, was
very Eighties but also very modern at
the same time - a lot of hot sun
streaks, skip bounces and underexposure, but still with the blue-green nights,
intense neon colors and haze that we
associated with that time frame. This
series is based on the first Hap and
Leonard novel, Savage Season, which
has a number of sequences that take
place in and around swamps, so 'swamp
noir' is an accurate term for season one.
Elsewhere, you've described
Hap and Leonard as 'ambitious
content.' Can you elaborate?
Samul: For the schedule and
budget for this particular show, we had
our share of ambition: gun play, squibs,
underwater sequences, a car jumping
into a river, stunts, car chases, fights,
dogs, kids and rain. We stretched the
budget to its breaking point and came
out on the other side with results I'm
quite pleased with.
What camera did you use?
Samul: We shot with the Red
Epic Dragon, which I've used to great
success on much of my previous feature
and commercial work. Its resolution,
speed and size were the perfect match
for our extremely tight schedule, and
gave us the ability to use Freefly
Systems' Movi M15, which - coupled

Top and middle: The
crew preps a scene
inside a truck.
Bottom:
Cinematographer
Ryan Samul eyes his
next shot.

www.theasc.com

May 2016

63



http://www.theasc.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - May 2016

Contents
American Cinematographer - May 2016 - Cover1
American Cinematographer - May 2016 - Cover2
American Cinematographer - May 2016 - 1
American Cinematographer - May 2016 - 2
American Cinematographer - May 2016 - Contents
American Cinematographer - May 2016 - 4
American Cinematographer - May 2016 - 5
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American Cinematographer - May 2016 - Cover3
American Cinematographer - May 2016 - Cover4
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