American Cinematographer - December 2021 - 44

THE LOOKING GLASS
Previous spread: Sandie (Anya Taylor-Joy) descends the stairs, while
Ellie (Thomasin McKenzie) appears as her reflection - an effect
achieved with the aid of motion control, production design and visual
effects. This page: Ellie takes in the big city after arriving in London.
" Coming from a different culture and looking at Soho with the fresh eyes of a visitor, [Chung]
helped us focus on things we would have taken for granted. "
had developed over the past two decades.
" After 21 years together, Marcus knows Edgar extremely well, and
he explained how Edgar works and what he wanted, " Chung says of the
production designer, who has worked on all of Wright's features. " My
biggest fear was how fast the production would have to go to accomplish
all that he wanted! "
Says Rowland, " Edgar and I are so familiar with Soho that having a
new perspective from Chung proved a tremendous help. Coming from a
different culture and looking at Soho with the fresh eyes of a visitor, he
helped us focus on things we would have taken for granted. He is a very
instinctive cinematographer; he is also extremely funny and charming. "
First AC Lewis Hume, who first worked with the South Korean director
of photography on The Current War, adds, " Chung is a genius - he
thinks outside the box, finding ways of creating effects and capturing
shots that I haven't seen others use. "
Vintage and Modern Looks
Chung, whose work includes Oldboy (2003) and It (AC Oct. '17), shot most
of Last Night in Soho on a combination of 35mm and Super 35mm film
(Kodak Vision3 250D 5207 and 500T 5219) with a Panavision Panaflex
Millennium XL2 camera. The remainder of the material - principally
night exteriors - was shot digitally on an Arri Alexa XT Plus. Chung
chose Panavision G and B Series anamorphic primes to render 1960s
44 / DECEMBER 2021
London, and spherical Primo lenses for the present day.
" For me, a big part of going back to the '60s was the vivid colors, "
Wright says. " My references were [classic] Technicolor and Eastman
color films. The color treatment feels bigger than life - it's not entirely
realistic. My specific references were films like Peeping Tom, The Collector
and Black Narcissus. [Last Night in Soho] becomes very expressionistic at
the end, with the colors becoming more pronounced as the emotion in
the movie starts to rise.
" Contemporary London is not exactly colorless - but bleak and gray, "
the director continues. " For Ellie, present-day London is, if not ugly, certainly
not friendly. " Wright also had specific '60s songs in mind for the
soundtrack, and the music track was laid down first so that every action,
camera move and shot would correspond to a specific beat.
Ellie's first taste of '60s Soho is when she steps into a period-correct
Piccadilly Circus. Chung enhanced the color of the location's sodium
streetlamps with sodium-gelled sources to create an even warmer and
deeper yellow at night, with hints of green and blue.
Neon signs and a glittering cinema marquee light up the sidewalks as
wide-eyed Ellie, still in her pajamas, crosses the street, oblivious to the
honking cars and buses. A-camera/Steadicam operator Chris Bain made
a 360-degree sweep around her, a shot that had to be precisely timed
and choreographed because the vehicles in the scene were real (with a
few CG cars in the background). The filmmakers practiced the shot for
IMAGES ON PREVIOUS SPREAD AND THIS PAGE COURTESY OF FOCUS FEATURES.

American Cinematographer - December 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - December 2021