One cinematographer had to live up to a show with a historical legacy rooted in not only its narrative but also television lore.
Another DP was enticed by the opportunity to take an already critically acclaimed series into a different visual direction.
And our third lenser brought a deft mockumentary touch that has added to the humor and poignancy of a Peabody Award-winning series that’s thus far amassed 15 Emmy nominations over its first two seasons.
Here are insights from Christopher Ross, BSC on Shōgun (FX Network), Isaac Bauman on Loki (Disney+), and Michael J. Pepin on Abbott Elementary (ABC).
Christopher Ross, BSC
When Ross got the assignment to lens the first two episodes of Shōgun, he had to tackle history on two distinctly different fronts. For one there was the task of re-creating 17th century feudal Japan. But beyond the challenge of delivering a sprawling epic based on the 1975 novel of the same title by James Clavell, the new Shōgun in a sense also had to live up to significant television history. The book was first famously adapted in a 1980 series on NBC. Critically acclaimed and a major commercial success, it was pivotal in bringing into prominence the international miniseries which has proven viable to this day. The original Shōgun–which set the record as the most viewed piece of television worldwide–was a cultural phenomenon and spawned such ambitious miniseries as The Thorn Birds, The Winds of War and North and South.
Measuring up to that lineage is no small feat. Plus the new Shōgun sought to take a 180-degree narrative turn from its predecessor. The original series was a white savior story. This time around, said Ross, writers/showrunners Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks did not want to depict John Blackthorne (portrayed by Cosmo Jarvis) as a white man arriving on the shores of Japan to civilize the population. “That narrative is tired and not true,” noted Ross. “Although the character of Blackthorne still needs to arrive in Japan with that kind of closeted, bigoted attitude, the audience needs to see the opposite agenda,” armed with “a full knowledge of a complex Japanese civilization that this stranger is infiltrating.” Blacktorne in reality finds a civilization “much more complex and exotic than his own,” observed Ross.
Dealing with such complexities and the weight of history spanning civilizations and television became a little less daunting for Ross thanks to his own history with EP Jonathan van Tulleken, who directed the first two episodes. The two first met around 2010 on Misfits, a series which ran on Channel 4 in the U.K. Ross served as cinematographer for the first two seasons and van Tulleken was fresh out of film school. They worked on teaser trailers for the show and established a rapport. “We got to talking about the camera decisions, the lens decisions and have been friends ever since,” recalled Ross. A couple years later they took on their “first proper project together,” continued Ross, with van Tulleken directing episodes of U.K. series Top Boy. The director and DP then went on to collaborate on another U.K. series, Trust. When van Tulleken was in the running for Shōgun, he gravitated to Ross and they began exploring visual references for the project–before they even got the gig.
In shaping a visual language for Shōgun, particularly given that they would work on the first two episodes which set the tone and feel for the series, Ross and van Tulleken wanted to create a first-person perspective rooted in the protagonists–Blackthorne, Toda Mariko (played by Anna Sawai) and Lord Yoshii Toranaga (Hiroyuki Sanada)–so that the audience could see the world, and their worlds, through their eyes. “We came up with a sort of a visceral first person photographic technique where you as an audience member are sitting alongside each of the characters,” related Ross.
Coming at the story visually through the characters and character interactivity was essential, noted Ross who added that at the same time he had the good fortune of collaborating with production designer Helen Jarvis and costume designer Carlos Rosario. Jarvis’ knowledge of the history, the architecture of medieval Japan, and Rosario’s sense of history and style, deploying a stunning array of fabrics and textures, enabled Ross and van Tulleken to attack the script through the lens of both character and design. Additionally, Ross spent much time and energy envisioning the light in the universe they were trying to create. On the lighting score, Jarvis built scale models of the sets. Ross used those models to full advantage, studying how light would bounce around while learning about sources of illumination, such as lanterns, during that historical period. Ross would scale down his lighting to match Jarvis’ models, giving him invaluable practice with and insights into how the major sets and spaces would be transformed by the lighting. Jarvis’ set construction was massive and brilliantly designed, with an Osaka Palace exterior, for example, pretty much the size of the real structure.
Delving into and being driven by character, space and light–creating a tapestry consisting of all these elements–guided the approach to the photography, including when lensing took place in church settings in that “spiritual places” and spirituality contributed in a major way to the tone of the story.
For cinematic impact, Ross opted for the Sony Venice camera in tandem with anamorphic Hawk class-X lenses and deployed a 2:1 widescreen aspect ratio. While locations in Japan had been scouted, Shōgun was ultimately lensed in Canada which is where Ross connected for the first time with Jarvis, a Brit who’s called Vancouver, B.C. home for about 25 years. Upon landing in Vancouver, Ross at first could not come into direct contact with his colleagues. He had to spend two weeks in quarantine due to COVID restrictions before he could join the team. From an apartment, he would meet with his compatriots via Zoom.
For Ross the biggest takeaway from his Shōgun experience was “the power of collaboration,” citing directorial talent, cast and crew who were committed to doing full justice to the story. This ensemble of artists also included the cinematographers Ross passed the baton to after wrapping the first two episodes–Sam McCurdy, ASC, BSC, Marc Laliberte, CSC and Aril Wretblad, FSF.
Ross is a four-time BSC Award nominee, winning twice for Blackout. The other two nods were for the aforementioned Top Boy. He also earned a BAFTA Award nomination for Blackout.
Isaac Bauman
While season one of Loki (Disney+) was critically acclaimed for its narrative and look, the desire to take the show in a different direction visually is what enticed cinematographer Bauman. The directing duo of Aaron Moorhead and Justin Benson, who are also EPs on the series, were looking to reinvent the look–and Bauman fully embraced that.
“The first thing was we wanted to create a more immersive and immediate experience for the audience,” explained Bauman, which triggered the switch to handheld shooting with the camera of choice being the ARRI Alexa Mini LF, deployed in tandem with Tokina Vista cinema lenses. The handheld approach with wide spherical lenses served to encourage the actors to move around on set–rather than having to hit specific marks and be locked off in frame. The Alexa Mini LF also lent the desired filmic look.
With this fluid handheld style, you see the whole set–and the set in a sense becomes another performer in the scene, observed Bauman. There’s nowhere to hide on set. There’s no fourth wall, The sets were lit 360. “Everything was 360 with Justin and Aaron,” related Bauman who enjoyed adapting to the directorial duo. Bauman also found a compatriot in production designer Kasra Farahani who turned out sets conducive to 360 lighting. (Farahani also directed one of the Loki episodes shot by Bauman; the other four episodes lensed by the DP were directed by Benson and Moorhead.)
Bauman noted that Moorhead and Benson had been working together for 10 years, turning out indie films and varied TV shows. Joining up with them, Bauman was akin to being “a new family member, the baby who had just been born and had to learn their process,” which he described as an idiosyncratic approach to filmmaking. Bauman had frequently been working with directors in a more formal way, with static frames driven by composition. Bauman found himself attracted to the handheld approach, which the directors embraced not just for spontaneity, immediacy and its organic nature but also for workflow efficiency.
Being an artist in a collaborative medium, observed Bauman, is a beautiful experience–in this case working with collaborators like Benson and Moorhead, “learning to see through their eyes, their perspective. It’s how we grow as artists.”
Bauman shared that a prime lesson learned from his experience on Loki was “the power of letting go of formalism and embracing the organic rough-and-tumble quality of the handheld camera, letting the actors block a scene,” affording them the freedom to perform, with action flowing as the filmmakers let go of conventional rigidity. The set became more of a playground in which actors could create.
Reprising his Marvel film role, Tom Hiddleston portrays the mercurial villain Loki (aka the God of Mischief) in the TV series. There’s a buddy comedy element as Loki is paired with a celestial time control agent named Mobius (Owen Wilson). There’s a mix of absurdity, charm, action-adventure and serious overtones to what unfolds, making for a unique brand of story with a different, distinctive visual palette to match.
Loki adds to a body of work for Bauman which spans long and short-form fare. Among his credits are the feature Haunting of the Queen Mary directed by Gary Shore, the TV series Dear Mamma directed by Allen Hughes, Teacup for director E.L. Katz, an episode of Servant helmed by Ishana Night Shyamalan, assorted commercials (for directors such as Farahani), and numerous music videos (Rihanna, Kendrick Lamar, Bad Bunny) including a pair that garnered Camerimage Jury Award nominations–The Presets’ “Ghosts” and Kodaline’s “Ready.”
Michael J. Pepin
Cinematographer Pepin may have missed the opening bell for Abbott Elementary (ABC) in that the pilot was lensed by Kurt Jones. But since then, Pepin has had a major hand in shaping the show’s visual language, taking the reins after the first episode right on through to the current Emmy-eligible season three and counting.
Speaking of counting, in its first two seasons Abbott Elementary has earned 15 Emmy nominations, winning four–one last year for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Quinta Brunson, and three in 2022 for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series for Sheryl Lee Ralph, Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series for Brunson, and Outstanding Casting in a Comedy Series for Wendy O’Brien. Furthermore, assorted other honors have been bestowed upon Abbott Elementary such as a Humanitas Prize in 2022 and a Peabody Award in ‘23.
Shedding light on the latter honor, Peabody issued a statement which read in part, “If public school teachers are the unsung heroes of the country, then Abbott Elementary does far more than use its broadcast platform to belatedly sing their praises. Through deliciously funny, unfailingly thoughtful storylines, the mockumentary-style sitcom brings both depth and levity to its depiction of a grade school in Philadelphia. The show’s titular setting is an underfunded, predominantly Black school. At Abbott, a plucky group of educators work to ensure their students receive the best schooling possible, even as they face the kinds of challenges that are endemic to low-income districts. To Philadelphia-raised creator Quinta Brunson, who also plays the lovably quixotic second-grade teacher Janine Teagues, paying homage to her city’s hard-working educators is partly a personal matter: Brunson’s mother, a former kindergarten teacher, inspired the series. Part of what makes Abbott Elementary so special is an insight clearly born of close observation. The show isn’t content to present funny scenarios absent any social context; Abbott Elementary insists on surfacing the structural issues that make its teachers’ work so hard. For its commitment to depicting the inequity at the core of its characters’ struggles–amid healthy doses of sentimentality and humor–we recognize Abbott Elementary as a Peabody winner.
The mockumentary style referenced by Peabody judges is part of why Abbott Elementary gravitated to Pepin. Well versed in varied disciplines, including mockumentary content, Pepin was brought into Abbott Elementary by showrunner and director Randall Einhorn. The two had first collaborated years back on the FX series Wilfred, with Einhorn as EP/director and Pepin as a camera operator. Einhorn later served as the original cinematographer and then a director on The Office, a show for which Pepin was a camera operator (but not at the same time as Einhorn was there). The Office and prior lensing gigs on assorted unscripted shows honed Pepin’s visual feel for docu-style and mockumentary fare. Einhorn wanted to bring some of the mockumentary sensibilities from The Office to Abbott Elementary for which he sought out Pepin.
Pepin said that Einhorn and The Office co-creator Greg Daniels were instrumental in developing that show’s distinctive mockumentary style, sort of a heightened documentary approach where cameras very much help to tell the story in a certain personalized way. A prime tenet, said Pepin, is “if making a mockumentary, you need to treat it like a documentary to add to the realism. That’s something we do not cheat on. It might make our lives more challenging in regards to how we approach a scene in our blocking but we stick to that philosophy. Because of that, our mockumentary style feels a bit more immersive, has a real feel to it,” and that has helped drive the Abbott Elementary narrative.
Essential to that success has been a team of camera operators. Jeremiah Smith and Brenda Zuniga have served as A and B camera operator, respectively, for all three seasons of Abbott Elementary. Drew Thomas has been C camera operator the past two seasons. Pepin related, “The camera operators have created this visual language that can be sort of both cathartic and relatable to the viewers–because the viewers are seeing it through the eyes of the camera operators. The camera operators are almost like a character in the show. Their timing is important to the comedy, the jokes and the emotion. They have mastered that aspect of this genre. To see over the years how far they’ve come with that has been amazing.”
Pepin added that he and the operators work with a shorthand as fewer notes and discussions are needed among them. “They get into a scene and work it out. They are so good at finding those little moments and reactions. The cast has bonded with them. Their commitment to the show has been significant and extraordinary. They do phenomenal work.”
For season three, Abbott Elementary went with ARRI’s new Alexa 35, featuring an upgraded sensor. Pepin gave the results a thumbs-up. But whatever the camera (the first season primarily deployed Alexa Minis), Pepin has stayed true to the soul and spirit of the show. He recalled a standout speech that Sheryl Lee Ralph gave to cast and crew during the first season, before the show gained mass popularity. She noted that the series was special across all fronts–story, cast and crew, the esprit de corps on set. She emphasized the importance of appreciating and respecting the show, everyone on it, and the audience at all times. “I took that to heart,” related Pepin who like his colleagues was fired up by Ralph’s words. “I feel the responsibility to uphold what she was saying,” related Pepin, adding that he learned so much about the work and the people involved by adhering to that mindset–that Abbott Elementary is something “rare” and “special,” compelling us to “appreciate it, respect it” and take in what it brings to us, what we bring to each other and the viewers.
