The Perfect Guy made an auspicious debut, topping the weekend (9/11-13) box office with nearly $27 million. The early returns are all the more impressive considering the Sony/Screen Gems movie’s production budget of some $12 million.
Directed by David M. Rosenthal and lensed by DP Peter Simonite, The Perfect Guy is a PG-13 rated thriller that stars Michael Ealy who at first seems an ideal match for a woman (portrayed by Sanaa Lathan) coming off the breakup of another relationship. However, he turns out to be angry, jealous and ultimately a dangerous man who winds up seeking revenge against Lathan’s character for ending their budding romance.
As a full-fledged cinematographer, Simonite has several films to his credit, with The Perfect Guy making the biggest initial commercial splash. He came up the industry ranks, starting as a loader, next a focus puller and then a camera operator. During his ascent, Simonite had occasion to work with assorted leading cinematographers, including John Alonzo, ASC, Daniel Pearl, ASC, Laszlo Kovacs, ASC, Dean Semler, ACS, ASC, Bruno Delbonnel, AFC, ASC, and Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki, ASC, AMC.
For the latter, Simonite served as 2nd unit DP on the Terrence Malick-directed The Tree Of Life for which Lubezki won the ASC Award and was nominated for a Best Cinematography Oscar in 2012.
“To work with Chivo, to help execute his vision for The Tree of Life was a privilege,” affirmed Simonite who has more recently handled additional cinematography for Lubezki on another Malick feature which is as yet untitled.
After The Perfect Guy, Simonite served as director of photography on the Eric D. Howell-directed Voice from the Stone, a haunting and suspenseful romance set in 1950s Tuscany. Emilia Clarke and Marton Csokas star in the picture which is slated for release later this year.
SHOOT connected with Simonite who reflected on his career and the recent success of The Perfect Guy.
SHOOT: What drew you to The Perfect Guy? How did you get the gig?
Simonite: I was excited to read the script because David Rosenthal was attached. I saw his movie A Single Shot which my friend Eduard Grau shot. It was a hillbilly noir movie which I liked a lot so I was enthused to talk to David about The Perfect Guy.
I made the connection through Eduard–a mutual friend of mine and David’s–who wasn’t available for The Perfect Guy. I was able to use some of the same technical crew whom Eduard used on A Single Shot, including gaffer Jim Plannette. We were able to bring together a family of people for The Perfect Guy who understood the material and who had worked with David before.
SHOOT: What major creative challenges did The Perfect Guy pose to you as a cinematographer?
Simonite: We were dealing with a tight budget and schedule–and some of the sequences were pretty complex. There were chase scenes in the movie that required location work, green screen, stage work.
David wanted the film to have a specific kind of style and look. We looked at a lot of darker looking films like Klute and All The President’s Men. We had select still photography as points of reference. We wanted to sculpt the light a certain way. The first act runs the risk of feeling like a romantic comedy until we see who this “perfect guy” really is. We brought in some visual elements that were a little darker to foreshadow the arc of Michael Ely’s character. There was darkness and black within the frame pretty much all the time. It helped that David and I were on the same wavelength. We had a lot of the same touchstone visual references. David has a background in cinematography. He’s very visual which also helped the entire process.
SHOOT: What camera(s) did you deploy on The Perfect Guy and why?
Simonite: The Sony F65, F55 and a7s.
Most of the film was shot on the Sony F65. I like it for its light sensitivity and really vivid color. David [Rosenthal] likes the mechanical shutter that simulates what happens in a film camera. That made the look of The Perfect Guy a little more filmic. From the get-go David was interested in using anamorphic lenses for the project. We went with the Hawk Vintage 74 anamorphic lenses to capture every detail, even in low light. The lenses have a softer quality which David liked, diffusing the F65 and making the whole image look a little creamier, painterly, vintage. We also liked what it did on the actors’ faces for skin tones. It was a beautiful effect.
Filming in Los Angeles at night with anamorphic lenses required a little more light. The Sony F65 helped us out with that. The camera is a bit more light sensitive, capturing ambient light which lends itself to anamorphic at night.
The F55 was used for hand-held and Steadicam work.
And the a7S is a consumer brand stills camera with a neat video function, It’s very light sensitive and was helpful in a lot of night sequences. [Sony recently introduced a new version of the camera, the a7S II.]
SHOOT: What was it like working with Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki and Terrence Malick, first on The Tree of Life and more recently on an as yet untitled project?
Simonite: It’s one of my career highlights, getting to work under the direction of Terrence Malick and Chivo. They are both geniuses at their craft and I learned a lot from my experiences with them. I’ve been fortunate to have the mentorship of other incredibly capable cinematographers. I’ve been around long enough to have started loading 35mm cameras–back when HD cameras didn’t exist. I moved up the ranks and was able to see some of the greats at work–Chivo, Bruno Delbonnel, Dean Semler, Daniel Pearl, Laszlo Kovacs, John Alonzo–and they were very generous. It made for a great education.
