By Robert Goldrich, The Road To Oscar Series, Part 1

LOS ANGELES --

For a cinematographer who’s had a hand in significant technological breakthroughs that have facilitated ambitious storytelling–in his Emmy-winning turn on the hit streaming series The Mandalorian, for example, and now on the recently released feature Dune (Warner Bros.)–Greig Fraser, ASC, ACS, affirmed that “the challenge for me is never the technical.” Instead, he explained, “What I always tackle first is character. If I’m at a movie and not feeling the characters, it doesn’t work. You don’t have to like them but you need to have empathy, feelings for or understand the characters–even a villain. You recognize an element of yourself, have some form of understanding.”

Still, the road to that understanding sometimes requires state-of-the-art tech. Fraser’s experience on The Mandalorian and then his problem solving for Dune reflects the value of purposeful innovation. For The Mandalorian, Fraser teamed with Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) to deploy The Volume, a massive LED soundstage. The stage featured a curved video wall consisting of some 1,300 individual LED screens that created a 270-degree semicircular background topped with an LED video ceiling, which was set directly onto the main curve of the LED wall. The remaining 90 degrees of open area contained two flat panels of more LED screens. The panels were rigged so that the walls could be moved into place or out of the way to provide whatever access to the Volume area was needed. The set was filled with LED panels that would render the actual VFX backgrounds in real time. Thus Fraser didn’t have to imagine as he would in using bluescreen what backgrounds would look like. Instead he could see firsthand and light accordingly to get the optimum desired look for actors and physical props. Thus there’s no disparity between the lighting of subjects and the background. Fraser built towards this tech innovation over time, making initial inroads with ILM on the feature Rogue One: A Star Wars Story into a stage-for-the-future concept that helped lay the groundwork for what came to fruition on The Mandalorian. This took a substantive leap of faith for all involved, noted Fraser.

Yet while this technology on The Mandalorian represents a major advancement that figures to impact many other projects, Fraser cautioned in a SHOOT interview last year that it must be put in proper perspective. “I’m not going to sit here and say this is the end of location scouting and shooting. That would be terribly sad. If we stopped shooting on location or real sets, that would be the end for me, I would retire tomorrow. But if we can use the system to improve certain aspects of filmmaking, you can take that money and time saved and put it in other areas. Maybe we can spend five extra days on location because of the time spent and saved on The Volume.”

Fast forward to Dune, directed by Denis Villeneuve. Grappling with whether to shoot digitally or on film, both the director and DP had some reservations with both options. Fraser recalled Villeneuve responding to some tests, noting that film had a nostalgic feel that wasn’t quite right. Conversely digital could at times feel as if it were lacking humanity and characterization. To address these concerns, Fraser brought into the conversation a technique he had been toying with for a number of years but hadn’t yet had the opportunity to test–shooting digitally but putting film into the process in order to gain some of those much desired emotional characteristics.

Fraser dovetailed with Fotokem, a digital lab that also processes film. They explored shooting digitally (deploying the ARRI Alexa LF and Mini LF cameras), spitting it out to film and then scanning back to digital. While not originating in film, Dune was thus able to have film involved in the process, bringing an analog dimension to the production. Fraser found that being able to push the film stock opened up creative opportunities, affording some control and options that wouldn’t normally be realized. He observed for instance that film lent a softening dynamic to the surroundings. “You don’t have to tell the story of a harsh environment with harsh light and through harsh windows…You allow the wind, the texture and the sound to depict (harshness).”

Again, though, it all comes back to doing justice to the story and its characters. “I want to be able to give the director images that will aid in the audience’s empathy for characters,” related Fraser who noted that for Dune, it was essential that “when creating worlds that are not our own, you need to keep it so that people can recognize the reality. The biggest challenge for me is always keeping things intimate and grounded. It starts from being on set, nurturing the relationship that the camera has to the actors, the director to the actors….I make sure that the crew I choose is respectful of that journey.”

Fraser also went into Dune with the utmost respect for the work of Villeneuve, citing such efforts as Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival, among others. Dune marked the first time that Fraser collaborated with Villeneuve and the DP was honored to get the opportunity to team with a master filmmaker, particularly for a project that the director had been enamored with ever since he was a teenager. “This is a film that Denis had been making in his mind for four decades,” said Fraser.

Villeneuve’s imagination as a youngster was engaged and sparked by Frank Herbert’s seminal 1965 sci-fi novel which introduces us to a young man on a journey carrying heroic themes spanning personal duty and responsibility, destiny, heritage, colonialism, brotherhood, religion, the environment, politics, morality and the lack thereof. The 1965 novel “Dune” did all this in an awe-inspiring poetic manner and when Villeneuve became a filmmaker his dream project was at some point to do cinematic justice to Herbert’s tale.

Villeneuve ultimately will tell that tale in two features, the second of which was recently greenlit by Warner Bros. For the first, he teamed with fellow screenwriters Jon Spaihts and Eric Roth to turn out a script focusing on Paul Atreides (portrayed by Timothée Chalamet), the young man thrust into the heroic journey. That sojourn takes him to the planet Arrakis, an unrelenting desert world fraught with peril but which is the only source of “spice,” the most valuable material in the universe. Chalamet is part of a cast that includes Oscar Isaac, Rebecca Ferguson, Zendaya, Charlotte Rampling, Josh Brolin, Jason Mamoa, Javier Bardem and Dave Bautista.

Dune is streaming on HBO Max and being shown in theaters in both standard format and IMAX. Fraser urged moviegoers to at some point watch Dune in IMAX for the optimum immersive experience. (While entire sections of Dune were shot in IMAX such as the desert sequences, the visions and dreams of Chalamet’s character, the rest was lensed in 2:35 format, helping to make the IMAX portions even more impactful.)

In that movie-going vein, Fraser shared that among his takeaways from the COVID pandemic was a deeper appreciation for the communal group theatrical experience. “Going to a circus in the round is much better than watching a special on pay per view,” he said, noting that the impact of sitting in a theater with strangers, different people coming together from across town to be in a dark room and share an experience–the importance of that has been “absolutely cemented in my mind.”

Similarly another salient lesson from the pandemic is that communication among–and coming together with–the very best people to make a film is something to be savored. Fraser said the artists who worked on Dune were “an amazing group of people” who were “caring, loving and passionate.” Seeing and benefiting from the artistry, for example, of a production designer like Patrice Vermette was a “privilege.” Vermette’s set design is marked by his sense of light, which helped enable Fraser to realize Villeneuve’s vision for Dune. The light was “a character in the film,” assessed Fraser, adding that light wells (from which light could bounce off) built into cavernous set work allowed Fraser to film intimate scenes between actors that wouldn’t have been attainable otherwise.

Dune adds to a Fraser filmography which includes not only the aforementioned The Mandalorian and Rogue One but also the ASC Award-winning and Best Cinematography Oscar-nominated Lion; Zero Dark Thirty which won the New York Film Critics’ Circle Award for Best Cinematography; Bright Star which earned Cinematographer of the Year distinction from the Australian Cinematography Society; and such films as Vice, Snow White and the Huntsman, Let Me In, The Boys are Back and The Last Ride.

The Harder They Fall
“From the first meeting, we realized we got along,” recalled cinematographer Mihai Malaimare Jr. about his naturally connecting with Jeymes Samuel, a singer-songwriter also known as The Bullitts. Their initial discussion centered on Samuel’s feature directorial debut, The Harder They Fall (Netflix). And Malaimare quickly knew that Samuel had ideal filmmaking chops. For one, Samuel had already demonstrated his helming acumen on some short films. But just as if not more importantly, Malaimare saw and felt the mindset of “a brilliant musician” in which affording other collaborative artists creative freedom “is like second nature.” 

Malaimare felt that supportive kinship on The Harder They Fall, a Western with the time-honored staples–gunfights, a train robbery, saloons with character, and an eagerly anticipated marquee reckoning–but also major departures from the norm, breathing new life into the genre with an inspired atypical soundtrack, unique at times painterly visuals, and most notably putting Black protagonists front and center. The movie opens with a title card noting that it’s a fictional story but based on an overlooked reality. The supered message simply reads: “These. People. Existed.”

Jonathan Majors stars as Nat Love, a formidable gunslinger who seeks revenge for a horrific crime he suffered in childhood at the hands of Rufus Buck (Idris Elba). When Buck is released from prison, the countdown towards a showdown begins. Among those riding with Love to bring Buck to justice are Stagecoach Mary (Zazie Beetz), Bill Picket (Edi Gathegi) and Jim Beckwourth (R.J. Cyler).  They’re going up against Buck’s menacing crew which includes “Treacherous” Trudy Smith (Regina King) and Cherokee Bill (LaKeith Stanfield). 

Malaimare said that Samuel “brought joy” to the project, even in the face of challenges such as coping with the pandemic. The cinematographer said Samuel was determined to get his first feature made and took obstacles in stride, doing whatever it took to advance towards realizing his vision. “He took everything with so much grace,” even an unexpected snowstorm, related Malaimare. The director’s positive approach in turn, continued the DP, impacted the crew, setting the tone for an esprit de corps, creating an environment in which “everybody ends up enjoying the process.”

Always enjoyable for Malaimare is “learning from every project. He has an aversion to doing the same thing all over again and getting pigeonholed. "I fear being put in a box,” said Malaimare who thrives when given the opportunity to “do something new” like filming horses for the first time. From this to Samuel’s quest to bring new depth and perspective to the Western genre, The Harder They Fall was ripe with learning opportunities for the cinematographer.

Malaimare deployed two Panavision DXL cameras with the RED Monstro sensor for The Harder They Fall. A third camera, a RED Monstro, was also used. Malaimare said he was drawn in part by the color science created by Panavision, and liked the Panavision camera’s pairing with vintage anamorphic lenses. “Older glass with this camera creates a very pleasant image,” he assessed, adding that the epic Western genre is simpatico with anamorphic. He described doing a Western as “every filmmaker’s dream,” hearkening back to the impression made on him when he first saw Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid as a lad, and later Sam Peckinpah’s The Wild Bunch and the Westerns by Sergio Leone. The latter resonated with his European cinematic roots. Malaimare is from Europe. He began his film career at the National University of Theatre and Film in Bucharest. Malaimare shot several shorts and features in Romania before auditioning for and getting the chance at the age of 29 to shoot writer/director Francis Ford Coppola’s Youth Without Youth, a period drama which garnered an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Cinematography. That film broke him into the American market.

The Harder They Fall also presented the opportunity for Malaimare to reunite with editor Tom Eagles. The two had worked together on director Taika Waititi’s Jojo Rabbit. Malaimare said he and Eagles dovetailed naturally and productively on The Harder They Fall. “From all perspectives, it’s so much easier when you already have a good collaboration going in.” Both Malaimare and Eagles were lauded for Jojo Rabbit, with the latter garnering a Best Editing Oscar nomination.

In addition to The Harder They Fall, Jojo Rabbit and Youth Without Youth, Malaimare’s credits include director Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master, George Tillman Jr.’s The Hate U Give, Scott Frank’s A Walk Among The Tombstones and Sacha Gervasi’s November Criminals. The Master received recognition on assorted fronts for its cinematography, including taking best lensing honors from the National Society of Film Critics, and scoring a Camerimage Golden Frog nomination.

This is the first installment of a 16-part series with future installments of The Road To Oscar slated to run in the weekly SHOOT>e.dition, The SHOOT Dailies and on SHOOTonline.com, with select installments also in print issues. The series will appear weekly through the Academy Awards gala ceremony. Nominations for the 94th Academy Awards will be announced on Tuesday, February 8, 2022. The 94th Oscars will be held on Sunday, March 27, 2022.

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