One DP picked up his second career Emmy nomination, this time for an episode of a limited series. He actually lensed all the show’s episodes, collaborating with the same director throughout.
Another cinematographer was nominated for the only drama recognized in the half-hour series category.
And our third and fourth Emmy nominees were part of a DP ensemble who shot a documentary carrying cause for optimism over our political future–quite a feat during an era marked, and marred, by divisiveness and a lack of civility.
Here are insights from Armando Salas, ASC on Griselda (Netflix), Richard Rutkowski, ASC on Sugar (Apple TV+), and Laura Hudock and Thorsten Thielow on Girls State (Apple TV+).
Armando Salas, ASC
When cinematographer Salas delved into Griselda with director/executive producer Andrés Baiz, the exploration didn’t take the path one would expect for a story centered on Griselda Blanco, creator of a ruthless drug cartel. As they looked to set the tone and visual language for the limited series, Salas recalled that he and Baiz steered away from gangster and crime movies as inspiration.
Salas in particular remembered a conversation in which Baiz noted that although Griselda will “get very bleak and dark at times, he didn’t want a bleak show. He wanted to focus on the empowering aspect of two parallel storylines”–namely two women making their way through sexist organizations: Blanco (portrayed by Sofia Vergara) in the drug world, and June (Juliana Aidén Martinez) in law enforcement as a homicide detective. He wanted to balance the darkness with the “joy and fun, push and pull” of these two women’s lives, related Salas whose cinematography on the “Middle Management” episode earned one of three Emmy nominations garnered by Griselda–the others being for lead actress in recognition of Vergara’s performance, and limited series’ period costumes for the “Paradise Lost” episode.
Visual references extended far and wide, including select movies for blocking and camera movement to heighten character development, still photography from Andy Sweet who beautifully captured Miami in the 1970s and ‘80s (invaluable for the art department, wardrobe and serving as a guide to what to look for in locations), and even a painting, “Salome Dancing” by German artist Franz von Stuck. “Salome Dancing” was described by Salas as “an allegorical inspiration” for Griselda, depicting a woman holding a severed head, breaking away from mother figure portraiture to instead conjure up a powerful, sexual woman, determined to succeed by any means available. The combination of green and gold in the painting became a starting point for Salas in constructing a LUT for Griselda. Salas said this translated into more of a painterly approach reflected in Polaroids he and Baiz took during pre-pro, impacting lensing and then extending into colorist sessions.
Salas shot all six episodes of Griselda, collaborating with Baiz throughout. “It was like a giant six-hour movie–perhaps more like a couple of three-hour movies,” related Salas, noting that the opportunity to create all six chapters of a narrative from the ground up was too good to pass up. Salas said that his and Baiz’s process was “much more about finding a voice in the storytelling that was going to be unique and not necessarily rely on traditional coverage.” In the process, elements were brought together visually that on the surface might seem contradictory but added to the authenticity, such as capturing both the grit and glamor of Miami in the late ‘70s and early ‘80.
Salas noted that Vergara and Baiz were instrumental in helping to realize a creative culture that was uplifting and driven by a strong work ethic. Salas described Baiz as “always very positive, a great cheerleader. Whenever he’d see me a little stressed out because of logistical challenges, weather problems or COVID, he would grab me by the shoulders and say ‘arte’ (Spanish for “art”).” It was the art of what we were doing that mattered, telling the story in line with a creative vision. “He was true to that vision and passionate about it,” said Salas of Baiz.
Vergara meanwhile kept long hours like Baiz and Salas. Elaborate makeup made each day a marathon for the actor. “Her attitude and passion for being there,” said Salas, “were infectious on set,” particularly in the face of “lots of curveballs” from the likes of COVID and nightmare schedule changes. Despite it all, she helped create “a positive environment that made everyone bring their best work to the table.”
In terms of camera deployment, Salas went with the RED V-Raptor and the Panavision DXL2 with Panaspeed lenses for Griselda.
Griselda marked Salas’ second career Emmy nomination. His first nod came in 2020 for his lensing of the “Boss Fight” episode of Ozark. It was his adroit handling of dark subject matter, reflected in such work as his shooting of the pilot for the series Mr. Mercedes, that drew the Ozark camp to Salas starting with season two. In addition to Ozark and Griselda, Salas’ body of TV work includes From Dusk Till Dawn, Six, Raising Dion, The Terminal List, The Old Man and Strange Angel. Among Salas’ feature credits are the documentary Cocaine Cowboys as well as My Lucky Star, Bitch and The Most Hated Woman in America. In the shorter form arena he has lensed commercials for such brands as Coca-Cola, Motorola and chase Bank, as well as music videos for artists including Katy Perry, Josh Groban and The Weeknd.
Richard Rutkowski, ASC
Sugar (Apple TV+) has been sweet for Rutkowski as its “Starry Eyed” episode earned him his first career Emmy nomination–in the Outstanding Cinematography for a Half-Hour Series category. While he doesn’t preoccupy himself with awards season, Rutkowski found gratification in the nomination relative to how his family felt about it. In a career where he has often had to be away from family for work, his wife and daughter felt joy in the recognition he received from TV Academy members. Rutkowski appreciates and values that his family got to experience and share a career milestone, adding that time apart from loved ones makes the time spent with them all the more meaningful.
The nomination is also distinctive in that Rutkowski is being recognized for the lone drama series in the category. All the other nominations are for comedy shows. Sugar stars Colin Farrell as John Sugar, a private detective who investigates the mysterious disappearance of Olivia Siegel, the granddaughter of a legendary Hollywood producer.
Rutkowski was drawn to Sugar in part for the opportunity to reunite with executive producer/director Adam Arkin whom he worked with on The Americans. Rutkowski credited Arkin with playing a key role in laying the groundwork and shaping the visual and conceptual framework for the first season of The Americans in 2013. They enjoyed working together but hadn’t found a way to reteam on a project until 2022 when the prospects for Sugar emerged. “I like him [Arkin] as a person as well as a creative. He’s very smart with the actors, very astute visually,” assessed Rutkowski, adding that they have a shorthand in place “to the point where we almost didn’t have to communicate,” understanding one another instinctively and often going with the flow.
In order to get the Sugar gig, though, Rutkowski had to connect with director Fernando Meirelles and cinematographer César Charlone who took on the first block of episodes. “It was an easy conversation,” recalled Rutkowski who struck up a rapport with Meirelles and Charlone, finding common fertile creative ground in their knowledge and appreciation of noir classics. “Following César into the next block and then alternating [on episodes] was a joy,” related Rutkowski who embraced the opportunity to provide continuity based on the visual foundation laid for the series as shot by Charlone yet at the same time bringing some of his own visual signature into the equation. Rutkowski described it as a “fun and adventurous” proposition.
Rutkowski also had a deep appreciation for the working relationship enjoyed by Meirelles and Charlone–whose notable collaborations included City of God which earned them Oscar nominations in 2003 for direction and cinematography, respectively.
For Sugar, Charlone and Rutkowski deployed the Sony VENICE camera. For his episodes, Rutkowski found himself frequently doing long handheld takes so he went with the Rialto extension system for the VENICE. Separated from the VENICE camera body, the Rialto extension was light enough to be on a person’s shoulder for 20 to 30 minutes at a time, facilitating Rutkowski’s handheld shooting. Some iPhone camera work was also in the mix.
This intimate handheld approach shed light on the characters. Camera movements helped reflect the mental state of John Sugar and others, including a woman who recalls being assaulted. The camera’s movements become erratic and highlight her nervousness, conveying the distress and emotional trauma she’s reliving.
As for the biggest takeaway or lessons learned from his experience on Sugar, Rutkowski simply said, “You never know.” The prospect of taking on a self-referential modern day noir story meant keeping one’s mind open to the possibilities. Shifts took place in scripts, performances, from behind the lens, underscoring the “necessity of flexibility in vision” as you discover what the show was meant to be. Rutkowski added that he received more positive feedback than he could have imagined from Sugar as audiences seem to have connected with visual, stylistic and conceptual choices. Humor also found its way into the drama.
The series evolved in this healthy manner in part due to a deep camaraderie among cast and crew, “an ensemble feeling” that Rutkowski said was encouraged by Arkin and others.
The Emmy nomination–the lone one for Sugar–adds to industry honors for Rutkowski which include ASC Award nominations in 2015 and 2017 for episodes of Manhattan, and a Film Independent Spirit Award nod back in 2003 for Interview with the Assassin.
Laura Hudock, Thorsten Thielow
Girls State (Apple TV+) garnered three Emmy nominations–for Outstanding Documentary or Nonfiction Special, directing for a documentary/nonfiction program (Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss), and cinematography for a nonfiction program. The latter nod went to DPs Hudock, Thielow, Laela Kilbourn, Daniel Carter, Erynn Patrick Lamont, Keri Oberly and Martina Radwan.
SHOOT connected with Hudock and Thielow, who are both first-time Emmy nominees.
While Girls State takes place in Missouri, the documentary most notably resides in a state of optimism–which is quite an accomplishment in a political era characterized by cynicism and vitriol. Girls State chronicles a group of some 500 Missouri high school students who gather for a weeklong program to delve into politics, democracy and pressing social issues as they build a government from the ground up to address the challenges which face us. All 50 states hold a Girls State program. For the documentary, the wife-and-husband directorial team of McBaine and Moss gravitated to Missouri which has political stripes that span blue and red. Tapping into blue cities and red suburbs yielded a wide-ranging class of young women whose divergent views come into play with the election of a governor and attorney general, as well as the selection of Supreme Court justices.
Hudock’s prime responsibility was following a leading candidate and documentary protagonist Emily Worthmore while Thielow focused on political aspirant Faith Glasgow. Worthmore and Glasgow are part of a class of students who are smart, thoughtful, have done their research, and demonstrate a willingness to engage in discussion and exchange ideas–and perhaps most notably, do so with civility and open-mindedness.
Hudock was impressed by the bipartisanship that the girls exhibited, as well as their willingness to share and explore completely different views while remaining friendly, if not outright friends. “It’s an example of what America needs right now,” assessed Hudock. “They didn’t approach each other with hatred. They were listening with friendship and kindness.”
In the process Hudock learned a lesson or two. “I’m pretty liberal. I had some traumatic documentary experiences having to follow Trump on the 2016 campaign trail,” recollected Hudock, referring to her lensing of the documentary Trumped: Inside the Greatest Political Upset of All Time. When Hudock was informed that for Girls State she would be covering Worthmore, a conservative, there was some initial trepidation. “I quickly humbled myself and learned a lot. Emily no matter her beliefs is a good person and deserved a voice. Regardless if a person has your beliefs or not, if they’re a good human being, that’s what matters.” Hudock also had a shared bond with Worthmore. “I lost my father at a young age and could relate to that loss for her [Emily]–and her being ambitious and smart and wanting to have a voice in the world. We became fast friends and admirers of each other. I feel very lucky and grateful to tell her story. We are still friends and still talk.”
Anticipation was high for Girls State given the plaudits for McBaine and Moss’ Boys State, which took the Sundance Film Festival’s documentary Grand Jury Prize in 2020, then went on to earn a DGA Award nomination and win an Emmy. Boys State followed a group of 1,000 teenage boys who participate in the weeklong Texas Boys State program, divided into two political parties as they seek to build their own system of government. The widely acclaimed Boys State set the bar high for Girls State. McBaine explained earlier to SHOOT, though, that she and Moss contemplated a film about the Girls State program well before the release of Boys State in 2020. McBaine added that Girls State is not a sequel to Boys State but rather “a sibling” that tells its own story about young women who come together in St. Charles, Missouri, during the same week that the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision overturning a woman’s right to abortion leaked to the media. Girls State debuted earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival.
Thielow, who also worked on Boys State, said that a very conscious decision was made “to go into Girls State as its own film. No one wanted to repeat Boys State. The challenge was to let go of Boys State, not expecting it to be similar–to let the [Girls State] story inspire us and the film we were making.
Hudock had not worked on Boys State so was less apt to have any preconceived notions going into Girls State, which marked her first collaboration with Thielow. The two DPs have since worked together on director Matthew Heineman’s American Symphony.
For Girls State, Hudock shot with the Canon C500 Mark II camera while Thielow primarily used the Canon C70. Hudock noted that the C500 was well suited to the task of keeping pace with its subject, Worthmore. “Emily is such an incredible character and person. She’s the Energizer Bunny of the group, running everywhere nonstop across campus. It was a marathon of filming nonstop, running with the camera.”
Thielow shared that Girls State reaffirmed for him the joy of “real verite filmmaking.” He observed, “Surrounded by an incredible team of filmmakers and producers, you shoot these incredible, deeply emotional moments with humans as they experience them in real time…They are in it and they are vulnerable. This is why I do this. Making movies is all worth it.”
Girls State also laid bare the inequity between Missouri’s Girls State and Boys State programs, which were held for the first time concurrently and on the same campus–specifically Lindenwood University, in St. Charles, about 30 miles northeast of St. Louis.
Research by Girls State gubernatorial candidate Worthmore uncovered that the Boys State program had significantly more funding than Girls State. Boys State also received considerably more attention on other fronts, as evidenced for example by the swearing-in ceremonies of the gubernatorial election winners for Boys State and Girls State, respectively. The Boys State’s newly elected governor was sworn in by none other than Missouri Gov. Michael L. Parson. However, Gov. Parsons was not on hand to swear in the new governor of Girls State.
