Horror is one of the richest genres for exploring tension, mood and emotions. For Kinematographers, it is a playground for visual experiments: from the shady monster films in the 1930s to neon nightmares from modern indie horror the genre offers endless opportunity to drive style and technology.
For emerging film photographers, understand how the “x” trilogy, “I saw TV Glow, “and” Midsummer “adapted lighting, lentils, formats and color science to induce fear and beauty are crucial. These DPs did not just point and shoot; they designed whole emotional systems.
Eliot Rocket and ‘X’ trilogy – 3 worlds, a series
Eliot rocket, often collaborator by director Ti West, approached the “X” trilogy as three discreet visual challenges. For “X”, the goal was to induce the structure of the horror of the 70s. They shot digitally, but rockets leaned on era-copied lighting fixtures to sell the illusion. He thought the method frustrating. “Part of it was really funky,” Rocked told indiegeres chris o ‘falt 2024. “And I was like,” no more. ”
With “Pearl” rockets knew when he would honor the past – and when to renew. The film Was a tribute to technicolor musicals, but rockets swung to modern LEDs, high-button lighting and removing dimning rigs that made his workflow more efficient while preserved period style.
For the 1980s final “Maxxxine” used rocket modern fixtures but also urged the veteran Gaffer Ross Dunkerley, whose credits extend back to “Leprechaun 2.” Said rocket, “Ross is old school, and he really understands how things have classically lit.”
Kinematographers like Rockett also know how to create an post -production tool such as LUT (aka spread table, a preset file for editing) part of his photography palette. In collaboration with Colorist Tom Pole, they created a customized camera, which lets them simulate halation, grain and contrast curve of 35 mm from 1985. “If you do not work with a lye on the set that gives you 80-90 percent of your appearance, you do not see the whole picture,” said rock.
Eric Yue and ‘I Saw The TV Glow’: Embracing Darkness and Color
Eric Yue’s work on Jane Schoenbruns “I Saw TV Glow” is a master class in building a mood through minimalist lighting and film structure. Yue anchored the look in sources with low light such as fish containers and CRT screens-soft, glowing elements that pulled the viewers into the main character’s main space.
But it wasn’t just about mood; He built a technical work flow around that feeling. Yue thought Digital could not keep the saturated, emotional shades that the story demanded and he struggled to shoot on film, even sacrificed shooting days to make it happen.
“Film has such allegiance in color,” Yue told O’FALT in an interview in 2024. “You can’t drive digitally so hard without feeling artificial.”
Although most of the film was taken on the Master Prime lenses, to shoot the final sequence that Yue switched to Tribe7 lenses for its intense flares, the end angle called and roamed the lighting for a visceral, troubled effect. “I wanted to award panic to a lens,” he said
Pawel Pogorzelski and ‘Midsummer’: brightness can also be scary
Pawel Pogorzelski’s transition from the claustrophobic shadows of “hereditary” to the sunbathing fields “Midsummer” showed a Film art basic. Natural light is not the easy way out; It is the ultimate test of control.
To shoot a horror film in almost constant daylight, Pogorzelski tested several systems before choosing Panavision DXL2, giving him rich color and graceful handling of overexposure. For lenses that could handle lights that were poured in introduced Pogorzelski’s Panavision Lens Tech him to the artist. The series with large format lenses gently lifted shadows and bloomed the highlights for a fairy tale -like glow.
Instead of relying on massive HMIs, Pogorzelski used 20 × 20 overhead frames to form light with bounce and negmation, just to get 18k for close-ups when the clouds interrupted continuity. Like Rocet, he built a lye to simulate Technicolor Three-Strip aesthetics. His cinematography affected the entire production design; The lye he designed with a technician at Harbor Picture Company, even informed the color decision of the art department.
“It is very important to do this work with a Colorist before you are so wild and live in fear,” He told O’FALL 2019. “You need that security line. You know,” Okay, we can have this covered in posts. “
