PH - my 12th feature film

[Brandon Ruiz]

 

I thought I'd post some of my journal from my horror feature film shoot in a tiny town south of Las Vegas last August. It marks my 12th feature film as cinematographer, and as this site has been my primary film school over the last 15 years, I figured it was time to post another project of my own. I will refrain from posting too many names as well as the actual production title until the film releases, just to avoid any conflicts with whatever powers-that-be that might take issue. 

I was first brought on to this project through a producer I regularly shoot for. He introduced me to the writer/director and he pitched me on the trailer first--he had it mapped out beat by beat, then he showed me the entire film shotlisted and storyboarded, and finally his references, horror films like "I Spit On Your Grave". He loved film grain and a traditional earthy tone but liked the look of my last released film which was quite colorful and shot anamorphic. I was quite impressed, but said I wouldn't commit until I read the script. 

Scripts usually take me three hours to read. I have ADHD, I get distracted by literally everything around me, and its just generally a pain to read them quickly, but I sailed through this one. Written so well, it was far more suspense and thriller than horror. The characters were strong, the locations simple but effective. The frames jumped right off the page. I was pumped. 

I called him back. He loved my enthusiasm, but said he just spoke with the producer that introduced me to the project and that producer said he wanted to pull me off it, give it to newer DP and put me on a bigger budget film planned the following month. I was bummed, but relented as this little horror film would only pay 1/5th my normal fee. Still, I couldnt get it out of my head. 

A few months went by and the bigger budget film fell through, I started prepping another near-micro budget film but just wasn't vibing with the director, even in pre production. My phone rang one day and it was the producer of PH. I was back in. 

The production found a nearly deserted desert town about an hour and half south of Las Vegas. It had almost everything we needed within a three block radius including an airport, a diner/casino, trailer homes, a motel (where we all stayed) and of course the desert. 

We shot on the Sony Venice 1 with the Atlas Anamorphic A set. A significant portion of the film would be camcorder footage, which my uncle very graciously loaned his Canon XL-2 for the job. After extensive testing and conversations with the producers and distributor, we made the decision to only use the Canon as a prop camera, and record the 'camcorder' footage on the Sony FX3 in 4k 4:3. I outfitted it with a Teradek transmitter and had our actor train with it, as the director and I decided the motion of his operating would be far more realistic than mine in terms of the look we were going for. 

The Sony Venice is an easy sell to indie producers because of the full array of internal NDs and dual recording. They want instant dailies and they don't want to pay extra for them. I build a LUT with my colorist in my free time independent of projects and then adjust as needed for the particular shoot. I really like having an acceptable look coming out of the Venice because out of the box it looks a bit more neutral (sterile) to my eye than Arri cameras by comparison. I also used a 1/4 hollywood black magic filter on almost every shot, even the 100mm unless the blooming was way out of hand. 

It's been fun getting acquainted with the dana dolly all over again. I hate it and I love it. Thankfully I have good grip support to set it up right and quickly, so I can do longer moves up to 12 feet without much shaking.