“BEN AFFLECK ON AIR”, BY FILM & DIGITAL TIMES 10/2/2023, 12:00:00 AM

Ben Affleck: We had the ALEXA 35. I think we were the first or second movie to shoot with it. Chivo and Bruno Delbonnel used them on a series. But I think we were the first movie, and I remember we got three prototype bodies directly from ARRI.

 

         

We used ARRI ALEXA 35 as the main cameras. I had a RED V-RAPTOR 8K VV with the new Angénieux Optimo Ultra Compact 28-76 T2.9 zoom lens. Bob Richardson, ASC had a set of custom prime lenses from Panavision. They were excellent. In order to integrate with those prime lens and to be at a level to satisfy Bob, I wanted to have a compact zoom that I could use to add to the look of the movie—to add a little bit of the kind of “captured look” of the movie. I used the V-RAPTOR because it’s small enough so that when I wanted to get into certain places, I could handhold it with the Angénieux. So, there were “A,” “B” and “C” ALEXA 35 cameras, and my V-RAPTOR was the “D” camera, effectively

Part of the reason I had the Angénieux on the V-RAPTOR was because we started production before we could get all the ALEXA 35 bodies. So I tried using the V-RAPTOR and integrating it with the ALEXA 35. It was also interesting to see how to match the color spaces, which were mainly about the skin tones. We often go back and forth. It’s become increasingly difficult to separate RED and ALEXA color spaces. There was a time when I felt they were more distinct. I think RED has really done a great job of approaching the skin tones. But ultimately, we went with the ALEXA 35 as our main cameras for our particular look on this movie.

The benefit for me using the V-RAPTOR was that I could just get in there. The way I operate is that Bob Richardson sets up two cameras. Obviously, he’s brilliant. He’s a genius. He finds where the shots should be. So inherently, by necessity, I have to be somewhere that you wouldn’t normally put a camera.

Then I have to compose, within that space, a different kind of shot than you would typically see. I like to go handheld. Sometimes I’m racking focus, documentary style. I pull focus myself.

 

           

That was me, most of it. There was some rack focusing in there. As an actor, I often find myself actually liking my off-camera work a little bit better because I’m more relaxed. Especially early on—maybe the first day—I’ll often just go and shoot. I filmed both Matt and Marlon during the other person’s close-up. It was essentially having them in the foreground—not a close-up single, but pulling to them from the foreground. Often, there’s something about the relaxation that you feel when you just don’t think you’re on camera. It actually gets a little bit looser, sometimes a little ad lib. Maybe it’s just me, but I always feel like, “Gosh, I should have done it like that when I was on camera.” There’s just an extra degree of relaxation, so I don’t want to miss that.

Obviously, on [analog] film, you wouldn’t have been able to do that for obvious reasons. Now, in digital, it’s really more about the quality of light. You’re often working at much lower light levels now. It means that you can get in interesting places. And it really becomes about composition in a lot of ways. I wouldn’t shoot something where Bob doesn’t agree. I always say to Bob, “Anything that I get, if you don’t like it, you can throw it away. I am not the cinematographer; you are by a whole long way. Bob is, I think, one of the greatest ever. It’s a real honor that he kind of tolerated my additional shooting.

 

 

Having those moments of performance, “caught moments,” or getting over Matt’s arm and shoulder, just makes it feel a little bit less like a movie to me. It’s kind of half captured and thrown away. I feel that it adds to the authenticity. Not all movies can absorb that. But also, I thought it was an interesting complement to the formality of what Bob does. He can’t help but be masterful. I hate to say it, but a little touch of a much less skilled operator in small doses actually flavors the film in an interesting way. I would never be an “A” or “B” camera operator where my job is to make sure to compose properly every time because I couldn’t be relied on to do it. I’d be doing the actor a disservice because I might have missed a great performance. That’s a problem.

I’ll catch inserts, I’ll get a beer glass filling, the food, environmental cutaways, or stuff in the office. All of that helps fill out a movie where you spend so much more time if you have to go set up for the inserts, and then the entire company stands around while you shoot the sole of a shoe. Whereas, I would just stand there and grab it and the crew might be walking in front of the camera, and I’m just shooting away. I find it very efficient. Also, I don’t have to explain the kind of inserts I want or the way to do it, or start here and rack focus to that.

However, sometimes I do want a very specific kind of insert, for example, when Sonny is in the room at night in the office. You have all those little library type bankers’ lamps on the tables, which was a cheat that I just allowed ourselves to have because I thought they were pretty. 

 

 

         

No, because we matched formats and the RED sensor mode was cropped to match the size of the ALEXA 35.

           

Yes. So that it remained consistent. You want to have the same framing. Otherwise it can become awkward. We had a brilliant colorist, Élodie Ichter at Picture Shop. She is a genius. She did magical things integrating the RED footage with the ALEXA. Bob found her and I see why, because she’s amazing. She was able to beautifully apply the LUT and apply grain specifically to the red, green, and blue components of the image. Because with original film stock, of course, the red, green and the blue layers had different degrees of photosensitivity.