Controlling Elemental Forces in Shadow and Bone

 RED Digital Camera

The epic fantasy series Shadow and Bone takes us into the Kingdom of Ravka, a war-torn land where a young cartographer discovers she has extraordinary powers that could be the key to setting her country free. An adaptation of Leigh Bardugo's worldwide bestselling Grishaverse novels, the series joins titles like The Witcher and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina (both shot on the RED MONSTRO sensor) on Netflix.

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The latter show’s pilot was directed by Lee Toland Krieger and lensed by David Lanzenberg. They reteamed at the request of showrunner Eric Heisserer to template the creative palette for episodes 1 and 2 of Shadow and Bone.

With the Kingdom of Ravka divided by a mysterious wall of darkness, building the world of Shadow and Bone would be the principal task for the filmmakers. “The aim was to create a realm that buys into the distinct Tsarist Russia look and steampunk tone of the novels yet steer away from bright, poppy saturated imagery,” Lanzenberg relates. “Lee felt very strongly about using subdued and muted colors of the kind that resonated with films like Dunkirk.”

Indeed, there are large scale army camps in Shadow and Bone that recall the soldiers on the beach in Christopher Nolan’s film. Other inspirations for Lanzenberg came from the golden period of 1970’s American cinema and films like Heaven’s Gate and McCabe & Mrs. Miller, both lensed by Vilmos Zsigmond, ASC.

“Lee is very aware of what a specific lens and camera combination can bring to bear on telling a story,” the cinematographer says. “With the combination of our desired lensing and 4K resolution, we felt that the MONSTRO sensor was the way to go to achieve our look and tone for the show.”

The DP and director have worked with RED since the feature The Age of Adaline (shot on a RED DRAGON). They used the MONSTRO sensor with a set of anamorphic lenses for the bold aesthetics of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina.

“The glass we used for Sabrina was detuned and distorted and looked as if the image was melting like a painting by Francis Bacon,” Lanzenberg describes. “The effect was used at specific weird and magical times in the story to give the viewer almost no context as to where the characters were. For Shadow and Bone, Lee and I wanted to shoot anamorphic again on the DXL2 with a RED MONSTRO sensor, but this story didn’t need to be as extreme. This time we wanted to feel more of the scope of the locations. There was no need to defocus so much.”

Lanzenberg selected Panavision B Series anamorphics along with a 55mm Macro. “We were able to lend the show a very classical feel and impart a lot of texture because of the way the MONSTRO captures the lens,” he says.

Lanzenberg recorded the full frame 8K sensor knowing that the anamorphic squeeze would capture 6K. Visual effects, led by Ted Rae, were able to use that overhead to deliver a 4K master to Netflix.

Principal photography took place at the Mafilm Studio complex in Fót on the outskirts of Budapest. Before travelling to Hungary, Lanzenberg created the show’s look with colorist Shane Harris of Picture Shop.

“I worked with the production designer (Jonathan McKinstry, episode 1 and 2) and costume designer (Wendy Partridge) to hone and tweak the colorimetry,” he explains. “I like to take stills of fabric swatches or photograph aspects of the production design to see how they look under different lighting conditions and to keep within Lee’s references. Then, I share that with the colorist to evolve the LUT.

“For Shadow and Bone, we kept some warmish, coral tones while the shadows have a hint of blue in them. Additionally, the highlights are protected and the shadows aren’t deep to suggest that there’s always life in the darkness.”

He adds, “I think of the RED sensor in the way I would select film stock. What I really like about RED is the control I feel that I have over the final image from the show’s design through photography and into post.”

In keeping with the pseudo-Royal and 19th century period of the story, Krieger and Lanzenberg kept the camera movement classically motivated by the action.

“When we needed to create some tension, I’d bring out the handheld but sparingly,” notes Lanzenberg. “Composition and motivation were something we tried to keep in check. Although we had three cameras, for medium shots and closeups we tended to keep to one camera to aid the artists’ performances first and foremost and because I find a focus on single camera benefits lighting.”

Lanzenberg also made it a point to communicate his thoughts on every aspect of production to co-DPs Owen McPolin and Aaron Morton who lensed the subsequent six episodes with the same camera package.

“From the beginning they had access to our dailies to understand how to assimilate the look,” he says. “I think it’s very important for all crew – and particularly my peers – to be on the same page and deeply involved on a show such as this. It means sharing what went right, the reasons for craft decisions, and any struggles we had in order to make the whole show better.”