Agile filmmaking grounds The Suicide Squad in magical realism

British Cinematographer

Filmed entirely with IMAX-certified RED cameras, The Suicide Squad is the explosive return to action of DC Comics’ Super-Villain characters.  

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A completely standalone feature, Warner Bros. Pictures release The Suicide Squad is envisaged by writer-director James Gunn and inspired by the classic 1967 war movie The Dirty Dozen, among others. “The way that movie is shot is the way I’ve wanted to shoot every movie but have not been able to until now,” Gunn declares.

Cinematographer Henry Braham BSC and Gunn found a fluidity of movement for the large format canvas that defies convention. “Nearly every shot in this movie is on the move,” says Gunn. “We also wanted to get up close and move around and between people. The tech has advanced to match what I see with my mind.” 

In the film, a task force of convicts, including Harley Quinn, Bloodsport and Peacemaker, are sent to destroy a Nazi-era facility and laboratory. The ensemble cast includes Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, John Cena, Viola Davis, and Pete Davidson, among others. 

“James conceived the movie as magical realism,” relates Braham, who collaborated with Gunn on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. “It is a black ops caper with highly dysfunctional Super Heroes. But the flaws in their characters make them highly relatable to an audience. They have a humanity to them which is what James is interested in portraying.” 

A main goal for the filmmakers was keeping the story visceral and real to create a grounded atmosphere for what are over-the-top and sometimes ludicrous characters. “Of course, the story is fantastical,” Braham admits. “We have a walking shark in the movie! So, to make it believable for the audience, we needed a look and feel for the movie that combined fantasy with realism.” 

Braham points out that King Shark (voiced by Sylvester Stallone) was created with special effects and prosthetics in keeping with the desire to keep as much in-camera as possible. Likewise, the filmmakers opted to shoot jungle scenes on stages at Pinewood Studios (now Trilith) in Atlanta and beautiful locations in Panama, rather than use virtual production techniques.  

Braham lit the giant sets to allow Gunn to design shots from any angle. “If you can light truthfully, you can move the camera freely, no matter how large a setting,” he explains. 

Gunn and Braham evolved a dynamic shooting style that they agree wasn’t possible before the creation of RED’s latest camera innovations. “The Suicide Squad is a rollercoaster ride on the big screen,” Braham says. “You want the smallest physical technology possible with the best picture quality you can possibly achieve. That’s the case with RED.” 

The director and DP’s journey with RED began with Guardians Vol. 2, the first feature film captured on the 8K RED DRAGON VV sensor inside the WEAPON camera. “Jarred (Land, RED’s CEO) and the team at RED were really engaged with us on Guardians and in the intervening time they’ve taken another big step forward,” Braham notes. “For The Suicide Squad, I needed to bring together two potentially irreconcilable demands: to shoot a large format 70mm movie with a fluidity of movement that feels alive. It is a style of filmmaking that gives total freedom to James. The decision to shoot RED was a slam dunk because the technology serves the idea.” 

Braham selected an array of eight REDs, including RANGER MONSTRO 8K VV and WEAPON 8K VV as well as a KOMODO, each mounted in different ways to offer maximum flexibility on set. “The physicality of these cameras means you can invent entirely new ways to use them,” Braham says. “It’s like having an array of musical instruments all tuned in different ways for different shots. I can put one down and pick another up to achieve the exact shot we need.” 

Braham and his camera team made customised gyrostabilised mounts to enable genuinely stabilised hand-held movement on The Suicide Squad. The RANGER MONSTRO was Braham’s primary camera with the KOMODO, then in prototype, used on select shots. “KOMODO is a great little camera,” he says. “There are shots in the movie we could only get with something that small that comes with high-res imagery.” 

All the camera configurations were made possible by the form factor of the cameras, but the moment large lenses are mounted on, the possibilities diminish. Braham’s choice of Leica M-System glass kept image quality and maneuverability in mind. “The decision had a lot to do with the lens geometry combined with the VV sensor, which worked incredibly well for what I needed. I could shoot large format on wide lenses without distortion, or I could make the camera very intimate with the actors when required.”  

Braham partnered with award-winning colourist Stefan Sonnenfeld, co-founder and president at Company 3, to develop the LUT. “I like to use stills and paintings as references,” Braham says. “I’m looking at the quality of colour and tone of contrast, as well as the shape of black and the shape of white. For the core visual idea of The Suicide Squad – which is of a colourful, rich but violent war movie – I wanted a lot of colour and beauty alongside gritty reality.” 

Company 3 also prepped dailies for Gunn and Braham to view projected on set. “Every day we’d build the look of the movie as it would look on a big screen in a theatre,” Braham says. “What RED has done is come up with tech that is so small yet perfect for shooting pictures made for IMAX.” 

Braham asks us to view this in context of the history of moviemaking. “Long ago, technology defined the types of movies that got made. With the invention of sound, the cameras got huge, and the film stock was very insensitive, so that meant movies had to be made in very controlled situations. To me, camera size and image quality are everything. RED is at the vanguard of this. It means that I can begin a creative conversation with ‘these are the requirements of our movie’ and then determine ‘what are the technologies we need to do it.’” 

Braham’s next project is also being captured with RED cameras. “Once you’ve been bitten by the freedom of filmmaking, it sets directors and actors free,” Braham says. “That freedom is something that I find fascinating and, for me, the key to it is the physicality of the camera.” 

Crew credits: B camera operator/Steadicam Chris McGuire; C camera operator Tom Lappin; Second unit DP Patrick Loungway; 1st assistant A camera Taylor Matheson; 1st assistant B camera Will Emery; 1st assistant C camera Max Junquera; chief lighting technician Dan Cornwall; and key grip Kurt Kornemann.