NAB
Apple TV+’s detective
drama Sugar starring Colin Farrell has an unconventional
visual style that includes footage shot on iPhones, multiple camera setups and
classic film noir clips inserted into scenes.
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Scripted by showrunner
Mark Protosevich with Farrell as executive producer, Sugar is
directed by Brazilian filmmaker Fernando Meirelles, co-director of City
of God and director of The Constant Gardener. The series
is shot by cinematographers César Charlone and Richard Rutowski, ASC and edited
by Fernando Stutz.
“We really work as one,”
Meirelles told IndieWire’s Chris O’Falt. “If I can’t take César and
Fernando, I won’t be able to [do the project], that was my only condition.”
As O’Falt
explains, Meirelles’ approach to directing is to play a scene from beginning to
end rather than dividing it into camera setups, while Charlone documents it
with two to three and sometimes even up to seven cameras.
“The first
thing we learn in film school is never jump the eyeline,” said Meirelles. “I
tried on purpose to jump the eyeline just to test [it out], and it really
worked. It gives a dynamic to the scene.”
“We have
developed what I would call a documentary style,” Charlone said. “We leave the
actors very free to move around, my crew does not put [down] any marks, the
actors just move around and we follow them with the camera.”
After each
take, Charlone changes the camera’s angle and movement. Meirelles said that
after two hours of shooting, he will often have 15 to 16 different angles, each
master of the whole scene. This approach often leaves them an hour or two ahead
of schedule, which just encourages more experimentation.
This gives
Stutz a lot of material to compose with. “I start by looking through César’s
lenses because it’s the way he moves through the scene,” the editor told
O’Falt.
“When he
operates the camera I’m always interested where he’s going, what he’s looking
at, and then from there, start to build the sequence.”
One of the most striking
aspects of Charlone’s work on Sugar is his use of iPhones to
not just capture reference stills but footage for the show.
“I’ve been using iPhones
for some time now,” Charlone explained in an episode of the Kingdom of
Dreams podcast. “They are incredibly versatile and practical,
especially in confined spaces. For Sugar, we did extensive testing
to ensure the footage could blend with that from the Sony VENICE cameras.”
The iPhones
proved especially useful for filming car scenes, where their compact size and
flexibility allowed for unique angles and dynamic shots.
“For all the
car scenes, with Colin driving, the iPhone is very practical because I can put
it behind the steering wheel, move it around easily, and I use VR goggles to
see the image I’m capturing.”
This approach
not only saved time but also kept the energy on set, allowing actors to perform
naturally without the interruptions typical of traditional setups.
“I try my best not to interfere with the relationship of the actors on set,” Charlone says. “We avoid marks and traditional setups, letting them move freely and following them. This way, they don’t have to follow the camera, and it helps them perform better.”
Cinematographer Richard Rutkowski, ASC picked up the reins from Charlone for his block, working with director Adam Arkin on Episodes 3, 4 and 7. This included using multiple cameras.
“We’d plant cameras
strategically around the set, sometimes hiding them to capture different
perspectives,” he explained to Tara Jenkins at American
Cinematographer. “This method was particularly effective for scenes
involving security camera footage or social media posts.”
He also aimed to evoke classic film noir while incorporating the vibrant, sun-drenched atmosphere of Los Angeles.
“We talked about classic
noirs, private detective stories, and films like The Long Goodbye.
I also brought up The Constant Gardener because of its
selective saturation and beautiful use of color,” Rutkowski recalls.
“We knew we’d
be traveling with Sugar in a car through broad daylight in LA, and we wanted
that LA blue sky without it looking too candy-colored.
“Digital can be unforgiving with overexposure, so planning the route and managing the iris was crucial. We used a low loader for some shots and relied on natural lighting for others, capturing the authentic look of LA.”
Rutkowski also talked
about the “meta” nature of the show which actually inserts portions of scenes
from classic neo-noir films (The Long Goodbye, The Grifters, LA
Confidential) into the on-screen story.
“It’s sort of a semiologist’s dream that you have a lead character whose own identity is entwined with his search for others,” he told David Philips at Awards Daily.
He said he
didn’t know when he signed up that this was going to happen. “It wasn’t known
that there were going to be such explicit cuts to classic noirs. We knew we
were sourcing visually and tone-wise from those films.
“I’m not sure
when it became apparent that they were going to actually cut in scenes from
Mike Hammer, although it made sense because we were treating LA very much as a
character in the way that it becomes a character in those films.
“And all I can
say is, while that would have given me hesitation if they told me we’re
literally going to cut in these classic films to your work, it wasn’t there for
me to worry so much at the time.
The show is one of several
recent series that has used black and white photography to tell its story.
Others include another Italian-set noir murder mystery Ripley, and
the third episode of FX’s Feud: Capote vs. the Swans.
Sugar begins with a black-and-white opening sequence before color seeps. The B&W was shot in color and converted in post.
“Fernando wanted to start
that opening in Japan in black and white as kind of a throwback to [Akira]
Kurosawa films, and for it to feel a little otherworldly as well,” executive
producer Audrey Chon told Hunter Ingram at Variety. “It just
added a whole other dimension to the show and to the character of Sugar.”
As Ingram
observes, taking color out of the picture literally opens a whole new world of
awareness for a viewer. In these extreme darks and blinding whites, more can
also be concealed.
“With black and white,”
adds Feud cinematographer Jason McCormick, “you can get away
with murder in ways you couldn’t when you are shooting in color.”
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