Force of Nature: Matthew Chuang, ACS on Apple TV+ Epic Series “Chief of War”

Interview and words written for RED

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The epic saga of Hawaii’s violent unification at the turn of the 18th century is powerfully told by filmmakers who lean into the energy of the islands’ natural environment. Performed by a predominantly Polynesian cast, Chief of War was created by Jason Momoa and Thomas Pa‘a Sibbett and produced by Fifth Season and Chernin Entertainment for Apple TV+. The sweeping drama was almost entirely shot by Matthew Chuang, ACS for directors Justin Chon, Brian Andrew Mendoza and Momoa.

“We were all on the same page when it came to the look,” Chuang explains. “The show is about Hawaii culture and history. So, first and foremost, we wanted to pay respects to that. It had to feel real. We didn't want to go contemporary or too stylized. We wanted to keep it quite naturalistic and genuine and to work with ambient light.”

They referred to classic historical epics like Braveheart, The Last of the Mohicans and The New World. “A lot of Terrence Malick and some Tarkovsky too,” says Chuang. “Then we aimed to put our twist on that.”

The production shot on location in Oahu, Maui and Big Island before re-locating to New Zealand, partly for economic reasons and partly to access lesser seen landscapes. Kuli'ou'ou Ridge in eastern Oahu, for example, is stunning but has featured in everything from Jurassic Park to George of the Jungle.

“Jason especially wanted to go to and shoot in places that have never been shot before. New Zealand made sense not just because it has the filmmaking resources and stages but Māori culture is Polynesian in spirit. It was really a great match for Hawaii.”

On recces, Chuang carried a RED KOMODO with Atlas Mercury lenses to shoot the locations with a particular eye to light conditions.

“The path of the sun was a big factor for us. On every scout we’d look at the sun direction, where it rises and sets, and where it is in the middle of the day. Recording this on KOMODO was a really good basis for us to start building the look and seeing what the locations looked like in a 2.39 frame. We continually reverted back to those references as we selected locations.”

Momoa took a keen interest in these scouts. “Jason loves the visual side of things. He loves cameras and lenses, so everything was discussed. He encouraged us to push the cameras in tests and see what they produced in full sun, dapple sun, in cloud, at sunset, with firelight. It was good for us to have crew on location for tests as well because we needed to see how fast we could move and react to the natural elements.

“Everyone immediately saw the results of the tests and were like ‘Wow! This is really interesting and it feels very realistic.”

Momoa stars as Ka‘iana, the warrior charged with pulling four warring kingdoms into one nation. The ensemble cast includes Luciane Buchanan, Temuera Morrison, Te Ao o Hinepehinga, Cliff Curtis, Kaina Makua, Moses Goods and Siua Ikale’o.

Much of the story takes place against the backdrop of beautiful and harsh natural vistas including beach, volcano, sea and jungle. The choice of large format in conjunction with the way Chuang moves the camera allows the intimacy of the performances to be contextualised against epic scale.

“We let the blocking of the characters lead the camera quite a bit,” he says. “At the same time, we see the space of their environment. A lot of that is designed around which direction we'll see the characters, what time of day in the schedule depending on the location and on where the sun is, and obviously responding if it's full sun or cloudy.”

Chuang, who shot the majority of the series on V-RAPTORS, used atmospheres like smoke and spray to add texture but they often had to deal with what nature provided on the day. Out on the ocean, for example, they were constantly shifting the position of the actors in accordance with the sun and clouds. In the forest they designed shots for a particular time of day using smoke to bring out the shafts of light. If it was cloudy and the scene needed full sun they brought in large light sources.

They shot two-cameras for drama and bulked up to four or more cameras for action sequences.

“Our ultra slow motion plates of surf and torch flames and action throughout the whole series is shot on V-RAPTOR because it has a such a great high frame rate capability,” says Chuang who began his career shooting RED One and graduated to EPIC when it released. “There are a couple of Phantom shots of the battle in the first episode but most of this was on V-RAPTOR.”

In the opening sequence to the series, Ka‘iana dives underwater to wrestle with, then ride, a shark. “That was a day of full sun which was tough but the sequence ended up being quite poetic,” he says. It was filmed in the waters off Hawaii using a V-RAPTOR housed in underwater casing by specialist Don King. Jason Momoa was harnessed to devices to simulate being pulled back and forth -- understandably, the shark itself is CGI.

“Color rendition was a big factor in our choice of RED,” says Chuang. “Starting off in Hawaii we wanted the greens of the landscape and the skin tones to be right. The colors on the character’s capes were quite specific so we needed to be true to that look. We didn't want to stylize the grade too much nor to force anything that felt too designed. The color was all quite naturalistic, enhanced a little with contrast and saturation.”

Chuang built a look with Tom Poole, senior colorist at Company 3, with whom he and Chon had worked on Blue Bayou. “He just gets our sensibility and can see straight away where we’re heading,” says Chuang. “He built a basic LUT for our tests after which we developed it further. It was a LUT built with all our cameras in mind.”

Poole graded the first two episodes, setting the look for the series for day and for night. Chuang explains, “Fire light was the main creative source for night, but to have the flames properly exposed we had to supplement quite a lot in and around the space with supporting light, additional fire light and more moonlight. It was quite an extensive lighting set up.

“The toughest thing with shooting out in full sun and trying to maintain highlights without blowing them out. That was why we needed cameras to be able to handle high dynamic range which V-RAPTOR did superbly.”

Apple's streaming requirements dictated a 4K minimum deliverable which entailed shooting full frame. “We wanted the 2.39 scope and classic anamorphic look but there’s not a huge range of full frame lenses in that format, so Panavision presented us with a set of T-Series lenses that they could modify. This custom look pushed the halation and contrast towards more of a vintage C Series look.”

The episode 9 finale, directed by Momoa, features an epic battle scene shot on a real lava field on Big Island. “No-one's ever really filmed something of that scale there before but Jason really loved the idea. Then our questions were ‘Can we even shoot here? And how can we make it possible?’ We commissioned geologists to survey the area to make sure it was safe.”

The sequence was scheduled to film over eight days and was meticulously planned and prevised involving choreography of five film units, special effects, stunt teams and hundreds of extras.

“The way the battle was scripted has it starting in day and progressing into sunset then night as the lava field is erupting. Once again, we scouted with the direction of the sun in mind and planned to shoot pieces with different units often simultaneously, depending on which scenes needed which actors and which section we could shoot at what time of day in accordance with the sun’s path.

“Sometimes we’d start at 3AM and shoot the night first then go backwards into the morning and into the day. Jason, who was also acting, enlisted the help of Brian and Justin to direct sequences and we all just bounced between the units. That was definitely the biggest sequence by far. It took my lighting guys two weeks just to run cables and have the lights set up.”

Chuang is indebted to gaffer Greg Doi in Hawaii, and Scott Harman and Sean O’Neill in New Zealand, while Jason Ellson was A camera operator for Chuang throughout.

“When Justin told me about Chief of War we knew what the potential could be with scope of the show and the responsibility of the subject matter. But once we started the sheer scale of it was quite daunting especially working to TV schedules.

“We had to be smart in our approach. There was a lot of discussion about how to deal with the weather. We had to constantly shift our plans. We needed the crew to be flexible since we would scout one location then two weeks later it would look quite different because of the environmental conditions. Shooting in and on the water you’re dealing with the tide and wind as well as full sun.

“There was a lot of elements that we couldn't control but as we started shooting we trusted more in our camera operators, we trusted more in the camera and the lenses, and that gave us confidence to push ourselves more and more. I’m extremely proud that the crew was on board with that so we could achieve what we did.”