Stranger Things Season 5: Caleb Heymann on Camera Choices and Cinematography

RedShark News

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After working on this tirelessly for 18 months —including 240 main unit shooting days —cinematographer Caleb Heymann finally has a moment to breathe. “Crafting this monster of a final season was like making eight feature films all at once, and somehow managed to exceed the scale and scope of season 4,” he says.

Set in the fall of 1987, Stranger Things 5 picks up after more than a year after the events of Season 4, which ended with the series villain, Vecna, opening the gate to the Upside Down and the show’s core cast reunited in Hawkins. 

With the final chapters arriving just after Christmas, RedShark down with Heymann to talk about the visual strategy behind Stranger Things’ most ambitious season yet.

Unifying a World of 361 Sets

From the show’s earliest episodes to the present, Stranger Things has distinguished itself through its vast geography — basements, forests, labs, attics, small-town homes, and other-dimensional nightmares.

“One of the unique aspects this season was the sheer scope of locations,” says Heymann, who joined the show’s second unit on S3 and shot the majority of S4, returns to the acclaimed series as Director of Photography for Episodes 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8 of the final season.  “We had a balance of stage builds and real locations, with 361 sets across Volume 1 and 2. As you can imagine, that’s a lot to manage.”

To keep it cohesive there are certain lighting approaches and aesthetic choices that creators Matt and Ross Duffer and Heymann gravitate toward. “Specific lenses, tight eyelines, intentional camera movement, and a consistent sense of contrast.

“The show uses very bold camera movement, but always with intentionality. Those choices become part of the visual signature of the show from season to season, and also from location to location.

“As a DP, there are also colour temperatures I prefer, often incorporating warmed tungsten tones. Within each location, I try to find the colour palette that complements what the art team has created, while still feeling realistic and grounded.”

For example, the Squawk basement — which was a new set — incorporated a mix of uncorrected fluorescent light, daylight from the window (which changes colour temperature depending on time of day or emotional tone), and tungsten projectors. “We used those motivated light sources as a base, and then built colour contrast and mood around them. Location scouting follows a similar logic. We look at what the sun is doing, whether a scene could work as a sunset or a blue-hour moment, and how those natural cues can help define the tone.”

RedShark: Am I right in saying that Skip Kimball has been the colourist throughout?

Caleb Heymann: Yes — and that consistency has been invaluable. And yes, we use a single show LUT. We had one main LUT for the season, with a high-contrast and low-contrast version because we often operated without a DIT, which is pretty wild for a show of this scale. We also had a separate LUT for the mindscape/memory-world scenes, which we wanted to feel more poppy, colourful, and Technicolor-inspired.

Using a single LUT keeps the number of variables limited — it’s a bit like working with one film stock and learning its characteristics, including how it handles under- or over-exposure. Most of the colour choices are done in-camera through the lighting.

The camera package has evolved season to season beginning with RED Dragon (S1) and Leitz Summilux-C lenses, moving to Helium (S2), large format Monstro in RED’s DSMC2 8K VV (S3) and then transitioning to ARRI Alexa LF on S4. What were your decisions this time?

We tested cameras at the start of the season and chose the Alexa 35 for its exceptional ability to handle highlights without unpleasant clipping. You can go nine or ten stops over and still retain naturalistic roll-off, very much like the human eye. It allowed us to be bolder with lighting — for example, blasting hard light through windows without worrying about harsh digital clipping.

On the low-exposure end, the 3200 Enhanced Sensitivity mode opened creative options as well — not for lack of light, but because in some action sequences we wanted greater depth of field. With the amount of camera movement in the show, depth of field becomes a practical concern for focus pullers.

The Alexa 35 also aligns better with the aesthetic period the show references — the 1980s — when Super 35 was the standard. The sensor size felt right for the homage.

For lenses, we primarily used Cooke S4s. We also carried Optimo zooms to match, and MasterBuilt Classics for shots requiring T1.4 or when we wanted more dramatic flares from flashlights. The S4s render faces beautifully and have a subtle character without overly aggressive flares, which was important since we had many bright practical lights in-frame, plus heavy VFX integration.

Season 4 used rehoused vintage Canon FD lenses, which look great but can be challenging for focus pulling — something we didn’t want to battle with during the big action sequences this year.

How did you use Unreal Engine for designing the lighting for the Military Access Zone (Max-Z) and why?

We mainly used Unreal Engine as a planning tool — to communicate with art department, grip and electric, and production. The Max-Z was a huge set, and Unreal helped us determine how many lifts we needed, how tall they needed to be, how many blue screens were required, and where they should go.

We could drop into the virtual set with a 21mm or 24mm lens and see our expected angles, then assess how many actors might drift off blue, or whether an 80-foot or 120-foot Condor was needed. It was extremely helpful for early logistical planning.

Lighting was mostly handled via pre-lighting and the advanced 3D lighting models generated by gaffer Stephen Grum and his team. The fixtures team led by Joshua Earles-Bennet built us custom flashlights and outfitted dozens of vehicles with headlights that we could remotely dim and flicker. The Max-Z also had hundreds of custom practical fixtures — all flickering, all individually controlled — including headlights, brake lights, gun-mounted lights, and base lighting. It was an enormous undertaking.

This season is essentially eight feature-length episodes. You’ve described only a fraction of the complexity — it seems like a scale that very few DPs ever encounter. Was managing that scale the primary challenge, and how did you handle it?

Thankfully, we’d had a similar challenge with Season 4, which was also supersized — over 12 hours of runtime — and shot under COVID restrictions. So we knew what we were stepping into.

As a DP, you learn to switch modes depending on what’s immediately in front of you. It’s a kind of triage: detailed planning for what’s shooting soon, simultaneous long-term planning for the big sequences further out, and early conceptual planning for sets even further away.

I use mood boards extensively for each location, and spreadsheets to track every scene — including camera notes, lighting notes, and specialty gear. Each episode has its own stills gallery from dailies, which allows us to maintain visual continuity even if we haven’t revisited a location for months. This also helps the second unit and the alternating DP (Brett Jutkiewicz) stay aligned.

Did you reference any 1980s films when developing the look of this season?

Yes, many smaller references — individual stills or frames that contribute to a larger mood board for each location. But in terms of major influences: Alien and Aliens were big ones. The sequences in the upside-down military base drew heavily on the lighting texture and bold, alive quality of the lighting in those films. The Duffers are huge fans — the day I pitched “going full Aliens” for the end of Ep. 4, Matt happened to be wearing an Alien T-shirt, so that sealed the deal.

Without revealing plot, can you tease what we can expect visually and emotionally in the final episodes?

Each episode has its own visual arc — something that builds toward a crescendo. The entire four-episode volume also has an arc, with Episode 4 reaching one of the boldest visual peaks of the season. We’ve attempted to do something similar for Volume 2.

There’s a lot of action, but we also worked hard to balance the epic scale with intimate, emotional moments for the cast — to give them space to shine. We shaped the lighting and atmosphere on set to support those performances. I’m excited for people to see it.

Arriving on Netflix soon: Volume 2 (Episodes 5-7): December 25, 2025 and Series Finale on New Year’s Eve.

 

Particle advice: How real is the Quantum apocalypse?

IBC

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While Google forges ahead with unlocking the potential of its Willow quantum computing chip, cybersecurity experts warn that further breakthroughs in the field could catch a digital ecosystem built on crypto security off guard.

Imagine a world where, instead of relying on your own carelessness with house keys to gain entry, burglars only need to examine the lock to cut their own keys. Scale that to an enterprise level, and this is what is believed will happen to every digitally encrypted system on the planet.

“Existing cryptographic systems could be broken by quantum almost overnight,” warns Julian Van Velzen, CTIO and Head of the Quantum Lab at Cap Gemini.

Dubbed the ‘quantum apocalypse’, it could happen as soon as 2030.

“Quantum completely changes the way we need to think about security,” concurs Bob Oates, Associate Director and cybersecurity specialist at Cambridge Consultants.

Robin Boldon, Head of Product at anti-piracy solutions provider Friend MTS, equally urges caution. “Encryption has launched new business opportunities for our industry but has also exposed some of its weaknesses by powering piracy at a scale never seen before. If quantum technology advances in a negative way, you could see how it could unravel an awful lot of businesses that are based on current cryptographic techniques.”

RSA and ECC

Encryption prevents the wrong information from getting into the wrong hands, prevents private communications and data from being manipulated, and gives us assurance that the company or person we are transacting with is who we think they are. The problem is that prevailing methods of cryptography – RSA and ECC – are out of date and on the verge of being irrevocably cracked open by advances in quantum computing.

“Existing crypto systems were invented in the ‘70s and ‘80s and they are ageing,” says Mark Pecen, Chair of a new task force established by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) to address quantum security. “Combine that with the incredible evolution of quantum, and the risk is real. We have to keep a step ahead of criminals because they will attack from everywhere.”

RSA and ECC are among the most commonly used cryptographic systems used to secure everything from military secrets to the emails we send daily. Our PCs and mobile phones have specific hardware acceleration for this cryptography built into them. Crucially, these are asymmetric systems that require a public key and a private key to encrypt and decrypt data, and it was thought that it would take millions of years for even the most powerful supercomputer to crack the math.

Now it is theorised that a suitably capable quantum computer could do it in hours.

It’s not so much that quantum computing can perform calculations faster, but by enabling combinations of binary code (1 and 0) to exist in multiple states (or superpositions) at the same time, it computes problems in a fundamentally different way than serial or linear classical math.

Last year, Google announced that its latest quantum chip had taken less than five minutes to solve a problem that would have taken the world’s fastest conventional supercomputer ten septillion years to complete. The breakthrough Google claimed, “brings us closer to running practical, commercially-relevant algorithms that can’t be replicated on conventional computers.” The company is now working with UK researchers to come up with innovative use cases for its Willow quantum chip.

A matter of time

A quantum computer with the power to crack RSA does not yet exist, but even the most sceptical of experts believe it to be a matter of time. The consensus is that this will happen within the decade, meaning that every company’s digital infrastructure is at risk if it is not upgraded to be quantum safe.

“The date is contentious, but there are credible estimates that between 2030 and the late 2040s RSA will fall,” says Oates. “Once that’s fallen, the other [classical crypto systems] will be very close behind. It all depends on the pace of quantum computing.”

“Let's say you have a computer centre with 100 CPUs. If you want to double the power, you add another hundred CPUs,” says Pecen. “If you have 100 qubits of quantum compute, and you want to double your power, you just add 1 qubit. The capacity of this technology is exploding.”

Cybercriminals and state actors are already thought to be harvesting data and storing it with a view to unlocking it with quantum crypto down the line.

“Any kind of information that's passed cryptographically is potentially at risk of being hacked,” warns Daryl Flack, Partner at Avella Security. “Ultimately, companies need to start actively doing something now, and the problem is that lots of people don't know about it. They are too caught up in the AI wave. They're relying on big vendors to do the job for them, and whilst that may be the case, you still need to understand your risk to understand where your crypto is, what algorithms you're using, who you're reliant upon, and ultimately, what service providers you might need to call on to tackle this impending challenge.”

Post-quantum cryptography

The US government’s technical standards institute has taken the lead. Last year it published three groups of algorithms that it deemed to be resilient to quantum attack. It also mandated that US companies outline a plan to migrate to post-quantum cryptography (PQC) using those algorithms by 2027. Both the EU and the UK have almost identical legislative clocks using the same algorithmic tools.

The EU advises member states to begin transitioning to PQC by “no later than” 2026, that high-risk systems - meaning utilities, telecom, finance and government infrastructure - must be secured by 2030 and that all other systems should have been upgraded by 2035.

“2035 may sound like a long way away but the lead times for what will be required demand action now,” Flack says. “Some of this is going to require new hardware. Device manufacturers in devices need to adjust their manufacturing processes, build new devices, source new chips, test them, deploy them, and if you've got estates with tens of thousands or millions of devices, then replacing those by the beginning of 2030 will be challenging.”

Quantum and media

Amazon, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, InterDigital and Pecen’s own company EigenQ are among 25 members on the ETSI quantum task force.

“Governments understand the urgency, but I don’t think many in broadcast and media do,” says Pecen. “CIOs at companies outside of media that I have spoken with say that the first priority is to replace ageing systems with quantum safe technology.”

“Cryptography is a specialism within a specialism,” says Oates. “Your average IT security person might know some cryptography, but they're not going to be able to really deep dive.”

The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has certified a number of companies to act as consultants for preparing to move to PQC. They include Avella Security, Cambridge Consultants and Cap Gemini.

“Every company has supply chains with different vendors and so it will be crucial to think about what kind of cryptography they use,” advises Van Velzen. “Are they ready to become quantum safe? Do they have a cryptographic roadmap? Can I put in appropriate contractual terms for all the different vendors and products that I have? What are my peers doing and can we agree on standards to sure that that the whole ecosystem is ready to migrate in a sensible way?”

The quantum threat is on the radar of media security specialist Synamedia, but then Alain Durand, its Senior Director, was a cryptography engineer earlier in his career. “I think the initial risk will be to break customer credit cards rather than media content but we always have to look to the latest techniques and adapt,” he says. “Since cryptography is used to secure content in a DRM or in conditional access, there will be a need for an upgrade when quantum compute arrives.” 

According to Oates, quantum computers enable broadly four different types of attack: reading information they illegally possess, sending malicious messages, faking digital signatures and being able to push out software (malware) by pretending to be a supplier that you trust.

We know about advances in quantum computing from the work of big tech giants like Google and Microsoft, but it’s the leaps forward we don’t know about which should be concerning.

“Quantum computers will be available to break current cryptographic systems sometime in the next decade but those machines won't be cheap, and it won’t be on a laptop,” says Van Velzen. “It will be a football-sized machine with millions of small parts and it will cost millions of dollars to run an algorithm to break RSA in the beginning. Initially, it would not be something that everyone has access to, but it would absolutely be nation-states most likely to be able to perform such attacks.”

While nation-states are in a race to develop the technology to spy on military communications, organised criminals are not far behind. “We're already seeing some big tech players talking about renting quantum compute in the cloud for a few hours at a time,” says Oates. “Once that becomes commonplace and cost-effective, then there is a risk that organised criminals will try and do the same.”

State of play

The first principles of quantum computing have been tested and quantum processors are able to demonstrate interaction between qubits and perform some small computations. According to Van Velzen, “We are now seeing companies starting to scale.”

These include Infleqtion in Oxfordshire recipient of a £2.2m fund from the UK government, and PsiQuantum in Silicon Valley, which recently collected a $1bn investment to build what it claims will be the world's first commercially useful, fault-tolerant quantum computer.

“The technological advance most people talk about is how many qubits a quantum computer has, and while that is a measure, there are lots of other things to consider,” says Oates. “The error rate is especially important because the bigger the error rate, the more redundancy you need, which means you need more qubits, which is a multiplying factor of how big the quantum computer needs to be.” Other parameters such as connectivity are equally valuable in connecting each qubit to every other qubit. “There is incredible work going on into building bigger and better computers and every time there's a massive breakthrough, it does shave a few years off the estimates for when it becomes viable,” Oates says.

The media industry is urged to investigate the issue now, to catalogue its cryptographic systems and prioritise an upgrade path. Inevitably, this incurs an investment.

“Change will be required to the encryption algorithms, but that won’t change the fundamental problem or the response to the challenge we face today,” says Durand.

“Pirates will always find a way to steal.”

 

India: AV’s epicentre on the subcontinent

AV Magazine
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India’s pro AV sector is the fastest-growing AV market globally, with 6.4 per cent growth projected for 2025, and 6.2 per cent through 2026, significantly outpacing China (five per cent) and more than double the USA’s rate (2.8 per cent).
The global AV industry reached $321 billion in 2024 and is forecast to reach $402 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 3.9 per cent. India’s performance significantly exceeds this global average.
“The market is fuelled by digital transformation, infrastructure investment, and expanding corporate and education sectors,” says Abhishek Anand, country manager at Netgear Enterprise.
Netgear itself has experienced impressive 40 per cent, year-on-year growth in India, with widespread consumption across private and public sector, education, and hospitality. It expects strong double-digit annual growth for AV-over-IP solutions as enterprises, schools, and government projects embrace networked AV as the new standard.
Christie: Projection mapping BAPS Swaminarayan project at BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir Gondal Temple
Dynamic market for pro AV innovation
Many AV brands now derive 60 per cent-plus of their revenue from IP-based solutions, reports Anand. “As the global market experiences slower growth (CAGR reduced from 5.35 per cent to 3.9 per cent amid tariff headwinds), India’s sustained high growth rate makes it a strategic priority for long-term investment.”
Finding growth prospects to be “exceptionally strong”, Christie’s sales director Rishubh Nayar says: “With rising awareness of the impact of AV on storytelling, education, and public engagement, India is shaping up to become an exciting and dynamic market for pro AV innovation in the Asia-Pacific region.”
Zachery Brandstater, regional sales manager Matrox Video, says pro AV in India “is growing at an incredible pace” adding: “There’s a lot of motivation to embrace AV in many different spaces, and this is directly translating to new opportunities of all different sizes. As one of the fastest growing economies in the world, the potential for new business in the AV space reflects that economic growth.”
Khajuraho Temples, Madhya Pradesh, India, powered by Christie laser projection with Tricolor India Schauspiel.
AV culture in transition
The country is one of APAC’s most rapidly growing pro AV sectors driven by Smart Cities, digital infrastructure build-out, and all-time-high office leasing, maintains Bhaskar Majumdar, general manager for Ross Video. “Additional growth is on tap as businesses and government projects require broadcast-calibre video to facilitate communications, control, and experiences,” he adds.
The culture is in transition. Businesses place high value on innovation and impact, often seeking the ‘wow factor’ in their projects, reports Brandstater. “As technology evolves, installations are moving beyond one-off experiences to integrated solutions that span entire campuses, venues, or even cities,” he says.
“This shift is redefining how AV is perceived and applied.”
Dana Corey, senior vice-president and Global GM at Avocor underlines the shift from traditional, hardware-centric solutions to integrated, collaborative platforms. “There’s a growing appetite for seamless, user-friendly technology that supports hybrid and remote collaboration, reflecting global trends but with a uniquely local energy.”
Jordan Thomas, Quicklink’s marketing manager, concurs: “Traditionally, AV in India was predominately managed with specialist production houses and marquee venues. Today, that culture is spreading into the enterprise and public sector, as AV is becoming an everyday business capability.”
Pink Noise delivered high-fidelity audio to Hussain Sagar Lake in Hyderabad.
Transition from traditional AV to IP-based solutions
QuickLink sees India as a priority growth market and has partnered with local reseller, SRSG for customers to gain hands‑on training and certification on kit including the StudioPro platform. He adds: “Teams want fewer devices, tactile control and workflows they can standardise and support across sites.”
The transition from traditional AV to IP-based solutions requires significant education and change management, though India’s integrator community appears to have shown remarkable adaptability.
Netgear recently strengthened its presence with the acquisition of Chennai-based cloud solutions provider, VAAG Systems.
“India’s AV culture has shifted from being purely hardware-driven to experience-focused and IT-enabled,” says Anand.
“Integrators are now as comfortable with network configuration as they are with signal paths. The appetite for innovation is exceptionally high. AV-over-IP adoption is growing faster in India than in any other region.”
The Millennium School in Greater Noida: Pink Noise partnered with Bhargavaz Pvt Ltd, and installed a professional sound setup auditorium, using the EAW RSX Series.
Smart cities
The government’s Smart Cities Mission epitomises this. By integrating services such as transport, education, emergency response, and entertainment, respondents tell AV Magazine that it creates enormous demand for AVoIP.
“Major infrastructure projects, including metro expansions, airport modernisation, and the Smart Cities Mission, are embedding AV networks into their design,” says Anand. “Sports venues, convention centres, and cultural spaces are also turning to AVoIP to deliver scalable systems that enhance visitor experience and operational efficiency.”
Major cities – Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Delhi – are driving AV demand.
“Bengaluru and Hyderabad, with their concentration of technology firms and start-ups, are hubs for collaborative workspaces and hybrid communication environments,” observes Anand. (Mumbai’s media and entertainment industries, alongside Delhi’s corporate and government sectors, continue to invest heavily in modern AV infrastructure.)
“Bengaluru stands out as a global innovation hub, influencing the adoption of new ideas and technologies,” underlines Brandstater. “Mumbai, as the financial capital, invests significantly to strengthen its international profile. New Delhi benefits from continuous government infrastructure spending, creating consistent AV opportunities.”
Thruvalluvar Statue (Statue of Wisdom) light and sound show, Tamil Nadu. Integration partner MSS World and content creator Knownsense Studios used Christie RGB laser projection.
Government spending
At the same time, government spending is fueling significant growth in tier 2 and 3 cities. “From new museums investing millions in advanced AV to large-scale cultural and tourism projects, these regions are embracing technology as a tool to engage communities and celebrate heritage,” says Nayar.
Christie has supported landmark initiatives, such as the new Bapu Tower Museum in Bihar, as well as heritage projection mapping and immersive public installations across the country. “Together, these projects underscore how AV is becoming an essential part of India’s cultural and developmental story,” says Nayar.
Over the next couple of years he expects AV investment to be driven by large-scale government and private initiatives across infrastructure, culture, and entertainment. “Smart city projects remain a major catalyst, with AV playing a key role in urban beautification, tourism, and public engagement through projection mapping and immersive installations.”
Big tech, finance, pharma, and manufacturing are expanding “growing data centres which fuel demand for advanced visualisation and control systems,” says Majumdar who is leading an expansion of Ross’ local team and preparing to open a new office in the Delhi area.
Long shot of Thruvalluvar Statue (Statue of Wisdom), Tamil Nadu.
Landmark projects
Stadiums, live events, museums, and corporate environments will remain major hot spots. Museums, in particular, have momentum, with these tier 2 and 3 cities investing millions in facilities that rely heavily on AV to enhance visitor engagement.
Christie has contributed to some of India’s most challenging and unconventional projects – from the awe-inspiring light and sound show at the Thiruvalluvar Statue in Tamil Nadu, to a projection mapping on the façade of the revered BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir Gondal Temple in Gujarat, and the illuminations at the historic Khajuraho Temples in Madhya Pradesh.
“These landmark projects reflect how India’s AV culture is embracing bold, innovative experiences and firmly establishing its place on the global stage,” says Nayar.
Revitalising heritage sites
Based in Uttar Pradesh, director at distributor Pink Noise Professionals, Vikram Yadav highlights the surging tourism industry “revitalising heritage sites like forts and lakes with spectacular light-and-sound spectacles that blend history and modernity.
“The live events scene is exploding with concerts and festivals, where flexible pro AV solutions fuse tradition with tech, creating immersive, unforgettable experiences that captivate crowds and boost economies in emerging cities,” he says.
Pink Noise is the exclusive local distributor for the ADAPTive audio system from US vendor, EAW which is now enhancing the Swarnim Sports Academy in Vadodara; the Millennium School in Greater Noida; and public displays at Hussain Sagar Lake and Osmania University in Hyderabad.
“Indian pro AV is booming, fuelled by heavy investments in durable, reliable sound and video systems designed for future scalability. These installations are transforming infrastructure, schools and entertainment venues, extending beyond major cities into rapidly growing tier 2 markets hungry for premium AV experiences,” says Yadav.
India’s scale and diversity
Perhaps the main challenge of doing business in India is navigating its diversity and complexity across regions, regulations, and market expectations.
“As in any large democratic nation, bureaucracy can sometimes slow progress, but this is natural for a country as geographically vast and culturally rich as India,” says Nayar. “Understanding the market’s nuances, being adaptable, and partnering with trusted local teams are essential.”
To strengthen its presence Christie established an ISO 6 (Class 1000 cleanroom) facility in its India office for cleaning and repairing light engines of projection systems – the first such facility in APAC.
The country already boasts one of the most mature and process-driven AV industries in the world, with a strong base of CTS-certified professionals and installations that are not only world-class but, in many cases, set new benchmarks globally.
Primary challenge
For Bandstater the primary challenge is education – “ensuring integrators and end users fully understand how technologies like AVoIP and IPMX can meet ambitious project goals. Building awareness is as critical as the investment itself.
Christie’s Anand believes India’s diversity presents both complexity and opportunity. “Success comes from local partnerships, patience, and simplifying technology to make advanced networking accessible to all integrators. Understanding regional variations across sectors, from corporate to education, hospitality to government, requires flexibility and customisation rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.”
Avocor is supporting flagship projects in smart city initiatives, transport infrastructure, and education, providing interactive displays for modern classrooms and collaborative workspaces.
At InfoComm India 2025, Avocor showcased its largest booth to date at the show, “underlining our commitment to the market,” says Corey. “By expanding local teams and partnerships, we aim to better serve regional needs.”
Storytelling AV
India’s business and AV culture is changing swiftly from traditional ‘room tech’ to live, immersive content experiences. As Majumdar says: “From corporates and educational institutions to government offices and stadiums, organisations must tell stories with the elegance of television using devices that are intuitive and easy to use.”
 

BTS The Running Man

IBC

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Scenes structured ‘like Russian dolls’ present editor Paul Machliss with a challenge in completing this deadly reality TV show

If it feels too simplistic to say that The Running Man gets off to a running start then have a word with film editor Paul Machliss.

“The idea is that we kind of grab the audience and don't put them down,” he says. “Someone will always feel that we’re rushing into it, but I think the whole film has to have energy. It's got dynamics where we go from intense action to longer pauses with dialogue, story and character.”

Even in the film’s quieter moments the music and the score by Steven Price propels the story like a ticking clock. “There is always a pulse running underneath,” Machliss explains. “We’ve got these beats like heartbeats to give a feeling of your pulse. There can't be a let up even when our hero thinks he's got a moment to breathe because there's always someone who know where he is.”

The Running Man will deliver for action genre fans and those with a fondness for the pulp dystopia of ‘70s and ‘80s cinema like Rollerball, Robocop, Total Recall and of course the original version from 1987 starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“The intention was to do an adaptation of the book [by Stephen King] because the original film only used its game show premise inside of a giant stadia instead of literally having the hero on the run throughout the country.”

Written by Edgar Wright and Michael Bacall and directed by Wright the film stars Glen Powell as blue collar worker Ben Richards who enters a life or death TV game show to earn money for his sick daughter in a totalitarian society dominated by the FreeVee Network.

King’s book published in 1982 was coincidentally set in 2025. The production design of Wright’s movie mixes near future tech like AI and self-driving cars with retro ideas like having Richards record selfie videos onto tape which then need mailing by post.

“If it feels like there's a conscious or unconscious throwback to that era, that’s great and I’m sure Edgar and Michael Bacall deliberately incorporated some of that analogue pre-CGI feel but that wasn’t at the forefront of my mind,” Machliss says. “I think we were just trying to do the next Edgar Wright film to be honest.”

This is their fifth film together following Scott Pilgrim vs the World, The World’s End, Baby Driver and Last Night in Soho.

Machliss describes it as “complicated” to put together not least because almost every scene incorporates a secondary filmed element.  “Sometimes it’s a scene within a scene within a scene,” he says.

They had two days before principal photography to shoot footage for a Kardashian’s style reality show called The Americans that features in the film. “We needed that material to be turned around first because sometimes we had to play it back practically on screens within scenes.”

Other inserts included game show Speed the Wheel which Richards and his wife watch in their apartment, a reoccurring behind the scenes video fronted by a guerilla character called the Apostle and several trailer-style adverts for The Running Man.

“We also recorded a five minute wild track of the next round of the Speed the Wheel show, which we knew we weren’t going to see on screen, but that we were going to hear it in the background of the apartment. The host of Speed the Wheel talks about the life choices of his contestant but we made sure that if you listen out for it, it's a little commentary on the dilemma Ben's facing. Only a couple of months ago we retimed all the ad breaks and the background dialogue to make it fit with the scene.”

Given the demanding schedule, Machliss had a couple of other editors help him with these elements; David Webb, who runs London’s Final Cut drew on his experience cutting commercials and promos (including for Wright), and Jerry Ramsbottom, who previously assisted Machliss on Baby Driver.

The most extreme layering in the film happens when Richards stumbles on an open air screening of the game show.

“Just that 90 seconds of footage took us about a week to assemble because we always had to figure what was going on. It’s like a Russian egg in terms of construction.

“There's the Running Man show and the selfie tapes within the game show. There's the audience in the game show watching the game show live and there’s the audience watching it on the outdoors screen. Then we have Ben watching the game show and him watching the audience watching it. You can’t spend all your time compositing the layer so we just had a lot of lot of pictures in picture boxes to juggle.”

As on Baby Driver they prepared an animatic of the entire film for all crew to understand what Wright wanted. This included some editorial transitions worked out by Machliss and DP Chung-hoon Chung in prep. “So when we're shooting we knew the outgoing frame and the incoming frame.”

As he was on Wright’s previous movies, Machliss was on set during photography. “Edgar needs to see how the cuts are progressing, but I’m also there so we can work on those transitions. We commit to the transitions to a degree but not to the extent that we can’t change them in post if we decide a shot had to come out or something had to be a little quicker.”

A staple of this genre is that the chief villain has the ability to spy on the hero, no matter where they are and at any time – as if they had rigged the entire world with broadcast cameras. On The Running Man not only is this loophole solved by having Runners tracked by spherical drones but the images from them that feature in the live broadcast appear to exhibit the correct angle and distance.

“We're trying to shoot all the fight scenes and dialogue scenes in the fuselage of the plane [in the film’s climax] with an A cam and a B cam but there is always someone else covering it with a third camera which will be one of our ‘Rovercams’,” says Machliss. “In reality this was an operator with a Sony FX9 but it meant we always had a complementary angle or two to build the scene.  The challenge was to make it all sync up.”

Script supervisor Lizzie Pritchard had her work cut out to keep track of the story’s timeline. She devised a schedule mapping out the thirty days of Richards’ run.

“You've got to make sure you don't lose the audience, which is why we had the signage appear on the bottom left of the screen, saying ‘Day 5, Day 11’ and so on to give a sense of the time, but also as a help us in the edit,” Machliss says. “For example, how much money has Ben earned at the end of week one? We need to put that on screen. That's not something you normally think about.”

Leavesden, London, Glasgow, Bulgaria

Rather than shoot in four walls of green screen the production built the environment on physical sets and locations which ILM augmented with extensions and replacements.

Glasgow locations provided much of the dystopian near-future USA including the brutalist concrete Anderston Centre and Blythswood Hill. The set for the Running Man game show was built on two sound stages at Warner Bros. Leavesden by production designer Marcus Rowland.

“That's why Edgar was able to do that amazing unbroken Steadicam shot when we walk with Ben out of the elevator into the studio the day he starts The Running Man,” Machliss says. “That shot begins in the loading bay of the sound stage at Leavesden and travels into the back of the stage, which is dressed like a multi-camera broadcast studio. We had a whole crew effectively running the game show for us, as well four or five main cameras on set. Even though the game show cameras weren't technically part of our coverage we filmed from them as well and used that footage on the quad-split monitors in the game show’s gallery.”

The film also shot on location in Canary Wharf and Wembley Stadium (with all bar the steps replaced by VFX). The rail station at Tottenham’s football ground was used for scenes where Running Man buys a train ticket. Exteriors of a US freeway and of mountainous backdrops were all filmed in Bulgaria.

ends