By Randi Altman

There are just a few shows that are instantly recognizable, and Netflix’s Ozark is one of them. That familiar blue hue highlighting the darkness of the storyline.

Eric Koretz

Well, sadly, it was time for the story of the money-laundering power couple, Marty and Wendy Byrde, to come to an end. And to help tell that story, DP Eric Koretz was brought on to shoot Episodes 8, 9, 10 and 14 of this last season of the show. Koretz joined the crew after the first seven episodes had already been shot by DP Shawn Kim, and his job was to continue to capture the distinctive look and aesthetic of the series while also tailoring it to his own style of filmmaking.

Let’s find out more from Koretz, who submitted the series finale episode, “A Hard Way to Go,” for Emmy consideration.

What direction were you given when you joined, and how did you also make it your own?
Shawn Kim had already masterfully shot the first part of Season 4, so I had a wealth of images to study before I shot a frame. Of course, being Ozark, it’s a filmmakers’ show, so producers are rarely looking over your shoulder, telling you what to do from an image-making perspective.

They trust the directors and DPs to be creative, take risks and tell the story in the Ozark way… meaning we don’t just do traditional coverage. We know the audience is sophisticated in their film language, so shots play out through space, movement and lighting without having to be didactic. Also as a producer, Jason Bateman is very involved in the cinematography of Ozark on a day-to-day basis. Since he’s in nearly every scene, Jason was always there to help guide the story.

What was it like joining an already show in its final stages?
Ozark was already my favorite show before I started on it, so I was familiar with and loved the look and design of the show. I felt right at home the minute I started shooting. It also helps to have an incredible crew in mid-season form. They’re all incredible craftsmen and whenever something felt off, we could always have a discussion whether this was the Ozark language or not.

That being said, as a DP you have to take ownership of the imagery. If you worry too much about “is this Ozark enough,” you’re not taking risks. I particularly love lighting, so I tried to bring elements of my style into the Ozark world while still making it feel singular to the series. How the characters are etched out of the darkness with lighting, or occasional pops of color when the story called for it, to framing with negative space. As a DP, when you’re in tune with the story and lensing from the subconscious, then it will be unique and still feel like the show.

Ozark has such a distinctive look — a sort of blue. It’s rarely ever truly sunny. Can you talk about how you handled this signature look?
Shawn started the season with a DIT — through camera tests and the first couple weeks — to develop a LUT. After that there was no DIT. I wasn’t used to working that way because traditionally I’ve relied on a DIT for my other set of eyes and to massage the color. But Shawn created a great show LUT and after a week or two I got used to that workflow.

We had a joke that there is no sun in Ozark. We would always start the outdoor scenes by taking out the sun. Once you do that you can bring in big lights to control the look. The key is in the control.

What about the lighting? We interviewed DP Ben Hutchins early on in the series, and he said this below. Does that still ring true? “My hope is that it never feels like there’s any kind of artificial lighting on the actors or lighting the space. It’s something that feels more organic, like sunlight or a lamp that’s on in the room, but still offers a level of being stylized and really leans into the darkness… mining the shadows for the terror that goes along with Ozark.”
Absolutely still true. Ben did an incredible job of setting up future seasons for success on Ozark. He convinced the producers to buy into the look. That meant bringing in the cranes with 20×20 or 30×30 flags every day to control the light. That’s the basis for everything. You can create your negative fill and shadows with that and decide how much of the character you want to reveal with light according to what the story calls for.

We always try to have it feel as though the source of light is organic and natural. Subconsciously you want the audience to feel the moments are authentic and dark, and if they feel as though some movie light is hitting the characters, it can take you out of the moment. The characters are going to these dark places, and you want the lighting to enhance and tell that story.

You shot scenes with heavy negative contrast, shadow depth of field and evocative framing. Can you talk about that?
For one, we use shallow depth of field to tell story more than any other show I’ve seen. It helps isolate the characters and gives the audience a window into their soul. Same for the framing, subconsciously it helps unsettle and guide the audience into the characters state of mind.

How does the cinematography help tell what is essentially a very dark story. It’s almost a character in itself. 
For the heavy contrast and darkness, I think it shows the weight of the world these characters live in. Every move, every decision could be their last. So even in their lighter moments the darkness is still with them.

What camera was used for the final season? What about lenses?
We used the Sony Venice with Leica R lenses and a b-set of Leica Summicrons. We shot at 5.7K so both lens sets would cover the sensor. The Leica Rs, our primary lenses, were the 35mm 1.4, 50mm 1.4, 80mm 1.4, and the 50mm Noctilux which was a .95. Good thing our AC Liam Sinnot is the best there is. Pulling focus for a .95 on a push-in is nearly impossible, but he made it look easy.

Can you talk more about those LUTs you mentioned earlier? 
The LUTs that Shawn developed gave us a “fat negative” in that we could underexpose but still have room when we went to the final color without worrying about creating too much noise. We had a LUT for the Ozarks and a LUT for Mexico.

DP Eric Koretz on set (second from left, black clothing)

Did you send notes to the colorist? Possible to provide an example of a note? 
Occasionally, “Did we go to far?” (laughs) I underexposed a lot but was always pleasantly surprised with the results when we finally went to color. [Company 3’s Tim Stipan was the colorist for the show.]

What was the most challenging scene you worked on and why?
On the finale (Episode 14, A Hard Way to Go), Jason Bateman (who directed) designed a shot where we start inside the house as they Byrdes enter, pull back through a broken window into the backyard where Mel is waiting for them. For one, Jason wanted to pull through actual glass and not use VFX so choosing the right techno-head with all the complications around pulling that off where challenging. Also lighting from inside to outside for that was a challenge itself. Luckily, we have an incredible team of technicians — the 1st AC Liam Sinnot, operator Dave Chameides, gaffer Edison Jackson and key grip Landen Rudden and their teams — to pull it all off. It took a few tries and some quick thinking to change things up on the fly, but eventually the shot worked beautifully.

Randi Altman is the founder and editor-in-chief of postPerspective. She has been covering production and post production for 25 years.