By Iain Blair
Swedish cinematographer Linus Sandgren, ASC, has multiple award noms and wins under his belt, including an Oscar for his work on the retro-glamorous musical La La Land. His new film, Saltburn, couldn’t be more different.
Written and directed by Emerald Fennell, Saltburn is a dark, psychosexual thriller about desire, obsession and murder. It follows Oxford University student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) who finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), who invites him to Saltburn, his family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.
Linus Sandgren
I spoke with Sandgren, whose credits include First Man, Babylon and American Hustle, about making the film and his workflow.
What was the appeal of doing this film?
It was two things. The script was brilliant; it was very suspenseful and exciting. I was drawn in by the buildup, how Emerald had it constructed, and I couldn’t stop reading. It was also very exciting for me because I hadn’t really done this type of film before. It was a unique story with a unique approach to this sort of psychopathic character — how you feel an affection for him, a sort of sympathy. It’s also so dark and funny.
I was also excited to talk to Emerald because of her work on Promising Young Woman, which I loved. Her directing of that film was excellent, and she was making very bold decisions. Then we had a call, and I was very impressed by her. She’s just so brilliant when she explains her vision, and you’re really drawn into her storytelling.
Tell us a bit about how you collaborated on finding the right look.
I typically don’t find the look [based on] different films. It’s more abstract than that, and a good approach is to just talk about it and see what words come up. Emerald said things like, “Desire or unachievable desire. Beauty and ugliness. Love and hate.” Suddenly you get images in your head, and one was of vampires. The family are like vampires, and Oliver is obviously a vampire who loves them so much he just wants to creep inside their skin and become them.
So there was some sort of metaphorical layer I was attracted to, and Emerald had a lot of vision already in terms of visual references — from Hitchcock movies about voyeurism to silent horror movies and Caravaggio paintings. We grounded it in some sort of gothic vampire core, but the story couldn’t just start there. We had to fool the audience a little bit and not explain that right away but have imagery that could be in that vein. The language was basically that the days could be sunny and bright and romantic, while the nights would be dangerous and dark and sexy. It was these discussions we had early on that inspired the lighting style and the compositions.
Tell us more about the composition.
Emerald wanted it to feel like the house was a dollhouse that we could peek into, and she wanted it to have a square format. It all made sense to me with that in mind, as well as the voyeuristic approach, where you focus on one singular thing more than if you go scope. It feels like you can see much more that way, so that allowed us to do things in a more painterly style. As soon as we started shooting that way, we knew we were right using an aspect ratio of 1.33×1 because we felt that we could be more expressive.
So compositions were a little bit as if you’re watching an oil painting, a classic type of composition, and we’d block the scenes within a frame like that without really cutting, or we’d go in really tight on something. It was sort of that “play with it a little bit” thing. Also, the approach is slightly artful more than cinematic. I feel like we thought of the shot list in another way here. It would be more, “How can we tell this story in a single shot, and do we need another shot, and if so, what is that?” Probably that’s just a really tight close-up. So we had a slightly different way of blocking the scenes compared to what I’ve done before. It was about creating that language, and the more you nail it before you shoot, then it solves itself while you start working on each scene.
What camera setup did you use, and what lenses?
We shot Super 35mm film in a 1.33×1 aspect ratio, which is the silent aspect ratio. We used Panavision Panaflex Millenium XL2s. It’s the same as silent movies, basically, for perf, and we used Panavision Primo prime lenses.
Did you work with your usual colorist Matt Wallach in prep?
Yes, the team was Matt Wallach (Company 3 LA) and dailies colorist Doychin Margoevski (Company 3 London). The dailies software was Colorfront’s On-Set Dailies. I have worked with Matt on dailies for many movies and lately in the DI. We set this up together, but he wasn’t able to come over to London to do the dailies, so he was involved remotely and was watching stills from the dailies Doychin did.
Tell us about your workflow and how it impacts your work on the shoot.
My workflow is always that the film gets scanned, in this case at Cinelab in London, and then developed and scanned in 4K. So it’s a final scan from the beginning, and we don’t touch the negative again. Then it goes to Company 3 for dailies. But before the dailies are distributed, the colorist sends me stills from his grading suite in dailies so I can look at the color. It’s just a few stills from the different scenes, and takes a week or two for us to dial it in. Matt gets the footage; he uses his instinct, and we apply a Kodak print emulation LUT. Then he works with the printer lights to see where he has the footage, and he does what he feels is right, with perhaps contrast or lower blacks.
He then tells me what he did, and we look at it on the stills he sends me. That’s when I’ll say go a little colder or darker or brighter or whatever. But usually after a few days we dial it in and get the look down. But, as I said, we spend a little more time in the beginning to make sure we have it right, and it also has to do with me knowing that we’re doing the right thing with the lighting — perhaps I’ll need to add more light for the next scene.
This has been our way of working since Joy in 2015, which was the first thing Matt and I worked on together with dailies. That process is really good because nowadays the iPad is like P3 color space, and it looks really good when you have it at a certain exposure, and that becomes our look. That’s why it’s so important to set that in the dailies because once we’re in the DI, I don’t want to change it. I just want to adjust things, like match the shots to each other or fix a face or do something else without changing this sort of look. The look should be there already.
That’s what I like about film too; it adds something to it. I feel like I know exactly how it’s going to look, but it looks 5% better or different with film because it gives me things that pressure me when I see it. It’s like, oh, look at the halation there, or look at those blue shadows. There’s something always going on that’s hard to actually imagine, as you don’t see it with your eyes, even if you know it’s going to be there. So that’s a nice thing. Basically, if you looked at the dailies on any of my previous films, I didn’t touch it much. That’s why I usually like having the same colorist do the dailies as the DI, but it couldn’t be helped on this one.
Dailies colorist Doychin Margoevski was great. He’s also got a great eye for darkness, and he’s not afraid of letting it be dark. So as I noted, the three of us dialed it in together initially, and then he sent stills to me and Matt, and we looked at them. That way, Matt was very familiar with the footage when we came to the DI, and he’s used to being with a timer and keeping track on the whole project. Matt also did the trailers, so all that is solid control.
I heard that you shot all the stately home interiors on location at just one house?
Yes, it was a 47-day shoot, all done in the one country house and in a nearby country estate for some exteriors, like the bridge scene. Otherwise, all the exteriors and interiors are at the same house. Then we shot at Oxford and near Oxford for some interiors, and then London. We built only one set, which was the bathroom. That was built inside of a room, and the two rooms next to it were Oliver’s and Felix’s bedrooms. They were completely painted and dressed and made up as their rooms, as they didn’t look that way at all when we came in. It’s the red corridor that was important going into the bathroom, and then the bathroom and then the rooms.
I assume the huge maze was mostly all VFX?
Yes, the whole maze is visual effects combined with the practical. When we’re down there walking around, it’s all practical, and we had these hedge walls that were moved around so we could get through. The center of the maze with that big statue in the middle was built by production designer Suzie Davies and her team. It was all VFX for the big, wide exterior overhead maze shot and the wide shot from the windows. VFX supervisor Dillan Nicholls and Union did all the effects.
What was the most difficult scene to shoot and why?
That’s a good question. I think the scenes of Oliver’s party. We had to be careful with the property, so we couldn’t drive around too many condors or cherry pickers, and we had to shoot different scenes over a few nights all over the place — from one end of the house to another end of the garden. We would be inside of the maze and outside at the discotheque or inside at the red staircase. And all of that had to be prelit to work 360, basically.
It was daunting to light, but we could eventually position lights and condors and sneak them in from other angles. So it was a little complicated. We had to plan it out, but thanks to the really good special effects department, we could fog it all up. Suzie Davies helped with fire flames so we could send practical lights in there to make it all look like a big party.
Are you happy with the way it turned out?
Yes, I’m really proud of it. It’s a special film for sure, and it was a really fun shoot… and different. It’s so refreshing to have a director that dares to do what you think is right, just the way you want to, so you don’t have to restrict yourself. I love working with Emerald. She’s very fun and, I think, brilliant.
Industry insider Iain Blair has been interviewing the biggest directors in Hollywood and around the world for years. He is a regular contributor to Variety and has written for such outlets as Reuters, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times and the Boston Globe.
How was that process working with the team from pre-production through post?
Harry at one point said, “I’m giving up. I don’t know what to do there.” And our composer Nicholas Britell told me that the music for this scene is beautiful. The score has a wondering quality to it, so we tried to create the opposite of that. The scary, creepy vibe. So having those two different, almost dissonant pieces on top of each other, it’s beauty and not, at the same time. I love that sequence.
In Episode 2, Cesar leads Cora down the Railroad and assures her he won’t leave her side. He delivers his dialogue directly into camera, and it sounds tremendously present.
Did you get to use new tools or techniques?
Yes, because it was films like Star Wars, Terminator, Raiders of the Lost Ark and so on that made me want to be a filmmaker — big genre movies. So the chance to do this, working with a big movie star like Chris and with the huge scale and lots of VFX – and also great characters and a big heart — was exactly a dream come true.
Featuring a large ensemble cast — including Tony Shalhoub, Alex Borstein, Michael Zegen, Marin Hinkle and Kevin Pollak — the series has been an Emmy darling, and this year is no different, with The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel picking up 20 nominations, including best comedy and best lead actress in a comedy series for Brosnahan.
There’s a great line in Midge’s stand-up routine: “Comedy is fueled by oppression, by a lack of power, by disappointment… Now who the hell does that describe more than women?” Do you believe that?
Amy Sherman-Palladino: David knows all there is to know about movies, and he really understood our love of color and movement. We wanted the show to have this constant motion and energy, and to never be static. It’s hard to find people in that same groove since it’s easier to make things look pretty and light people like they’re in a Rembrandt if they’re sitting by a window, rather than if they’re walking around, inside, outside, in shadow, in sunlight and so on. And add in our production designer Bill Groom, our costume designer Donna Zakowska and all the other departments, and we have a great team.
The show has a lot of VFX, like shots of old TV shows, and when the Eiffel Tower turns upside down on top of the Empire State Building. What’s did that entail?
Are things better in TV?
The color palette is suitably muted: cold blues and greys melding with warm yellows and browns. Cronenweth tuned the footage using the DXL2’s built-in color film LUT, which is tuned to the latest Red IPP2 color processing incorporated in the Monstro sensor.
High Castle begins in the early 1960s in a dystopian America. Nazi Germany and the Empire of Japan have divvied up the US as their spoils of war. Germany rules the East, known as the Greater Nazi Reich (with New York City as the regional capital), while Japan controls the West, known as the Japanese Pacific States (whose capital is now San Francisco). The Rocky Mountains serve as the Neutral Zone. The American Resistance works to thwart the occupiers, spurred on after the discovery of materials displaying an alternate reality where the Allies were victorious, making them ponder this scenario.
According to Barnstorm co-owner and VFX supervisor Lawson Deming, the studio is responsible for all types of effects for the series — ranging from simple cleanup and fixes such as removing modern objects from shots to more extensive period work through the addition of period set pieces and set extensions. In addition, there are some flashback scenes that call for the artists to digitally de-age the actors and lots of military vehicles to add, as well as science-fiction objects. The majority of the overall work entails CG set extensions and world creation, Deming explains, “That involves matte paintings and CG vehicles and buildings.”
So, in many cases, the team found it more prudent to create set extensions for NYC from scratch. The artists created sections of Fifth and Sixth avenues, both for the area where American-born Reichmarshall and Resistance investigator John Smith has his apartment and also for a parade sequence that occurs in the middle of Season 3. They also constructed a digital version of Central Park for that sequence, which involved crafting a lot of modular buildings with mix-and-match pieces and stories to make what looked like a wide variety of different period-accurate buildings, with matte paintings for the backgrounds. Elements such as fire escapes and various types of windows (some with curtains open, some closed) helped randomize the structures. Shaders for brick, stucco, wood and so forth further enabled the artists to get a lot of usage from relatively few assets.
The styles of NYC and San Francisco are very different in the series narrative. The Nazis are rebuilding NYC in their own image, so there is a lot of influence from brutalist architecture, and cranes often dot the skyline to emphasize all the construction taking place. Meanwhile, San Francisco has more of a 1940s look, as the Japanese are less interested in influencing architectural changes as they are in occupation.
There are ferries with people on them to watch the event, spotlights are on the statue and an air show with music prior to the destruction as planes with trails of colored smoke fly toward the statue. When the planes fire their missiles at the base of the statue, it’s for show, as there are a number of explosives planted in the base of the statue that go off in a ring formation to force the collapse. Deming explains the logistics challenge: “We wanted the statue’s torch arm to break off and sink in the water, but the statue sits too far back. We had to manufacture a way for the statue to not just tip over, but to sort of slide down the rubble of the base so it would be close enough to the edge and the arm would snap off against the side of the island.”
The artists referenced historical photographs as they designed and built the statue with a period-accurate torch. In the wide aerial shots, the team used some stock footage of the statue with New York City in the background, but had to replace pretty much everything in the shot, shortening the city buildings and replacing Liberty Island, the water surrounding it and the vessels in the water. “So yeah, it ended up being a fully digital model throughout the sequence,” says Deming.
In addition, there were a multitude of banners on the various buildings. Because of the provocative nature of some of the Nazi flags and Fascist propaganda, solid-color banners were often hung on location, with artists adding the offensive VFX image in post as to not upset locals where the series was filmed. Other times, the VFX artists added all-digital signage to the scenes.
Westworld is set in the fictitious western theme park called Westworld, one of multiple parks where advanced technology enables the use of lifelike android hosts to cater to the whims of guests who are able to pay for such services — all without repercussions, as the hosts are programmed not to retaliate or harm the guests. After each role-play cycle, the host’s memory is erased, and then the cycle begins anew until eventually the host is either decommissioned or used in a different narrative. Staffers are situated out of sight while overseeing park operations and performing repairs on the hosts as necessary. As you can imagine, guests often play out the darkest of desires. So, what happens if some of the hosts retain their memories and begin to develop emotions? What if some escape from the park? What occurs in the other themed parks?
The type of effects work CoSA has done on Westworld varies as well, ranging from concept art through the concept department and extension work through the studio’s environments department. “Our CG team is quite large, so we handle every task from modeling and texturing to rigging, animation and effects,” says Laura Barbera, head of 3D at CoSA. “We’ve created some seamless digital doubles for the show that even I forget are CG! We’ve done crowd duplication, for which we did a fun shoot where we dressed up in period costumes. Our 2D department is also sizable, and they do everything from roto, to comp and creative 2D solutions, to difficult greenscreen elements. We even have a graphics department that did some wonderful shots for Season 2, including holograms and custom interfaces.”
“Every season sees us getting more and more into the characters and their stories, so it’s been important for us to develop along with it. We’ve had to make our worlds more immersive so that we are feeling out the new and changing surroundings just like the characters are,” Barbera explains. “So the set work gets more complex and the realism gets even more heightened, ensuring that our VFX become even more seamless.”
CoSA has done significant interior work too, creating spaces that did not exist on set “but that you’d never know weren’t there unless you’d see the before and afters,” Barbera says. “It’s really very visually impressive — from futuristic set extensions, cars and [Westworld park co-creator] Arnold’s house in Season 2, it’s amazing how much we’ve done to extend the environments to make the world seem even bigger than it is on location.”
Aside from the environments, CoSA also did some subtle work on the robots, especially in Season 2, to make them appear as if they were becoming unhinged, hinting at a malfunction. The comp department also added eye twitches, subtle facial tics and even rapid blinks to provide a sense of uneasiness.
Having constant access to Neil as author and showrunner was brilliant as we could ask for clarification and more details from him directly when creating the VFX and receive immediate creative feedback. And it was invaluable to have Douglas working with us to translate Neil’s vision in words onto the screen and plan out what was workable. It also meant I was able to show them concepts the team were developing back in the studio while we were on set in South Africa. It was a very collaborative process.
You were on set supervising… can you talk about how that helped?
You created many CG creatures. Can you talk about the challenges of that and how you accomplished them?
Can you dig in a bit more about Satan?
Extrapolating from live-action plates shot at an airbase, the VFX team built a CG environment and inserted live action of the performers into otherwise fully digital shots of the gigantic red-skinned devil bursting out of the ground.
What about creating the demon Usher?
In order to get the high speed required, we shot plates on location from multiple cameras, including on a motorbike to achieve the high-speed bursts. Later, production filled the car with smoke and our effects team added CG fire and burning textures to the exterior of our CG car, which intensified as he continued his journey.
How did you become interested in cinematography?
A lot of people think this is a bad thing that has happened, but for me, it actually allows more clear communication about the concrete aspects of a sometimes very personal vision. Terms like dark, bright, or colorful are very subjective, so having a reference is a good point to continue the conversation.
How early did you get involved in the production?
The 1960s of the story are not the real 1960s because there is no USA and no free Europe, so that means most of the music and wardrobe doesn’t look like the 1960s we know. There are many Nazi and Japanese visual elements on the visuals that distinguish us from a regular 1960s look, but it still feels period.
I wanted to achieve lighting that felt almost like plasma. We decided to put a mirror at the end of the tunnel with circle lighting right above it. We then created the effect of the space travel by using a blast of light — using lighting strikes with an elaborate setup that collectively used more than a million watts. It was a complex setup, but fortunately we had a lot of very talented people come together to execute it.
Where did you shoot?
As they say, you make a movie three times, and I really embrace post and all that goes with it, but sometimes you just can’t let go and you’re just too close to the movie. This is when you have to step back and leave for a week or two, then come back.
