Unveiling the Technical Mastery Behind the Cinematography of Netflix’s 1899: A Detailed Look
“1899” is a Netflix original series that premiered in 2022. The series is set in the late 19th century and follows a group of immigrants who travel from Europe to America in search of a better life. The cinematography in the series is impressive and effectively sets the tone for the show. The series is shot in a muted color palette, with a lot of earthy tones, which gives it a very gritty and realistic feel. The use of natural lighting and the clever use of shadows adds to the overall atmosphere of the series, making it feel both authentic and atmospheric.
One of the most striking aspects of the cinematography is the use of wide shots, which are used to show the vastness of the ocean and the enormity of the journey that the immigrants are undertaking. These wide shots give a sense of scale and help to convey the enormity of the journey and the risks that the immigrants are taking. The use of close-ups is also very effective in “1899,” as it allows the audience to see the emotions on the characters’ faces and to understand what they are going through. This is particularly true for the scenes of the immigrants on board the ship, where the close-ups help to convey the cramped and uncomfortable conditions that they are living in.
To achieve this level of realism, the series had to overcome some technical challenges. The series was shot in a volume studio, which is a half-circle or elliptical shape, to have as much screen real estate as possible and to create a naturalistic environment. The ship set builds were elevated to remove the need for replacement in post, and the use of a revolving turntable built into the stage floor was important for the director to not restrict his way of filming a scene, and to quickly set up for reverse shots without losing the chemistry in the scene.
Lighting is a critical element in a volume, because how well you can match the foreground to the background determines how successful the final picture will be. Certain elements within the backdrop asset can be shifted around, but it’s the careful marriage of the foreground to the background scene that creates the illusion of one cohesive world that you’re immersing your characters into. There are many different workarounds, and the series used a combination of professional luminaires that augment and complement the lighting source established on the volume screens. The series also faced the challenge of replicating skin tones within the volume due to the range of different skin tones in the cast, but found that using a combination of LED wall and ARRI SkyPanel provided a better base to work from in the grade.
The lighting in the series was critical, particularly due to the amount of water and weather elements, such as cloud rushes, fog, storms, rain, and lightning, that were featured in the series. The volume stage was rigged with a large toplight, containing nine individual softboxes filled with a large amount of ARRI SkyPanels, which provided the control needed to enhance the drama of the atmospheric details in the environment they wanted to create.
When filming in a volume, the series needed to avoid having the LED screens in focus, which led them to use a large format camera, the ALEXA Mini LF. The camera gave them the immersive large-format look they desired and could be fed with a genlock signal to communicate directly with the LED wall. Additionally, the director and the writer wanted to work with anamorphic lenses to give the series a specific look and feel, and that these lenses helped to soften the screens in the background even further. To get the desired lens look, they collaborated with Christoph Hoffsten at ARRI Rental and they experimented to customize a series of ALFA lenses with bespoke elements i.e the balance of bokeh, highlight flare, and enhanced focus fall-off.
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