Infinite Jest

It's Sarah's sister's wedding day in the Southern California oasis of Palm Springs. During the reception, Sarah meets Nyles, and the two decide to abandon their fellow guests in favor of some alone time under the stars. As the desert cools, their passions warm until an arrow suddenly flies into Nyles' back, and the couple has to run for cover. Nyles tries to warn Sarah away, but she follows him into a weirdly glowing cave. Then, in the blink of an eye, she finds herself back in her hotel-room bed, and back in time to that same morning, apparently doomed to relive this same day ad infinitum.

Premiering at the 2020 Sundance Film Festival, the feature Palm Springs secured distribution in what has been reported to be the biggest sale in the festival's history. The movie stars Cristin Milioti as Sarah, and Andy Samberg who also served as a producer as Nyles. Behind the camera, director Max Barbakow's creative team included Los Angeles-based cinematographer Quyen Tran.

As crazy and wacky and kooky as Palm Springs is, Tran says, there are a lot of deeper themes that are addressed: Why we are here on this Earth? What do you do with your time? What is love? We wanted to make sure that we respected those themes and that it wasn't just this insane comedy filled with crazy antics. Max and I wanted to take it very seriously and have people think about it.

Prior to Palm Springs, Tran had shot the first three episodes of the eight-part Netflix series Unbelievable and wrapped production on the documentary short Brave Girl Rising. After that, she recalls, I was attached to a movie, but it fell apart at the last minute. But the day the studio called to tell us the movie wasn't going anymore, I got a call from my agent, who said, We have a script for you. It's an indie, but it's really special.' I read the script, and that afternoon I met with Max, and we just hit it off.

It's noteworthy that, for a movie whose comedy is steeped in existential crisis, the hand of fate seems to have been visible in bringing Tran aboard. It was amazing, she says. Things happen for a reason.

Palm Springs would reunite the cinematographer with both Panavision and Light Iron, two of her key partners on Brave Girl Rising. Directed by Martha Adams and Richard Robbins, the documentary was made, Tran explains, for the nonprofit organization Girl Rising, which campaigns for girls' education and empowerment. We shot in the Somali refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya.

The 20-minute film tells the story of Nasro, a 17-year-old Somali girl who grew up in the refugee camp. The camp, Tran says, is all she knows, and she speaks beautifully about it. Before we started shooting, we sat down and talked to her for a couple of days, because we really wanted to understand her perspective. It was so beautiful and so pure. We tried to capture that in the documentary. We wanted to elevate that perspective and show the beauty within this refugee camp the way Nasro saw the world.

Panavision very generously supported the documentary, the cinematographer continues. I shot 90 percent of it on the T Series 35mm. I was really impressed with the minimum focus and the falloff and the color rendition of the T Series. The whole point of the documentary was to have the camera see the way that these refugees see the world, and being able to get up close was critical to bringing that visceral perspective.

For the documentary's final color, Tran says, I brought the project to Light Iron. They're always so friendly, and they had also done my last indie, The Little Hours.

Brave Girl Rising marked the cinematographer's first collaboration with Light Iron colorist Ethan Schwartz, who recalls that Tran wanted a filmic tone that would give a sense of richness, with nice color separation, and to accentuate certain colors, like red. Texture was also really important, and we played around with different film grains to give it a softness and an organic quality. It felt very natural while still being stylized. Q was really able to capture that environment and its feeling. You get a good sense of the atmosphere the struggles as well as the hope and the inspiration.

As she was beginning pre-production on Palm Springs, Tran sought to keep her collaboration with Schwartz going. During prep, when we were picking a post house for our dailies, that's when I pitched Light Iron, the cinematographer recalls.

Schwartz shares that because it was decided at the outset that Light Iron would handle both dailies and final color for Palm Springs, I was able to talk with Q and say, If there are any scenes you have questions about or if you want me to take a look at anything, don't hesitate to ask.' So, going into production, she could have that confidence that I was in the background, ready to help in any way I could. As a colorist, I really like being an open source of information for the DP and the director. I'd rather have the questions come to me before we get into the DI room in case there is something that can happen on set. That way we're always collaborating to make the best possible project.

Tran also returned to Panavision for her camera and lens package, which here included Alexa Mini cameras and the T Series optics she had embraced on Brave Girl Rising. We were asking ourselves, How can we elevate the story even further?' she remembers. I suggested anamorphic, and I said, Look, I just shot this documentary with just me and an AC and a DIT. We'll be fine. Please embrace it. It'll elevate the movie and give it a special look, because not a lot of comedies are shot in anamorphic.' Max loved the idea, and we chose the T Series because I wanted to have that minimum focus and I was really comfortable with them, having just shot in a very d

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