Bearing Witness

Published in 2016, Colson Whitehead's novel The Underground Railroad examines America's history of slavery through a fictional lens that imbues the story's terrible truths with a touch of mythology. After its main character, Cora, escapes from a plantation in Georgia, she embarks on an arduous journey northward, toward the promise of freedom. Cora travels on the Underground Railroad, which unlike its real-world namesake is depicted as an actual functioning railroad that wends from station to station through subterranean tunnels.

For the novel's 10-part live-action adaptation, available to stream on Amazon Prime Video, director Barry Jenkins, cinematographer James Laxton, ASC and their collaborators shot for 116 days of principal photography. The whole show was shot in Georgia, Laxton notes, about one-third of it in Savannah, and two-thirds in the Atlanta region. The resulting series has earned seven Primetime Emmy nominations, including for Outstanding Limited or Anthology Series, Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Cinematography.

Cinematographer James Laxton, ASC and director Barry Jenkins.

Jenkins and Laxton trace their creative partnership back to their film-school days at Florida State University. In the years since, their collaborations have included the feature Medicine for Melancholy, the Best-Picture Oscar winner Moonlight, and the James Baldwin adaptation If Beale Street Could Talk. For The Underground Railroad, the filmmakers crafted a look that supports the story's fantastical elements by grounding them in something real and tangible.

Im always looking to create images that have a certain sense of believability, Laxton says. I think its important that audiences can in some way believe what they're watching. The way that light interacted with the lenses was important in that regard. It was going to aid our ability to tell a story that audiences would feel engaged with so they could believe what they were witnessing.

Laxton partnered with Panavision to select a lens package primarily made up of customized Panaspeed large-format spherical primes and complemented with a selection of modified Primo 70 optics. The Panaspeeds naturally have an inherent warmth and a classic Primo look that provided a strong foundation for the customization. Additionally, for three episodes that would be framed in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio (instead of the series' primary 1.78:1 presentation), the cinematographer employed T Series anamorphics that were modified from their standard 2:1 squeeze ratio to a 1.85 squeeze, allowing him to use more of the Panavised Arri Alexa LF camera's sensor.

Panavision recently caught up with Laxton to discuss the series' visuals.

Panavision: Theres a distinct language to the way the camera moves in this series, often in long takes and movement' and length' are certainly words associated with a railroad. As you and Barry Jenkins began discussing the project, how did you start to define that camera language?

James Laxton, ASC: This is a complicated and dense story in many ways. First and foremost, it's a story of a young womans journey escaping slavery. In that sense, its a story from her perspective, so the camera wants to take that same path and to see things as she does, which inevitably leads to a lot of movement. Simultaneously, were touching on some myth-based concepts the conceit being that the Underground Railroad in this story is an actual railroad, not just a pathway so it takes on a sense of scale and scope that might be different from previous work Barry and I have done together.

In addition to that, theres a very real-life story were telling. This is our history as Americans. So we wanted to make things feel very true and very real. The lighting built the foundation of that. The way that fire is rendered, for example I wanted there to be an interactive feel as characters hold a lantern or a candle. Also, in depicting a traumatic experience like we were with the story of Cora [Thuso Mbedu], I wanted to take a meditative approach. The camera's slow, methodical steps, and the pace at which a Steadicam wanders through a scene, stem from wanting to base the tale with a sense of real strength, truth and weight. Its quite a few of those things that all combined in the images we were looking to create.

In the final episode, the camera is much more static for the story of Cora's mother, Mabel [Sheila Atim].

Laxton: That episode is distinct from the rest in so many ways. First of all, its one of three episodes that we shot anamorphically. But maybe more importantly, it actually does take on a different language with these static shots that dont seem to be found in previous episodes. Mabels story is one of serious tragedy and serious horror in many ways. It wasn't like we were looking to make a horror movie, but there were techniques we were using from some genre-based filmic languages to provide context for a real sense of horror.

Frame from Chapter 10: Mabel

Throughout the series, there are portrait' shots of characters sometimes just an individual, and other times large groups where theyll be standing still, staring straight into the lens, and the camera will have some movement to it. How did you arrive at those shots? And did you know when and how they would be used as you were capturing them?

Laxton: Not really, no. Barry and editors Joi McMillon and Alex O'Flinn later found the appropriate places to put them. But there were moments when we felt an emotional connectivity, and we wanted to find a different foundation for the audience and to create a bigger world. It just felt natural to pause for a second and do these portraits. And we did that all the way through, which was pretty wild considering our page count was not a small one by any means.

They

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