Commercial Spotlight: Cinematographer Kai Saul

The last few months have been busy again, says cinematographer Kai Saul, referencing the return of productions following the motion-picture industry's abrupt shutdown earlier this year in response to COVID-19. My crew and I are incredibly grateful to be back to work. Everybody understands how important it is to stay safe and healthy so we can keep working. We trust each other to be safe on and off set, and, knock on wood, we've all been okay.

Panavision recently caught up with Saul to discuss the Motorola Razr smartphone commercial, which he shot for co-directors Seth Epstein and Dane Del Deo at the start of this year, prior to the pandemic. It was an exciting and challenging job, Saul enthuses. There was a clear vision from the start, and I had full creative support from both directors in terms of choosing the camera and the optics, and having their trust to execute their vision. They gave me plenty of space to run with their ideas, which always allows me to do my best work. I also had my A-team camera assistants on this, including 1st AC Nicolas Nico' Martin and 2nd AC Alan Certeza, and they were instrumental in keeping things running smoothly.

Panavision: How did you get involved in the Motorola Razr spot?

Kai Saul: I came on board via director Seth Epstein, who is also the founder and chief creative officer of the production company Los York. He's a good friend, and we've worked together many times. We have similar tastes and sensibilities and spend as much time on our prep as possible, which streamlines our creative process and allows us to move quickly on set. On a commercial, there's no time to second guess or realize that you misinterpreted what the director wanted, but with Seth, I'm always confident that we're on the same page.

When he called me for the project, he showed me the CG elements that he was working on, and he outlined his vision for integrating live action, and that's what I dove into. Seth also brought on Los York director Dane Del Deo to codirect, since this was a multiple-unit shoot. We had a main unit with four or five sets, a tabletop unit, and a stills unit a lot going on for a one-day job, so it was incredibly helpful to have directors in two places.

With multiple units working simultaneously, how did everybody maintain a unified vision?

Saul: The most unglamorous but crucial part of a DPs job is managerial, and this project was no exception. I didn't have a 2nd-unit DP, but I did have additional operators, and I would leapfrog through our setups, running from one set to the next to check lighting or sign off on a new frame. We were on a soundstage in L.A., and while we were roughing in a setup on the main set, I'd go and light the tabletop work so that the operator could shoot the next board without me, with some guidance from the client and agency and as soon as that was in progress, I'd move back to the main-unit setup for final tweaks.

How much time did you have for prep?

Saul: I had about 10 days, which was great. Seth was referencing a lot of high-fashion work, and he wanted a polished, contemporary feel with an editorial-like gloss in the lighting that would complement the sleekness of the phone. He prepared a mood reel for me; one shot would have the right color palette, another would have an interesting camera move, another would have a lighting reference. That in conjunction with his treatment gave me a solid foundation to work with.

The other jumping-off point was the CG phone elements, which were being created during prep and established a baseline lighting approach for the live-action scenes. We wanted the live action and the CG work to have continuity and not take the viewer out of the commercial when it cut from one to the other. So my process was to dissect the CG and work backwards to decide how to shoot the talent and the phone so everything felt like it was part of the same world. A lot of that was done by pulling the color palette right off the CG renderings and matching it as closely as possible with our LED sources. We had our sunset peach-apricot hue and our dusty blue-purples; those were the two main components of the color palette.

Were all of the CG elements completed by the time you shot?

Saul: They were essentially finished, which was very helpful. Seth was able to put together an edit so we knew exactly where our shots would need to drop in and for how long. From seeing the CG phone spinning through the air, I knew, Okay, I want to do a roll in camera,' and I could look at the edit and know the speed I should match and by doing the roll in camera, we could make use of the entire sensor and capture real motion blur instead of doing it in post. Being able to know where the shot would fit in the edit was also helpful for composition and lighting continuity.

What led you to choose the Millennium DXL2 camera?

Saul: One of the initial mandates from Seth and the agency was that they wanted extra resolution for punching in or reframing for different deliverables. Seth had shot a lot on RED and I was very familiar with the Monstro, but I prefer the color science and the look of the DXL2. It's great in low light and has a beautiful built-in LUT; the look delivered straight out of the camera is very natural and pleasing. So I pitched the DXL2, and he liked the idea. We shot 8K RAW, which gave Seth all the flexibility he needed for post.

While pitching the idea of the DXL2, I was also thinking ahead to the optics. The client was expecting a crisp, high-contrast look that felt slick and modern. I'd used the Primo 70s a number of times on commercials before this including with the DXL2 on a Samsung spot [ Galaxy S10,' directed by Samy Mosher] and in my experience they fit that bill perfectly. I was aiming for no distortion, no chromatic aberration,

LINK:	https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/commercial-spo...
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