Eight years after winning the C sar for best photography for The extravagant journey of the young and prodigious T.S. Spivet, Thomas Hardmeier meets Jean-Pierre Jeunet again for Bigbug, his new feature film produced by Netflix. In the interview, Hardmeier talks about the comfort of working with ARRI equipment: The shoot was entirely done in the Bry-sur-Marne studio, for which the cinematographer chose the ALEXA LF, ALEXA Mini LF, and ARRI Signature Prime lenses. In a second interview, gaffer Laurent H ritier talks about his contribution to Bigbug , using 125 SkyPanels for the most beautiful lighting installation of his entire career.
Interview with cinematographer Thomas Hardmeier on shooting Bigbug
Actors St phane De Groodt and Elsa Zylberstein shooting Bigbug
Mr. Hardmeier, it's the second time that you shoot with Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Did he have any particular requests for the shooting of Bigbug ?
It's been almost four years since he told me about this project, which was difficult to put together as a feature for cinema. It's a science-fiction comedy in the style of Jeunet, with confrontational humans and robots in a suburban house in 2050. Since we were shooting in a studio in a single set, he wanted a lighted ceiling to speed up the lighting set-up and allow more time for directing. I therefore worked very closely with Aline Bonetto, the production designer, who did an extraordinary job to find technical and aesthetic solutions.
What solutions did you implement for lighting?
I know from experience that Jean-Pierre likes to have warm tones in the image. He didn't want to make a film with the usual cold colors of science fiction. For the lighting, we had the ceiling as a basis, lit by 93 SkyPanel S60s, and, with Aline Bonetto, we integrated a lot of other LEDs in the set, whether they were LED ribbons or flexible plates. This allowed me to structure the backgrounds. Then, to avoid being monochrome, I played with the color of these different sources: green, blue, yellow, fuchsia, etc. Any excuse was good for me to create color contrasts in the image. A week before the start of the shoot, Jean-Pierre and I conducted tests with the actors in costume and on set, in order to work in detail on the tints, the lights, and to create predefined atmospheres. All the LEDs, including the SkyPanels and the game lights, were adjustable from a console. It was great! I could control everything remotely and see the results right away. It was very intuitive. It freed up a lot of creativity for me and Jean-Pierre.
ALEXA Mini LF on set of the Netflix movie Bigbug by Jean-Pierre Jeunet
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire behind the ALEXA LF
Why did you choose the ALEXA LF and the ALEXA Mini LF to shoot Bigbug ?
I wanted to shoot the film in large format. At first I thought about using the ALEXA 65, but Jean-Pierre Jeunet likes to shoot in short focal length, with the actors in the foreground and a lot of depth of field. Since I only shoot with ALEXA, I chose to work with the ALEXA LF. On set, we had an ALEXA LF on a dolly and an ALEXA Mini LF on Steadicam, with Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire operating. We used both camera bodies interchangeably. For me, the ALEXA LF is a direct continuation of the classic ALEXA. It brings a real comfort of work when we are in the frame and it offers many accessory options. As far as the image is concerned, if I want to get information in the dark, there is clearly only the ALEXA. Not to mention its soft rendering and wide exposure latitude. All this is found in the ALEXA LF. Moreover, working in large format allowed me to gain focal length ratios. Most of the time, Jean-Pierre Jeunet works with 18 or 21 mm in S-35 mm, never with long focal lengths. A large part of Bigbug is shot at 25 mm, but thanks to the large format of the ALEXA LF, it looks like 16 mm, but without any distortion. It was the perfect camera for Bigbug.
Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire at the frame and the ALEXA LF
In terms of optics, what did you think of the ARRI Signature Primes?
For me, the ARRI Signature Primes are a direct continuation of the Master Prime, but adapted to 4K. They are very sharp and it is the kind of image that Jean-Pierre Jeunet likes in his films. I did some testing though. I compared the ARRI Signature Primes with other large format lenses. The ARRI series was the only one to be perfectly sharp and to offer me the best minimum point. I shot Bigbug with a 5.6 or 8 stop to get the maximum depth of field while having the characters in focus in the foreground. To gain an extra stop, I exposed the ALEXA LF at 2000 ASA.
ARRI Signature Primes and actors St phane De Groodt and Elsa Zylberstein
What are the advantages of HDR?
In post-production, we graded Bigbug in HDR, but also made a version in SDR. The advantage of HDR is the greater latitude it offers at the image level. In particular, it allowed us to preserve more details in the highlights. On this film we had a lot of practicals in the field. For this reason, we slightly dimmed the HDR effect, so as not to be too distracted by those highlights that would have become too strong in the image.
ALEXA LF, director Jean-Pierre Jeunet and actors Isabelle Nanty and Alban Lenoir on the set of the film Bigbug
How was working with Netflix?
Very good. We had total freedom on Bigbug. For the last two years, it just so happened that I have been working a lot with them on multiple projects. Netflix gives the directors and crews the means to work well, and they are very concerned about making sure everything goes well on the shoot.
Interview with gaffer Laurent H ritier on illuminating Bigbug
St phane De Groodt and Elsa Zylberstein in Bigbug.
Lighting the large set of Bigbug on the 1,085 square meter B5 stage at the Studios de Bry-sur-Marne was no small task. In total, the lighting team used nearly 250
Most recent headlines
09/11/2025
Dalet today announced a transformative leap forward for media operations: Agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) that unifies the Dalet ecosystem under one natura...
20/10/2025
Inside TAMS: How Time-Addressable Media Stores could redefine sports workflows By Paul Markham
Friday, October 17, 2025 - 08:57
Print This Story
A penalty...
20/10/2025
Transformational production: Inside TVN's remote production push for the DFL...
20/10/2025
How NBC Sports Transitioned Stamford Facility to One Format: 1080p HDRMulti-year plan harmonizes workflows, simplifies operationsBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial ...
20/10/2025
NBA on NBC' Studio Production Team Is Ready for Tip-Off With Coast-to-Coast...
20/10/2025
Under pressure: TVN CEO Markus Osthaus considers the German sports broadcasting ...
20/10/2025
(L-R) Maria Dizzia, Carmen Emmi, and Russell Tovey attend the Plainclothes pre...
20/10/2025
In March, we launched Concerts Near You to help listeners find concerts from their favorite artists. Since then, more than 3 million people have used it to disc...
20/10/2025
Em diversas cidades do Brasil, um movimento tem se fortalecido para celebrar o poder, a beleza e a profundidade da criatividade negra. O Dia AMPLIFIKA, agora em...
20/10/2025
In cities across Brazil, a movement is growing that celebrates the power, beauty, and depth of Black creativity. AMPLIFIKA Day, now in its fifth edition, return...
20/10/2025
Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft rendering...
20/10/2025
DENVER and MUNICH Imagine Communications today announced its plans to acquire Pixel Power Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohde & Schwarz. Financial terms of...
20/10/2025
LOS ANGELES G Morgan has joined Globecast, a provider of broadcast, media and entertainment managed services, as executive vice president of sales, Globecast Am...
20/10/2025
PLYMOUTH, Wisc. Heartland Video Systems and Zixi have partnered to enable broadcast-quality live video delivery over any IP network....
20/10/2025
A. R. Rahman on Facing Fear and Finding the Divine In an interview with Berklee President Jim Lucchese, the Oscar-winning composer reflects on how courage and...
20/10/2025
Monday 20 October 2025
To view this content, please enable our use of cookies. ...
20/10/2025
Rohde & Schwarz transfers Pixel Power to Imagine Communications Companies work collaboratively to ensure continuity and ongoing support for existing customers...
20/10/2025
RT 's Prime Time is set to host the final Presidential Election Debate this Tuesday night, October 21, providing an opportunity to hear directly from Irelan...
20/10/2025
NVIDIA and Google Cloud are expanding access to accelerated computing to transform the full spectrum of enterprise workloads, from visual computing to agentic a...
19/10/2025
Back to All News
Sins of Kujo' Comes to Life in New Live-Action Series Set for Spring 2026
Entertainment
19 October 2025
GlobalJapan
Link copied to cl...
18/10/2025
New England Sports Network (NESN) has chosen Harmonic, working with Astound Business Solutions, as its enterprise technology partner to transform primary distri...
18/10/2025
NEW ORLEANS, La. In the run-up to the start of the NBA season, WVUE-TV and Gray Local Media have announced a deal with DirecTV that will greatly expand access t...
18/10/2025
Berklee Celebrates 40 Years of the Fall Together Concert Faculty composers Bob Pilkington and Greg Hopkins are among the featured artists for this year's ...
17/10/2025
NEP Group Receives New Equity Investment From 26North Partners LP, Co-InvestorsCarlyle remains the largest shareholder as the company prepares for the futureBy ...
17/10/2025
Apple Lands Five-Year Deal for F1 Distribution in the U.S.Besides airing on Apple TV, the sport will be amplified on other Apple servicesBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Ed...
17/10/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Marshall Electronics' Bernie Keach on the Future of PTZ Camera...
17/10/2025
L2 Productions' REMI Facility in Austin Can Produce Content From AnywhereMusic festivals, sports events are produced via flypacks and remote control roomsBy...
17/10/2025
By Lucy Spicer
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Festival...
17/10/2025
(L-R) Christopher Meyer, Addison Timlin, Cooper Raiff, Lili Reinhart, Alyah Chan...
17/10/2025
M sica e arte se uniram em uma noite especial na semana passada na ZIV Gallery, ...
17/10/2025
Music and art came together for one special night last week at ZIV Gallery, an i...
17/10/2025
Spotify and FC Barcelona are extending our partnership through 2030, continuing a collaboration that's redefining how fans, players, and artists connect. Th...
17/10/2025
MURRIETA, Calif. The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC) has deployed DigitalGlue's creative.space storage platform to streamline video production by centrali...
17/10/2025
BELLEVUE, Wash. Football continued to cement its reputation as a bulwark of TV advertising in Q3 2025 with new data from iSpot that showed both the NFL and coll...
17/10/2025
The Sports Fishing Championship (SFC), the premier competitive saltwater fishing series, has transformed its production workflow by adopting creative.space, the...
17/10/2025
QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning multi-camera video productions and remote contribution solutions, announces the release of StudioPro Version 4, ...
17/10/2025
Although the annual Grammy Awards celebration is best known for recognizing achievements in the recording industry, the show often proves a visual spectacle as ...
17/10/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leading provider of software-defined data storage and data services, has promoted Alex Dunfey to Chief Technology Officer (CTO) from his for...
17/10/2025
The University of Arizona (UofA) has significantly upgraded its broadcast communication infrastructure with the integration of Riedel Communications' advanc...
17/10/2025
Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that New England Sports Network (NESN), owned by Fenway Sports Group and Delaware North, has selected Harmonic as its en...
17/10/2025
Austin PBS has recently upgraded its facility-wide communications infrastructure, deploying Clear-Com 's Eclipse HX, FreeSpeak II beltpacks, and V-Series ...
17/10/2025
ZEISS announces an open call for the closed BETA testing phase of CinCraft Virtual Lens Technology, the innovative digital tool that brings authentic lens chara...
17/10/2025
Situated in the town of Kokkola, Centria University of Applied Sciences offers higher education across five core fields: engineering, business, social and healt...
17/10/2025
Public information channel in Georgia, USA, to implement a powerful, simple, and cost-effective playout automation platform.
Pebble, the leading automation, co...
17/10/2025
HBO Max is reporting that it has launched in 15 new markets, including Bangladesh, Cambodia, Macau, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine, boosting the streaming serv...
17/10/2025
Netflix said it will make a major push into video podcasts, inking a wide-ranging deal with Spotify through which it will offer 16 podcasts in the U.S. starting...
17/10/2025
Lexington, Ky. As part of a push to highlight its advanced advertising capabilities, Viamedia has launched a new AI-powered ad tech platform and officially rebr...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK QuickLink has announced the release of StudioPro Version 4, which the company is calling the most significant upgrade yet to its flagship video product...
17/10/2025
NEW YORK and CUPERTINO, Calif. Apple and NBCUniversal said they will sell Apple TV and Peacock streaming bundles to U.S. subscribers starting Oct. 20....
Eight years after winning the C sar for best photography for The extravagant journey of the young and prodigious T.S. Spivet, Thomas Hardmeier meets Jean-Pierre Jeunet again for Bigbug, his new feature film produced by Netflix. In the interview, Hardmeier talks about the comfort of working with ARRI equipment: The shoot was entirely done in the Bry-sur-Marne studio, for which the cinematographer chose the ALEXA LF, ALEXA Mini LF, and ARRI Signature Prime lenses. In a second interview, gaffer Laurent H ritier talks about his contribution to Bigbug , using 125 SkyPanels for the most beautiful lighting installation of his entire career.
