Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Pawel Pogorzelski, 1st AC Dany Racine & Brian Mills on Beau Is Afraid

01/08/2024

Cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski and writer-director Ari Aster began their long-running collaboration when they were both students at the American Film Institute. After making a string of shorts together, they teamed on the lauded horror features Hereditary and Midsommar, which in turn paved the way for their latest collaboration, the feature Beau Is Afraid. The movie, Pogorzelski says, is a beautiful, epic story. It's Homer's Odyssey in the 21st century.

Beau Is Afraid follows the eponymous Beau Wassermann (Joaquin Phoenix) as he sets off to visit his mother a journey that immediately veers off course, sending him down a twisted, darkly comedic detour through the horrors of the modern world. Pogorzelski and Aster began discussing the project well in advance of principal photography, and they enlisted the camera team some six months before production commenced. Additionally, as they had done on their previous feature collaborations, they again worked with Brian Mills, a member of the Special Optics team at Panavision Woodland Hills, to assemble an optics package that would match Aster's singular vision for the story.

In the lead-up to the movie's release, Pogorzelski, Mills, and 1st AC Dany Racine reflected on the creative partnerships that helped guide Beau Is Afraid from its director's imagination to the big screen.

Cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski.

Panavision: Pawel, when you and Ari first talk about a project, does the look start to take form right away?

Pawel Pogorzelski: Ari is very prepared and has a very clear vision. We'll watch a couple movies and send references. He very much knows what he wants, and I have to deliver. What makes me happy is when I show him a test during prep and he says, This is what I wanted but even more.' Then, Im able to push that in the direction.

Dany, how did you become involved in this project?

Dany Racine: This was my first collaboration with Pawel. I heard that Ari was coming to Montreal for his next movie, and I had seen his work with Pawel, so I got in touch with Pawel right away and I made sure I stayed available. I really wanted to do this project.

When you and Pawel first spoke, how did he describe the project?

Racine: Well, he has this very close relationship with Ari, so he spoke about the last projects they made together, and he said that Ari likes to work very closely with the camera department. Really soon after that, he brought Ari into a meeting so we could all chat together about the project myself, the camera operator, Ari and Pawel. We talked about everything: the needs, the challenges, the budget, the actors. That was about six months before we started shooting, so everybody was included very early in the process.

It was very important to Pawel that Ari knew the core of the camera department and would be well surrounded. He needed to make sure that Ari felt comfortable about how we were going to work and be involved in the project. And that was very exciting. There was the camera operator, Geoffroy St-Hilaires, and the second AC, Soupharak Keoborakoth. The three of us were pretty much always in the room with Ari and Joaquin, just living that moment, tight around the camera.

Joaquin Phoenix and director Ari Aster.

Pawel, when it's time to start choosing your lenses, how do you kick things off with Brian?

Pogorzelski: I send the references from Ari over to Brian, and he'll tell me, It's probably going to be these lenses,' but I'll still go and test everything. We'll watch the tests on the big screen here at Panavision, with the director, and then choose which we like best. From there, I say to Brian, Okay, now we have a foundation. How do we push that?'

Brian Mills: From the initial conversation when Pawels sending me references, I'll dig into the vast inventory of our lenses to find that starting point of what might fit the bill. What camera is he planning to shoot on, what era were the lenses built in, what's the close focus, what intrinsic qualities are contained in the lenses? The obvious question to start with is spherical or anamorphic, and from there, we'll narrow it down to a couple series, and Pawel will test to see what jumps out at him.

During that process, we'll also talk about the story. In the case of Beau Is Afraid, there was a lot of talk about how Beau is an insulated character, and that pointed us in the direction we wanted to go. After the initial test, thats when well discuss the possibilities within the lenses that hes chosen to see how we might be able to tailor them to the picture.

For Beau Is Afraid, what drew you toward the Panaspeeds?

Mills: Part of it was format. Pawel was planning to shoot Alexa LF, so we were looking at lenses that would cover large format. Also the speed of the lenses, close focus, usability, and our ability to customize within that series. We've done this process a few times now, and I think it tends to scream at Pawel when he sees the right one. He's never tentative about it. When he sees it, he says, Thats it, right there.' Then we'll start tailoring the lenses to Pawel's liking, and over the course of a few days we'll narrow down exactly the feeling hes trying to evoke from the lenses.

Pogorzelski: Aris very involved with this. His first experience with this was on Hereditary, and now, this is just how we make movies. Hes so visual, and he has a really great sense of taste and knows how his movie will look in the end. I can ask him, What do you think of this direction?' And hell be like, I think it could be a bit softer,' or Can we get the colors to pop more?' It's a collaboration, and Brian's taste also goes into the lenses. He knows he has to push it.

Mills: For Pawel, more is always better than less. Well go extreme and then pull it back
LINK: https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/journey-of-ext...
See more stories from panavision

Most recent headlines

05/01/2027

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be demoed at CES 2026

Worlds first 802.15.4ab-UWB chip verified by Calterah and Rohde & Schwarz to be ...

07/10/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Media Operations from Ingest to Distribution

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, today announced the latest Long-Term Supported (LTS) release of Dalet Flex. Build...

06/09/2026

Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA World Cup 2026 in Germany with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos

June 9 2026, 23:00 (PDT) Dolby and MagentaTV Bring Fans Closer to the FIFA Worl...

27/08/2026

ESPN Adds College Football Saturdays to Disney+ This Fall

ESPN and Disney are launching College Football Saturdays, adding two college football games per week to Disney for U.S. subscribers as part of their existing ...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Zixi to Showcase Live Video Platform and Broadcaster v19

Zixi will exhibit at IBC2026 (Hall 5, Stand 5.A76, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), demonstrating the Zixi Platform and the latest release of Zixi Broadcaster, ...

27/08/2026

NDI Surpasses 1.2 Million Hardware Nodes as IBC2026 Showcase Expands

NDI has announced that its ecosystem has surpassed 1.2 million NDI-enabled hardware nodes worldwide, spanning products from more than 200 hardware brands across...

27/08/2026

Clear-Com FreeSpeak Cell Trialed During Rio Carnival Before Commercial Launch

Clear-Com conducted a pre-launch field trial of FreeSpeak Cell during Carnival 2026 in Rio de Janeiro, in partnership with Brazilian systems integrator Savana C...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: BVH SportsBox Remote Mixer Becomes Reality

BHV returns to IBC 2026 with an important milestone for its own SportsBox: the broadcast industry's smallest remote vision mixer and format processor has mo...

27/08/2026

TOGETHXR and Snapchat Announce Second Snap the Gap Athlete Cohort

TOGETHXR and Snapchat have announced the second cohort of their Snap the Gap content creator program, welcoming nine athletes as Snap Stars. The program provide...

27/08/2026

CNBC UK Selects MediaKind Beam for Live News Infrastructure

MediaKind has announced that CNBC UK has selected Beam to modernize its contribution and distribution infrastructure for live broadcast operations. The deployme...

27/08/2026

Monitor Engineer Chris Dwight Deploys Sennheiser Spectera on Puscifer and A Perfect Circle Tours

Monitor engineer Chris Dwight has deployed Sennheiser's Spectera wideband bi...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Telestream Expands UP Platform

Telestream has announced an expansion of its UP cloud-native platform, adding capabilities for orchestrating Telestream services, third-party technologies, and ...

27/08/2026

Swerve TV Signs Multi-Year Partnership with GLORY Kickboxing

Swerve TV has signed a multi-year partnership with GLORY Kickboxing, bringing live GLORY events and library programming to Swerve Combat, Swerve TV's free a...

27/08/2026

AFP and Dalet Integrate AFP Content Into Dalet Flex Newsroom Workflow

Dalet has announced a new integrated content experience with Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Dalet Flex, designed to bring AFP's editorial metadata into the p...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: Grass Valley to Demonstrate Integrated Live Production Environment

Grass Valley will demonstrate an integrated live production environment at IBC2026 (Booth 9.A01, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), combining K-Frame, Maverik X, ...

27/08/2026

NWSL and Roku Expand Partnership with Sunday Night Streaming Package

The National Women's Soccer League and Roku have announced an expanded partnership, with the Roku Sports Channel becoming the exclusive streaming home of ei...

27/08/2026

Fubo Adds ACC Network Extra and SEC Network+ to Streaming Service

FuboTV has announced the launch of ACC Network Extra (ACCNX) and SEC Network (SECN ) on the Fubo streaming service at no additional cost to subscribers with En...

27/08/2026

Moment Branding: Using Sound to Create More Powerful Fan Experiences

Sports marketers have entered the experiential age. Today, sports teams, leagues, and venues are increasingly using immersive interactions and real world events...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: MultiDyne to Debut MDoG-8800 12G Fiber Transport Module

MultiDyne will introduce the MDoG-8800 at IBC2026 (Stand 11.C12, RAI Amsterdam, September 11-14), extending its openGear portfolio with a high-density fiber tra...

27/08/2026

IBC 2026: JT-DMF To Host Ask Me Anything' Sessions

The Joint Task Force on the Dynamic Media Facility (JT-DMF), an initiative of AMWA and the EBU, will host a series of informal Ask Me Anything sessions during...

27/08/2026

Homestream Syncs Duke, Auburn and Georgia Tech Football, Basketball Radio Calls to Live TV Broadcasts

Homestream, a mobile app that automatically syncs a team's local radio broad...

27/08/2026

Spikes Under the Lights Brings Collegiate Volleyball to AT&T Stadium in a Made-for-TV Event Built for Scale

A packager for TNT Sports, Kwokman Productions is on hand for the unique event w...

27/08/2026

25 Seasons of New York Yankees on YES Network: The Day 1 Crew Looks Back on a Quarter Century in the Bronx - and Stamford

After more than 3,000 games, five members of YES Network's original staff re...

27/08/2026

Dreamtonics unveil Instrument X orchestral alternative

Physical modelling orchestral instrument announced Following their recent cryptic hints, Dreamtonics have officially revealed the latest addition to their s...

27/08/2026

Apple update the Mac mini & Mac Studio

M5 Ultra-equipped Studio most powerful Mac to date Apple have just announced a design refresh which they say makes the Mac mini fiercer and more versatil...

27/08/2026

Bitwig Studio 6.1 now available

Sampler receivers major upgrades Bitwig's latest DAW update brings some major changes to the Sampler device, kitting it out with new slicing options, tw...

27/08/2026

Arturia release Pure Sub

Designed specifically for hard-hitting modern bass Designed specifically for bass-heavy electronic music, the latest plug-in from Arturia aims to offer an a...

27/08/2026

Gracenote's first DSP integration brings show-level content intelligence to The Trade Desk

Advertisers gain granular CTV targeting and turnkey reporting across eligible in...

27/08/2026

Boland Debuts ST 2110 Option for its 4K HDR Monitors

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/08/2026

Adele Hixon-Day Joins C-SPAN as Chief Development Officer

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/08/2026

Profuz Digital presents intelligent AI workflow orchestra...

Profuz Digital makes a mark by launching a powerful upgrade to its Profuz LAPIS digital media management platform this IBC in Amsterdam at Stand 8.A88. The late...

27/08/2026

DHD to Introduce its Third-Generation Audio Mixing Consol...

DHD.audio has chosen IBC 2026 as the launch venue for what it defines as one of the most radical advances in the companys 30 year history. Every broadcast trad...

27/08/2026

FOR-A integrates with CuePilot for dynamic automated prod...

Direct connectivity between planning, production and graphics for creativity and streamlined workflows...

27/08/2026

New Photoshop innovations bring you more choice and control at every stage of your creative process

New Photoshop innovations bring you more choice and control at every stage of yo...

27/08/2026

First Two Seasons of Vertical Series Vultures Shot on Blackmagic Design Cameras

First Two Seasons of Vertical Series Vultures Shot on Blackmagic Design Cameras Brie Clayton August 27, 2026 0 Comments Director and DoP of Vultures ...

27/08/2026

3Play Media data shows audiences are embracing AI dubbing

For years, the media and entertainment industry has hesitated to use AI-voiced dubbing due to concern for audience experience. New data from 3Play Media, a glob...

27/08/2026

Starfish adds voice synthesis support to Advantage AD in...

Starfish Technologies has announced the forthcoming V9 release of its Advantage AD workstation, adding support for voice synthesis services and giving Audio Des...

27/08/2026

Lightware UBEX Helps Rental Teams Deploy Faster And Saf...

Lightware's UBEX is a powerful AV-over-IP product well suited for rental and staging workflows where systems must be fast to deploy, easy to repurpose, and ...

27/08/2026

Lightware extends TPN platform to 100 endpoints with TPN-...

Lightware has expanded the scalability of its 10G TPN AV-over-IP platform with the introduction of the new TPN-MMU-X100 Matrix Management Unit, enabling systems...

27/08/2026

Federal Appeals Court Blocks Some FCC Political Ad Discount Rules

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/08/2026

Zixi To Demo Hybrid Workflows At IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/08/2026

Study: Americans Spend More Time Watching YouTube Than Live TV

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/08/2026

Magewell To Highlight Newly Released Director Plus At IBC2026

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

27/08/2026

PlayBox Neo continues to shape the media landscape by ini...

PlayBox Neo Stand 7.C29 IBC2026 - 11 14 September Well-established global specialists in media playout, automation, and streaming solutions, PlayBox Neo ...

27/08/2026

Rise Academy Invites the Industry to Join Race 4 The Futu...

Rise Academy, the broadcast and media skills charity dedicated to delivering practical media technology learning experiences, careers resources and work experie...

27/08/2026

Mediagenix Takes Title Management Beyond the Catalog at I...

Mediagenix, a global leader in smart content solutions to profitably connect the right content to the right audience, will showcase the latest evolution of its ...

27/08/2026

Screen Australia opens applications for Global Fellowships Program

Screen Australia opens applications for Global Fellowships Program 27 August 2026 Applications are now open for the Screen Australia Global Fellowships progra...

27/08/2026

Sir Grayson Perry and Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka Self Esteem) to host the third annual Sky Arts Awards at the Roundhouse on 13 October

Thursday 27 August 2026 Sir Grayson Perry and Rebecca Lucy Taylor (aka Self Est...

27/08/2026

Riedel Evolves Leadership and Global Go-to-Market Organization

Wuppertal August 27, 2026 Riedel Evolves Leadership and Global Go-to-Market OrganizationRiedel Communications is strengthening its leadership and global go-to...

27/08/2026

Exciting updates for Sneaky Sasquatch come to Apple Arcade - UPDATE - Posted on 27 August 2026

More Sasquatch, more fun: Today, the sneakiest crossover of the summer lands exc...