
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
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
07/08/2025
July 8 2025, 22:30 (PDT) Tata Motors & Dolby Bring Dolby Atmos to Harrier.ev, R...
18/07/2025
Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...
18/07/2025
By Jessica Herndon
One of the most exciting things about the Sundance Film Fest...
18/07/2025
BOSTON Sports network NESN today relaunched the NESN 360 app with a redesigned user experience and upgrades....
18/07/2025
Berklee Singers Wow the Competition on Netflixs Building the Band Netflixs new music competition show features two Berklee artists looking to make their pop b...
18/07/2025
As the House of Representatives voted early Friday morning to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting, advocates warned that the elimination of $1 bil...
18/07/2025
DENVER Imagine Communications has announced that it is deepening its commitment to the North American sports and live events market with investments in its prod...
18/07/2025
LOS GATOS, Calif. Netflix once again reported strong financial growth, with revenue increasing 16% year-over-year to $11.079 billion in Q2 2025 as net income s...
18/07/2025
Live from the 153rd Open Championship: SMT Enhances Video Board Experience; Enab...
18/07/2025
ShotTracker's Davyeon Ross on Revolutionizing Basketball On the Court and ...
18/07/2025
Home Pitch: How the Danish League Brought Its Live Match Production In-House Matchday Production produced 800+ matches across Denmark in its first year By Geor...
18/07/2025
Live From the 153rd Open Championship: EMG Debuts Spidercam for Golf, Expands Su...
18/07/2025
Usyk vs Dubois II: Bringing the fight to life with state of the art cameras and ...
18/07/2025
Usyk vs Dubois II: DAZN's head of boxing Chris Glanville talks helicopters, ...
18/07/2025
Live From the 153rd Open Championship: NBC Expands Unilateral Effort; Shared Stu...
18/07/2025
Warner Bros. Discovery's Anne Graham on Training New Professionals to Ensure...
18/07/2025
Live From the 153rd Open Championship: How R&A Spidercam Became a Reality for Go...
18/07/2025
ESPN Bulks Up Onsite Studios, Cameras, Player Mics for WNBA All-Star Weekend Besides the game, four studio shows will be produced onsite By Jason Dachman, Edit...
18/07/2025
Friday 18 July 2025
Credit: Marc Sethi
The Sky Arts Awards will return on 16 September, once again taking place at the iconic Roundhouse in London. Produced b...
18/07/2025
This month, players can dive into special crossover events featuring SpongeBob SquarePants in Snake.io+ and Crossy Road Castle, available exclusively on Apple A...
18/07/2025
Up for the Match brings the fun, the passion-and a bit of Riverdance- tomorrow n...
17/07/2025
Blanche Barton, Peter Gilmore, Scott Cummings, Sundance Institute Director of Programming Kim Yutani, and Peggy Nadramia throwing horns. (Stephen Lovekin/Shutte...
17/07/2025
Spotify's goal with audiobooks is to help grow the publishing industry and create the best possible experience for booklovers, which is why we're launch...
17/07/2025
An advanced large solid rocket motor hot fire test conducted at L3Harris' Camden, Arkansas, site....
17/07/2025
L3Harris payloads and components have been on board every U.S. GPS satellite-more than 70 missions since the 1970s. Our technology is at the core of GPS availab...
17/07/2025
L3Harris' pack of launched effects is comprised of multi-role vehicles that ...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 17, 2025 - Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has announced the appointment of Ryan Moore to the new role of Chief Business O...
17/07/2025
READING, Pa. Network technology startup Miri Technologies has added David Cohen as vice president, business development. He'll be tasked with expanding the ...
17/07/2025
Berklee Wins CASE Award for Standout Digital Campaign The Alumni Affairs team's Variations Signature Series earned recognition for offering an authentic p...
17/07/2025
Early Thursday morning, the U.S. Senate voted to cut federal funding for PBS and NPR in a bill that also included cuts for foreign aid. In a 51-48 vote, the act...
17/07/2025
GREAT Britain and Northern Ireland Pavilions across IBC2025 (12 15 September, RAI Amsterdam) feature a remarkable 34 companies, each providing unique, innovativ...
17/07/2025
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. The Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers today introduced its Content Provenance and Authenticity (CPA) in Media Study Group (S...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK Despite widespread concerns about a soft advertising market, NBCUniversal said it closed its 2025-26 upfront negotiation cycle with a record ad sales v...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK Television advertising remains an effective means to market and influence younger baby boomer and Generation X consumers approaching retirement age, ac...
17/07/2025
ALLENTOWN, Pa. & JERSEY CITY, N.J. Service Electric Cable TV and OpenVault have announced that the operator is deploying the OpenVault Proactive Network Manage...
17/07/2025
WASHINGTON Following up on his first major policy speech just two ago, Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr is promising to buck the usual summ...
17/07/2025
Luxembourg, 14 July 2025 - SES received the final regulatory approvals for the SES-Intelsat transaction, including the US Federal Communications Commission.
O...
17/07/2025
Berklee Alumni Nominated for 2025 Emmy Awards Twenty-seven Berklee alumni received nominations across categories in sound mixing, sound editing, and compositi...
17/07/2025
Back to All News
What We Watched the First Half of 2025
Entertainment
17 July 2025
Global
Link copied to clipboard
Today, we're sharing our latest Eng...
17/07/2025
Cast your vote in 2 categories for Ivory 3 American Concert DIvory 3 American Concert D is in the 2025 MIDI Innovation Awards and we are honored to be nominated...
17/07/2025
SVG Sit-Down: OpenDrives' Sean Lee, Michael Wilsker, and Jason Matousek on E...
17/07/2025
Oracle's Geoff Tognetti on Staying Ahead of the AI Curve Through Further Ado...
17/07/2025
NBA's Summer League Is a Hot Bed of AI, Immersive Innovation Testing Audio mixing, intelligent camera framing are among AI-driven efforts By Ken Kerschbaum...
17/07/2025
SVG's TranSPORT Conference Returns to NYC on Oct. 21; Register Today! By SVG Staff
Thursday, July 17, 2025 - 8:29 am
Print This Story | Subscribe
St...
17/07/2025
Gravity Media chosen as group name for merged OB business By George Bevir
Wednesday, July 16, 2025 - 11:30
Print This Story
Gravity Media executive chairm...
17/07/2025
SES Closes Deal to Acquire Intelsat, Creating New Giant in Satellite Connectivit...
17/07/2025
How MLB Pulled Off That Unforgettable Hank Aaron Tribute at the All-Star Game Vintage content, state-of-the-art projection/processing combine in marvelous mile...
17/07/2025
Wuppertal July 17, 2025
Riedel Communications Powers Handa Opera on Sydney Har...