Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Anastas Michos, ASC, GSC on The Kissing Booth 2 and The Empty Man

06/09/2024

What are we going to talk about today? cinematographer Anastas Michos, ASC, GSC asks almost immediately after answering his phone. It's late July when Panavision connects with Michos, and though the vast majority of productions had ground to a halt back in March due to COVID-19, the cinematographer has managed to keep busy while also taking all necessary precautions to stay healthy and safe. After doing some shooting around New York City for a documentary about the pandemic directed by fellow ASC member Ellen Kuras, Michos lifted anchor and has recently been sailing along the East Coast. Isolating socially became let me go commune with nature,' just to put a different spin on it, he shares.

The cinematographer also just had the romantic comedy The Kissing Booth 2 director Vince Marcello's sequel to his 2018 feature The Kissing Booth, which also had Michos behind the camera premier on Netflix, with the debut of another feature, director David Prior's supernatural thriller The Empty Man, on the docket for later this year. And that is what we're going to talk about today.

Though light years apart in both style and subject matter, the two movies are inextricably linked for the cinematographer due to the fact that both were predominantly shot in and around Cape Town, South Africa. Michos photographed The Empty Man in late 2016, and he describes the movie as a very dark supernatural thriller adapted from the Boom! Studios comic book. I do believe that those of us who are totally immersed in our work pick up the story's emotional vibes, and when it's a dark subject matter, it affects you. Towards the end of that show, I bumped into [The Kissing Booth] producer Michele Weisler in Cape Town. We went out for dinner, I asked, What are you doing?' and she said, Oh, this little, sweet teen comedy.' I thought, Right now, that would be so much fun,' so I said, That's great are you looking for a DP?'

Weisler then introduced Michos to Marcello, who was prepping the first Kissing Booth, with principal photography slated to begin in January 2017. We got along great, Michos recalls. He's witty, he's smart, he had a vision for his film and pitched it in a way that was so appealing. Based on the book by Beth Reekles, The Kissing Booth followed Elle Evans (Joey King) through her junior year of high school and the awkward realization that she was in love with Noah Flynn (Jacob Elordi), the older brother of her lifelong best friend, Lee (Joel Courtney) and that the feeling was mutual. Released on Netflix in May 2018, the movie quickly became a sensation, and it wasn't long before a sequel was in the works.

In fact, Netflix greenlit two sequels, with The Kissing Booth 3 shot in secret right on the heels of The Kissing Booth 2. The third movie, slated to debut in 2021, was finally announced two days after the second premiered and quickly rocketed to first place in Netflix's Top 10 in the U.S. Today ranking.

The Kissing Booth 2 picks up the story with Elle and Lee beginning their senior year, and with Noah now on the other side of the country as a freshman at Harvard. Principal photography on the movie began in February 2019, with Michos and Marcello reuniting on location in Cape Town. Though set in and around Los Angeles, each Kissing Booth movie has spent only a few days actually shooting in the City of Angels, relying instead on South Africa to serve as a convincing stand-in. Part of the sell is that Cape Town is as far south of the equator as L.A. is north of it, Michos notes. So in terms of climate, it's similar.

The illusion is further sold with a shallow depth of field that keeps the backgrounds soft while simultaneously bringing the audience into Elle's headspace. We wanted to keep the film intimate and let the background be pretty and drop away, Michos says. We used Primos, which are wonderfully sharp, and I had a little bit of glass in front of them just to take the edge off. We shot wide open all the time, even if we had to ND down, so we could really get the full effect of the softness in the background, with the bokeh being soft and round. The background became L.A. because there wasn't anything in focus that wasn't L.A. It was all in the viewer's head.

Indeed, in depicting Los Angeles, the filmmakers sought to present what Michos calls a heightened version that speaks to a collective mental image of the city. Everything that we were doing is a fantasy there is no high school that is necessarily as opulent, people don't necessarily live in those huge houses. To make that work, we wanted it to be bright, glossy, poppy and friendly, and to keep the mythology of Los Angeles working so that the global audience's idea of L.A. was satisfied. So everybody has beautiful rim light, they have a soft cheek light that is the world that we're portraying.

One of Cape Town's bigger challenges, when it comes to a movie that takes place in the States, is the fact that cars drive on the opposite side of the road. For one particular day exterior when the production wasn't able to stop traffic, Michos shares, I pitched an old trick to Vincent, and he was thrilled, so we asked wardrobe and the art department to print everything backwards all the signs, all the logos, all the license plates as if they were in a mirror. Then we just reverted the image, and nobody was the wiser for it. It worked out well, but it was weird doing it, and it was weird in coverage to remember that if they're exiting frame right, they're actually exiting frame left.

The Kissing Booth movies are all framed for a 2:1 release, and for the sequels, Michos opted to shoot with Panavision's Millennium DXL2 camera system, which he had used on the series Ambitions after wrapping the firs
LINK: https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/emotional-vibe...
See more stories from panavision

More from Panavision France

30/09/2024

Jeff Cronenweth, ASC: The cinematography of Tales From the Loop

Tales From the Loop, a new eight-episode series now streaming on Amazon Prime Video, explores the goings-on in a small Ohio town situated atop a mysterious mach...

25/09/2024

Cinematographer Steven V. Silver, ASC on the sitcom B Positive

The second season of the Chuck Lorre CBS sitcom B Positive finds the kismet-connected duo Gina (Annaleigh Ashford) and Drew (Thomas Middleditch) diving deeper ...

25/09/2024

Director Blake Farber on the Kenyan commercial "Go Ahead"

For the KCB Bank Kenya commercial Go Ahead, director Blake Farber and cinematographer Nicholas Bluff collaborated to craft a portrait of the vibrant people, p...

25/09/2024

Cinematographer Mathieu Bertholet on L't ternit

The coming-of-age drama L' t ternit (released in the U.S. as Our Eternal Summer) marked the continuation of the collaboration between writer-director mi...

25/09/2024

Donald A. Morgan, ASC on the sitcom The Conners

Only a veteran cinematographer such as Donald A. Morgan, ASC could take chisel and hammer and recontour the shape of sitcoms. The eye behind the camera of class...

25/09/2024

Cinematographer Marshall Adams, ASC: The Cinematography of Better Call Saul

Known for photographing cult-classic television such as Felicity and Monk, Marshall Adams, ASC knows how to identify and respond to a story that subverts ex...

25/09/2024

Darius Khondji, ASC, AFC on the cinematography of Bardo

In Bardo: False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, Mexican filmmaker and expat Silverio Gama (Daniel Gim nez Cacho) undertakes a mind- and time-bending journey o...

25/09/2024

Stefan Duscio, ACS on the Apple TV+ series Shantaram

Adapted from the novel by Gregory David Roberts, the Apple TV+ series Shantaram tells the epic story of an imprisoned criminal (played by Charlie Hunnam) who es...

25/09/2024

Cinematographer Alan Gwizdowski on Honk For Jesus. Save Your Soul.

It's not often that a cinematographer is tasked with shooting a film within a film, but for writer-director Adamma Ebo's feature Honk For Jesus. Save Yo...

25/09/2024

Lachlan Milne, ASC, ACS, NZCS on the feature The Inspection

The lived experiences of writer-director Elegance Bratton are brought to the screen in The Inspection, which follows the character Ellis French (played by Jerem...

25/09/2024

Cinematographer Abraham Martnez on National Treasure: Edge of History

The popular National Treasure franchise has embarked upon a new adventure on Disney+. The 10-episode first season of National Treasure: Edge of History follows ...

25/09/2024

Writer-director Joseph Amenta on the feature Soft

The feature Soft follows three adolescent queer friends as they navigate the pardons and perils of summer break in the streets of Toronto. Written and directed ...

25/09/2024

Cinematographer Matt Toll on the short film G day

Viewed over 19-million times, Tourism Australia's G'day, the short film has set a new bar for tourism videos. The short follows two talking toys, one a ...

25/09/2024

Cinematographer Jimmy Lindsey, ASC on the Apple TV+ series Physical

Created by Annie Weisman, the 1980s-set Apple TV+ series Physical focuses on Sheila Rubin (Rose Byrne) as she navigates a path toward self-discovery after unloc...

23/09/2024

Cinematographer Jeffrey Kim on the comedy feature Babes

Directed by Pamela Adlon, Babes is a heartfelt, contemporary comedy set in vibrant New York City. At its core, the movie is about the deep love and strong frien...

17/09/2024

A Collaboration With Panavision: Oona Menges, BSC

Set in a call center in Bristol, England, the television sitcom Ruby Speaking focuses on the eponymous Ruby (played by Jayde Adams) and her colleagues. It'...

13/09/2024

The Making of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

What I've always loved about his films is that incredible warmth and that incredible imagination, cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, BSC, GSC says of dire...

06/09/2024

Robert Richardson, ASC: The cinematography of Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

The highly anticipated opus from director Quentin Tarantino doesn't disappoint. It's a typically outrageous conglomeration of comedy and shock laced wit...

06/09/2024

Cinematographer Rachel Morrison, ASC on the feature Seberg

Cinema, the most voyeuristic of mediums, is uniquely placed to convey both the act of surveillance and the psychology of the surveilled. In Seberg, director Ben...

06/09/2024

Dan Mindel, ASC, BSC, SASC: The cinematography of Star Wars Episode IX

In February 2019, director J.J. Abrams called Cut! for the last time during principal photography of the ninth chapter of the long-running Star Wars saga. Sta...

06/09/2024

Cinematographer Jacques Jouffret and director Dave Wilson on Bloodshot

In a cinematic universe expanding with superheroes, the creative challenge for filmmakers is to set newcomers apart from the crowd. The task is doubly important...

06/09/2024

Cinematographer John Conroy, ISC on Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

Having photographed episodes of the Showtime horror drama Penny Dreadful's second and third seasons, John Conroy, ISC was eager to reteam with showrunner Jo...

06/09/2024

Cinematographer Jas Shelton on Homecoming s second season

The psychological thriller Homecoming returns for its sophomore season with fresh twists, nail-biting cliff-hangers, and more of the unnerving cinematography th...

06/09/2024

Cinematographer Haris Zambarloukos, BSC, GSC on Artemis Fowl

Based on the series of novels by Eoin Colfer, the feature Artemis Fowl finds its namesake a precocious, hyperintelligent 12-year-old boy (played by Ferdia Sha...

06/09/2024

Cinematographer Oren Soffer on the short film See You Soon

Vincent lives in Los Angeles, Anthony in New York City. They met on a dating app and have been talking for months, but the physical distance between them has ke...

06/09/2024

Anastas Michos, ASC, GSC on The Kissing Booth 2 and The Empty Man

What are we going to talk about today? cinematographer Anastas Michos, ASC, GSC asks almost immediately after answering his phone. It's late July when Pana...

06/09/2024

Cinematographer Hillary Spera on Run and The Craft: Legacy

The recent features and bear a number of similarities. Chief among them: Both were shot by cinematographer Hillary Spera. Each story also exists in the realm of...

06/09/2024

Trevor Michael Brown and director Uga Carlini on the feature Angeliena

Angeliena follows the adventures and self-discovery of its namesake heroine (played by Euodia Samson), a lovable parking attendant who harbors dreams of traveli...

06/09/2024

Cinematographer Mihai Mlaimare Jr. on The Harder They Fall

Pair a British-born songwriter-director who's collaborated with musicians like Jay-Z with a Romanian cinematographer known for shooting intense dramas, and ...

06/09/2024

Mandy Walker, AM, ASC, ACS: The cinematography of Elvis

It was June 2019 when director Baz Luhrmann first approached cinematographer Mandy Walker, ACS, ASC about collaborating on the new biopic Elvis. I was extremel...

06/09/2024

Polly Morgan, ASC, BSC on the feature Where the Crawdads Sing

Based on the best-selling mystery novel of the same name, the feature Where the Crawdads Sing tells the story of Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a young woman who grew...

04/09/2024

A Collaboration With Panavision: Anna Smoroov, ASK

Cinematographer Anna Smoro ov , ASK's credits include the feature N m tajemstv (aka Suppressed), which played at the 2023 Camerimage International Film Fe...

31/08/2024

Cinematographer Stephan Pehrsson, BSC on collaboration and inspiration

For Stephan Pehrsson, BSC, cinematography has always been an act of communicating with his collaborators, understanding and being open to their ideas, and recog...

30/08/2024

Cinematographer Tim Orr on the series Dickinson

When Apple TV+ was unveiled earlier this year, Apple positioned the video subscription service as the new home for the world's most celebrated creative art...

30/08/2024

DP Catherine Goldschmidt on the made-for-mobile series Dummy

Short-form streaming-video platform Quibi provides premium content specifically designed for consumption on a mobile device. This presented the production of it...

30/08/2024

Cinematographer Don Burgess, ASC on The Witches

Based on the book by Roald Dahl and now streaming on HBO Max, The Witches tells the story of a young boy (Jahzir Bruno) who goes to live with his grandmother (O...

30/08/2024

Cinematographer Simon Reay on the series Lovely Little Farm

My career has spanned many genres, a journey I could have never predicted, says cinematographer Simon Reay. With credits that run the gamut from the series Man...

30/08/2024

Laurent Tangy, AFC on his approach to the feature Mascarade

The feature Mascarade reunited writer-director Nicolas Bedos and cinematographer Laurent Tangy, AFC, following their collaboration on the 2021 release OSS 117: ...

29/08/2024

Cinematographer Matthew Clark on the feature Late Night

A legendary talk show host employs a young scriptwriter and sparks fly in the new indie feature Late Night, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Written by...

29/08/2024

Patrick Cady, ASC & supervising colorist Scott Klein on Bosch Season 6

Inspired by Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, the Amazon Prime Video police-procedural series Bosch premiered its sixth season on April 17. The show ha...

29/08/2024

Cinematographer Quyen Tran & colorist Ethan Schwartz on Palm Springs

It's Sarah's sister's wedding day in the Southern California oasis of Palm Springs. During the reception, Sarah meets Nyles, and the two decide to a...

29/08/2024

Cinematographer Stephan Pehrsson, BSC on the series Utopia

The comic book Dystopia tells the story of Jessica Hyde, a young girl on the run from the evil Mr. Rabbit, who holds Jessica's scientist father captive and ...

29/08/2024

Julia Swain & Teodora Totoiu on the documentary Lady Cameraman

Cinematography has truly saved my life, director of photography Julia Swain says in the opening minutes of the documentary. Directed by Swain, the movie charts...

29/08/2024

Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, ASC on the series Loki

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Season 1 of the Marvel Studios series Loki finds the titular God of Mischief (played by Tom Hiddleston) in the custod...

29/08/2024

Cinematographer Zach Kuperstein and senior colorist Sam Daley on Barbarian

When cinematographer Zach Kuperstein got the job to shoot writer-director Zach Cregger's horror feature Barbarian, one of the first things he did was reach ...

29/08/2024

Keith Jenson on the Phoenix single "Tonight" featuring Ezra Koenig

For the track Tonight on their album Alpha Zulu, French band Phoenix partnered with Vampire Weekend's lead vocalist and guitarist, Ezra Koenig. Underscori...

19/08/2024

Cinematographer Natasha Braier, ASC, ADF on Honey Boy

Written by Shia LaBeouf and directed by Alma Har'el, Honey Boy presents a semi-autobiographical portrait of LaBeouf's experiences as a 12-year-old child...

19/08/2024

Erik Messerschmidt, ASC & Ian Vertovec on the feature Devotion

In October 1948, Jesse Brown became the first African American to complete the U.S. Navy's flight training program and received his Naval Aviator Badge. The...

19/08/2024

Kramer Morgenthau, ASC on the cinematography of Creed III

Creed III finds Adonis Creed son of the late boxing champ Apollo Creed, the erstwhile nemesis, mentor and friend of Rocky Balboa a successfully retired heav...

19/08/2024

Matthias Knigswieser, AAC on the cinematography of A Man Called Otto

Adapted from the 2015 Swedish film which itself was adapted from the Swedish novel En man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove), director Marc Forster's feat...