![](//www.4rfv.com/images/no_image.jpg)
The first feature film from writer-director Shaun Seneviratne, Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts depicts the struggle between love and duty as Ben (Sathya Sridharan) steps out on a limb to rekindle his relationship with Suzanne (Anastasia Olowin), who can't escape the calls of her work. Seeking to make a film that felt grittier than the manicured qualities typically associated with romantic comedies, Seneviratne decided to employ non-actors in every role except the leads.
Complementing the decisions Seneviratne made in prep and on set with cinematographer Molly Scotti, Light Iron colorist Keith Jenson helped fine-tune the visual language in the final color grade, which took place at Light Iron New York ahead of the movie's world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival. Here, Seneviratne and Jenson share their perspectives on their memorable collaboration.
Light Iron: Shaun, what brought you to Light Iron for Ben and Suzanne?
Shaun Seneviratne: Our producer Doron J Paul Mitchell has a mutual friend with Freddy Hernandez, VP of business development at Light Iron. We felt Freddys passion and support for independent filmmaking, and the vibes were right! It just felt like Light Iron was the place to go.
How did the two of you discuss the desired look for the project to ensure you were seeing it the same way?
Seneviratne: I wanted the movie to have the look of a verit documentary particularly one shot in the '60s or '70s such as Tokyo Olympiad Jean Rouch films, and ric Rohmer's films. We were interested in keeping things natural and filmic; we weren't interested in applying more modern trends and looks. We also weren't afraid of contrast and were quite interested in playing with darkness and letting parts of the frame go fully black.
Keith Jenson: When we were first beginning the project, Shaun sent over stills from existing films that reminded him of scenes from his own film. Shaun had a really good idea of the sorts of tones and moods he was going for.
We got on a call so that we could both look at the references and talk them through, and during that call, Shaun and I discovered we had some pretty strong similarities in some pretty obscure and niche music. As creatives, we quickly realized that if we'd both gravitated to those interests independently, then we would probably be able to communicate a lot of the more abstract and esoteric ideas of color quickly basically, we could have a creative shorthand in the studio during our sessions. I think I can speak for both of us in that we walked away from that call excited to begin collaborating!
Seneviratne: Keith had shared his work on Eyimofe, which was very much in the vein of what we were trying to achieve. Also, Keiths background with film and telecine gave him an authentic perspective on how we could achieve a naturalistic film look.
What were some of your main areas of focus in the color grade?
Seneviratne: Shadow and highlight levels, saturation, authentic film texture principles, and how to approach the night scenes, which were an area where we allowed ourselves to be open to stylization.
Jenson: We really tried for an authentic filmic look with strong colors and strong contrast. The film itself has title cards against strong color backgrounds, and we didn't want those to feel out of place when they cut on screen, so the rest of the film had to have very prominent primaries and healthy saturation. To achieve this, we utilized the toolset inside of DaVinci Resolve. We built our own LUT utilizing some softening in the shadows, some halation effects, and some film grain. I like to apply different levels of film grain over top of each other to achieve a more photographic grain appearance that feels a bit less like an overlay filter.
Seneviratne: Keith spoke about what people sometimes get wrong with film grain, which is applying one uniform grain over the entire image. To truly emulate film grain, one needs to take into account how that grain looks over the highlights, mid tones and shadows.
Any final thoughts from your collaboration that you'd like to share?
Seneviratne: Keith is a great guy who was easy to collaborate with and had great taste and insight. Our DI producer at Light Iron, Bonnie Gross, was also instrumental in the process, always making sure everything was taken care of and that the process was super-smooth.
Jenson: It was an absolute pleasure to work with Shaun, [editor] Joe Violette, and Doron. We had a great time in the studio in what were extremely memorable sessions for me. It was some of the most fun I've had grading everything about our sessions went so smoothly. A lot of that is thanks to Bonnie Gross, who helped manage the entire project on our end. She was even able to wrangle large Toblerone chocolates to surprise everyone on our final session a comedically large Toblerone bar features in one aspect of the film. Bonnie and I would both love to work with Shaun and his team again!
More from Panavision France
11/07/2024
What I love most is telling stories, shares Shelly Johnson, ASC. The esteemed cinematographer has been collaborating with Panavision since the late 1980s, on p...
09/07/2024
LOS ANGELES (July 9, 2024) Light Iron, the post-production creative-services division of Panavision, has named industry veteran Tim Belcher the company's ...
01/07/2024
Films created for advertising purposes have long served as a test bed where talented filmmakers can hone their craft and stretch their creative muscles. With th...
01/07/2024
Writer-director Jeff Nichols and cinematographer Adam Stone, the critically acclaimed duo behind such celebrated films as Loving, Midnight Special and Mud, reun...
25/06/2024
I've always thought of myself not so specifically as a cinematographer, says Phedon Papamichael, ASC, GSC. Indeed, the renowned director of photography has...
20/06/2024
The first season of the Disney+ series Percy Jackson and the Olympians meticulously builds a world that makes fantasy feel real. Based on the book series by Ric...
18/06/2024
The first feature film from writer-director Shaun Seneviratne, Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts depicts the struggle between love and duty as Ben (Sathya S...
18/06/2024
Now streaming on Netflix, Good Grief marks the feature-film directorial debut of Daniel Levy, well known as the co-creator and costar of the series Schitt's...
18/06/2024
Created by showrunner Abe Sylvia, the Apple TV+ comedic drama Palm Royale navigates the tale of one womans ambitious journey to make it amongst the upper crust,...
18/06/2024
Based on Patricia Highsmith's bestselling Tom Ripley novels, Netflix's eight-episode limited series Ripley stars Andrew Scott as the eponymous antihero,...
16/06/2024
I'm a big believer in getting the shot right in camera, says LEE Filters ambassador Jordan Banks. In this video, he guides viewers through his process as h...
06/06/2024
LONDON, U.K. (4 June, 2024) Panalux, a leading rental provider of lighting and power solutions for the motion-picture industry and part of Panavision's en...
04/06/2024
An apathetic Latin teacher makes a misguided deal with her students, resulting in her ill-prepared class entering a prestigious competition in Naples. This is t...
03/06/2024
Set in 1970s-'80s Miami, the Netflix limited series Griselda is a fictionalized dramatization inspired by the life Griselda Blanco (Sof a Vergara), who crea...
21/05/2024
Part of being a photographer is adapting to situations, says photographer Verity Milligan. In this video, Milligan takes her camera to the Gas Street Basin nei...
20/05/2024
Created by showrunner Abe Sylvia, the Apple TV+ comedic drama Palm Royale navigates the tale of one womans ambitious journey to make it amongst the upper crust,...
14/05/2024
The feature film The Fall Guy marks the latest collaboration between director David Leitch and cinematographer Jonathan Sela, ASC. Sela describes the movie as ...
06/05/2024
In this video, cinematographer Simon Rowling welcomes viewers behind the scenes as he lights a daytime-interior scene inside a coffee shop. Shooting on Panavisi...
02/05/2024
I always like to base my lighting choices in reality, says cinematographer Jamie D. Ramsay, SASC. For his recent collaboration with writer-director Andrew Haig...
30/04/2024
LOS ANGELES (April 30, 2024) Light Iron, the post-production creative-services division of Panavision, is excited to announce that lodie Ichter has joined th...
30/04/2024
Now streaming on Netflix, Good Grief marks the feature-film directorial debut of Daniel Levy, well known as the co-creator and costar of the series Schitt's...
24/04/2024
The first feature film from writer-director Shaun Seneviratne, Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts depicts the struggle between love and duty as Ben (Sathya S...
24/04/2024
LONDON, England (24 April 2024) Panalux, a leading rental provider of lighting and power solutions for the motion-picture industry and part of Panavision'...
22/04/2024
In this video, LEE Filters ambassador Jordan Banks ventures into Snowdonia National Park in Wales. Faced with less-than-ideal weather conditions, he adapts his ...
16/04/2024
Directed by H l na Klotz, La V nus dargent (aka Spirit of Ecstasy) presents the tale of Jeanne Francoeur (played by Claire Pommet), a young woman striving to es...
13/04/2024
In this video, gaffer Elena Armellini takes viewers behind the scenes as she lights a horror scene. She and her crew black-out the locations windows to give the...
09/04/2024
Co-written and directed by Thomas Cailley, The Animal Kingdom (Le r gne animal) follows a father and son's adventure to find their family's matriarch af...
08/04/2024
In this video, Elena Armellini shows us how she uses LEE Filters to create the perfect lighting for a horror scene....
06/04/2024
In this educational video from LEE Filters, cinematographer Simon Rowling welcomes viewers on set and discusses his creative and technical approach to lighting ...
29/03/2024
In the final installment of Panavision's Women Making History interview series, Panavision President and CEO Kim Snyder focuses the conversation on the part...
26/03/2024
Cinematographer Pedro Luque, SCU's credits include the features Body Cam, Antebellum and director J.A. Bayona's Best International Feature Oscar-nominat...
21/03/2024
In Part 4 of Panavision's Women Making History interview series, the conversation turns toward career highlights. Prompted by Panavision President and CEO K...
18/03/2024
Released this past January, the music video for Ariana Grande's yes, and? brings a modern approach to vintage allure. The video was directed by Christian ...
14/03/2024
The Women Making History interview series continues, with Panavision President and CEO Kim Snyder steering the conversation toward mentorship. Here, the partici...
13/03/2024
I like to work with directors that have a real distinct sense for what they want out of their film, says Erik Messerschmidt, ASC. This was certainly the case w...
08/03/2024
In this installment of Panavision's Women Making History interview series, the conversation turns to key advice that has helped guide the participants as th...
01/03/2024
The month of March marks Women's History Month and, on the 8th, International Women's Day. These are important opportunities to focus on stories from wo...
27/02/2024
TORONTO (February 27, 2024) LEE Filters, a leading manufacturer of high-quality lighting gels and photographic filters and a member of the Panavision family o...
27/02/2024
ACS member Warwick Thornton wrote, directed and photographed the feature The New Boy, about a 9-year-old Aboriginal Australian orphan who arrives at a remote mo...
26/02/2024
MovieLabs, the technology joint venture of the major Hollywood motion picture studios, recently announced that Light Iron is among the latest group of 10 partic...
25/02/2024
Directed and co-written by Nicholaus Goossen, Drugstore June follows the vigilante detective-work of a self-obsessed social-media influencer, the eponymous June...
22/02/2024
BSC Expo 2024 recently wrapped in London, and Panavision, Panalux and LEE Filters were all on hand to showcase products from across their range of innovative so...
21/02/2024
With its fourth season, the National Geographic series Genius presents a dual portrait of Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, inspirational leaders who paved ...
14/02/2024
I always want the film to tell me what it needs, says cinematographer Linus Sandgren, FSF, ASC. In the case of writer-director Emerald Fennell's feature Sa...
13/02/2024
Cinematographer Ricardo Diaz joined the HBO series Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty for Season 2's third episode, The Second Coming. Depicting...
08/02/2024
2023 saw the release of two features photographed by Rodrigo Prieto, ASC, AMC: Barbie, directed by Greta Gerwig, and Killers of the Flower Moon, which reteamed ...
31/01/2024
LONDON, England (31 January, 2024) Panalux, a leading rental provider of lighting and power solutions for the motion-picture industry and part of Panavision...
29/01/2024
Written and directed by Sean Durkin, the feature film The Iron Claw shines a light on the tragedies and triumphs of the Von Erichs, a real-life family of profes...
23/01/2024
LONDON, England (23rd January, 2024) Panalux, a leading rental provider of lighting and power solutions for the motion-picture industry and part of Panavision...
12/01/2024
Over six seasons, the Netflix series The Crown has enthralled viewers with its simultaneously intimate and epic portrait of Queen Elizabeth II and the royal fam...