Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

The Thrill of the Ride

08/08/2023

The new feature Haunted Mansion delivers spooky fun inspired by the famed Disney theme park attraction. Telling the story of single-mom Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) and the eclectic group she gathers in an attempt to rid her new home of its hauntings, the movie reteamed director Justin Simien and cinematographer Jeffrey Waldron, who had previously collaborated on the first season of Simien's Netflix series Dear White People.

After the thrills of Haunted Mansion, Waldron rode straight into writer-director Nicole Holofcener's dramatic comedy You Hurt My Feelings, about married couple Beth (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) and Don (Tobias Menzies) and the strains on their relationship after Beth overhears her husband's candid comments. The gear-shift from one project to the next offered a creative rush for Waldron, who recounts the journey's twists and turns in this Q&A.

Panavision: How did you become involved in each project?

Jeffrey Waldron: Justin Simien and I clicked on the first season of Dear White People, sharing a love of film history and a lot of visual instincts. When he reached out about Haunted Mansion, I was so excited, not only by the idea of getting to shoot with Justin again but because I love the visual world of the source material, the original Disneyland ride. Actually landing the opportunity was an uphill battle like Justin, I was coming from independent film and television, so I worked hard to prove my potential and communicate a big vision for the film.

During the final stretch of shooting Haunted Mansion, I got a message from Nicole Holofcener we had shot together on HBO's Mrs. Fletcher and had stayed in touch and she asked if I might be available for a movie in New York City. I was heartbroken that I wasn't able to do it. When we wrapped Haunted Mansion, I checked back in to see how it went, and she told me it had been pushed. Suddenly our dates matched up, and we did You Hurt My Feelings together.

How would you describe the look that you and the director sought to create for each film?

Waldron: Well, these are very different looks!

For Haunted Mansion, we wanted to create a rich world built upon the visuals of the ride. To me, that meant a lot of color contrast between warms and cools, a lot of practical lamp sources, candles, firelight, shafts of moonlight, and a soft, dusty, painterly feel. There are a number of other looks in the film, from a flashback told through a crystal ball to the Ghost Realm' an astral plane painted in stark colors inspired by everything from a film negative to Hitchcock's Vertigo.

The script for You Hurt My Feelings managed to balance a very natural flow with a bit of a heightened, satirical edge. I took my approach from there: a softened realism lit from real-world sources but heightened to emphasize drama or lightness in parallel with the characters. We shot a lot of exteriors in New York in the spring, which fell into this soft, pastel approach well. I like to think of the result as natural and realistic but filtered through Nicole's nuanced writing and directing voice for the film.

For both projects, were there any particular visual references you looked at for inspiration?

Waldron: For Haunted Mansion, Justin and I brought in a lot of references: Hitchcock, The Twilight Zone, The Cincinnati Kid, street photography of New Orleans. I looked at lighting references from Crimson Peak and Tim Burton films like Beetlejuice and Alice in Wonderland. I'd say the biggest visual reference for all departments was consistently the ride itself. How did it strike this balance of scary and funny, and how do we bring that into a timeless-feeling but visually modern film?

For You Hurt My Feelings, I put together about a page of images I'd pulled from New York City photographers and some smaller personal films that leaned pastel and soft but felt real. Nicole looked at them only long enough to feel we were headed in a unified direction and then just started putting together the movie.

Rather than trying to emulate the entire look, there's often one small thing I like in each reference. I might use the picture to communicate a kind of green or cyan I love, or a specific kind of framing, or how they're using a super-wide lens or whatever it is. For me, rather than looking at a few whole images, it's about putting together a lot of them that each have one or two things I'm inspired by to add to the soup.

What brought you to Panavision for each of these projects?

Waldron: In early testing for Haunted Mansion, while they were building the sets, I took a camera around with a handful of lenses. When we put these images on the projector for Justin to see, it felt like a no-brainer that we wanted to shoot anamorphic the way they bend and fall off and everything, it just felt very haunted? Right off the bat, I had a lot of ambition for the film lens-wise. I knew Panavision had a long history of anamorphic optics to pull from as well as the ability to match them or modify them, plus the Herculean organizational ability to put all of this together in time.

For You Hurt My Feelings, it was a Tier 1 film with not a lot of money for a camera, and I appealed to Sal [Giarratano] at Panavision New York for help!

You used a mix of optics for Haunted Mansion. How did you determine which series to use for any given scene?

Waldron: I wanted to differentiate our waking world, which we shot with T Series; Madame Leota's crystal-ball story, shot with a special portrait' anamorphic lens set; and the Ghost Realm, which was shot with modified G Series. Each of these felt perfect for their role in the storytelling. The Ts felt more classical and buttoned-up; paired with a subtle bit of filtration, they looked great for the bulk of our scenes. The portrait lenses had heavy, glassy smears all around the
LINK: https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/the-thrill-of-...
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 ...

04/08/2026

Dalet Announces Commercial Availability of Dalia, Bringing Media-Aware Agentic AI to Enterprise Productions

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

04/07/2026

Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in Dolby Cinemas Across Japan, Presented in Dolby Atmos and Dolby ...

April 7 2026, 19:00 (PDT) Detective Conan: Fallen Angel of the Highway Opens in...

01/06/2026

Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026

January 6 2026, 05:30 (PST) Dolby Sets the New Standard for Premium Entertainment at CES 2026 Throughout the week, Dolby brings to life the latest innovatio...

02/05/2026

Dalet Flex LTS Delivers Smarter Search, Faster Editing, and an AI-Ready Foundation for Modern Media

Dalet, a leading technology and service provider for media-rich organizations, t...

01/05/2026

NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to Integrate Dolby's Full Suite of Premium Picture and Sound Innovations

January 5 2026, 18:30 (PST) NBCUniversal's Peacock to Be First Streamer to ...

09/04/2026

NAB 2026 Major Announcement

The next big thing To help broadcasters fully embrace dynamic hybrid workflows, Calrec will make a major announcement that unlocks even more freedom for broadca...

09/04/2026

ENCO to Showcase New aiTrack Capabilities at 2026 NAB Show

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

LTN Unveils Network Enhancements in Advance of C-Band Changes

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

FOR-A Buys Tamura Corp. Information Equipment Business

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

Imagine Showcases Expanded Multiviewer Portfolio at 2026...

Purpose Built Monitoring From Live Production to Master Control to OTT, Across On Prem and Cloud Environments At the 2026 NAB Show (April 19-22, Las Vegas Con...

09/04/2026

Harmonic Extends Hybrid Streaming Leadership with AI and...

Purpose Built Monitoring From Live Production to Master Control to OTT, Across On Prem and Cloud Environments At the 2026 NAB Show (April 19-22, Las Vegas Con...

09/04/2026

LTN unveils network enhancements as broadcaster satellite...

New advances meet surge in demand for broadcast-grade IP migration as C-band spectrum auctions approach LTN announces major enhancements to its purpose-built g...

09/04/2026

Hitomi Broadcast Expands Sales Team with Nicola Milburn

Hitomi Broadcast has expanded its sales team with the addition of Nicola Milburn as Technical Sales Manager. In this role, Nicola will work with customers and p...

09/04/2026

Layercake and Ceeblue Announce Strategic Integration to D...

Revolutionary combined solution brings sub-second latency, resilient delivery, and workflow orchestration to global broadcasters and digital platforms Layercak...

09/04/2026

BIA Increases 2026 Local Ad Forecast to $184.5 Billion

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

Yospace surpasses 10 billion ads stitched in a single mon...

Yospace exceeded 10 billion dynamically stitched ads in a single month, reaching 11.6 billion as ad-supported streaming surged. Driven by a packed global sports...

09/04/2026

Bitmovin Expands Live Encoding and Observability Solution...

Bitmovin has expanded its Live Encoding and Observability solutions to provide true end to end, real time insights across live streaming workflows, from encodin...

09/04/2026

Leyra Powers the Launch of Icelandic Broadcaster RUVs Str...

Leyra has announced the launch of Icelandic public broadcaster R V's streaming service on Samsung and LG Smart TVs. R V is the first public broadcaster to d...

09/04/2026

3Play Media Launches AI Dubbing Solution for YouTube Crea...

3Play Media, a global leader in video accessibility and localization, today announced an AI Dubbing solution purpose-built for YouTube creators. The company, wh...

09/04/2026

Big Blue Marble Recognized as AWS Managed Services Provid...

Big Blue Marble, a provider of broadcast-grade, cloud-native video solutions, has been recognized as an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Managed Services Provider (MSP...

09/04/2026

PDC Cleeng and Urban Zoo partner to launch new global str...

The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) has officially launched its revamped global streaming service, PDC TV, in collaboration with Cleeng and sports technolo...

09/04/2026

Cleeng launches industry first cross-platform AI agents t...

Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) pioneer, today announced a raft of new AI agents for its AI Assistant to accelerate decision-making and autom...

09/04/2026

Hearst Taps Merzigo to Expand Presence on YouTube, Facebook

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

Fox Jumps Into Prediction Markets with Kalshi Integration

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

NAB Show: Kokusai Denki To Feature New, Affordable 4K Broadcast Camera

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

Corus Taps Appear for IP-First Operations

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

2026 NAB Show Exhibitor Insights: Big Blue Marble

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

FCC Extends Audible Crawl Rule Waiver for 18 Months

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

09/04/2026

Pliant Technologies Showcases Expanded Accessories at NAB...

New Charging, Connectivity, and Mounting Solutions Now Available LAS VEGAS, APRIL 8, 2026 Pliant Technologies will highlight a range of new accessories at th...

09/04/2026

Media Links Brings Ultra Resilient IP Transport Proven at...

As live production continues its shift to IP, the challenge is no longer adoption it's reliability. At NAB Show 2026 (Booth W2033), Media Links will demon...

09/04/2026

QuickLink Launches StudioPro Town Hall at 2026 NAB Show

QuickLink, a leading provider of award-winning video production and remote guest contribution solutions, launches its new AI-powered add-on for its StudioPro p...

09/04/2026

The Hive Group Releases White Paper on the FCC Upper C-Ba...

The Hive Group has published a new white paper, No Safe Harbor: Why the FCC's Upper C-Band Auction Demands Early Action from Broadcasters ahead of NAB Sho...

09/04/2026

Saranyu Technologies Renews VisualOn Optimizer VoD Subscr...

Saranyu Technologies today announced the renewal of its Optimizer VoD subscription with VisualOn. The announcement coincides with NAB Show 2026, taking place Ap...

09/04/2026

Harmonic Extends Hybrid Streaming Leadership with AI and Cloud Innovations

Enhancements Including MCP Connectivity, Intelligent Video Asset Orchestration and Red Hat OpenShift Deployment Transform Hybrid Video Streaming SAN JOSE, Calif...

09/04/2026

Announcement: FOR-A Acquires Tamura Corporations Information Equipment Business and Manufacturing Arm

New Company, Tamu Radiance, Combines FOR-As Video Expertise and Tamuras Audio an...

09/04/2026

Own a 3rd or 4th Gen Scarlett interface? Download Cubase LE for free

Own a 3rd or 4th Gen Scarlett interface? Download Cubase LE for free We're adding a new DAW to your collection here's what's included, and how t...

09/04/2026

Launch partner for new audio streaming platform

Multi-year agreement enables Nation Radio to scale audiences, strengthen digital delivery and unlock new commercial opportunities 09 April 2026 - London, UK - ...

09/04/2026

Brian Fenton Joins RT Sunday Game GAA Panel for 2026 Championship

RT Sport has announced Brian Fenton will join its Sunday Game GAA punditry panel for the 2026 Championship, featuring across video, audio, online including the...

09/04/2026

Time for some fresh air: Tracks & Trails is back

Doireann N Ghlac in returns as presenter, with the first episode airing this Friday at 8.30pm on RT One and RT Player The beloved walking series Tracks & T...

09/04/2026

Strength and Destiny Collide: Samson: A Tyndalston Story' Arrives in the Cloud

A timeless story of grit, faith and rebellion takes center stage as Samson: A Ty...

09/04/2026

April 08, 2026

New technique for synthesizing branched molecules could accelerate the development of future medicines Scripps Research chemists solve a longstanding problem in...

08/04/2026

SVG College Sports Media Awards 2026: Entry Deadline is Monday, April 13

The deadline to enter the 18th Annual SVG College Sports Media Awards in association with NACDA is rapidly approaching! Submit your entries to this year's c...

08/04/2026

SVG Campus Shot Callers: Trever Sheets, Senior Director, ACC Network, Virginia Tech

The Pittsburgh product helps lead more than 100 annual ESPN broadcasts as part o...

08/04/2026

SVG Sit-Down: Harmonic's Jean Macher on Turning Live Sports Content Into a Smarter Monetization Engine

Dynamic ad insertion, AI-based technologies, programmatic advertising are some o...

08/04/2026

Announcing the 2026 Fellows for the Sundance Institute Cultural Impact Residency on Sundance Collab

Seven Fellows Selected for Second Year of Residency in Honor of Social Justice L...

08/04/2026

From Tokyo to the World: Watch Bad Bunny's Billions Club Live Concert on Spotify

On March 7, Bad Bunny made history with his first-ever performance in Asia, taki...

08/04/2026

De Tokio para el mundo: Mira el concierto Billions Club Live de Bad Bunny en Spotify

El 7 de marzo, Bad Bunny hizo historia con su primera presentaci n en Asia, subi...

08/04/2026

Tube Lab from Fuse Audio Labs

New channel strip plug-in revealed The latest plug-in to be added to the Fuse Audio Labs line-up emulates a selection of vintage hardware units, combining c...

08/04/2026

Blue Cat Audio release Axiom 2.3

Guitar & bass multi-effects software overhauled Blue Cat Audio's flagship guitar and bass multi-effects software has recently received a significant upd...