Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Ole Bratt Birkeland, BSC and Chris Dowling on Good Grief

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 Creek. Offering an uplifting perspective on dealing with the permanence of losing a loved one, Good Grief follows Marc (played by Levy), who was content living in the shadow of his larger-than-life husband, Oliver (Luke Evans). But when Oliver unexpectedly dies, Marc's world shatters, sending him and his two best friends, Sophie (Ruth Negga) and Thomas (Himesh Patel), on a soul-searching trip to Paris that reveals some hard truths they each needed to face. Cinematographer Ole Bratt Birkeland, BSC and gaffer Chris Dowling made each of their decisions with the aim of embracing these realities, and here the two collaborators discuss their approach to crafting the film's visual language.

Panavision London supplied the production's camera and lens package, and Panalux London provided lighting services. The filmmakers also worked with Light Iron for dailies and finishing services, including VFX and final color. Light Iron's VFX contributions included 3D tracking, reflection maps, motion vector mapping, rotoscoping, paint, and multi-layered compositing; in the final grade, Birkeland reteamed with supervising colorist Ian Vertovec. Supported throughout production and post, the filmmakers were free to skillfully explore the bright spots of bereavement.

Panavision: Ole, how did you become involved in this project?

Ole Bratt Birkeland, BSC: I read the script for Good Grief and thought it was a really lovely project about coming to terms with difficult emotions and life situations. When I then met Dan, it was brilliant to hear his ideas and how he had a personal connection to the story and feelings expressed. We had many similar thoughts on how film can be a way of releasing complicated thoughts and give a release to ideas that are otherwise hard to process.

How did Daniel Levy describe what he had in mind for the project's visuals?

Birkeland: Dan was interested in exploring something real that had a sense of warmth towards our characters. One of the ways we approached this was to make sure the camera focused on the characters at all times but also had a feeling of not being static. It is subtle, but almost everything is handheld or Steadicam throughout.

Were there any specific references or inspirations that informed your lighting approach?

Chris Dowling: These were more discussed with mood boards and color tones rather than directly referencing stills from films. It's good to get a clear picture of how you see the look, but I think you can easily blur the lines if you copy others. I prefer to get a guide and discuss these things without referencing films if I can. There is a world of things out there that can help, like fashion, art, music, books, photos, scenery and landscapes. If you reference a film, then it's already been done, and where is the challenge in that? Taking a still image or a piece of artwork and translating that into a moving image, and making that work, is the challenge.

Chris, how would you describe the lighting style you, Ole and Daniel were trying to achieve?

Dowling: Enhanced natural.' I'm not a big lover of obviously lit scenes within this kind of narrative, and Ole is very much of the same mind, but with this particular project, in order to show the journey the characters go on, we needed to slightly extend the spectrum. So, when we needed a warm, happy scene, we went slightly past the normal warm and organic tones, and likewise when it was a cold, sad scene, we took it slightly colder and bleaker, enhancing the change.

The lighting setups had huge restrictions in each of the locations, so we knew we needed to allow the lighting to be as fluid as possible to enhance the mood within each scene. The only thing we tried to maintain was as low a carbon footprint as possible throughout the project. Wherever possible, we used the latest LED fixtures to try to keep the times we used a generator to an absolute minimum. We are at a point now in the industry where we can really start to make a difference. Having the newest tech also allowed us to have a huge amount of control at our fingertips. This gave us the advantage of speed as well as fine-tuning whilst the shot developed.

Did you have a favorite lighting setup on the production?

Dowling: My favorite lighting setup normally ends up being the one that caused the most issues and headaches. Those are the ones that test you and push you forward. Being able to solve the issues and sell that it was done easily is very satisfying. On this project, I would say it was the studio shoot. We were in a tiny studio in the back of Acton, with no height, no space, no rigging, no mains. It really was a challenge given the scale of the sets required in it the Paris bedroom scenes were shot there. We needed two lighting setups as well as a Translight, and the set had huge windows. When I saw that on the screen, I thought, Yes, we smashed that.' The lighting and Ole's clever use of lens and camerawork absolutely shows how it should be done. Even with huge limitations, you can achieve amazing results.

Ole, you'd worked with Ian Vertovec at Light Iron before Good Grief. How has that relationship and collaboration evolved over time?

Birkeland: The first time I worked with Ian was on Tales From the Loop. He did such an amazing job on that, so when it came time to grade Good Grief, I jumped on the opportunity to work with him again. He has such a beautiful eye and a great sense of story. It was brilliant to have his expertise to fine-tune the visuals. We are currently doing it again for another movie, and it's very exciting to keep exploring ideas with him.

How does this project differ from others in your respective careers?
LINK: https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/breadth-of-sup...
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...

28/08/2026

Lutz Rathmann to Become CEO of Riedel Communications

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Spectrum Offers Lower-Income Internet Customers Free Amazon Prime

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

FCC Exempts Public Access Channels from Closed Captioning

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

Elon Musk's X Launches NFL Gametime on X

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

28/08/2026

GlobalM and Lamhas Partner to Expand Managed IP Broadcast...

GlobalM and Lamhas Satellite Services today announced a new agreement that will see GlobalMs GMX technology deployed as part of Lamhas expanding managed IP broa...

28/08/2026

Boland Communications Introduces SMPTE ST 2110 Option for...

Integrated 25GbE Connectivity Delivers UHD Video Directly to Up to Two Monitors, Eliminates External Gateways, and Supports SMPTE ST 2022-7 Network-Path Protect...

28/08/2026

JT-DMF Invites IBC2026 Attendees to Help Shape the Future...

Interactive Ask Me Anything sessions will connect broadcasters and technology providers with the experts developing a practical, interoperable roadmap for sof...

28/08/2026

TAG Video Systems Cuts Live Production Latency Below Two...

At IBC2026, TAG will show sub-2-frame latency and 800 Gbps of aggregate scale for uncompressed ST 2110 monitoring in software, live MXL interoperability with pa...

28/08/2026

SportsBox BHVs Ultra-Compact 4K Remote Switcher Moves fro...

SportsBox, BHV's Ultra-Compact 4K Remote Switcher, Moves from Development to Production at IBC 2026 SportsBox brings flexibility without compromise to high...

28/08/2026

Riedel Evolves Leadership and Global Go-to-Market Organiz...

Lutz Rathmann named CEO of Riedel Communications Anthony Zuyderhoff to lead unified customer-facing organization as CCO Riedel Communications is strengthenin...

28/08/2026

Scripps Research establishes endowed fund honoring institute president and CEO Pete Schultz

LA JOLLA, CA-Scripps Research has established the Pete Schultz Fund for Innovati...

28/08/2026

Chemists develop simpler method to make molecular building block for drug development

LA JOLLA, CA-Chemical structures called cyclopropanols are among the most useful...

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 ...