![](//www.4rfv.com/images/no_image.jpg)
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 feature Devotion, directed by J.D. Dillard and based on the bestselling book by Adam Makos, recounts the true story of Brown's distinguished service, focusing on the year 1950, at the onset of the Korean War, when he and his fellow pilots in Fighter Squadron 32 deployed aboard the aircraft carrier USS Leyte, first to the Mediterranean Sea and then to the East Sea, off the coast of North Korea.
The movie features Jonathan Majors as Ensign Brown and Glen Powell as his wingman, Lieutenant Tom Hudner. As Dillard got underway with preproduction, he soon found his own wingman in cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt, ASC, who had previously worked with and was referred by producers Molly Smith and Rachel Smith and line producer Bruce Franklin.
I had a two-and-a-half-hour Zoom call with J.D., and we talked about movies and life, the cinematographer recalls. We totally hit it off. We finished the call, my phone rang 20 minutes later, and he said, Do you want to do the movie?' I said, Of course I want to do the movie!' That was five or six months before we rolled the camera, so we had a lot of prep time together.
That prep began with discussions of what the movie should look like, how it should feel, and what the audience's experience should be, Messerschmidt explains. This is a war film, but it's really a character drama the war is the situation that the characters are in. It's the characters' experience of the situation that's important.
We wanted the film to feel structured and designed, not frenetic, the cinematographer continues. We wanted it to feel like a drama. And it's a period film, so we wanted to use period techniques in terms of camera direction and blocking and staging, but we also wanted it to have a modern look in terms of color and aesthetic.
Collaborators for Camera and Color
Working with Panavision Woodland Hills, Messerschmidt selected Panavision's Millennium DXL2 as his primary camera, which he complemented with RED Komodo 6K cameras that would be mounted onto the production's airplanes. In front of the DXL2, Messerschmidt opted for large-format Panaspeed spherical primes. That combination, the cinematographer explains, grew out of the desire for the movie to have a large-format 70mm feel in its scope and focus falloff. When I met with [Panavision's senior vice president of optical engineering and lens strategy] Dan Sasaki, he suggested the Panaspeeds, because I also wanted to make some modifications to add some spherical aberration without a lot of flare or chromatic aberration. Dan and I cooked up a recipe, and we ended up with two beautiful sets of primes for the movie.
Within those sets, Messerschmidt gravitated toward the 40mm, 50mm, 65mm and 80mm focal lengths. The lenses are really fast, he says, but I wasn't going to use them at a T1.4 all the time, especially if we were focused close. Even though super-shallow depth of field is very in vogue and looks really cool on a monitor or a phone, it doesn't always feel right, especially in a theater on a 40-foot screen. So little of the frame can be in focus, the audience can be confused about where to look. So in many cases I was lighting to a T2.8 .
Early in prep, the cinematographer connected with Light Iron supervising colorist Ian Vertovec to further develop the movie's look. Because of the integration with Panavision and the DXL2, it felt obvious to work with Light Iron, says Messerschmidt, who first met Vertovec during the final grade for director David Fincher's feature Gone Girl, shot by Jeff Cronenweth, ASC, on which Messerschmidt had served as gaffer. I sat in on color sessions with Jeff and Ian, just watching the process and learning, he recalls. So Ian and I had a long preexisting relationship, and I wanted a post house where there's a familiarity when you walk in, like walking into your living room. Ian also has extraordinary tastes, and because we were working during Covid, I knew we weren't necessarily going to be able to supervise sessions and sit in there together. You can let Ian run, and he does great work on his own.
Capturing at 7K with the DXL2 for a 4K finish, Messerschmidt employed a 15-percent center crop, allowing for reframing and stabilizing in post, while framing for a 2.20:1 final aspect ratio. The center crop, he says, is something I've done a lot with David Fincher and have grown to really love. The flexibility in the DI to make adjustments to the frame is incredibly helpful, especially if you're looking for really perfect compositions.
The 2.20:1 aspect ratio, Vertovec adds, was a great choice because it's still wider than the 2.0:1 aspect ratio a lot of streamers are going with, so it feels more cinematic, but it's taller than 2.40:1. That extra height was great for the vertical element of the airplanes and their up-and-down choreography.
Look Development
As the cinematographer and colorist began their collaboration, Messerschmidt explains, we did a lot of testing, looking at color, different ISO ranges, and how much light I wanted to have on set. I like the digital negative' to be really thick, like shooting film, and we wanted to have enough color separation that we could really play with the grade, so I ended up rating the camera at 640, sometimes 800 for some of the night exteriors.
The cinematographer's preproduction time with Vertovec also resulted in the development of the show LUT for principal photography and dailies. Vertovec recalls that the LUT came together really fast. Erik had a very clear idea of what he wanted, and I had already been thinking about some ideas that were similar.
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...