Sony Pixel Power calrec Sony

Cinematographer Hillary Spera on Run and The Craft: Legacy

06/09/2024

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 horror-thrillers, and each involves a mother-daughter relationship that turns out to be something other than what's originally believed. In both cases, I would say it's a very strong bond between the mother and daughter, Spera notes. In both movies, they really love each other and are working to define their relationship.

Directed by Aneesh Chaganty, Run focuses on Chloe (Kiera Allen), a bright, tenacious teenager, on the cusp of going to college, who for as long as she can remember has suffered from a number of serious ailments and has been paralyzed from the waist down. As she eagerly awaits a response to her college application, Chloe becomes increasingly convinced that her doting single mother, Diane (Sarah Paulson), is harboring a dark and terrible secret.

The Craft: Legacy, meanwhile, follows the spirit of Andrew Fleming's 1996 feature The Craft, presenting a new generation of four young women bonding with one another as they develop their magical abilities. Written and directed by Zoe Lister-Jones, Legacy begins with Lily (Cailee Spaeny) and her mother, Helen (Michelle Monaghan), moving in with the latter's boyfriend, Adam (David Duchovny), and his three sons. After befriending Lourdes (Zoey Luna), Frankie (Gideon Adlon) and Tabby (Lovie Simone) at her new school, Lily awakens to her powers and potential.

Of the two features, Run was shot first, during the fall of 2018 in Winnipeg, and The Craft: Legacy was shot the following year, in fall 2019, primarily in Toronto. For both projects, Spera turned to her longtime partners at Panavision. They're always my go-to, she says. I love that relationship of working with Panavision. One of the most important things for me is their support. It's always a yes'; they're always gung-ho to help find solutions, and they're always there to have my back. And their network is so vast. The fact that I could call [marketing executive] Rik DeLisle at Panavision Hollywood and he connected me with [rentals and services manager] Jerry Papernick at Panavision Toronto is really fantastic. It makes things so much easier and more streamlined as I work in so many different locations.

Hillary Spera and director Aneesh Chaganty.

Spera collaborated with Papernick for both Run and The Craft: Legacy. And then, she adds, when we moved to L.A. at the end of Craft, Jerry and Rik shared information and worked together. I'm so grateful to both of them. They truly moved mountains for us to make it work.

Spera's path toward cinematography began with an interest in still photography, which she decided to pursue in college. There, her focus began to shift from stills to motion pictures. I started shooting everything I could, she reflects. I moved to New York the minute I graduated, and I took every opportunity that came my way. I made a rule for myself that I was never going to say no.' I learned by being on set, making a lot of mistakes, and following a deep passion for visual storytelling.

In the years since, she's built a r sum that includes such feature credits as Black Rock, Submission, Dude, Alex Strangelove and Duck Butter, the latter of which partnered her for the first time with producer Natalie Qasabian. When Qasabian began working on Run, she reached out to Spera and introduced her to Chaganty, who had written the script with writer-producer Sev Ohanian. Spera recalls that when she met with Chaganty, We hit it off right off the bat. We had a lot of shared references and were thinking about the movie in a similar way. He really impressed me with his preparedness and the way he was conceiving the movie, but also his openness to collaborate. Sev and Aneesh wrote the script with a lot of room to build visually, so I was excited about the potential of where it could go from a visual standpoint.

During preproduction, Qasabian, Chaganty and Spera formed a tight-knit group that came to their creative decisions together. Everything was up for discussion, the cinematographer recalls. For example, I pitched the idea of shooting anamorphic, and we collectively discussed why I thought it would work. It was a fun exercise to make sure the group all believed in the decisions we were making. I think the film is stronger because of that trust and support.

Regarding the choice of anamorphic, she explains, The rooms in the house had frames within themselves that I thought anamorphic could complement, adding a more textured, almost 3D quality to some of the images. It was a good challenge, because we shot in such small spaces. I'm grateful to 1st AC Doug Lavender for being up for the challenge, even though we lived on diopters, often close to wide open. He mounted a retractable pointer onto the matte box for some of our macro close-ups where there was such a shallow depth of field, and he would use that to show Kiera how far she could lean in, so she would have a physical reference of what she could and couldn't do. I thought that was brilliant.

After testing a number of options, Spera opted for Panavision's E Series anamorphic lenses, which she supplemented with a few wider-angle T Series focal lengths, including 35mm, to preserve the architectural lines inside the house. I fell in love with the E Series right away because they're older and have a beautiful vintage-glass quality, she explains. Aneesh and I talked about making the film feel a little timeless and not necessarily modern and sharp, and the Es have a softer quality that really helped to elevate the images and complement our style.

Spera and Chaganty storyboarded the entire movie during preproduction, and the cinematographer notes that the final shots matc
LINK: https://www.panavision.com/highlights/highlights-detail/the-witching-h...
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 ...

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 ...

02/04/2026

HBO and NFL Films Announce Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Seahawks, Debuting August 11

HBO and NFL Films have announced Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Seattle Sea...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Haivision Unveils Makito ONE Video Transport Platform

Haivision has announced the Makito ONE, a single-blade video encoding and decoding platform, at NAB Show 2026. The platform combines dual-channel video encoding...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Telestream Introduces UP.Lens Cloud-Based Multiviewer and Monitoring Service

Telestream has introduced UP.Lens, a cloud-based multiviewer and monitoring serv...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: MRMC to Showcase Robotic Camera Technology and Mark 60th Anniversary

Mark Roberts Motion Control (MRMC) will exhibit at NAB Show 2026 (Booth C5220, April 19-22, Las Vegas Convention Center), marking the company's 60th anniver...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Net Insight Introduces Programmable Trust Boundaries for Live Media Interconnection

Net Insight has introduced programmable Trust Boundaries, a feature integrated i...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: Bitmovin Adds SGAI Support to Playback Products

Bitmovin has announced support for SGAI (Server-Guided Ad Insertion) in its playback products, using HLS interstitials. SGAI combines elements of client-side an...

02/04/2026

Binghamton University Athletics Adds Riedel SimplyLive RiMotion R12 for Student-Run Productions

Riedel Communications' SimplyLive RiMotion R12 replay system is supporting B...

02/04/2026

NAB 2026: LTN and Ateme Announce Integration of Video Processing with IP Transport

LTN, a managed IP video transport company, and Ateme, a video compression and de...

02/04/2026

TDF Expands Channel Capacity on Terrestrial Broadcast Network with Harmonic

Harmonic has announced that TDF, a broadcast infrastructure operator in France, has deployed Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor and ProStream X Video S...

02/04/2026

United Rugby Championship Reports First-Year Results with Eluvio Streaming Platform

Eluvio and the United Rugby Championship (URC) have announced first-year results...

02/04/2026

Kansas City Current and Scripps Sports Announce ION as Broadcast Home of 2026 Teal Rising Cup

The Kansas City Current and Scripps Sports have announced that ION will broadcas...

02/04/2026

ESPN Announces Courtside Alt-Cast for Women's Final Four

ESPN will debut Courtside at the Women's Final Four Presented by AT&T, an alt-cast airing Friday, April 3 at 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. ET on ESPN2, and Sunday, A...

02/04/2026

PAMA and Shure Accept Applications for 6th Annual Mark Brunner Professional Audio Scholarship

The Professional Audio Manufacturers Alliance (PAMA) and Shure Incorporated are ...

02/04/2026

ESPN's MegaCast Coverage of 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four Begins Friday, April 3 in Phoenix

ESPN's MegaCast Coverage of 2026 NCAA Women's Final Four Begins Friday, ...

02/04/2026

DAZN Launches Playmakers Creator Program

DAZN has announced the launch of DAZN Playmakers, a global influencer program designed to build a network of sports content creators. The programme will give cr...

02/04/2026

NFL Network Unveils New Production Ops Leadership Structure as ESPN Takes Over

Tony Cole, Jessica Lee shift into new roles reporting to ESPN SVP/Content Operations Chris Calcinari....

02/04/2026

TNT Sports and CBS Sports to Reunite Michigan's Iconic Fab Five for Special NCAA Men's Final Four Altcast on truTV & HBO Max

Michigan's Fab Five will reunite for an alternate presentation of the Mich...

02/04/2026

Coming of Age: ESPN and NHL's Inside Out Classic Marks Another Step Forward for the Animated Alternative Broadcast

Real-time tracking, virtual production, and Pixar storytelling converge for Apri...

02/04/2026

Streaming Around the Moon: NASA+ Goes Live From Historic Artemis II Mission

NASA's long-awaited Artemis II mission has launched four astronauts on a 10-day journey around the moon, marking the first manned launch toward the moon sin...

02/04/2026

Release Rundown: What to Watch in April, From Bunnylovr to Omaha

(L-R) Molly Belle Wright, Wyatt Solis, and John Magaro appear in Omaha by Cole Webley, an official selection of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. (Photo courte...

02/04/2026

VEMIA Auction incoming

4 - 11 April 2026 VEMIA's latest gear auction is just around the corner, and there's already a wealth of sought-after instruments and studio gear li...

02/04/2026

Universal Audio's Voice Of God now native

Little Labs emulation now available to all The latest Universal Audio plug-in to become available outside of the company's DSP-powered UAD2 platform has...

02/04/2026

SBS Welcomes Back Cup Fever! For The Biggest FIFA World Cup Ever

SBS Welcomes Back Cup Fever! For The Biggest FIFA World Cup Ever 2 April, 2026 Media releases Santo Cilauro, Ed Kavalee and a host of special guests retur...

02/04/2026

Truth. Power. Perspective: NITV's Flagship Current Affairs Programs Return to Lead the National Conversation

Truth. Power. Perspective: NITV's Flagship Current Affairs Programs Return t...

02/04/2026

L3Harris Powers First Crewed Mission Around the Moon in 50 Years

L3Harris has successfully powered the historic launch of the Artemis II mission, providing propulsion and avionics....

02/04/2026

Scripps Completes Sale of WRTV to Circle City Broadcasting

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

GoVertical! AiDi Powers Real-Time 9:16 Autocropping for I...

Already deployed extensively by NBC Sports, FOR-A Corporation will demonstrate GoVertical! AiDi, the real-time 9:16 autocropping feature of viztrick AiDi, durin...

02/04/2026

Elite Media Technologies Selects Interra Systems BATON Fi...

Interra Systems, a provider of end-to-end quality assurance solutions for the digital media industry, announced that Elite Media Technologies has selected its B...

02/04/2026

TDF Expands Broadcast Channel Lineup with Harmonic

Harmonic's Media Processing Solutions Maximize Bandwidth Efficiency for Terrestrial Broadcast Delivery Harmonic (NASDAQ: HLIT) today announced that TDF, a...

02/04/2026

FOR-A's Software-Defined, AI-Powered Development Advances...

NBC Sports Deploys viztrick AiDi to Stream Live Events in 9:16 Mobile-First Formats with Auto Tracking, Development Signals Strategic Shift for FOR-A Long reco...

02/04/2026

Evergent showcases innovations in sports streaming and mo...

Evergent will showcase new innovations in subscriber lifecycle management and monetization at NAB Show 2026 (Las Vegas, April 18 22), including: New advances i...

02/04/2026

Binghamton University Strengthens Student Run Productions...

Riedel Communications is proud to be part of Binghamton University, State University of New York, Athletics' milestone year, celebrating the university'...

02/04/2026

Techex and Encompass Launch Industry-Leading Cloud-Based...

Encompass Digital Media and Techex have today announced new, fully managed, cloud-native Master Control services designed to meet the growing operational demand...

02/04/2026

Winning in the new media economy - Avid debuts fully avai...

Avid today announced it will showcase new innovations designed to help media companies win in the new media economy at NAB Show 2026 (April 18 22, Las Vegas Co...

02/04/2026

PlayBox Neo reinforces MIMO Tech with new Playout capabil...

PlayBox Neo helps AIS PLAY kick-off premier football content direct to fans PlayBox Neo has provided MIMO Tech with a brand-new major installation to extend it...

02/04/2026

Globo transitions primary distribution to SRT over IP wit...

Globo has transitioned its primary content distribution to Secure Reliable Transport over a fully IP-based managed backbone using Synamedia's Quortex PowerV...

02/04/2026

Nexstar Says Pausing Tegna Merger Creates 'Impossible' Challenges

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

FCC Launches Efforts to Strengthen U.S. Drone Ecosystem

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

WAPA+ to Launch on Dish, DishLatino, Sling TV and Sling Freestream

Share Copy link Facebook X Linkedin Bluesky Email...

02/04/2026

Student Spotlight: Al-Fadl Salem

Student Spotlight: Al-Fadl Salem The Danish singer recently performed for the queen of Denmark. April 1, 2026 By Editorial Staff Image by Junia Morrow Wh...

02/04/2026

Taku Hirano's Career Is Defined by Identity

Taku Hirano's Career Is Defined by Identity Whether he's performing, composing, teaching, or developing instruments, the do-it-all percussionist sees ...

02/04/2026

Netflix Unveils Official Trailer for 'The Trials of Winnie Mandela'

Back to All News Netflix Unveils Official Trailer for The Trials of Winnie Mandela Entertainment 02 April 2026 GlobalSouth Africa Link copied to clipboard ...

02/04/2026

Netflix Announces Start of Production and New Cast for Second Season of 'Football Parents'

Back to All News Netflix Announces Start of Production and New Cast for Second ...

02/04/2026

The Trailer for 'Ronaldinho: The One and Only' Features Never-Before-Seen Interviews and Defining Moments From the Star's Career

Back to All News The Trailer for Ronaldinho: The One and Only Features Never-Be...

02/04/2026

Red Seat Ventures Launches Speakeasy, a New Hosting, Distribution and Monetization Platform Built for the Next Generation of Creator Media

Red Seat Ventures Launches Speakeasy, a New Hosting, Distribution and Monetizati...

02/04/2026

GoVertical! AiDi Powers Real-Time 9:16 Autocropping for Immediate Streaming to Mobile Devices

GoVertical! AiDi Powers Real-Time 9:16 Autocropping for Immediate Streaming to M...