Speaker 1: Quest Loft Show is a production of iHeartRadio. We's Up, y'all.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Quest Love Show, new era and format
Speaker 2: for QLs.
Speaker 1: After close to a decade.
Speaker 2: Of award winning podcast that you Know and Love, I'm
Speaker 2: back from a lengthy hiatus to have conversations with people
Speaker 2: I always wanted to get to know on a deeper level.
Speaker 2: Earlier this week, I spoke to Autumn Derout Archipele. If
Speaker 2: you've seen Sinners or Black Panther or Condu Forever, you've
Speaker 2: experienced Autumn's incredible.
Speaker 1: Work as a cinematographer.
Speaker 2: She also shot Beasty Boys Story and The Last Show
Speaker 2: Girl and As He's and Sorry It's Right Now Special.
Speaker 2: She collaborates on a higher level with Brian Coogler and
Speaker 2: Spike Jones.
Speaker 1: Autumn is a maverick.
Speaker 2: And I love how she was open about setting boundaries
Speaker 2: and a work, her influences, and how she finds joy
Speaker 2: and family and tennis, Yes, tennis. As you're hear in
Speaker 2: this comment, Autumn is soulful, innovative, and deeply passionate about
Speaker 2: her craft. I told her at the end of our
Speaker 2: top at I want to work with her someday, and
Speaker 2: I meant that to the fullest. That feeling only deepened
Speaker 2: after learning how she builds a vision, welcomes improvisation, and
Speaker 2: captures a wider perspective on life and art.
Speaker 1: My vision for this new chapter of.
Speaker 2: LS is to get to know people I already do
Speaker 2: on a different plane. And you know, we get to
Speaker 2: meet new voices who inspired me and Autumn Deroud Archapyle
Speaker 2: inspires me first with a work and men with this conversation.
Speaker 1: So please enjoy. Make sure you've.
Speaker 2: Seen Sinners as Award Seasons is approaching. I highly recommend
Speaker 2: it and look out for her upcoming collaboration with Ryan Coogler, which.
Speaker 1: Is The X Files.
Speaker 2: All right, thank you for joining us today.
Speaker 1: How are you?
Speaker 3: Thank you? No, your voice is so familiar to me.
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, when you don't know somebody but
Speaker 3: you've seen them you and listen to them. Wow, it
Speaker 3: makes you feel like you know them, but you don't
Speaker 3: know them. So it's nice to meet you.
Speaker 2: It's not false modesty, but I'm always under the impression
Speaker 2: that no one knows me, so I'm approaching this is
Speaker 2: if you never heard of me, or don't know who
Speaker 2: I am, or you know, but yeah, we're meeting we've
Speaker 2: never met before.
Speaker 3: Correct, I don't think, No, we actually haven't met before. No.
Speaker 3: The appreciation is ditto, So thank you for all of that.
Speaker 3: I appreciate that.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Thank you. All right.
Speaker 2: My first question to you is, can you describe to
Speaker 2: me the first twenty minutes of your morning This.
Speaker 3: Morning, I have a son. He is nine years old,
Speaker 3: but my husband's also DP. When we're both in town,
Speaker 3: it is my job to get up and do all
Speaker 3: the things that you would to get a child ready.
Speaker 3: So I woke up, and I did set an alarm
Speaker 3: because I just got back from Scad Film Festival where
Speaker 3: we got to screen Sinners and talk about it. So
Speaker 3: I woke up, I woke him up, I got his
Speaker 3: lunch ready, I got it, his breakfast ready, his long hair,
Speaker 3: so I brushed his hair and I chased him out
Speaker 3: the door and his father took him to school. Then
Speaker 3: I rushed to get ready for the zoom. And that's
Speaker 3: what it was.
Speaker 1: Okay.
Speaker 2: So, as a child who grew up with parents that
Speaker 2: did the same thing for a living, I got tricked
Speaker 2: into the family business. Both my parents were singers. By
Speaker 2: the time I was born.
Speaker 1: They were nightclub loungejacks. So yeah, in the seventies.
Speaker 2: I was there from like five until you're really when
Speaker 2: the roots started, so like from age five till eighteen.
Speaker 2: I got tricked into the family business, mostly because they
Speaker 2: didn't trust The idea of a babysitter wasn't a thing
Speaker 2: until the late eighties. So in the seventies, you it's
Speaker 2: like farm work. You just and I'm in the nightclub
Speaker 2: at one in the morning, like operating lights, cutting gels, monitors,
Speaker 2: all those things. If both of you do the same thing,
Speaker 2: is there a hope that there's a creative epigenetic passing
Speaker 2: of the torch? Are you leaving camera equipment? His version
Speaker 2: of my first sony like you know, no.
Speaker 3: I mean, I think for me, the allure is if
Speaker 3: he does have an interest when he say, thirteen fourteen
Speaker 3: in operating a camera, then I get to be close
Speaker 3: to him because we only have one child, and then
Speaker 3: I could bring in with me on all my jobs. Right,
Speaker 3: So if he's really into it, it just allows me
Speaker 3: to spend time with him because you know, when we
Speaker 3: make these films, as you know, when you do music,
Speaker 3: you're away for long periods of time. You have to
Speaker 3: juggle life and you know, schedules, so he is interested.
Speaker 3: I wouldn't say it's like his top thing. You know,
Speaker 3: he's he's kind of a builder. He likes building stuff.
Speaker 3: But he did bring his camera because he has a
Speaker 3: nice camera to his camping trip recently and made a
Speaker 3: bunch of videos and he was the only kid doing it.
Speaker 3: So it's there. I'm just not, you know, on the cusp.
Speaker 3: It's just like maybe it'll take off. Maybe.
Speaker 1: What was your first creative project in life?
Speaker 3: What I can remember the most, I think is being
Speaker 3: in high school and you know they have the labs,
Speaker 3: the photography labs. Yeah, the first time I felt like
Speaker 3: ownership of something that I made was the black and
Speaker 3: white photography class I took and having to go out there,
Speaker 3: you know, the assignment like go take some pictures whatever
Speaker 3: you like, like go talk to some people. And I
Speaker 3: remember taking a bunch of pictures and I still have
Speaker 3: them printed in a book. They're black and white. And
Speaker 3: I felt like a sense of power because I had
Speaker 3: made something. But also it was my own right, it
Speaker 3: was my perspective. I've never been asked that, but it
Speaker 3: immediately came to mind. So I feel like it had
Speaker 3: to be that class because that was the first time
Speaker 3: I think I did anything like I never I wasn't
Speaker 3: a painter, I wasn't good at drawing. So that photography class,
Speaker 3: I think was important. And like I guess that would
Speaker 3: be like ninth grade.
Speaker 1: Okay, what year was that? Do you remember who?
Speaker 3: Let's call it ninety four, nineteen ninety four, ninety five.
Speaker 2: Before then, was there a passion for photography? Were you
Speaker 2: reading magazines and seeing like her Brits or any Leewoods
Speaker 2: or any like?
Speaker 1: Did you have a north star for photography?
Speaker 3: It's interesting because I don't have anyone. Like my mom
Speaker 3: works in business. She always traveled a lot. She raised me.
Speaker 3: It was just me and my mom. I'm just myself
Speaker 3: and she was a single mom until she remarried and
Speaker 3: when I was in eighth grade. But you know, as
Speaker 3: far as like she would take me to films, we
Speaker 3: would go to museums. I always had art around me.
Speaker 3: But my grandparents my mother's side is Filipino and she
Speaker 3: was born in England and he was in the service,
Speaker 3: and they traveled the world for his job, Like he
Speaker 3: would be stationed in London and then he would go
Speaker 3: to the Americas in New York and they my grandmother
Speaker 3: always took photographs. I can't show you right now. It's
Speaker 3: on a wall, but a lot of the photographs are
Speaker 3: black and white photographs where they're center punched, and it's
Speaker 3: just like single shots of like my grandmother in New
Speaker 3: York or my grandmother in London, and they were always around,
Speaker 3: Like my mom always had him around, And that must
Speaker 3: have had an impact because till this day, like the
Speaker 3: way that I frame, I find that there's similarities. But
Speaker 3: that's like the first relationship I had with photography before
Speaker 3: doing art history in LMU undergrad where you're learning about
Speaker 3: you know, roth Cooe, where you're learning about Eggleston and
Speaker 3: then you're more versed in it. But they always had
Speaker 3: photos around our house growing up.
Speaker 1: You went to LMU, I did.
Speaker 3: I went to ELMU for undergrad.
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, despite my quest loveness, I have a major
Speaker 2: fear of public speaking, kind of a therapeutic challenge. This
Speaker 2: was like December of the year before in twenty twenty five,
Speaker 2: or my therapist was like she knew that Noah was
Speaker 2: my favorite word. When it came to hey, quest, come
Speaker 2: speak to the kids, Hey chus, you want to talk
Speaker 2: to these you know, like and so it just so
Speaker 2: happened that LMU had given me an offer to speak
Speaker 2: to the graduating class, and I begrudgingly did it. Weird enough,
Speaker 2: I've made it about me by just telling that class
Speaker 2: how scared I was to do this, And somehow it
Speaker 2: became like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, when was that obviously before the podcast, like before
Speaker 3: this year?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, okay, you know previously with the podcast. Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, I had four other co hosts with me, Like,
Speaker 2: I like community work, but when it's like one on one,
Speaker 2: that's like there's too much intimacy.
Speaker 1: So even this is.
Speaker 2: More or less like a somewhat cathartic therapeutic exercise.
Speaker 3: I was going to say, yeah, I like that, no thing.
Speaker 2: I specifically wanted to talk to people like one that
Speaker 2: I didn't know, like the back of my hand, and
Speaker 2: you know, kind of two strangers meetings. So that's what
Speaker 2: I'm doing. What is your favorite childhood memory from your home.
Speaker 2: It doesn't have to be in a major event like
Speaker 2: oh that time we went to Disneyland or whatever, but
Speaker 2: just like, what's your version of a happy moment from
Speaker 2: your childhood?
Speaker 3: Give me all emotional and shit. I think it's mostly
Speaker 3: like my it was always me and my mom, you
Speaker 3: know together.
Speaker 2: Yeah, what traits of yours do you think that you've
Speaker 2: gotten from your parents, either creative or personal.
Speaker 3: I think she's pretty resilient and very determined person. I
Speaker 3: think being raised by someone and always listening to her
Speaker 3: on the phone and doing her business work because she
Speaker 3: does international trade business and interacting with people. I was
Speaker 3: always worried about her, I think early on, you know,
Speaker 3: going out by herself, because you've become kind of the caretaker,
Speaker 3: you know, if it's just you and her. She's pretty tough.
Speaker 3: So I always tried to follow in those footsteps. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean we spent a lot of time together, you know,
Speaker 3: it's just us too. Like I grew up in northern California.
Speaker 1: Which city specifically, well.
Speaker 3: We first started out in San Leandro. I lived in
Speaker 3: Hayward as well, Bay area, you know, near Oakland, and
Speaker 3: we had a little apartment, you know, so I shared
Speaker 3: a room with her early on, and then she moved
Speaker 3: me to Danville, which is a less diverse community, to
Speaker 3: go to a better school because it had a really
Speaker 3: good public school program. So you kind of moved from
Speaker 3: like a diverse area into you know, most you know,
Speaker 3: I was probably the only mixed race kid. Maybe there
Speaker 3: were a couple of black people and a couple of Asians,
Speaker 3: but it was way, you know, nicer environment for her
Speaker 3: to be okay with, like single parenting and having good education.
Speaker 3: But that's my favorite. Yeah, I think just spending time
Speaker 3: with her because I'm that quality time kind of person.
Speaker 3: You know that that fills me up.
Speaker 1: You said that you were a parent.
Speaker 2: Is there a trade of yours that you feel like
Speaker 2: you've passed onward to your child? Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think my husband and I are always telling him
Speaker 3: like and I believe it because I think, you know,
Speaker 3: my mom told me, but you can do anything you
Speaker 3: want to do, you know, you really anything that inspire you,
Speaker 3: anything that you feel in your bones. Make sure you
Speaker 3: know we're there to help you with that, but also
Speaker 3: that like you, you have the ability to do that.
Speaker 3: And I think I was told that. My husband grew
Speaker 3: up in a very supportive He's Australian, but he has
Speaker 3: a big family, a very loving family, and I do
Speaker 3: feel like I reiterate that to my son a lot.
Speaker 2: So is it true that a friend of yours gifted
Speaker 2: you or purchased you a cinematography class at UCLA.
Speaker 3: Yeah, isn't that crazy. I haven't emailed him for a while.
Speaker 3: But when I graduated LMU, I got a job for
Speaker 3: AOL time warner. I was a temp you know, I
Speaker 3: had to like graduate get some money, and I got
Speaker 3: a temp job through a friend and I had to input.
Speaker 3: Like you remember when AOL had banners, Like it was
Speaker 3: the early stages, and the banners would pop up all
Speaker 3: over the place, like on the side and the top,
Speaker 3: and it would be like right, like buy this car,
Speaker 3: buy this Honda. I used to put together spreadsheets for
Speaker 3: those banners and support someone who was doing auto sales online.
Speaker 3: So I had a cubicle at a desk and I
Speaker 3: would do that. I would input all the stuff in
Speaker 3: you know, nice little paycheck. And I just started to
Speaker 3: be interested in cinematography. And I remember telling him and
Speaker 3: his father owned els, which is one of the biggest
Speaker 3: lighting companies that works with the premiers or big events
Speaker 3: around Los Angeles. So there's like this weird through line.
Speaker 3: And then on the side he's like, you know what,
Speaker 3: I'll help you buy that class. Like I looked into
Speaker 3: a night class. So when I would get off work,
Speaker 3: go to UCLA for the cinematography class like a little
Speaker 3: semester class, and I would learn what being a DP meant.
Speaker 3: I did the class, I loved it, and then I
Speaker 3: decided to quit, and he got me a job working
Speaker 3: at els to help lay the red carpet and put
Speaker 3: up the lights for the premieres. So I did, like
Speaker 3: Mission Impossible, Devilwaar's product, you were on the night shift.
Speaker 3: So I don't know if you've been to a premiere
Speaker 3: a little early, but you see people crawling around taping
Speaker 3: up the carpet, putting the lights up.
Speaker 1: Totally.
Speaker 2: I'm the DJ that they'll hire sometimes for events. Oh yes,
Speaker 2: So I have to be there early to set up
Speaker 2: and like, I love how the sausage is made in
Speaker 2: any thing that I go to. So as a new director,
Speaker 2: speaking of myself, I'm learning fast that my you know,
Speaker 2: team has to be intact. I initially thought that as
Speaker 2: a director that I'm part of the starting five players
Speaker 2: on the floor, and I learned quickly that I'm the
Speaker 2: coach and the cinematographer, the editor, the writer, the soundman,
Speaker 2: the colorists, like all those people are the starting five,
Speaker 2: and you're the coach. So because I came in backwards.
Speaker 1: At the top of the pyramid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, for most people in film, I noticed that, yes,
Speaker 2: there's a pecking order for you. Was the desired destination
Speaker 2: always cinematography.
Speaker 3: My comfort zone is definitely where I'm at. I mean,
Speaker 3: I get asked a lot, I think, being a female
Speaker 3: DP at this level, because there aren't that many of us,
Speaker 3: you know, shooting this level of film historically, so the
Speaker 3: question comes up a lot, well are you interested in directing?
Speaker 3: And I think why that is is because you know,
Speaker 3: you get to a point on set where you're very
Speaker 3: versed in how a set's run. You're next to the
Speaker 3: director all the time I work with, you know, I
Speaker 3: do the big budget films with a lot of the effects.
Speaker 3: So they always just imagine, okay, well, well you must
Speaker 3: be interested in direct now, you know. And I think
Speaker 3: it's an interesting thing because I've now gotten to the
Speaker 3: point of my career where you work so hard as
Speaker 3: a female DP to be able to do those things,
Speaker 3: and then now they're already trying to like ask you
Speaker 3: to go this direction. So I hear that question a lot.
Speaker 3: But I'm so I think passionate about the way things
Speaker 3: are shot and lighting that I could never give that
Speaker 3: up right, so it's easy for me to position myself.
Speaker 3: And Ryan's like, hey, do you want to do this
Speaker 3: Rihana video that's up my alley Because it's music related,
Speaker 3: it's beauty related. I get to work one on one
Speaker 3: with a star and make them look beautiful and make
Speaker 3: them feel comfortable. But no, I think I'm lucky to
Speaker 3: have found a partner in Ryan because we have similar
Speaker 3: tastes and we like the same things, and I understand
Speaker 3: him really well. But to do his job like it
Speaker 3: is a very very difficult position to be. And as
Speaker 3: you know, I don't have a story that's like so
Speaker 3: in my bones that I have to tell and only
Speaker 3: I'm the only one that can tell it. Not yet,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe in the future there is something that
Speaker 3: only I can tell as a director. But I really
Speaker 3: do enjoy supporting him and the other directors I work with, because,
Speaker 3: as you know, it's just it's a very complex job
Speaker 3: to do everything well.
Speaker 2: Number One, you mentioned Rihanna's Lifted Me Up video. What
Speaker 2: was the creative decision behind doing that handheld as opposed
Speaker 2: to you know, crane and you know this is Rihanna, Like,
Speaker 2: I feel like every director has their uh, their Lawrence
Speaker 2: of Arabia, dream of like the or Citizen King, like
Speaker 2: the sprawling opening scene thing.
Speaker 1: Uh, and you know handheld.
Speaker 2: Is more of a we're all personal intimate things. But
Speaker 2: what was your decision behind shooting it that way?
Speaker 3: Yeah, we had a crane that we used. You know,
Speaker 3: the opening is a water shot. We shot some more
Speaker 3: stuff that I didn't use with the wide shots of
Speaker 3: the water before we went into intimate stuff. So that
Speaker 3: was done on a crane to kind of crawl over
Speaker 3: the sand. But I mean I came up in indies.
Speaker 3: I came up shooting music videos, fashion films that didn't
Speaker 3: have any money. So when you have a camera in
Speaker 3: your hands and it is an extension of yourself and
Speaker 3: your point of view, that's how you learn to find
Speaker 3: where the camera needs to be right. And so I'm
Speaker 3: very much an operator. I've operated most of my films,
Speaker 3: all the stuff that I do. So when I'm having
Speaker 3: to be in a situation where light is falling quickly,
Speaker 3: I want to be with her. I want her to
Speaker 3: move freely and do what she wants, but I also
Speaker 3: want to capture and get the right shots. Then you
Speaker 3: want to take as much control as you can, right
Speaker 3: I don't want to worry about it being on a
Speaker 3: dolly and moving the dolly. Then I have to worry
Speaker 3: about the dolly grip. Then I have to worry about
Speaker 3: all stuff. So I put it in my hands so
Speaker 3: I have the most control and I'm most intimate with her,
Speaker 3: similar to Last Showgirl, you know, with Pamela, like being
Speaker 3: close to the woman so you can move with her
Speaker 3: and find her beauty easily.
Speaker 2: In general, I want to know how much lee way
Speaker 2: or access or preparation are you given to your subjects
Speaker 2: that you're going to film, Like how do you even
Speaker 2: map out the choreography of how you're going to shoot that,
Speaker 2: what their strengths are, what their weaknesses are, or is
Speaker 2: this just taking direction from your director and you executing,
Speaker 2: Like how much leeway are you given to well? Actually,
Speaker 2: why don't we try this?
Speaker 1: And da da da da da. Like specifically, I want
Speaker 1: to know for the Last.
Speaker 3: Show Girl, Okay, well I'll start with that saying I
Speaker 3: think the best thing that you can do is work
Speaker 3: with people that allow you to exercise your creativity and
Speaker 3: have trust in you. Right when I work with Gia,
Speaker 3: you know, we started out running around, we shot Paloouto.
Speaker 3: We're running around with a bunch of kids with her friends.
Speaker 3: She's my best friend, so we talk every day. But
Speaker 3: it's someone I know really well, and I know what
Speaker 3: they like and I know where they want the camera.
Speaker 3: It's intuitive, like I choose people to collaborate with that
Speaker 3: we have that connection. So when it's with her, there's
Speaker 3: a lot of trust in camera that she gives me.
Speaker 3: And that's why that that kind of relationship works. Also
Speaker 3: with that scene, I remember, you have to be the
Speaker 3: best thing you can be as a DP is quick
Speaker 3: to make decisions and have solutions. So I remember I
Speaker 3: didn't have any prep there. I think Gia came up
Speaker 3: and said, Jamie wants to dance on that thing in
Speaker 3: the middle of the casino, right like we have some time,
Speaker 3: you know, in between like some other senior shooting. She
Speaker 3: wants to dance. She's gonna dance to this song. We're
Speaker 3: gonna shoot it. I'm like, all right, cool. So then
Speaker 3: I tell my gaffer, like to position the light and
Speaker 3: a good spot. I just evaluate, you know, that kind
Speaker 3: of podium that she wanted. I picked direction. I said,
Speaker 3: I'm going to shoot it from here because it was
Speaker 3: the best direction for lighting, and I moved a little
Speaker 3: bit of a key light for and then we just
Speaker 3: let her do her thing and I captured it, you know,
Speaker 3: while she was dancing and handhealth and that was it.
Speaker 3: And I think there are a lot of those types
Speaker 3: of moments that in the film like that, because you
Speaker 3: want to be free and vulnerable to like what the
Speaker 3: actor may want to do, but you also want to
Speaker 3: get those moments that the director wants, because Gia loves
Speaker 3: those non communication moments where it's just following women around
Speaker 3: and letting them. Like Pamela, we went on the parking
Speaker 3: lot on a weekend and Pamela just started dancing around
Speaker 3: and being funny and cute and we just captured it.
Speaker 3: So there's a lot of that For.
Speaker 2: You, though, how do you decide the thin line of
Speaker 2: what would be deemed an unflattering shot but staying true
Speaker 2: to what's needed to really make that film come alive.
Speaker 2: Because of course, you know, a lot of us know
Speaker 2: Pamela Anderson for like all these slow motion and glam
Speaker 2: shots and everything's perfectly edited and whatnot. But for you,
Speaker 2: how aware of you on how this has to look
Speaker 2: to make this film come along?
Speaker 3: We had been discussing it Gia and I for a
Speaker 3: long time prior to when we actually ended up shooting it.
Speaker 3: So she was always looking for someone to be vulnerable
Speaker 3: and not like have a lot of makeup on, to
Speaker 3: not go through makeup at the top of the day,
Speaker 3: and because that can be time consuming, to just be
Speaker 3: themselves right, to just be raw, and so that was
Speaker 3: the directive that was someone she wanted to play it.
Speaker 3: We knew that we didn't have a lot of money
Speaker 3: to make this film. We knew that we'd make it
Speaker 3: with a small group with friends on film. It would
Speaker 3: be very intimate where we would have all the control,
Speaker 3: and that was the most important thing because we made
Speaker 3: a film before that where we didn't have as much control,
Speaker 3: and we wanted to make a film where we had control.
Speaker 3: She has all the control, I have all the control,
Speaker 3: and we make it. That's very rare. As you know,
Speaker 3: it shouldn't be rare because we're the filmmakers and we
Speaker 3: both have director in our title, but it does happen,
Speaker 3: and it's unfortunate when you don't. So with this film,
Speaker 3: it's very much our retelling of that story, which is nice,
Speaker 3: like you can watch it and only you made those mistakes.
Speaker 3: You weren't forced into anything. As you know Pamela, I mean,
Speaker 3: she's just amazing, And same with Jamie. It's like they're
Speaker 3: okay with just being themselves. They're at that point where
Speaker 3: they're so confident in who they are that it's so
Speaker 3: enlightening to be able to shoot women like that, right,
Speaker 3: and so they put their trust in you that you
Speaker 3: know what it should be lit, like you know where
Speaker 3: the camera should be. So for that like I wanted
Speaker 3: to have a lower footprint, which meant using a lot
Speaker 3: of available light, which meant going into space is using
Speaker 3: a lot of practicals. And then just how I exposed it.
Speaker 3: You just need to know your exposure right, what you
Speaker 3: can push and what you can't. And that's just like
Speaker 3: having experience and trial and error, I think in spaces.
Speaker 3: So and then you as a woman, like I know
Speaker 3: where the beauty shops are, you know what someone will
Speaker 3: look powerful or where the camera needs to be. And
Speaker 3: then I also made lenses for that picture, so Hannah
Speaker 3: Vision and I made some lenses that have never been
Speaker 3: made before, anamorphic sixteen lenses because I couldn't find any
Speaker 3: lenses that I liked, so we made some so it
Speaker 3: has a very particular look that I feel is very
Speaker 3: flattering because it's very soft, old vintage glass. But I
Speaker 3: detuned it in a way that has a lot of
Speaker 3: fall off and is more dreamy. So that also helps
Speaker 3: when you're thinking about how this should look. You know,
Speaker 3: to pair the film stock with a beautiful lens, which
Speaker 3: also in turn, I think, as you know, like lighting
Speaker 3: and lensing are in conversation with each other. A lighting
Speaker 3: can only look great if the camera's in the right position,
Speaker 3: and it depends on what that lenses. So yeah, it
Speaker 3: was very thought through, but always with the intention of
Speaker 3: having a small footprint and not getting in the way
Speaker 3: of the process.
Speaker 2: What is your attraction to the anamorphic style of shooting, like,
Speaker 2: did you see it happened before or are you in
Speaker 2: a place where you're just like, I want to push
Speaker 2: forward the things that I'm not seeing that I wish
Speaker 2: I seen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, see, I went to AFI, so you know
Speaker 3: it's a playground for you to explore and ask questions
Speaker 3: and you have access to like camera houses and stuff.
Speaker 3: So early on before AFI, I was in love with
Speaker 3: the format because I saw films like Manhattan, The Last Emperor,
Speaker 3: these films are shot on anamorphic. They have a lot
Speaker 3: of scope, and I didn't exactly knew like the logistics
Speaker 3: of that format at the time, but it was like,
Speaker 3: what am I responding to? That makes me feel like,
Speaker 3: this is cinematic? What is this like? Because I saw
Speaker 3: a similarity in this format, right, you have twice the
Speaker 3: field of view, faces look different, there's more fall off,
Speaker 3: like all these characteristics that come with it. And then
Speaker 3: when I was at film school, I looked into it
Speaker 3: more and started shooting my own anamorphic and then you
Speaker 3: figure out how to use the format. But for me,
Speaker 3: it's just something that I think early on, when I
Speaker 3: was researching filmmaking, I was responding more to film shot
Speaker 3: and anamorphic and now it's just like kind of my thing.
Speaker 3: But I don't push it on directors. That's the thing.
Speaker 3: The director has to want to shoot in that format.
Speaker 3: You don't want to like push them into it if
Speaker 3: they're not into it.
Speaker 2: From one to ten, what is your tolerance level for
Speaker 2: a micromanaging director versus someone that just lets.
Speaker 1: You have the space to do what you do.
Speaker 2: Have you had an experience with a micromanaging director that's
Speaker 2: always oh damn.
Speaker 1: You don't even let me get okay.
Speaker 2: And the opposite, we could say, a more pleasant situation
Speaker 2: where you're given the leeway to show what you know
Speaker 2: and your education and it works out fine. Like you've
Speaker 2: been on both sides of the fence. Is there a
Speaker 2: way for you to describe both to me without compromising
Speaker 2: and putting yourself in No?
Speaker 3: No, of course. I think the thing about it is
Speaker 3: is when you get to a point where you feel
Speaker 3: like you have something to offer, right, and you can
Speaker 3: relate in music where it's like you have something to say.
Speaker 3: It's inside, it's in your bones. And the people that
Speaker 3: recognize that and see it in you and see it
Speaker 3: in your work and then ask you to come break
Speaker 3: bread with them and join their family and say, you
Speaker 3: know what, I see that magic and I want you
Speaker 3: to join me to help me tell this story because
Speaker 3: only you can be the person to tell it. And
Speaker 3: those are the people that I want to work with.
Speaker 3: And I've been lucky enough to work with those people
Speaker 3: like a Gea, like a Ryan, even with Spike, like
Speaker 3: you know, even though it was in a movie like
Speaker 3: these are very collaborate people. They're very talented people, and
Speaker 3: they have their own point of view and they know
Speaker 3: how to kind of explain it to you. And then
Speaker 3: they want to collaborate with you, right, So they have
Speaker 3: a vision that they hand off to you, that you
Speaker 3: work together with them, and it's very clear and it's
Speaker 3: a great relationship. And on the other hand, I've been
Speaker 3: in a situation where I think I've been hired because
Speaker 3: of my work, but then when we get to the
Speaker 3: point at which I need to execute my you know,
Speaker 3: and help them, they want to micromanage me. And so
Speaker 3: I'm not even allowed to get that out right. So
Speaker 3: it's already a conflict because it's like, you know, come
Speaker 3: play this music. Oh wait, don't play that, Like, well,
Speaker 3: the motherfucker why am I here?
Speaker 2: Why am I here?
Speaker 1: So now you're from the Bay Area. I was waiting
Speaker 1: for Ella or motherfucker? All right? Good.
Speaker 3: So I'm like, I think, for me, I don't put
Speaker 3: myself in those situations anymore. Life is too short. I
Speaker 3: have a family. I have to be away. And that's
Speaker 3: what's so beautiful with Ryan. It's like, you know, we
Speaker 3: go when we make these films, well Conda took a
Speaker 3: year long, and it's like he protects my time, he
Speaker 3: protects the effort that I put in. I know it
Speaker 3: will be worthy. I know I will be respected. I
Speaker 3: know that I will be able to collaborate on the
Speaker 3: highest level. So I tend to look for that opportunity
Speaker 3: because it is hard as an artist to just be
Speaker 3: you know, told no all the time, or the trust
Speaker 3: isn't there, or not being able to be brave like
Speaker 3: I want to work with brave people. I don't want
Speaker 3: to work with restricted people like scared people. Is that answer?
Speaker 3: I'm going off on a tangent.
Speaker 1: Talk your shit, talk your shit. Yeah, I like that.
Speaker 1: All right.
Speaker 2: If you were to recommend me three films that probably
Speaker 2: touches you the most, what would those three films be?
Speaker 3: Hannah and Her Sisters? So what do you allen? Film?
Speaker 3: The Last Emperor? Bertolucci, and Barry Lyndon Kubrick. Have you
Speaker 3: seen any of those?
Speaker 1: Yes?
Speaker 3: Of course, yeah, well that's great. Yeah it's not us.
Speaker 3: Some people say like, oh, I haven't seen Last Emperor,
Speaker 3: but that means yes in aphile, I suppose.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I lived on a tour bus for twenty plus years,
Speaker 2: and the thing is, yeah, I'm not going to just
Speaker 2: pretend that we were all these criteering collection nerds.
Speaker 1: It just became a point where I.
Speaker 2: Got tired of watching Friday and Juice and Scarface on
Speaker 2: the tour bus.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So I live in the East Coast, so in Philadelphia,
Speaker 2: New York, there's a you know, independent places like a
Speaker 2: TLA Video or Kim's Video.
Speaker 1: Where a lot of those.
Speaker 2: And even when I go to the like to La,
Speaker 2: like going to a Respudenz or going to a Sunset Boulevard,
Speaker 2: they just.
Speaker 3: Shut down the tower like it used to be Tower Records,
Speaker 3: and it turned into Amiba.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, tower, but also Amiba yeah yeah. And then
Speaker 2: that's when I discovered, oh, Criterion collect and now I
Speaker 2: want to watch, you know, things that I haven't seen before. Well,
Speaker 2: I'll ask you, are you a Criterion person or a
Speaker 2: two B person?
Speaker 3: To be honest, I didn't do the deep dive on
Speaker 3: Too be It and Criterion. I think I was after college.
Speaker 3: But now I'm just like, you know, Apple TV, which
Speaker 3: doesn't give you any of the extras, obviously, don't you that? Yeah,
Speaker 3: well but I do. I'm not gonna lie to you,
Speaker 3: like and I talked a lot about this with my husband.
Speaker 3: The more and more you shoot movies or work on
Speaker 3: film sets, Unfortunately, the less and less you watch movies,
Speaker 3: especially how they're made, because you you, I mean, you're there,
Speaker 3: you start to you know, you get to a point
Speaker 3: where but I did when I was coming up, Like
Speaker 3: a Thin Red Line is another one that I'd add
Speaker 3: to that three where I remember watching the criterion of
Speaker 3: a Thin Red Line to find out, you know, how
Speaker 3: they made that, and I was just blown away because
Speaker 3: I didn't know anything at the time, So I think
Speaker 3: it was more alluring when I didn't know stuff.
Speaker 1: We have to rapifire you on your profession.
Speaker 2: For the Disease special, I was just so obsessed with
Speaker 2: the diagonal framing, just the unorthodox framing of it. He
Speaker 2: just walked me through just the creative of that special.
Speaker 3: Spike and I met because he wanted to do a
Speaker 3: music video that didn't end up happening. We did that
Speaker 3: before Beastie Boys.
Speaker 1: Who was it for?
Speaker 3: It? By the way, you know who it's for, but
Speaker 3: I forget.
Speaker 1: I can't say, but.
Speaker 3: You would know. You would know, Okay, but it's escaping
Speaker 3: me now like someone important, and I was very excited.
Speaker 3: We went and scouted it. It didn't happen, so then
Speaker 3: we did Disease together. And what was cool about it
Speaker 3: was Disease was performing in Manhattan Beach in a smaller
Speaker 3: comedy club down by the beach, and so that was
Speaker 3: our first kind of, I guess dress rehearsal. So Spike
Speaker 3: took me down there. I met him there. He had
Speaker 3: a camera on his back the whole show. And this
Speaker 3: is like hour and a half I guess hour and
Speaker 3: a half show, and I had a camera on my
Speaker 3: back digital and we shot the show as like a
Speaker 3: dress rehearsal of like let's see how we vibe with disease.
Speaker 3: And this is something Spike wanted to do to kind
Speaker 3: of see the angles that would be good. It's not
Speaker 3: the space that we were going to shoot it, but
Speaker 3: it was kind of just learning, like a learning process.
Speaker 3: And what was so funny was, you know, having a
Speaker 3: camera on your back for an hour and a half
Speaker 3: is a pain in the ass. But I remember thinking like, well,
Speaker 3: Spike's doing it. I'm not taking this camera off my back,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, Like, because we were rolling
Speaker 3: the whole time. We rolled the whole show, and it
Speaker 3: just forced you to kind of find perspectives and angles
Speaker 3: that were interesting because you know, it is when you
Speaker 3: hold on an angle for a long time, you know,
Speaker 3: it can get boring, and then you it makes you
Speaker 3: think about where's a better angle. So you're always one
Speaker 3: uping yourself trying to figure out what those angles are.
Speaker 3: But you're also keeping an eye on the other operator
Speaker 3: to see where they are right, so you can kind
Speaker 3: of dance.
Speaker 1: With each other and there's only the two of you.
Speaker 2: There's only two of us, and you didn't do a
Speaker 2: pre this mizone, this is your zone.
Speaker 3: I think that was the point of that dress rehearsal.
Speaker 3: Like we definitely had a talk when we went into
Speaker 3: the space. Right it's an empty comedy space. You know,
Speaker 3: we knew you'd be on stage, he'd have a little stool.
Speaker 3: And then Spike obviously was like, okay, well I think
Speaker 3: this or that because I remember adjusting some lights. So
Speaker 3: there was a conversation about it. But I think in
Speaker 3: the moment when you're trying to move around, you also
Speaker 3: have to just like think on your feet too. Even
Speaker 3: though we would say like okay, I'll take this side
Speaker 3: or that side, because I allowed him like he was,
Speaker 3: I think, you know, you want to make sure you're
Speaker 3: not stacking up, and sometimes I think he might have
Speaker 3: told me, like we can go to the audience sometimes
Speaker 3: all stay on him, watch me. If I stay on him,
Speaker 3: then you go here, you know. So there's a conversation
Speaker 3: that you would have with that operator. And so that
Speaker 3: was our dress rehearsal. Then fast forward we're in New
Speaker 3: York and you know, we also did a dress rehearsal there,
Speaker 3: but we're shooting on film, and I think in conversations
Speaker 3: with a Ziz, you know they wanted to shoot it
Speaker 3: on film. And one of the biggest references I think
Speaker 3: Spike amy was those old Richard Pryor shows that were
Speaker 3: shot on sick so I'll watched those. Obviously made sense
Speaker 3: to me. But it was a tall order because shooting,
Speaker 3: I think we had six cameras shooting simultaneously, knowing when
Speaker 3: to you have to change the mags so you don't
Speaker 3: miss a beat on each angle right, you have to coordinate.
Speaker 1: All of that.
Speaker 3: So it was a It was a lot of prep
Speaker 3: in the sense, like I remember with Spike, he's very specific,
Speaker 3: but also he wants to try things, so like we
Speaker 3: would set the camera up in different zones and we
Speaker 3: would figure out that was the right zone, and then
Speaker 3: we mapped it out. We also did a lighting test
Speaker 3: where we you know, we lit it, We lit the backstage,
Speaker 3: we tried some things, we developed it, we watched it
Speaker 3: to see if he liked it. So there was a
Speaker 3: lot of prep, I would say in that sense, because
Speaker 3: when you take it to film, you know, accidents can happen,
Speaker 3: so you need to be on top of your game
Speaker 3: and make sure all the operators and all the mags
Speaker 3: whiches are on time. We had all the monitors set
Speaker 3: up HD tap and I would you know, you know,
Speaker 3: you're doing a little bit of core nation. Spike did
Speaker 3: operate the on stage camera for one of the shows,
Speaker 3: I believe, and I think we shot two nights my Trippin' maybe,
Speaker 3: but yeah, I mean it was all coordinated, and so
Speaker 3: I think it was nice to do that smaller show
Speaker 3: with him. But he wanted it to feel alive, right,
Speaker 3: He wanted it to have the texture and the kind
Speaker 3: of quality that came from those old Richard Pryor shows
Speaker 3: where you can feel the grain alive. And so yeah,
Speaker 3: there was a lot of discussion, but we got very lucky.
Speaker 3: I mean, I wouldn't say we had like a bunch
Speaker 3: of jams or you know, because that shit is like
Speaker 3: you're sweating. Trust me, you're sweating.
Speaker 2: I wish concert films were shot that way. Like I
Speaker 2: just Spike is an idol of mine.
Speaker 3: Like yeah, he's so fun, Like I would say that right,
Speaker 3: It's like it was fun to work on and it's
Speaker 3: fun to watch because he creates that environment when you're
Speaker 3: making a film, like let's just do this, let's go here,
Speaker 3: let's you know, like I'm an operator, you know, it was.
Speaker 3: It was fun.
Speaker 2: So I experienced Sinners, flew out to La. My preferred
Speaker 2: destination points in Los Angeles is either the New Beverly
Speaker 2: to watch movies and Vista House to watch, both owned
Speaker 2: by Quentin Tarantino. Pretty much from not since I was
Speaker 2: a child. I come from also a place where before
Speaker 2: the VCR, you would go to a movie house at
Speaker 2: eleven in the morning and just stay all day, sometimes
Speaker 2: watching two three times in a row a film because
Speaker 2: you're like, there's no way IM see this ever get
Speaker 2: in life. And I will watch Sinners three times in
Speaker 2: a row.
Speaker 3: What are you talking about? What?
Speaker 1: I was obsessed?
Speaker 3: That's amazing.
Speaker 1: I was obsessed.
Speaker 2: So how much experience did you have with the large
Speaker 2: format sixty five millimeter, well one that format, but also
Speaker 2: with Imax, like is sixty five millimeter the same or
Speaker 2: is it two different cameras that you have to operate
Speaker 2: at once.
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, so it's the same negative running through both
Speaker 3: cameras but in different ways, So two different cameras. Like
Speaker 3: you just said, the anamorphic format is the wide screen,
Speaker 3: which is that two seven six hateful eight format that
Speaker 3: people are familiar with, and that is a sixty five
Speaker 3: millimeter negative running vertically through a camera which is a
Speaker 3: Panavision camera called a System sixty five camera. That camera
Speaker 3: is very heavy. That camera is not necessarily a handheld camera, right,
Speaker 3: it's a studio camera. It's on a dolly or whether
Speaker 3: it's on a crane or stuff like that. There's a
Speaker 3: high speed version of that that allows you to shoot
Speaker 3: high speed. That's a little bit lighter that we put
Speaker 3: on a steadicam sometimes, for instance the ononer that goes
Speaker 3: and follows missus Chow across the street and her daughter
Speaker 3: in the grocery store scene. So that's steadycam. And then
Speaker 3: you have the Imax camera, which is sixty five negative,
Speaker 3: same negative, but it's going through the camera horizontally and
Speaker 3: it's fifteen perfs, not five perfs, so much bigger, negative
Speaker 3: real estate, different cameras. So that's Imax camera. I had
Speaker 3: not shot any of these before, and you know, neither
Speaker 3: had my team, so Ryan myself.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not even for a black Panther was that used
Speaker 2: at all.
Speaker 3: No, So when you see that's the thing I think
Speaker 3: what was so great about Ryan's video where he explained
Speaker 3: all the formats is that a lot of people get
Speaker 3: a bit confused about when they go see an Imax
Speaker 3: film if it's Digital Imax or if it's film Imax.
Speaker 3: The only team that we're familiar with, like my you know,
Speaker 3: you and I that are shooting this format would be
Speaker 3: Hota and well Christopher Nolan, Christopher Nolan and Hoyta and
Speaker 3: then obviously Wally Fister with The Dark Knight was the
Speaker 3: first Imax film I went to see at the City Walk,
Speaker 3: And so that's the filmmaking team that's shooting film Imax
Speaker 3: in know, a large format that goes in between the formats.
Speaker 3: So so yeah, so when it came time to do this,
Speaker 3: we did our own testing, but it's not available to everyone.
Speaker 3: To be honest, those cameras that we use, there's only
Speaker 3: four of them for the system cameras, so it's not
Speaker 3: like multiple movies can be shot at the same time
Speaker 3: because those are the cameras that are used. So if
Speaker 3: that team is not using those cameras, then you know,
Speaker 3: we were lucky enough to get to use those cameras.
Speaker 3: So yeah, that's the format thing. And yeah it came up.
Speaker 3: I don't know if you read, but Ryan originally saw
Speaker 3: it as a sixteen millimeter picture. That's how we were
Speaker 3: supposed to do it as That's why I made those
Speaker 3: lenses for Last Show Girl because I was kind of
Speaker 3: thinking ahead and thinking like, oh, let me let me
Speaker 3: test these out and then we can use them on
Speaker 3: that film because we shot right after. But then we
Speaker 3: you know, obviously Ryan up the ante as he as
Speaker 3: he does, and we went you know, we tested thirty
Speaker 3: five and then we tested large format.
Speaker 2: So yeah, how much rehearsal do you get before it's
Speaker 2: the day the Day of Reckoning? Not to make it
Speaker 2: sound o apocalyptic, but it has to be a intimidating
Speaker 2: no like our mistakes allowed.
Speaker 3: I mean, I go back to what you that question
Speaker 3: you asked me for about my lane. I don't like
Speaker 3: how you said public speaking, you get nervous and stuff
Speaker 3: like I would assume when you're in your element and
Speaker 3: you're playing music, like that is your space, and I
Speaker 3: feel very confident in what I do and when I'm
Speaker 3: doing that's where I feel most comfortable. Prep is a
Speaker 3: pain in the act, right when you're doing you have
Speaker 3: you do all the tests and you have to like
Speaker 3: figure everything out. That's very tedious. But if you put
Speaker 3: a camera in my hand and I now know how
Speaker 3: to use it, game on, right. So I think for
Speaker 3: us we always have on movies, let's call it like
Speaker 3: eight to twelve weeks of prep. That's just rough number,
Speaker 3: But you have a lot of weeks to go over
Speaker 3: this stuff. You do not have eight to twelve weeks
Speaker 3: of prep to just mess around with the camera, because
Speaker 3: obviously there's a cost to that prep, right, So say
Speaker 3: you prep that kind of camera package for five weeks
Speaker 3: something like that. So what that means is you're at
Speaker 3: the camp, your AC's are at the camera house. They're
Speaker 3: testing the lenses that you want to use. We're running
Speaker 3: film through all of the magazines through the camera, we're
Speaker 3: looking at the film gate, we're doing shutter tests. So
Speaker 3: there's a lot of logistics that go into like making
Speaker 3: sure that these cameras are going to behave properly. You
Speaker 3: have a lot of technicians that are helping you do that,
Speaker 3: and I always feel like for me, I said this
Speaker 3: to the students recently. When I came up in film school,
Speaker 3: I didn't know as much as everybody else, so I
Speaker 3: was learning from a bunch of people, most of them
Speaker 3: were men, and I hated the feeling when someone was
Speaker 3: staring at me, look at me in the eyes, saying like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't understand what you're saying, Like I don't know
Speaker 3: what you want me to do, Like they were forcing
Speaker 3: me to like figure out how to explain what I wanted,
Speaker 3: you know, how I wanted the lighting to look, how
Speaker 3: I wanted to move the camera, And I felt very uncomfortable, right,
Speaker 3: And you can imagine like there's not you know, many
Speaker 3: of us. So I vowed to not have that happen
Speaker 3: to me throughout my career. So I had to go
Speaker 3: out always make sure I knew the cameras, always make
Speaker 3: sure I knew exactly what I wanted for lighting, and
Speaker 3: I learned. So I'm a very technical person and so
Speaker 3: I make sure that my shit is tight because I
Speaker 3: don't want anyone staring at me and being like, well,
Speaker 3: I don't understand what the fuck you talking about. You know,
Speaker 3: I don't know what you want. So I find that,
Speaker 3: like when I have that prep time, it becomes like
Speaker 3: a very tedious thing where I'm working with my team
Speaker 3: making sure that like I know the shit so that
Speaker 3: when we get on set and it's d day, like
Speaker 3: you say that nothing can get in the way of
Speaker 3: Ryan telling his story. That all the people that I've
Speaker 3: brought to support him, the focus pullers, the g and E,
Speaker 3: everyone is tight. Then that gives us the creative freedom
Speaker 3: to do what we want, so we're not having mistakes happen.
Speaker 1: Im that situation.
Speaker 2: How are you adaptable to freestyling or your plan B,
Speaker 2: your Plan C in case something goes awry? Is that
Speaker 2: also a part of the process of doing this?
Speaker 3: Yes, No, one hundred percent, because I think what Ryan
Speaker 3: loves to do too, and I appreciate this is like
Speaker 3: in prep, we bored everything he wanted to board the
Speaker 3: whole film boarded it. We do previous for the most
Speaker 3: you know, complex sequences like the one or the musical
Speaker 3: wunner or the train sequence. Stuff that we need to
Speaker 3: like guide a bunch of different teams, but also see
Speaker 3: ahead of time how it's going to plan out, so
Speaker 3: we know how we're shooting it, but it doesn't mean
Speaker 3: that we get there. We don't change it. And that's
Speaker 3: what I love is like you have a plan because
Speaker 3: you have to with that many people and this complex
Speaker 3: stuff we're doing, but we can throw it out if
Speaker 3: we want to because we're in the space Michael B.
Speaker 3: Jordan is you know, we're doing a blocking with him
Speaker 3: and all of a sudden, you know the sun's coming in,
Speaker 3: or you see these special moments that you want to
Speaker 3: adapt quickly too, because the actor is now in the
Speaker 3: actual space giving you shit in the rehearsal, so you
Speaker 3: don't want to stick to maybe what you thought of
Speaker 3: on the page in an office like six weeks ago.
Speaker 3: So yeah, we adapt, And I love that about Ryan
Speaker 3: because we have a plan, but we also like feel
Speaker 3: it out as well, and that's where you know, you
Speaker 3: can get extra stuff or you can have different versions
Speaker 3: of things. But no, I think the more you know,
Speaker 3: the more you can play jazz on set. Right, Like
Speaker 3: if you prep your shit tight before then you can
Speaker 3: be more free flowing and not be erratic I guess.
Speaker 2: I would assume that music sequence. I mean, there's so
Speaker 2: many iconic sequences, but for me, that's the one that
Speaker 2: grabbed me the most, and it came so early, so
Speaker 2: I don't know if I should call that the epicenter
Speaker 2: of the heartbeat of the film.
Speaker 1: But that's one of the things we're.
Speaker 2: Obsessed about, where it's like, how did that look on page?
Speaker 2: Because I feel like what was captured wasn't specifically written
Speaker 2: on page like it just I'll ask you, what was
Speaker 2: the most difficult sequence to shoot in that film?
Speaker 3: Yeah, it wasn't that one. I answered this once because
Speaker 3: I think someone asked me when I was talking about
Speaker 3: Imax on something and well, to go back to how
Speaker 3: it was written. It was beautifully written. But you know
Speaker 3: something like that is written in description, right because it's
Speaker 3: so like ethereal and surreal, and so when I first
Speaker 3: read it has so much imagination, So you read it,
Speaker 3: it makes you think, like on your own by yourself,
Speaker 3: right when you read it. And then I have a
Speaker 3: meeting with Ryan and then he's explaining what he wants
Speaker 3: to do with it, right, how it makes him feel,
Speaker 3: what his drive is for the scene. And then that's
Speaker 3: when it starts to fill itself out, and then you
Speaker 3: have meetings about it. He also did some rough drawings boards,
Speaker 3: you know, prior to us flashing it out fully, so
Speaker 3: I kind of after you see those, you have a
Speaker 3: bit of an idea of what he wants, but it
Speaker 3: is a kind of evolves, you know, based off of
Speaker 3: what he read. If you read that, which I'm sure
Speaker 3: the script will come out at some point. It's beautifully written,
Speaker 3: and so it is actually that cool on the page,
Speaker 3: but visually I think it turned into something much greater, obviously,
Speaker 3: but no, I think for me the hardest scene was
Speaker 3: the last scene that we shot, the fight in the river,
Speaker 3: the night fight, And I think for me, why I
Speaker 3: say that's the heart this is because number one, it's
Speaker 3: night shoots. Those are always difficult, But when there is
Speaker 3: VFX involved, I find it difficult because with VFX we
Speaker 3: try to get as most as we can in camera,
Speaker 3: but there's a lot of stuff that's being done way later,
Speaker 3: right and as a DP on set, you want to
Speaker 3: know what that's going to look like. You want to
Speaker 3: know how they're going to manipulate the image. You want
Speaker 3: to know the kind of the path that it's going
Speaker 3: and so when I don't have control, that's when I
Speaker 3: find it difficult because I need control. So that scene,
Speaker 3: I think, in itself was more complex because we did
Speaker 3: some work on it. Obviously we did most of it
Speaker 3: in camera. We did burn him, but you can see
Speaker 3: there's a lot of collaboration between make up, the effects,
Speaker 3: the actors, how we shot it. So that was the
Speaker 3: trickiest thing for me, I think, because it has an evolution,
Speaker 3: there's a fire, tornado, all this stuff like that.
Speaker 1: Where did you watch it for the first time with
Speaker 1: an audience.
Speaker 3: A real audience. I don't want to call it real
Speaker 3: because it was the premiere, you know what premieers are, right.
Speaker 2: But did you go to see it with non industry
Speaker 2: people like.
Speaker 3: I did after the premiere? So I would say the
Speaker 3: first time I saw it, well, the first you know,
Speaker 3: we watched it one hundred million times because we're doing
Speaker 3: the QC. I got to watch the print, I gotta
Speaker 3: do the HDR, I got to watch the digital projection.
Speaker 3: So I see it a bunch with Ryan.
Speaker 1: So you're tired of it a film like.
Speaker 3: This, you aren't because it makes you so happy. You know,
Speaker 3: it speaks to you like it speaks to your history,
Speaker 3: your culture, your your family, your relatives. So I didn't
Speaker 3: have a problem with it, you know, like watching it
Speaker 3: a bunch of times, I was very proud of it.
Speaker 3: So you're like, when you watch it, you're like, uh,
Speaker 3: but no. I watched it with a regular crowd in
Speaker 3: quotes regular at the premiere in New York. And then
Speaker 3: the first time I really watched it was at City Walk.
Speaker 3: I went to City Walk and I watched it with
Speaker 3: a real crowd. And you know, I think I get
Speaker 3: emotional every time I watch it, for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I assume that the X Files are next, right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: How familiar were you with the.
Speaker 2: Series before you signed on to it, Like were you
Speaker 2: obsessive or like what was the process of tackling that?
Speaker 3: I was not. I am not. My mom loved that show.
Speaker 3: It's funny because I think Ryan said something to media
Speaker 3: recently that he's making it for his mom or like that,
Speaker 3: you know, she really loved that show, so he wants
Speaker 3: to do right by her. But my mom, I guess
Speaker 3: it was like in a time and of her place,
Speaker 3: like to watch that and be obsessive about like next
Speaker 3: week is this? And she would do that. But I
Speaker 3: never got that into it. I mean, I'm not versed
Speaker 3: in it. I did watch it throughout my life. Sometimes
Speaker 3: I found myself watching it. But I'm okay with that
Speaker 3: because I feel like, what's nice about maybe not knowing
Speaker 3: everything is you can be more imaginative because when he
Speaker 3: hands me the script, it's a new version of that,
Speaker 3: right right, same roots. I think not too long ago,
Speaker 3: I watched the first the pilot episode to revisit it,
Speaker 3: but I try not to get too much in my head,
Speaker 3: Like I'm more big on like him, having a conversation
Speaker 3: with him about what things mean, and doing my own
Speaker 3: homework than like watching it all and filling my head
Speaker 3: with like what was it makes sense?
Speaker 2: So you didn't like watch the box set twelve times
Speaker 2: over to make sure?
Speaker 3: No, no, no, no, We're we're about to get into prep.
Speaker 3: So I'm not in prep officially yet, so I'm going
Speaker 3: to have to revisit that.
Speaker 2: Well, especially with your line of work, how long do
Speaker 2: you give yourself in between projects to even commit to
Speaker 2: another project and go through the process of like sitting
Speaker 2: with it, doing some research and starting your notes.
Speaker 3: Like, no, no, it's such a good question because I
Speaker 3: think because my husband also a DP and he's he
Speaker 3: does movies, bigger movies as well. That I don't want
Speaker 3: to work all the time, you know, like I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm not like a back to back to back person.
Speaker 3: I think Last show Girl and Sinners, these are like
Speaker 3: my two best friends, so I you know, that had
Speaker 3: to happen like that. I wasn't going to not do
Speaker 3: those ones. But it's not something that like, I pour
Speaker 3: so much of myself into it that it's very draining
Speaker 3: by the end of it. So I'm not even thinking
Speaker 3: about like calling my agent, like what else do you
Speaker 3: for me? You know, Oh, it's not doing that.
Speaker 1: You're not a stacker.
Speaker 3: I'm not a stacker.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm a stacker.
Speaker 3: Well you'd be. Yeah, that's the thing. I think many
Speaker 3: people are. There are reasons why I'm not. But I
Speaker 3: also like fill it in with commercials. So like, for instance,
Speaker 3: you know, I finished Sinners, I'm back at home, and
Speaker 3: now I'm flying to Barcelona to shoot a soccer commercial.
Speaker 3: So I get to exercise, you know, shooting. I'm not
Speaker 3: doing a narrative, which is my favorite, but because we
Speaker 3: get to do commercials in between. I've been doing commercials
Speaker 3: since Sinners wrapped and the pilot, Like our dates have
Speaker 3: shifted a bit, so the pilot I was supposed to.
Speaker 3: You know, it's like when things shift, you kind of
Speaker 3: run with it. So I haven't put anything in front
Speaker 3: of that.
Speaker 2: Our commercial is your version of me going to a
Speaker 2: jam session at a jazz club to try new things out.
Speaker 3: Yes, that you get to work with your friends, right,
Speaker 3: Like your friend can call you like come jam with me,
Speaker 3: and they're like, okay, I'll come chat with you for
Speaker 3: a week.
Speaker 1: What is your other talent that's not film related?
Speaker 3: Tennis? I played tennis, okay, but I'm not like going
Speaker 3: pro or anything. But I find that like is very
Speaker 3: helpful to me, Like I have a coach, I'll go play,
Speaker 3: like I'm going to go play after this.
Speaker 1: What is your go to movie theater? Snack?
Speaker 3: Oh, popcorner, raisinets mixed together.
Speaker 1: Mixed together? Okay. What's the film that you've seen the
Speaker 1: most in your life?
Speaker 3: Probably Heat.
Speaker 1: I'm showing that for my birthday this year.
Speaker 3: Oh you are?
Speaker 2: I run out of movie theater the Saturday before my
Speaker 2: birthday and I curate not a twenty four hour but
Speaker 2: like sixteen to seventeen hour all day film festival.
Speaker 1: Like cartoons cartoons in the morning, and.
Speaker 2: Then a musical whatever I liked in the eighties, something
Speaker 2: in the nineties, a gangster flick, and usually ends with
Speaker 2: like a really horrible b film like that. How do
Speaker 2: you manage stress? Like how do you what's your self
Speaker 2: care routine?
Speaker 3: I like to be I'm a homebody because I spend
Speaker 3: so much time outside, you know, like I just did
Speaker 3: that film festival. I'll push myself to go do things
Speaker 3: because I think they're important. And like being at that festival,
Speaker 3: you know, as a representative. You know, they had me there,
Speaker 3: they gave me like I was part of a panel,
Speaker 3: but also the students that were there, Like I was
Speaker 3: texting Ryan and I was telling them. I was like
Speaker 3: I could count on two hands how many black women
Speaker 3: came up to me and said thank you for what
Speaker 3: you do and they wanted to meet me, like that
Speaker 3: was unheard of, like on two hands. So I had
Speaker 3: more than five and they were lovely students. And then
Speaker 3: when I have those experiences, it makes me go, you
Speaker 3: know what, this is why I'm going to go out
Speaker 3: and talk. This is why I'm going to do the interviews,
Speaker 3: because some girl is going to read it and it's
Speaker 3: going to be something that is important to her and
Speaker 3: so all that stress, you know, because you got to
Speaker 3: stack all the stuff, you know, it is for this
Speaker 3: time and period. It's worth it. And I do see
Speaker 3: Ryan doing that too. He's very inspirational in that regard,
Speaker 3: where like he he gives a lot of people his
Speaker 3: time and energy. And also his family is a great
Speaker 3: family person and I see that in him. So I
Speaker 3: want to extend that as well because I've been given
Speaker 3: this opportunity that many people do not get. So my
Speaker 3: self carries. I'll do all the stuff, but then when
Speaker 3: it's time to rest, I like to be in my
Speaker 3: home by myself if my son's at school or whatever
Speaker 3: it is. But I need a loane time. I need
Speaker 3: some space and time for myself, or I'll go Placennis
Speaker 3: Hennis is my Yeah. But if I'm on set and
Speaker 3: I'm stressed, someone might, you know, I might get upset,
Speaker 3: yell at somebody, go out a cigarette maybe something like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, this has been really educational, and I thank you
Speaker 2: for giving me the honor of this conversation.
Speaker 1: I am such a fan of your work.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, and I hope to one day
Speaker 2: to work with you.
Speaker 3: Very like Zacher, I like, you got a stack of
Speaker 3: shit that you need to do.
Speaker 1: I am.
Speaker 2: I'm definitely working until like twenty thirty two, so I
Speaker 2: really appreciate it, and thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.
Speaker 2: This is Autumn Arkapale Am I pronouncing that correctly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's actually well you could say Arkapau. I think
Speaker 3: they it's my husband's last name, but they changed it.
Speaker 3: It's Arkapove, but when they immigrated it they changed it
Speaker 3: to Arkapau, you know, but yes, Arka Paul beautiful.
Speaker 2: Well, thank you very much for talking to the Quest
Speaker 2: Loft Show, and ladies and gentlemen, I will see you
Speaker 2: on the next go round.
Speaker 3: All right, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2: Quest Left Show is hosted by me A Mere Quest
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