Carling 'Space'

Director: Fredrik Bond

Shooting a scene like 'Space' as a DOP is a challenge partly because of all the outstanding work that has been done in this genre. Some of my favourite influences include; Geoffrey Unsworth's pioneering cinematography on Kubrik's '2001 A Space Oddesy, Jordan Cronenworth's timeless work on Ridley Scott's 'Bladerunner'. A great deal of our attention focussed on creating a lighting approach to simulate the nebula that the astronaugts gaze into. The nebula was key both to a visual strategy and the narrative. An infinite, vast and seductive source, transfixing our characters through its constantly changing and evolving nature. Our strategy was to use around 40 moving programmable sources bouncing into very large soft silver reflectors. We were able to subtly change the light reflected on the actors by keeping the lights in a state of constant motion and colour transition. By using various gobo's we could also change the shapes that were being reflected thus at least moving towards the complexity of colour, subtlety and transition that would exist in a real nebula. To create the sense of being in space and the lack of gravity we used a very particular type of camera movement. Using the Technocrane we kept the camera subtly moving and played with the third axis constantly.