Tell us about how you got into filmmaking
I always had an affinity for films because my aunt, who was my babysitter, had my younger sister and I watching crazy B-movies. Then, when I became a teenager, my sister Kyla was a casting director for music videos in the ‘90s, namely with Hype Williams. She and her friend Rich Ford got me on as a PA for some classic music videos during my summer breaks.
How did you get involved with Starfleet Academy?
Alex Kurtzman had interviewed me for Star Trek’s Strange New Worlds, only to decide he wanted me to work on another show he was developing called The Man Who Fell to Earth—the continuation of the Nicolas Roeg film. So after our experience doing the pilot and through the fourth episode of the series, we became great collaborators.
How early did you get involved with the project?
I received the scripts about three months before starting prep but that was still about six months before ever starting principal photography. I was actually reading scripts while I was finishing Opus for A24. After reading the first two scripts, Kurtzman and I started talking visual language and concepts.
Where did your vision for the show’s look come from?
My vision for the visual language of the show came from analysing what Star Trek had done in the past and present, and also what sci-fi that Kurtzman and I liked and enjoyed. Also the show is about learning, incubation, young adult experiences of making mistakes in and out of the classroom. What is the world view of young adult experiences in college, what is your field of view, which made me think of wider closer.
How much were you influenced by previous Star Trek films/series?
The previous series helped influence me in discussions about what I did and didn’t like in the lensing and how our story is different. In the other series everyone is an adult who has been trained to some extent. Which I felt could be seen in how things were lensed in very sharp anamorphic language. Also it felt as though everything was photographed very far away, nothing felt like close intimate lensing.
At the same time, Kurtzman and I both respond to anamorphic lensing. So what did intimacy look like, we felt that meant warmer than most sci-fi shows, it meant close focus lensing, and after watching episodes of Star Trek Voyager, I saw certain close-ups on Kate Mulgrew in 4:3 and thought, what if we saw the close-ups and not black bars on both sides of the frame that close?
How did you balance the tone between a brand new story and what’s gone before?
The objective was to change the language to very clean, linear Trek, to morph into more of a messy Trek ideology. Simply because these are kids who are discovering and learning. More handheld coverage when possible, closer, wider in lensing and not long lens compressed close ups. I wanted to keep the roundness in the young faces of our cadets and be a bit more intimate between the relationships on screen.
How much collaboration was there between you and the series’ other cinematographers, Philip Lanyon and Maya Bankovic?
When it came to the language of the show, I gave them a PDF that had the overall feel of the show. They both brought things to certain scenes having done Trek before, the thing I emphasised was that it needed to be “messy Trek” that is more intimate than previous series being wider and closer, and warmer in palettes. Mix and match LUTs with different colour temps. I also had them look at early tests of the designs of the lenses that were coming from Panavision’s Ultra Panatar 2 anamorphic lenses. When the two of them would want to make a big shift in lenses or palette, it would be a discussion with me and the directing producer, Olatunde Osunsanmi, and showrunner Alex Kurtzman.
How did you find working with the different directors?
I’ve enjoyed working with different directors over the years, even though some relationships are closer than others and the language can be second hand. On this series, not until season two did I work with two new wonderful directors for episodes two and seven.
Please provide details about the cameras and lenses used on the project and why they were selected.
I used the Sony Venice 2 8.6K 16×9 1.3X Anamorphic with the Ultra Panatar 2s. The lenses were modified by Dan Sasaski, and my LUTs were created by Stefan Sonnenfeld from Company 3, which I designed with him and his colour science team to understand the colour construction and exposure for the show.
Did you do any testing ahead of production? If so, why and what did it entail? If not, why not?
Before production, I did a few different tests. First, I did a lens test with the Sony Venice 2 body and about 13 different sets of 2x, 1.5x, 1.3x Anamorphics. During that time I was dealing with both Keslow and Panavision trying to find the most versatile Anamorphics while we were deciding to go 1.78 or 2.40. Upon making the decision that we could lean in to 1.78, it took us to a few experimental options that Panavision had in the 1.3X Anamorphic space.
Once we decided on the Ultra Panatar 2s, we started testing for three months different configurations of flares and colour temperature of the glass. Alex Kurtzman would view my test and we would make decisions then let Dan and his team know. Then came the idea of extreme close focus photography while in this Anamorphic space. Dan had a few ideas and thoughts about how to achieve it on certain focal lengths and we tested them and it was amazing.
After the lens test it was time to make the LUTs. I recipe my LUTs with the ideas of the palettes from the production designer’s art concepts and also my ideas of tone. I present this to Alex and we sit with Stefan for a session after we do our initial testing with the chosen lenses at Panavision, so we make sure the colour temperature of the lenses are involved in the LUT design.
What can you tell us about the show’s lighting?
The base look of the show is a warmer Trek that is thought about as an incubation of learning. A warm learning environment for the cadets in San Francisco. Then upon going on adventures and tests, we shift the palette to a more clinical cool tone, and if we are on an alien planet it’s a bit more in the cyan green world vs the cool tone of the ship adventure.
What are the biggest challenges when working on a sci-fi project?
The biggest challenge of working in the sci-fi space is to try and not do what everyone else is doing in terms of lensing and tone. I love sci-fi and watch a lot of it, and am very influenced by it. But Kurtzman and the scripts being founded in an Academy base, I feel helps my starting point to create looks that are not as baseline as I feel sci-fi can end up being.
Was there anything you wish you could have done, but were prevented from doing?
The one thing I tell Alex all the time on this show is, let’s get back outside. Having the VFX combined with day and night exteriors made certain episodes in season one so big in scope and fun. Especially with the visual tone of the lenses and LUTs that have been created specifically for us.
Were there any shots that you were particularly pleased with?
I must say I’m really happy with the opening of the pilot with young Caleb and that first third, and even when we get him into the first action scene in the pilot.
The debates in the Atrium during episode two were great moments when a lot of things came together, and also when Caleb tries to escape and meets Tarima for the first time on that day exterior. All were great stuff when I viewed them again on the big and small screen, very happy with it.
Star Trek: Starfleet Academy is available to stream on Paramount+
This article originally appeared in the April issue of TVBEurope, available for download here.
