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Shutter Angles
Conversations with DPs, directors and below-the-line crew by Matt Mulcahey
“Fear Lives Behind Your Back”: DP Andrés Arochi on Longlegs
Andrés Arochi and Osgood Perkins on the set of Longlegs Andrés Arochi’s cinematic indoctrination began at a Blockbuster Video in Mexico City when he was 12-years old. Stuck at home for the summer after being grounded for his grades, Arochi spent those months binging the offerings in his local Blockbuster’s small section of American arthouse cinema. The next summer he worked for his uncle to save money for his first stills camera. By the time he was 17, Arochi was shooting music videos and beginning to direct experimental films. Now, he’s behind the lens on his first narrative feature Longlegs, the well-received box office hit about an FBI Agent (Maika Monroe) tracking a serial killer (Nicolas Cage) who disposes of entire families without ever stepping foot in their homes.
With the movie still in theaters and hitting VOD this weekend, Arochi spoke to Filmmaker about mixing digital, 35mm and VHS footage, leaving space in the frame for fear to live, and how Harris Savides inspired his gear package.
Filmmaker: Let’s start with how Longlegs ended up as your first feature. Your friend Galo Olivares [the DP of Alien: Romulus] shot Oz Perkins’ Gretel & Hansel, and when Perkins asked for recommendations for Longlegs your name came up.
Arochi: Yeah, he sent Oz my name. I was traveling in the Canary Islands with my girlfriend for vacation and staying in a van. Oz and I had a great conversation on the phone, and six months later I was in Vancouver shooting the movie. This project was what I’ve always been waiting for. Coming out of Mexico, it’s difficult to find projects like this. There’s great talent there, but there’s no industry in Mexico. I already knew Oz’s work and I’d heard a lot of great things about him as a person. I read the script, and it really called to me. When I was first attached, there was no Maika Monroe, definitely no Nicolas Cage. It was a much smaller movie and then things started to happen, and it just snowballed. There was definitely some magic in this project.
Filmmaker: I love the way this movie opens and the way you reveal Cage’s character. You shot all the flashbacks in 35mm?
Arochi: Yeah. Originally, we wanted to shoot all the movie on film, but then we decided that we didn’t want to really focus on all those technical aspects during the shoot. We really wanted to work with the actors and focus more on the narrative side of filmmaking. But we did want to separate the 1970s [sections of the movie] from the 1990s. So, I decided to shoot 35mm for everything in the 1970s and go with a 4:3 aspect ratio, then we did 2.39 and shot on digital with the Alexa Mini LF for the 1990s.
Filmmaker: At what point in production did you do the flashbacks? Did you shoot them all at the start or the end, or were they mixed in throughout the schedule?
Arochi: We shot them simultaneously and there were days where we would change between the two [time periods]. There were also days that were all 1970s just because the wardrobe and especially the hair of the characters is different, which was fun because the pace would slow down. We would go into film mode. The vibe would be very different. During our camera prep, we did shoot all the forensic photographs [you see in the movie]. We had no idea where to get images of murders, so we got a bunch of film cameras with different flashes and shot those photos ourselves. It was also our testing for our blood and make-up effects. So, while we were trying to figure out how red we wanted the blood, I was taking pictures for Agent Harker’s board.
Filmmaker: The reason I asked about the schedule was I assumed that with a smaller budget you couldn’t afford to carry all the 35mm film gear for the length of the shoot.
Arochi: We did have a limited number of days with that gear. It was a small budget film, but we always had what we needed. It was all very scheduled. It was like, “This day we have this camera. This day we have this zoom lens.” We definitely had to be very organized with the production team. It wasn’t like we had a Technocrane waiting there whenever we wanted to use it.
Filmmaker: The flashback scenes are pretty clean. You didn’t grain them up like a lot of 1970s era flashbacks tend to.
Arochi: I guess that decision was more intuitive. The way I create and Oz as well, I think, is more by heart than by brain. It’s more about working with emotions and being present and creating a space for the actors to work in than being very conceptual.
Filmmaker: Did you use the same lenses for the 35mm and the digital?
Arochi: No, our film package was an homage to Harris Savides, who’s one of my favorite DPs—Oz’s too. We used Cooke S4s with an Arri 35mm camera for the flashbacks. Our main package for the 1990s was a Mini LF with Arri Signature Primes. My biggest fear was someone waiting on me, like having to tell Nicolas Cage, “Wait a second. There’s something wrong with the lens.” I just wanted to be perfect. I wanted to be a samurai, where the actors didn’t even notice us working. So, we went for things that we knew were going to work the first time. Sometimes when you work with vintage lenses, they won’t work how you want them to, especially when you’re going from a very cold exterior and then coming into a warm interior and everything starts falling apart. I couldn’t afford that. I didn’t want anyone to wait for us during the shoot.
Filmmaker: Let’s circle back to that prologue and how you introduce Cage. For most of the scene, he’s framed so that he’s cut off at the neck, and then when he finally leans down so we can see his face, it’s only for a few frames. Then you hard cut to black.
Arochi: I think that shot had to do with Oz’s son, who was like two or three [when we shot the film]. When you are that age, you always live in between legs. You’re always hugging your mom’s leg and only seeing people from the waist down. From that perspective, you don’t see anyone’s face. So, we were trying to figure out how to create a perspective from a kid.
Filmmaker: Now let’s talk about Lee’s introduction. Oz has said he wanted to use the serial killer procedural, with Silence of the Lambs being the template, as sort of a Trojan Horse to make the audience feel like they are about to experience something familiar before pulling the rug out from under them. How did that influence the photography?
Arochi: There are definitely some references in this movie, but I think those references are more built into the script. While we were working, we never talked about Silence of the Lambs. We never looked at frames [from other movies]. When we did talk about movies, it was more movies that had nothing to do with the genre. We talked a lot about My Own Private Idaho, Drugstore Cowboy—a lot of Gus Van Sant 1990s indie America filmmaking. Elephant was an influence on the way we used Steadicam.
Filmmaker: Didn’t Harris Savides shoot Elephant?
Arochi: Yeah, it’s one of his best movies. For me, Longlegs was more about seeing what Maika was going to do and seeing what the art team gave us, then start creating from there. Again, it was more coming from an emotional place than a conceptual one. I began to notice that Maika as Agent Lee Harker barely moves. She’s always practically frozen and she stays a little further away from people than normal. So, I started playing around with that and giving her a wider lens. Even if she’s in a room surrounded by people, let’s abstract her. Let’s make her become different from everyone else.
Filmmaker: One of the things that struck me about the film is the really wide field of view. What were the wider focal lengths that you were pairing with that Alexa LF?
Arochi: I really wanted to have a full kit of lenses to play with and that’s something the Signature Primes gave me. I think the widest was a 12, which we only used for inside the cars.
Filmmaker: What about the shot looking down the stairs in that opening raid with Maika? There’s an expressionistic quality to that image. That’s not a 12?
Arochi: I think that was more like a 16. Things on the LF look very, very wide and that started to create a language. It was weird for the actors as well. Nic Cage would always ask me, “What lens are you on?” And I’m like, “A 16.” He would look at me like, “You’re very wide. I thought this was my close-up.” And it’s like, “Yeah, this is your close up.” [laughs] I always wanted to leave blank space in the frame because, for me, fear lives behind your back. It’s not in front of you. If you’re working on your computer at 1 a.m. and you feel something, it’s always behind you. So, it was this idea of always having space for fear to live.
Filmmaker: The approach that many horror movies take is to shoot tight and then the scare comes from something invading that space. To me, that’s not really scary. That’s just surprise. There’s a shot in Longlegs where Maika is working at her remote cabin home—as you said, with her back to the room—and there’s this incredibly wide field of view. It’s wider than what the peripheral vision of a human eye would see. There are all these dark corners in that room, and you just feel a presence there, even though nothing ever leaps out at us. That feeling of unease or dread is what I like in a horror movie more so than just the shock of a jump scare.
Arochi: That’s exactly it and that cabin was where I found that idea during the first week of shooting. That’s where we realized that she’s so exposed.
Filmmaker: You said before that Gus Van Sant movies were as much of an inspiration for you as a Silence of the Lambs or a Seven. But the palette of this movie is not a Van Sant palette. It’s a Fincher palette.
Arochi: I’ve been getting that question a lot about this amber sort of color for the lights. For me, it was creating this idea of warmness. Technically, we got that look by using tungsten lights and putting them on a dimmer and when you dim them down, they become very, very warm. We also used a lot of LED lights that we would only bring to 2,800 Kelvin and my camera would always be at 5,600 Kelvin. Sometimes when there was even more danger, we would take the color to red. Oz told me that this movie is about how mothers lie to protect their children. So, the idea to me was that the danger lies inside of the warmth of your mother’s love. Our colorist Mitch Paulson also had a great influence. That amber tone is something that’s part of his signature as well. You can see it in Blade Runner 2049 and a little bit in Prisoners. We created this LUT together, which was amazing because everyone was watching the movie [on set] very similar to how you see it today.
Filmmaker: Both of those films you mentioned were shot by Roger Deakins. I read that you’re a big fan of his as well.
Arochi: Yeah, I’m a huge Deakins fan. I’m a big fan of the Mexican DPs as well—Chivo, Rodrigo Prieto, Alexis Zabé and Galo Olivares—but Harris Savides and Roger Deakins have been my idols.
Filmmaker: There’s a scene in Longlegs where Monroe and other FBI agents watch Cage’s intake video on a TV. You shot that intake footage on a VHS camera?
Arochi: Yeah. I talked to our production designer Danny Vermette and asked if we could maybe use the prop camera [to record as well], but they couldn’t find one [that was era correct]. One of the producers, Chris Ferguson, had a very talented personal assistant who was very helpful throughout the whole film. I asked her to please help me find a real Panasonic VHS camera from the 1990s. I also asked the unit producers to find one. They asked all the rentals houses, but they couldn’t track one down. Then Chris’s assistant came in with a box and was like, “Here’s your camera. I just bought it from Amazon.” [laughs] This was during prep, and we actually shot some tests with Oz that became his little cameo in the movie. When Lee is talking to her mom, Oz is on the background TV as some sort of preacher talking about aliens. [laughs] As far as the technical part of it, the only thing we did was use an RCA cable to capture to a better [recorder]. We also had an LF camera shooting for protection. During that scene Nicolas Cage sings “Happy Birthday” and then also “Crimson and Clover.” He kept doing it for 26 minutes, completely in character. I could see my focus puller sweating because I was shooting very wide open and Nic was [swaying and moving around in circles] the whole scene. It was all improvised. So, he was just trying to keep focus, and we’re sort of laughing, but also very creeped out at the same time because there’s just something about Nicolas Cage where it stops being Nicolas Cage [when he’s in character]. You’re truly in there with a nut job. He becomes Longlegs and it is scary being in there in that same room.
Filmmaker: Who finally yelled cut?
Arochi: It was like, “Oz, are you going to cut?” And he’s like, “No way. Even if I don’t use this, it’s helping him dig into the character.” When we shot the scene of [the agents watching that intake video], I wanted to do it practical. Every time I see a screen in a movie (and I know they shot with greenscreen and comped it in later), I always think it looks like shit. I can see it’s fake. I know everyone says, “That’s just because you’re a DP,” but I don’t care. We had time and there was no reason not to do it practically. Sometimes people think it’s easier to just do it in post, but when we kick something to post, then I’m not a part of it and I can’t control the aesthetic of it. When we do it practically, I’m there and I can control the contrast, the brightness and the color tones and everything else.
None of the extras had seen Longlegs either. If I just put a bluescreen on that TV, they would never react [the way you’d want them to]. When you do it practically, they’re seeing Longlegs and they’re hearing him, and you see all the extras reacting to it. So, we put it on the TV, and we start to do the blocking, and Oz decides to put Maika against the wall. We press play on the video, and Longlegs says, “Happy birthday, Agent Lee” and [his eyeline in the video] is looking directly at where Maika is standing. It just happened, but when you watch the movie, it looks like Longlegs is looking through the TV at Agent Lee. It was pretty cool. Things like that kept happening on this movie. I don’t know if Oz has told this story about the snow, but in the script we only needed snow for one day. It’s that first scene where Longlegs comes and sees [the young girl in the prologue]. We really wanted snow, and it snowed that night. It’s all white on white and beautiful, but then it’s like, “What are we going to do now? We have to shoot the 1990s tomorrow. It can’t have snow.” That night it rained, and the snow disappeared.
Filmmaker: Oz also didn’t let Maika see Cage as Longlegs before she walks in to interrogate him. How did that work logistically? You basically set everything in the room and then Maika walked in with the cameras rolling? How did you have it covered?
Arochi: We had two cameras, and both were sitting on the table. One was watching Longlegs, and the other one was watching Maika and we just let them roll.
Filmmaker: How did you light that scene not knowing exactly where the action might unfold?
Arochi: When I work with actors, I like to create the light and then show them [how the light will work]. I’ll say, “If you move into this light, you’re going to look very pretty, but if you look towards this light you’re going to look afraid.” It’s a tool for them to use. These are great actors. They understand. They aren’t going to fall out of frame.
Filmmaker: After the movie was released, there was a lot of chatter on social media about all the hidden devils in the film. I noticed a couple of them, but certainly nowhere near the number that apparently are in there. Were most of those visual effects? Was it ever an actor in costume?
Arochi: Everything was added later. That was an idea that I had never heard about until I saw it when we were coloring. I think it made perfect sense, because like I was telling you, I always wanted to leave these blank spaces in the frame for fear. Oz grabbed that idea and put things in there.
