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“A Mix of Natural Indie Style, Theatrical Spotlights and Neon Colors”: DP Dustin Supencheck on Touch Me

A close-up of a woman's head tilted back with her mouth open; the image is drenched in purple light.Olivia Taylor Dudley in Touch Me. Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Following his 2022 film Hypochondriac, writer-director Addison Heimann’s Touch Me centers on two best friends (Olivia Taylor Dudley and Jordan Gavaris) who fall under the erotic spell of the same guy (Lou Taylor-Pucci). At least he looks like a guy; the truth is, he’s an intergalactic being ensconced in a human flesh suit. As the best friends vie for his affection, they gradually realize that they’re fighting for their right to live as much as love.

Cinematographer Dustin Supencheck discusses his working relationship with Heimann, the importance of capturing vibrant colors and the influence of 20th century Japanese cinema on the film.

See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here.

Filmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job?

Supencheck: It’s been a long growing relationship with director Addison Heimann. He’s the reason for my involvement. As soon as he finishes a script he calls me and says, “Hey, you’re going to shoot this.” Like many things in our industry it’s a matter of relationships and Addison and I met through mutual Chicago friends. I knew right away that I enjoyed working with Addison the first time we worked together on a short film he had written six or seven years ago. Now we’ve done two features together and I look forward to many more. 

Filmmaker: What were your artistic goals on this film, and how did you realize them? How did you want your cinematography to enhance the film’s storytelling and treatment of its characters? 

Supencheck: Well, the main goal on any film is to tell the story as truthfully as possible and help the director refine their vision. I never want the cinematography to pull the audience out of the story, but then you have a film like this! Where the director is pushing your boundaries. Addison wanted to tell the story of our character’s tortured souls with vibrance and color. We take big swings with the audience’s emotions. You feel like you stepped off of a rollercoaster by the end of the film. 

Filmmaker: Were there any specific influences on your cinematography, whether they be other films, or visual art, or photography, or something else? 

Supencheck: We homaged so many great filmmakers of the past. We shot in 1.66 aspect ratio and used deep saturated lighting to call back to early indie European filmmaking and the giallo works of Dario Argento. We shot in 2.40 aspect ratio with subtle film grain to mimic Japanese cinema of the ‘50s and ‘60s. We even shot 1.33 aspect ratio and in black & white to mimic thrillers and monster flicks of the ‘30s and ‘40s. Addison had me on a steady diet of films for many months on the lead up to production. 

Filmmaker: What were the biggest challenges posed by production to those goals? 

Supencheck: For me the biggest challenge was figuring out how to take all these eccentric ideas and make a cohesive feeling. We were challenging ourselves to try all these different styles and experiment with over the top visuals, but that never stopped me from doing my best to give the camera and lighting motivation for every decision we made. 

Filmmaker: What camera did you shoot on? Why did you choose the camera that you did? What lenses did you use? 

Supencheck: We shot on the Alexa35 with an amalgamation of Zeiss Super Speed, Standard Speed, Angenieux 24-290 and an occasional probe lens. After doing some testing it was obvious we could get the “filmic” look we desired out of this incredibly powerful sensor. I worked very closely with our colorist Drew Tekulve from the start to develop a custom LUT that took us all the way through post. In our experimenting we discovered we like the image the most rating the sensor at 2560 ISO and utilizing the camera’s “Soft Nostalgia” texture. This in combination with the legendary Super Speeds gave us the look of the early eras of cinema that we desired. I was also constantly throwing random pieces of glass, filters, diopters, cheap prisms, you name it in front of the lens. 

Filmmaker: Describe your approach to lighting. 

Supencheck: I generally default to a very grounded approach when it comes to lighting, but when Addison said he wanted all the colors of the rainbow I took that quite literally. I think that’s what made us a great team because we wanted a mix of natural indie style, theatrical spotlights and neon colors. I even custom built broken mirrors covered in epoxy resin to have the grips rig up so we could bounce light into it. I was also fortunate to book two close friends, Eddy Scully as gaffer and Kelsey Talton as key grip, who are both artists when it comes to light and talented cinematographers themselves. They were right by my side at the monitor crafting every frame of this film.

Filmmaker: What was the most difficult scene to realize and why? And how did you do it? 

Supencheck: We had some studio “theatrical” looking scenes that I would say were pushing our budget to the brink, but our producers John Humber and David Lawson cared passionately about the film and we were always able to find a compromise that was better. One set would be getting built and pre lit while we filmed on another set on the same stage. An accomplishment in design and scheduling that only our production designer Stephanie Reese and 1st AD Avery Daman could have figured out. 

Filmmaker: Finally, describe the finishing of the film. How much of your look was “baked in” versus realized in the DI? 

Supencheck: Drew, our colorist, and I worked very closely all the way from pre production through post. I’m definitely the type of DP who wants to get things as close as possible in camera, but you have to be able to recognize the power that post-production can bring. A huge part of the look of this film is the LUT that Drew and I came up with, but Drew told me from the beginning if the LUT starts to fall apart in some unforeseen lighting scenario to feel free and throw it out and we’ll create something better. I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’m happy with what we captured on set, what we did in color correction and VFX. It’s a culmination of all of these elements that make for a beautiful image. 

TECH BOX

Film Title: Touch Me

Camera: Alexa35

Lenses: Zeiss Super Speeds, Zeiss Standard Speeds, Angeniuex 24-290, Laowa Probe Lens, Panavision 100mm macro

Lighting: Aputure 8×8 Litetile, 4K hmi, Aputure 1200d, 600d, 300x, tungsten package, lekos, litemats and a broken mirror that my grips hated me for making them carry around. 

Processing: ISO 2560, Soft Nostalgia Texture

Color Grading: DaVinci Resolve

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