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“We Wanted a Visual Language That Was Both Filmic and Intimate”: DP Guy Mossman on Speak.

Two high school students take a selfie with two pigs.Still from Speak. Courtesy of Sundance Institute.

<i>Speak</i> follows five high school Speech & Debate students who dream of winning at the event’s annual national tournament, one of the world’s biggset public speaking competitions. Jennifer Tiexiera (Unveiled, Subject) teamed up with Guy Mossman (The Human Trial) to direct the Sundance U.S. Documentary Competition premiere.

Below, Mossman, who also served as the film’s director of photography, gets technical as he discusses the different equipment he used in <i>Speak.</i> He also recounts the difficulties of shooting the 2023 Nationals tournament in the blistering Phoenix heat and how it prepared him for the following year’s tournament.

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?

Mossman: This was a very unique situation. Usually I get the calls, but on this project, I was making a lot of the calls. During the doldrums of COVID in 2020, I wasn’t working much, so I decided to develop this film as an EP with the idea that I would shoot it as well. It was developed as a series at first, and then we pivoted to a feature documentary in late 2021 after a major distributor passed. I think most would have moved on from the project, or shelved it, but the more I learned about this world of Speech and Debate, the more obsessed I became with getting the project made. I was dead set on shooting it myself. All this time, my natural instinct as a cinematographer was to think about the look of the project and how to achieve it. With a lot of luck and a bit of sweat, I found an amazing directing partner in 2023, Jen Tiexiera, whose vision for the project perfectly aligned with my own, and it all worked out.

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?

Mossman: Jen and I wanted to make a film that transcended the “competition doc” genre in a way that felt immersive and intimate in the lives of our teenage subjects outside of competition. We dreamt of making a film that cinematically evoked a sense of adolescent wonder, whim and complexity. To achieve this, we decided to shoot mostly with wide angle anamorphic primes as close as possible to our subjects, except during competition. This would help audiences feel closer and more connected to our subjects and allow us to explore how their speeches reflected their lived experiences and “heart stories.” We wanted a visual language that was both filmic and intimate.

During the pandemic, I had years to think about the visuals of the film, and it made sense to me to make our kids and their coaches feel larger than life on screen. We view our young protagonists as young superheroes in the making. To this end, we wanted to stylize a lot of the vérité and coverage. After some trial and error in early production, Jen and I decided to lock off the camera as much as possible and let scenes play out, so we mostly stabilized the cameras with tripod, dana dollies, and EZ Rigs for more dynamic scenes. We also recorded a lot of high-frame-rate material with our subjects. It was so captivating to us to see them warming up for competition at 120fps. It truly is a sport. A mental sport, but a sport no doubt.

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

Mossman: I am a big Bradford Young fan, and early on I looked to the series When They See Us for a lot of inspiration. I also fell in love with Jessica Lee Gagné’s work on All Day and a Night. I love the way the camera is so close, the use of natural light and color contrast. I always go back to Streetwise by Martin Bell and Mary Ellen Mark for inspiration. In the opening scene where Eddie jumps off the bridge in slow motion with his voiceover, Mary Ellen’s photography is amazing.

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

Mossman: Our biggest challenge to meeting these goals was having to fundraise while we were shooting the film. Finding money to make the film proved to be a much more protracted process than we had anticipated. Luckily, we had Atlas Lens Co. as partners, and they provided their Mercury lenses to us whenever we needed them.

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

Mossman: We decided to shoot with the Sony family of large format cine cameras because of their high frame rate and dual ISO features. The FX6 was our workhorse due to size and cost, but we also deployed the Venice 2 for interviews. As soon as the Burano was released in early Spring of 2024, that became our go-to. We tested the image stabilization of the Burano and found it very effective with our primes. At the Finals competition in the third act of the film we also shot with a DJI Ronin 4D paired with Cooke SP3s.

Normally anamorphic lenses would be cost prohibitive and impractical on a vérité documentary, but Atlas Lens Co. loaned us a set of Mercury lenses for all 77 days of principal photography. The lenses are lightweight and compact with good minimum focus and fast at 2.2, though we shot mostly at f2.8/4 split, rating the cameras mostly at 800 and 3200 ISOs in low light.

We chose to shoot with spherical zooms in the competition settings because we couldn’t move around or distract in any way during the performances. We used Canon CineServo 25-250s and Sony 70-200 GM II lenses.

Filmmaker: Describe your approach to lighting.

Mossman: Because our crew footprint had to remain small and move quickly in the field, the dual ISO features of the Sony cameras allowed us to shoot in a variety of low light situations. We relied on natural light and practicals as much as possible to maintain a sense of naturalism, and we accented or augmented with a small LED light package—mainly 1×1 Litepanels, Aputure MC4s and Aputure Infinibars.

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

Mossman: I would say the most challenging shoot was the first week of shooting. We were in Phoenix to cover the 2023 Nationals, which attracts over 10,000 students, coaches and judges, and it was nothing less than 110 degrees outside. We had never filmed with our participants, and we hadn’t scouted or been able to help light the big stage. I think we all felt like we had to be in five places at once wearing five hats at once. We survived the week without any heat strokes, and we shot the opening of the film, but most significantly, we were able to scout for the following year. When we went back to the Nationals in 2024 in Des Moines, we were ready. We had spent months working with the lighting team to push the stage and audience lighting in a more dramatic direction.

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

Mossman: During the first few shoots, we had experimented with a few LUTs that Josh Pines and Jason Fabbrio had developed together. When we got back and surveyed the dailies, we agreed on one and used that for the rest of the year. We captured in S-Gamut.cine/Slog3 and monitored with the LUT loaded, and when we got to coloring the film, our colorist Beau Leon took that LUT and went in new directions with it. Nothing was baked in per so, but we had an idea how we wanted it to look. We added some contrast and a small amount of grain to the image in post.

TECH BOX

Film Title: Speak.

Camera: Sony Burano, Venice 2, FX6, Ronin 4D

Lenses: Atlas Mercury 1.5x Anamorphics, Cooke SP3s, Canon CineServo 25-250

Lighting: Aputure Infinibars 4’ and 2’, Aputure MC4s, Arri SkyPanel S360-C, 2 x Litepanel Astras 6X

Color Grading: Beau Leon at Jamm Visual, Culver City. Colored using Baselight.

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