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“This Was Our One Shot To Capture Something Lasting”: DP Ethan Indorf on André is an Idiot

Close-up of a brown-skinned men with long gray hair.Still from André is an Idiot. Courtesy Sundance Institute.

When André Ricciardi received the cancer diagnosis that would eventually kill him, he decided he wanted to make a movie documenting how he faced death with humor. The result, André is an Idiot, will screen as part of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

The film is the directorial debut of Tony Benna and was shot by Ethan Indorf, both friends with Ricciardi. Below, Indorf discusses what it was like to be tasked with documenting the death of his friend.

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?

Indorf: I’ve worked with André in the past, and while we always made great work together, it seemed we often ended up in situations that felt insane—at times slightly dangerous or dramatic—but always memorable. So, when the director called to see if I wanted to shoot this film, of course, I said, “Hell yes, whatever it is, I’m in.” Tony quickly told me to hold off and think about my answer because it was a pretty deep project. André is dying of cancer, and he wants to make a comedy about it.

I was devastated to hear the news, and I said I had to take a moment and consider if this was a subject I could emotionally handle and see to the end. André’s idea grew on me, and not only did I feel honored to work on potentially his last project, but I was also extremely curious about how he planned to make a comedy out of such a sensitive subject.

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?

Indorf: One of the themes of the film was using laughter and jokes to avoid the reality of what’s actually happening to you. With this in mind, I wanted things to feel dreamlike at times, as if you were peering through a fog, thinking, “Can this really be happening to me?” The use of imperfect glass really helped convey this feeling in my opinion, sometimes even dirtying the edges with crystals so you had to peer through to see what was actually going on.

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

Indorf: It’s a bit more personal experience for this one, but in the past, I used to make video journals about my life. When I look back at these journals, they make me happy, sad and overwhelmingly nostalgic. I can’t help but tear up when I watch them, as they bring up a wide range of emotions. I wanted the footage in this film to capture a similar feeling; there’s even a scene where André is watching some of the footage from these journals flash before his eyes. Tony and I also used to joke about “life movies”—when you hold the forward button on your iPhone and watch images flash by at breakneck speeds. Thinking about these two things while shooting André is an Idiot really provided a lot of inspiration when capturing André’s interactions with the people in his life and his daily habits of dealing with chemo. The film even includes a “life movie” montage, straight from André’s phone.

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

Indorf: The hardest part was working with someone who is actually sick and going through it, just trying to stay sensitive to that fact while you still have a job to do. It’s real, no matter how much you laugh about it with that person. André was incredibly strong throughout the production. There were days when we could have a full crew in his house, and everyone was buzzing. As things got harder, it became clear that it was also a burden and tiring for him and his family. We got better at communicating when things were tough, and as times got harder, the crew became smaller—sometimes it was just me, a sound operator, and the director dialing in remotely on an iPad. Sometimes I was the only person there. In a way, I’m grateful for these times because they brought us closer. Occasionally, we would barely shoot anything and just hang out, eat lunch and watch André get super stoned. There were so many days when it felt like “we already shot this so what’s the point of hitting the red button right now.” Sometimes just spending quality time with André, not shooting, was just as important (if not more so) than when the camera was rolling.

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

Indorf: André said, “If you want to hook anyone, you have to make it funny or beautiful.” He was determined to use humor to make conversations about cancer more accessible, and he was considering shooting the entire project with iPhones and GoPros to make it easy to capture. The director and I felt we could achieve the best of both worlds by upgrading the A-camera to an Alexa Mini. We knew this was our one shot to capture something lasting for André and wanted to match the effort he was putting into sharing his journey with the world.

We chose anamorphic lenses for their imperfect and dreamlike quality. This mirrored the hazy, surreal feeling that often accompanies a cancer diagnosis. The 2x anamorphic lenses, with their unique imperfections, complemented this mood, especially when paired with diopters for close-ups. André says “dying is extremely boring;” I feel like the look of these lenses have the ability to show the beauty in the boring, repetitive and mundane day to day life of battling cancer. At times, we had to rig a car with a discreet, quick camera setup so André and Janice could have private, uninterrupted conversations on the way to and from doctor’s appointments. GoPros hidden in the car allowed them to speak freely without being conscious of the cameras. To enable André to speak whenever inspiration struck, we set up a simple, accessible video journal in his spare bedroom. Using an affordable SLR and lighting setup, André could easily flip a switch to power on the camera and lights whenever he wanted to record his thoughts. In a few instances when the film crew wasn’t available, André used his iPhone to capture Zoom calls with his doctors when he had a feeling it would be important to telling his story. His dedication to documenting his journey through treatment was truly inspiring.

Filmmaker: Describe your approach to lighting.

Indorf: At the start of the film, the vibe was “let’s make jokes about this and prove to ourselves we can still laugh in the face of terrible things”… So, the interviews were lit brighter, more produced and often had an airy feeling to the scene. This also took more crew, more fixtures and grip gear. When André’s condition progressed, the equipment and crew started to become more of a burden, and the tone of walking into the shoot felt a lot more real. To reflect this shift, things became darker and scrappier. The lighting mood shifted to more of a focus on taking light away and letting things feel darker and colder.

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

Indorf: The biggest challenge by far was the emotional rollercoaster and the mental well-being of the entire crew. It’s not easy showing up and wondering what version of someone you’re going to get on any given day. How is the family doing? How is the crew handling the slow build-up of loss and grief? How am I doing—am I pushing things down and pretending they don’t hurt? To support this, the production offered mental health services to the core crew. I have my own support system in place, but it was reassuring to know the offer was on the table. One thing I wish I had been more conscious of toward the end of production, which I started doing in the later half of things, was putting flags up for all the camera operators. This wasn’t just to help the talent forget there were eyes in the room, but also to hide when I would tear up during the interviews. The hardest day for me was, without a doubt, the last day I shot with André. He asked me to shoot his death portrait; he wanted to share with the world the transformation his body had gone through from a somewhat avoidable cancer, if caught early. After we were done shooting, I sat in my car outside his house and had a full meltdown, crying and losing it. Two days later, he passed. It felt more real than ever that day and I could just tell the end was near.

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

Indorf: I think 80 percent of the film maintains its vibe out of camera, but I would be lying if I said the color grade didn’t make it sing. Marcy Robinson, our color artist, was crucial to the film’s look. We shot on so many different cameras to get this done and she pulled out the best tones and emotion from all of them. In some cases, I would shoot something with the intent of it being a cold scene… In the edit, these scenes took on a different meaning and Marcy was able to artfully adjust the mood. I learned how to make images when I was a teenager in a dark room, one of my favorite things was to dodge and burn. Working with Marcy on this really felt like that old school dark room vibe where you can single out details in the frame to make them louder or mute things that aren’t important.

TECH BOX

Film Title: André is an Idiot

Cameras: Alexa Mini, Arri sxt, Arri Amira, Black Magic 12K, Black Magic Ursa Mini, Black Magic Pocket 6K, Sony a7rii with Atomos ProRes recorder, Sony Venice, Sony a1 with Atomos Raw recorder (stills mode for stop motion), DJI Mavic Pro, GoPro Hero 10, iPhone with moment 1.33 anamorphic adapter (André filming himself & Jannice on their doctor calls)

Lenses: Kowa 2x anamorphic primes, TLS rehoused lomo 2x anamorphic primes, Xelmus apollo 2x anamorphic primes, Minolta MD primes, Minolta MD primes w/ ISCO 2x anamorphic single focus adapter, Plus 1, 2, 4 & 10 diopters, DZO zoom lenses (quiz scene), Lowa 24mm probe lens, Cooke sp3 primes (stop motion)

Lighting: Bolt lighting rentals, Bulldog lighting rentals, DTC lighting rentals, little giant lighting rentals

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