Logan Sandler’s moody black-and-white thriller
Live Cargo
was intended to capture the surreal atmosphere of the Bahamas. Cinematographer Daniella Nowitz write on
MovieMaker
about how the crew shot the indie film during hurricane season on a remote 700-foot island.
“My key grip, Tyler Winegar, devised a brilliant system of transporting gear in a chain of laundry baskets tied to the back of a golf cart,” she writes. “I minimized the size of my set-ups by shooting available light whenever possible, sometimes accenting with an Arri M18 as a way of separating the cast’s darker skin tones from the background. At night I lit using street lights, flashlights, fire and storms, augmenting with LEDs. Location interiors needed to remain authentic so we went with their pre-existing lighting, adding only a key onto the characters.
“This shooting style created a stark and gritty aesthetic which aligned so perfectly with Logan’s vision for the film,” she continues. “Our black-and-white photography was the film’s way of taming the cheerful colors of the Bahamas and allowing the audience to focus fully on our characters. It allowed us to show the Caribbean in a fresh way, in which the muted colors heightened the film’s surreal effect. The footage was recorded in color which enabled us to isolate individual channels and change their brightness and sharpness during color correction.”
Read the full story here.
Live Cargo – Official Trailer from FilmBuff on Vimeo.
