![](//www.4rfv.com/images/no_image.jpg)
The first feature film from writer-director Shaun Seneviratne, Ben and Suzanne: A Reunion in 4 Parts depicts the struggle between love and duty as Ben (Sathya Sridharan) steps out on a limb to rekindle his relationship with Suzanne (Anastasia Olowin), who can't escape the calls of her work. Seeking to make a film that felt grittier than the manicured qualities typically associated with romantic comedies, Seneviratne decided to employ non-actors in every role except the leads.
Complementing the decisions Seneviratne made in prep and on set with cinematographer Molly Scotti, Light Iron colorist Keith Jenson helped fine-tune the visual language in the final color grade, which took place at Light Iron New York ahead of the movie's world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival. Here, Seneviratne and Jenson share their perspectives on their memorable collaboration.
Light Iron: Shaun, what brought you to Light Iron for Ben and Suzanne?
Shaun Seneviratne: Our producer Doron J Paul Mitchell has a mutual friend with Freddy Hernandez, VP of business development at Light Iron. We felt Freddys passion and support for independent filmmaking, and the vibes were right! It just felt like Light Iron was the place to go.
How did the two of you discuss the desired look for the project to ensure you were seeing it the same way?
Seneviratne: I wanted the movie to have the look of a verit documentary particularly one shot in the '60s or '70s such as Tokyo Olympiad Jean Rouch films, and ric Rohmer's films. We were interested in keeping things natural and filmic; we weren't interested in applying more modern trends and looks. We also weren't afraid of contrast and were quite interested in playing with darkness and letting parts of the frame go fully black.
Keith Jenson: When we were first beginning the project, Shaun sent over stills from existing films that reminded him of scenes from his own film. Shaun had a really good idea of the sorts of tones and moods he was going for.
We got on a call so that we could both look at the references and talk them through, and during that call, Shaun and I discovered we had some pretty strong similarities in some pretty obscure and niche music. As creatives, we quickly realized that if we'd both gravitated to those interests independently, then we would probably be able to communicate a lot of the more abstract and esoteric ideas of color quickly basically, we could have a creative shorthand in the studio during our sessions. I think I can speak for both of us in that we walked away from that call excited to begin collaborating!
Seneviratne: Keith had shared his work on Eyimofe, which was very much in the vein of what we were trying to achieve. Also, Keiths background with film and telecine gave him an authentic perspective on how we could achieve a naturalistic film look.
What were some of your main areas of focus in the color grade?
Seneviratne: Shadow and highlight levels, saturation, authentic film texture principles, and how to approach the night scenes, which were an area where we allowed ourselves to be open to stylization.
Jenson: We really tried for an authentic filmic look with strong colors and strong contrast. The film itself has title cards against strong color backgrounds, and we didn't want those to feel out of place when they cut on screen, so the rest of the film had to have very prominent primaries and healthy saturation. To achieve this, we utilized the toolset inside of DaVinci Resolve. We built our own LUT utilizing some softening in the shadows, some halation effects, and some film grain. I like to apply different levels of film grain over top of each other to achieve a more photographic grain appearance that feels a bit less like an overlay filter.
Seneviratne: Keith spoke about what people sometimes get wrong with film grain, which is applying one uniform grain over the entire image. To truly emulate film grain, one needs to take into account how that grain looks over the highlights, mid tones and shadows.
Any final thoughts from your collaboration that you'd like to share?
Seneviratne: Keith is a great guy who was easy to collaborate with and had great taste and insight. Our DI producer at Light Iron, Bonnie Gross, was also instrumental in the process, always making sure everything was taken care of and that the process was super-smooth.
Jenson: It was an absolute pleasure to work with Shaun, [editor] Joe Violette, and Doron. We had a great time in the studio in what were extremely memorable sessions for me. It was some of the most fun I've had grading everything about our sessions went so smoothly. A lot of that is thanks to Bonnie Gross, who helped manage the entire project on our end. She was even able to wrangle large Toblerone chocolates to surprise everyone on our final session a comedically large Toblerone bar features in one aspect of the film. Bonnie and I would both love to work with Shaun and his team again!
More from Panavision France
06/09/2024
The highly anticipated opus from director Quentin Tarantino doesn't disappoint. It's a typically outrageous conglomeration of comedy and shock laced wit...
06/09/2024
Cinema, the most voyeuristic of mediums, is uniquely placed to convey both the act of surveillance and the psychology of the surveilled. In Seberg, director Ben...
06/09/2024
In February 2019, director J.J. Abrams called Cut! for the last time during principal photography of the ninth chapter of the long-running Star Wars saga. Sta...
06/09/2024
In a cinematic universe expanding with superheroes, the creative challenge for filmmakers is to set newcomers apart from the crowd. The task is doubly important...
06/09/2024
Having photographed episodes of the Showtime horror drama Penny Dreadful's second and third seasons, John Conroy, ISC was eager to reteam with showrunner Jo...
06/09/2024
The psychological thriller Homecoming returns for its sophomore season with fresh twists, nail-biting cliff-hangers, and more of the unnerving cinematography th...
06/09/2024
Based on the series of novels by Eoin Colfer, the feature Artemis Fowl finds its namesake a precocious, hyperintelligent 12-year-old boy (played by Ferdia Sha...
06/09/2024
Vincent lives in Los Angeles, Anthony in New York City. They met on a dating app and have been talking for months, but the physical distance between them has ke...
06/09/2024
What are we going to talk about today? cinematographer Anastas Michos, ASC, GSC asks almost immediately after answering his phone. It's late July when Pana...
06/09/2024
The recent features and bear a number of similarities. Chief among them: Both were shot by cinematographer Hillary Spera. Each story also exists in the realm of...
06/09/2024
Angeliena follows the adventures and self-discovery of its namesake heroine (played by Euodia Samson), a lovable parking attendant who harbors dreams of traveli...
06/09/2024
Pair a British-born songwriter-director who's collaborated with musicians like Jay-Z with a Romanian cinematographer known for shooting intense dramas, and ...
06/09/2024
It was June 2019 when director Baz Luhrmann first approached cinematographer Mandy Walker, ACS, ASC about collaborating on the new biopic Elvis. I was extremel...
06/09/2024
Based on the best-selling mystery novel of the same name, the feature Where the Crawdads Sing tells the story of Kya (Daisy Edgar-Jones), a young woman who grew...
04/09/2024
Cinematographer Anna Smoro ov , ASK's credits include the feature N m tajemstv (aka Suppressed), which played at the 2023 Camerimage International Film Fe...
31/08/2024
For Stephan Pehrsson, BSC, cinematography has always been an act of communicating with his collaborators, understanding and being open to their ideas, and recog...
30/08/2024
When Apple TV+ was unveiled earlier this year, Apple positioned the video subscription service as the new home for the world's most celebrated creative art...
30/08/2024
Short-form streaming-video platform Quibi provides premium content specifically designed for consumption on a mobile device. This presented the production of it...
30/08/2024
Based on the book by Roald Dahl and now streaming on HBO Max, The Witches tells the story of a young boy (Jahzir Bruno) who goes to live with his grandmother (O...
30/08/2024
My career has spanned many genres, a journey I could have never predicted, says cinematographer Simon Reay. With credits that run the gamut from the series Man...
30/08/2024
The feature Mascarade reunited writer-director Nicolas Bedos and cinematographer Laurent Tangy, AFC, following their collaboration on the 2021 release OSS 117: ...
29/08/2024
A legendary talk show host employs a young scriptwriter and sparks fly in the new indie feature Late Night, premiering at the Sundance Film Festival. Written by...
29/08/2024
Inspired by Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch novels, the Amazon Prime Video police-procedural series Bosch premiered its sixth season on April 17. The show ha...
29/08/2024
It's Sarah's sister's wedding day in the Southern California oasis of Palm Springs. During the reception, Sarah meets Nyles, and the two decide to a...
29/08/2024
The comic book Dystopia tells the story of Jessica Hyde, a young girl on the run from the evil Mr. Rabbit, who holds Jessica's scientist father captive and ...
29/08/2024
Cinematography has truly saved my life, director of photography Julia Swain says in the opening minutes of the documentary. Directed by Swain, the movie charts...
29/08/2024
Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Season 1 of the Marvel Studios series Loki finds the titular God of Mischief (played by Tom Hiddleston) in the custod...
29/08/2024
When cinematographer Zach Kuperstein got the job to shoot writer-director Zach Cregger's horror feature Barbarian, one of the first things he did was reach ...
29/08/2024
For the track Tonight on their album Alpha Zulu, French band Phoenix partnered with Vampire Weekend's lead vocalist and guitarist, Ezra Koenig. Underscori...
19/08/2024
Written by Shia LaBeouf and directed by Alma Har'el, Honey Boy presents a semi-autobiographical portrait of LaBeouf's experiences as a 12-year-old child...
19/08/2024
In October 1948, Jesse Brown became the first African American to complete the U.S. Navy's flight training program and received his Naval Aviator Badge. The...
19/08/2024
Creed III finds Adonis Creed son of the late boxing champ Apollo Creed, the erstwhile nemesis, mentor and friend of Rocky Balboa a successfully retired heav...
19/08/2024
Adapted from the 2015 Swedish film which itself was adapted from the Swedish novel En man som heter Ove (A Man Called Ove), director Marc Forster's feat...
19/08/2024
A revenge story unlike any other, the six-episode Amazon miniseries The English follows an Englishwoman (played by Emily Blunt) who traverses a mythical 19th-ce...
19/08/2024
Cinematographer Sebastien Pfaffenbichler, AAC has been behind the camera on commercials for such well-known brands as Adidas, Toyota, American Express, Samsung,...
19/08/2024
As the storied fast-food chain's recent U.K. ad campaign makes clear, Fancy a McDonald's? is a question best asked and answered with a raise of th...
19/08/2024
Created by Tony Basgallop and executive-produced by M. Night Shyamalan, the horror series Servant has delivered 40 episodes of psychological torment across four...
19/08/2024
Created by Alex Gregory and Peter Huyck and directed by David Mandel, the five-part miniseries White House Plumbers shines a fresh light on the real-life comedy...
19/08/2024
Set in 1950s France, The Deep Dark (Gueules noires) follows a group of coal miners who are commissioned to escort a professor through dangerous depths to retrie...
19/08/2024
Written and directed by Sean Durkin, the feature film The Iron Claw shines a light on the tragedies and triumphs of the Von Erichs, a real-life family of profes...
19/08/2024
Released this past January, the music video for Ariana Grande's yes, and? brings a modern approach to vintage allure. The video was directed by Christian ...
12/08/2024
Season 2 of A Discovery of Witches found cinematographer Adam Etherington, BSC partnering with director Farren Blackburn to continue the adventures of historian...
12/08/2024
Set in pre-World War II Europe, The Pursuit of Love follows Linda Radlett (Lily James) and her cousin Fanny Logan (Emily Beecham) as they try to find the perfec...
12/08/2024
Cinematographer Ari Wegner, ACS is no stranger to dramatic filming locations. For the 2013 feature Ruin, she worked in the Cambodian jungle; the remote landscap...
12/08/2024
Inspired by real events, the Apple TV+ limited series Black Bird tells the story of Jimmy Keene (Taron Egerton), who, in exchange for early release from his 10-...
12/08/2024
Known for his work on movies such as 300, Watchmen, Super 8 and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, Larry Fong, ASC has brought his magical talents to bear for ...
12/08/2024
Cinematographer Andrew Wehde spent more than a decade shooting commercials for Michelin-star restaurants before he ventured into the frenetic kitchen of The Ori...
12/08/2024
From the eerie calm of Lynne Cohen photographs to the is it safe aesthetic of Marathon Man, cinematographer Jessica Lee Gagn has underscored her own creative...
12/08/2024
Based on James Lee Burke's short story Winter Light, the feature God's Country stars Thandiwe Newton as Sandra, a college professor whose encounter with...
12/08/2024
Based on Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir Elvis and Me, the feature Priscilla reunited writer-director Sofia Coppola with cinematographer Philippe Le Sourd, ...