Shudder Original A Nightmare Wakes gives us an eerie version of Mary Shelley’s creation of Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. 1428 Elm recently spoke with cinematographer Oren Soffer about the authentic look of the film.
1428 Elm: Before we talk about A Nightmare Wakes, let’s start by telling our readers exactly what a cinematographer does on a film.
Oren: Sure, a cinematographer is basically in charge of two separate departments that kind of end up working together, sort of coalescing to create the visual look of a film. One of those departments is everything related to the camera; so, camera placement, lens choice, choice of format and so forth. The other department is lighting. So, designing the lighting of the scenery, how it interacts with the set and everything, and working with the director to develop and plan and design both of those elements.
1428 Elm: What are some examples of horror and sub-genre films you think are examples of good cinematography?
Oren: It’s interesting, horror is a very infamous and popular genre among cinematographers specifically, because it lends itself to creating very expressive and very dramatic imagery, which is something cinematographers love. We love interplaying with light and shadow, and working in darkness and sort of playing with all of those different elements. Horror is such a great genre that lends itself well to the natural inclinations of things that cinematographers tend to be attracted to. And so, there are so many examples to list, but off the top of my head I think the most well-regarded horror films cinematographically are The Exorcist, Alien, and then moving into the modern era, you have – well, if Silence of the Lambs counts…
1428 Elm: You know what? I always considered it horror.
Oren: Yes, likewise! And then, moving into the modern era, I think there’s a wave of sort of indie horror that’s been really influential in the past few years. Things like It Follows, and The Witch and Hereditary would all be really, really great examples.
1428 Elm: Oh, I love The Witch. And, you’re right, that’s a perfect example. The lighting and the atmosphere were perfect.
Oren: Exactly. Horror has always been such a great genre for cinematographers to work with the interplay between light and shadow, and also to create imagery in lighting that can sometimes be a little bit more stylized.
Comedies and dramas and films that tend to be grounded in reality beg a little more naturalistic approach to cinematography, but it’s always fun to play in worlds that allow you to be more creative and more expressive, and sometimes deviate from what would be considered naturalistic. It’s a really fun genre to play in.
1428 Elm: Let’s talk a little bit about A Nightmare Wakes. It’s based on the events surrounding Mary Shelley’s famous novel Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, and this was written in the 1800s. The film’s look is very authentic to the time period, how did you go about achieving that?
Oren: One of the first things that we discussed when deciding on the look of the film – early in the process, the director and I sit down and really start to hammer out how we want this film to look and feel. And one of the guiding principles was the historical context of that summer in Geneva, which was famously overcast.
The reason for that was a volcanic eruption halfway across the world that blanketed the world in ash and created this very dark, and overcast and gloomy year. It was famously called “the year with no summer.” That historic event ended up being the spark that inspired the main aesthetic drive of the film, which is that we wanted it to reflect that historical reality, but also use it as a method to express Mary Shelley’s internal darkness, and her struggle of grappling with this character and all of the other drama in her life that are influencing her writing. So, it ended up working twofold. One was to reflect the reality that we were telling, and the other was on a more metaphysical level.
And in terms of specific planning, the main challenge with A Nightmare Wakes was to shoot our exteriors during overcast days in order to capture that sort of gloomy look. We managed to do it 90% of the time, I’m very impressed and pleased with how our team, and our scheduling and planning managed to work around what weather we were given on every single day. Most of the exteriors were successfully overcast, and we got some nice rain and some gloom.
There were a couple scenes in the film we had to shoot in the sun, but I think they really work thematically really well, they tend to be scenes that reflect the sunnier side of the characters, so it ended up being a nice balance. We got really lucky with the weather in the end.
1428 Elm: A Nightmare Wakes is one of those films that I’m going to recommend people not watch on their phones. I tried that, and, just like The Witch, it’s just very dark, and when you shrink it down, it’s hard to really see it, or appreciate it. When you watch it on a bigger screen, you can really appreciate the beauty of the photography and the lighting.
Oren: Yes, it’s all very carefully designed, so I really appreciate it if people are able to take the opportunity to watch it on tv, close your curtains, get nice and dark and cozy, and that kind of environment will let the cinematography and the way we designed it really come to life. No pun intended!
The Witch was actually a film that we looked at as a reference point for how to plan shooting exteriors versus interiors. We read various articles and interviews with the filmmakers, and learn that they took a similar approach with how they planned their shooting schedule. They were able to plan and retain flexibility in their schedule in a way that let them shoot their exteriors when it was overcast. And when it was sunny outside, they would shoot their interiors. And, of course the interiors were lit with candle light or natural window light. Both of those elements were very much reflected in the approach that Nora and I took for A Nightmare Wakes.
1428: Oh, that was going to be my next question, how did you achieve those lower light levels for your interior shots, but you could still see what was going on.
Oren: One of the big advances and advantages in cinematography over the past 10 or 15 years was the development of digital cinema cameras, which has been a long process over decades, that only in the past 10 years has really reached the point where it was up to the same technical quality level as film. These digital cameras are very sensitive to light, which creates a really advantageous tool to be able to shoot natural light with, specifically, the night time scenes that are lit entirely with candle light. Back in the day, when you were shooting a period film, they had to have a hundred candles off camera that would boost the light level of the scene in order to create the illusion that a scene was lit by a single camera that’s visible in frame.
But, because of the advances in cinematic technology and specifically those digital camera sensors, now we’re able to actually light the scene with a single candle, because the cameras are just that sensitive to light. And they render a lot of shadows very richly and capture a lot of detail. So, that’s how we did it, it was a technological advantage with digital cinematography, combined with using very fast and sensitive lenses as well.
1428 Elm: In preparation for this interview, I took a look at your online bio, and you have a lot of different types of film work to your credit. You’ve worked on short films, feature films, commercials, music videos, what will you be working on next?
Oren: I have another feature film that I shot last fall, which was a very interesting experience. Thankfully, it was a safe one, we did everything proper, and that one is sort of a psychological thriller, so another very fun, very visual genre that we were able to play with. I’m very excited about that film, and it’s in editing right now, and I hope it will be released later this year. I think it will hopefully do a festival run, so we’ll see.
1428 Elm: Can you tell us the title?
Oren: Yes, it’s called Fixation. And in addition to that, I’m working on commercials and music videos in the coming months as they come in.
1428 Elm: Well, I hope things take an upward turn for entertainment soon, it’s been a hard year.
Oren: Yeah, it’s been a rough run for our industry for the last 9 or 10 months, but I’m feeling a renewed since of optimism for sure.
1428 Elm: I hope for the sake of anyone who works in entertainment in any way, shape or form, that things are going to look up for us all. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today, and I hope A Nightmare Wakes is a huge success for you.
Oren: Thank you!
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What are your favorite horror films featuring “moody” lighting? Let us know in the comments section.