Artist: Vampire Weekend
Cinematographer: Doug Emmett
Cameras: Bolex H16 EBM Super 16 PL Mount - V mounts, Nikon R10 Super 8
Lenses: Zeiss Super Speeds MK IIs
Film Stock: Kodak Vision3 500T Color Negative Film 7219
DOUG, TELL US ABOUT YOUR BACKGROUND; HOW DID YOU GET STARTED?
My start as DP goes way back to middle school when I picked up my parent's beta camera and was hooked on the moving image. Later, I created a local-access TV program in my hometown of Scituate, Massachusetts, entirely staffed by my high school classmates. Then, I studied cinematography as an undergraduate at NYU. That education and the connections made in school helped jump-start a nascent career in indie features and the occasional music video in between days spent shooting cosmetic & tabletop photography to pay the bills. My twenties were spent shooting indie films while living in Brooklyn. That was 20 years ago, and now I’m a father of 2 living in Pasadena.
DID YOU KNOW ABOUT THE “SUBWAY DREAM” SERIES? HOW DID THAT BECOME PART OF THE STORYLINE? BTW, HCR IS NAMED AFTER THE HIGHLINE IN NYC.
I did not BUT once I saw the footage I realized our director Drew Pearce & Ezra Koenig had struck gold. Steven Siegal’s photography should be in a museum on permanent display. Ezra found Steven’s photography and one thing led to another…. now there’s an album title and videos all inspired by the photography. Link to Subway Dream Series by Steven Siegel
WHAT WAS IT LIKE TO WORK WITH VAMPIRE WEEKEND?
Those guys are cool as fuck. I had been a fan for years, so this was a real treat as you can imagine.
LOOKS LIKE YOU GUYS TAPPED INTO OLD STOCK FOOTAGE?
Steven’s subway footage from the 80s in NY was well preserved and scanned properly. Aside from the obvious artistic benefit of shooting film, there is the unique benefit of shooting film for its archival merits. Good luck importing any of my MiniDV tapes from the late 90s. But film neg from 40, 50, 60, 70 years ago?? no problem- and how lucky are we to have these images brought back to life?!?
NYC SUBWAY CARS, GRAFITTI, THE 80's... THIS IS PURE CELLULOID MATERIAL. COULD YOU HAVE PULLED THIS OFF ON DIGITAL?
There was a minute that we discussed shooting digitally and messing with it in post. I don’t care how much money and time you have (We had NEITHER) you’ll never get 1980s 16mm to cut with digital (certainly not on the tight shoot/delivery timeframe we had). We used 8mm and S16mm. We all agreed after the fact that the 8mm was a better comp for the old footage.
TELL US ABOUT WORKING WITH THE UPGRADED BOLEX H16 EBM AND WHAT IT'S LIKE WORKING WITH THE BOLEX IN GENERAL.
First, I’m grateful to HCR for providing such quality, highly maintained cameras and lenses. We didn’t have time to test the equipment and didn’t have the money to shoot tests, so we flew blind on the day of the shoot. The Bolex was such a fun camera to shoot. It’s straightforward and user-friendly to learn on the day. The Nikon Super8 was equally impressive and fun to shoot. The only problem I had was not knowing if I’d run out of film- with the loud playback on set, it was impossible to hear if the last few feet had run through the gate.
WHICH LENSES AND KODAK STOCKS DID YOU CHOOSE?
Zeiss Super speeds, wide open, looked great. They have the right vintage look for the video. We shot Vision3 500T, which was processed with no push or pull at Spectra Lab. I used a Sony A7 as my light meter with no compensation. It’s a good 1:1 comp for checking exposure.
THE LIGHTING IN THE SUBWAY CAR IS FANTASTIC. WHERE DID YOU GET THAT SUBWAY CAR? TELL US ABOUT THE SET AND HOW YOU LIT IT.
The subway car is fantastic - but only because the production designer Tyler Evans and his crew did a phenomenal job distressing the set. I have no idea how they returned it to “Normal”. The car is in Sun Valley - alongside some private jet & space shuttle fuselages. We lit it with six mover lights on one side of the train and a long 50’ run of Color Force LEDs on the other side. The movers panned in and out, flashed, and changed color to simulate movement. The tubes inside the train were all swapped with Asteras and used as fill. We added some flicker to those lights, too.
More links:
Vampire Weekend - https://open.spotify.com/artist/Vampire-Weekend
Directed by: Drew Pearce : https://www.instagram.com/mrdrewpearce/
Director of Photography: dougemmett.com
