Cinematographers whose work is more stylised
often attract like minded directors who work
with subject matter that is on the more extreme
side of the spectrum.
Benoit Debie is one of these DOPs.
His visuals are easily identifiable, with
saturated, punchy colours, a layer of optical
texture and evocative camera movement.
He balances using old and new technology to
produce bold, in your face photography.
In this video I’ll break down Debie’s
style by analysing his cinematic philosophy
and how he achieves this by his choice and
use of technical gear.
Belgian born Debie began his career by studying
at a Belgium film school.
After graduating he worked as a camera assistant
on two feature films.
He then began to shoot for television for
8 years, before he shot his first feature
film with his regular director Gaspar Noe
and has worked on features ever since.
Other directors that he’s worked with include:
Harmony Korine, Wim Wenders, Ryan Gosling
and Floria Sigismondi.
Debie paints with his lighting in bold strokes
of colour to capture a vivid portrait of life.
He described his approach to creating saturated
neon images on Spring Breakers.
“I remember Harmony telling me at the beginning
that he wanted the image to be one of the
stars of the movie.
It was really important for him to have something
strong and intense visually.”
A lot of the photography in the film utilised
a bold colour palette with a vibrant, monochromatic
colour tint.
This is where there is one dominant colour
over the entire image.
Although he likes to achieve this as much
as possible in camera, he also considers the
role of grading in post production a great
modern tool to facilitate creating the desired
quality of the colour and lighting in the
final film.
“When I shoot a feature film, I always work
on the colour grading afterwards.
It’s really important and it’s a big part
of my work.
During the shooting you decide on the colours
and the contrast, but you still want to adjust
them later.
With the latest technology you can change
almost everything.”
This appreciation of modern post production
technology is counteracted by his love of
shooting on the older medium of film.
Although he sees merits in both digital and
celluloid, he tends to shoot on film whenever
it’s logistically possible to do so.
The complexity and depth of colour reproduction
on this analogue medium best represents how
he sees the world.
“With digital, it’s very difficult to
see any layers of colour.
Take green for example, you can record green
digitally, but it’s hard to register the
cyan, yellow or red inside this green.
But the nuances are all there on film.”
In Debie’s view, shadows and highlights
on film stock are also represented with more
subtlety with a look that appeals to his personal
aesthetic sensibilities.
His way of seeing the world, at least how
he presents it on screen, is often harsh,
complex and textured.
Choosing locations and building them with
the production designer play an important
role in his cinematography.
A lot of the look of the films he photographs
is built around shooting in textured, charismatic
locations with the right practical or naturally
occurring light.
He describes this while shooting The Beach
Bum.
“For me and Harmony, it’s very important
to pick the right locations, we scout so many
during preproduction.
It was about finding the best place for the
film in terms of lighting and design, with
the set designer who came with us to get the
color right.
It’s not just about the right place, but
seeing [locations] at the right time.”
Debie’s perspective comes across strongly
in a lot of his camera movement, which is
why he finds it so important to operate the
camera himself.
“It’s really important to me, especially
when we shoot on film.
I can see the exact frame through the eyepiece
– the reflection, the darkness, the contrast.
It’s important for me to see that, and I
also like to operate the camera.
It’s part of the look of the movie.”
He brings an interesting mix of both a subjective
and objective way of viewing the characters
on screen.
Enter The Void is a good example of how his
framing and camera movement affect the perspective
of the story.
It has moments of intensely subjective movement,
where Debie’s camera literally becomes the
eyes of his characters through prolonged POV
shots.
The film has other sequences shot from a crane
overhead where the perspective of his camera
changes and becomes completely objective,
as if we’re looking at the characters through
omniscient eyes.
Whatever perspective his camera adopts it’s
always a bold one, usually with the slight
shake or rougher feeling that the camera is
being personally operated by a human, rather
than being robotically smooth.
Debie uses a mix of old and new technical
gear to achieve his style.
Recently he likes to use modern LED lighting
captured on the old medium of 35mm film.
For his work on The Beach Bum he utilised
LED Astera Titan Tubes as well as Arri SkyPanels.
He likes the flexibility that using these
RGB fixtures provides, as it allows him to
dial in specific colour tempratures to his
lights so that he can achieve whatever shade
of colour he desires.
Before the widespread availability of LED
lighting technology, Debie used traditional
light sources, such as HMIs, which he would
add different colour gels to achieve coloured
lighting effects.
This old technique however has its limitations.
“If you have an HMI and you put [colour]
gels on it, say you go for a green color,
maybe you have two or three different choices,
and at one point you go for it because you
have to decide beforehand what green you want.”
“But not if you have an LED light, you can
go for green, but you can decide what kind
of green — lime, dark green.
It’s more intuitive, you can decide on the
set and make adjustments.”
Part of the textural quality of his images
come from his choice to shoot on film whenever
possible.
He shoots on Kodak film stocks, specifically
Kodak 250D for most scenes, which he favours
for its rich and vibrant colour reproduction.
For night scenes where he needs a faster ISO
he’ll move to shooting 500T, which he’ll
sometimes push by 1 stop to 1,000 ASA when
he needs to shoot in lower light conditions.
Another tool he’s used to invigorate his
images with interesting colour, particularly
when shooting exteriors in daylight conditions,
is to use a varicolour filter.
This is a type of polarizer filter which produces
a colour shift in areas of reflected light.
Practically, he’s used this to change colours
in the ocean, making the colours more saturated
and extreme.
Another textural tool that he uses is through
his choice of lenses.
Different lenses have different image characteristics,
fall off and flares.
In past movies that he’s shot on 16mm or
35mm he’s used modern, sharper lenses, such
as Arri/Zeiss Master Primes to work against
the film, a medium with less intrinsic sharpness
than digital.
On the other hand, when shooting digital he’s
used old, softer vintage glass to even out
the image from becoming overly sharp.
Recently he’s carried over using these lenses
when working with 35mm too.
He even had custom lenses made for this purpose,
which he’s often used since.
These lenses use the front anamorphic elements
from Lomo and use spherical back elements
from Zeiss.
“These anamorphics flare, vignette on the
edge of frame, and their intrinsic diffusion,
aberrations and organic depth-of-field were
a perfect match with the textural quality
of 35mm film in creating the trippy, dreamy
and bonkers look we wanted.”
He also likes to use vintage spherical lenses,
such as on a music video he shot for The Carters,
where he used old Cooke Speed Panchros, which
have a beautiful, soft, almost anamorphic-like
falloff around the edges of the frame.
He likes Arri, and has used many of their
cameras such as the Arriflex 416 for 16mm
work, the 235 and 435 for 35mm, and the Arri
Alexa when shooting digitally.
Some DOPs are like chameleons who are able
to change their style to suit any situation
or film required of them; others are able
to collaborate with directors, yet still push
for their signature look that is more singular
and unique.
Benoit Debie falls into the latter category.
Some stories are better told through provocative
cinematography than through nuanced, subtle
photography.
He combines using old and modern gear in interesting
ways that are best able to capture how he
views the story.
Debie uses whatever technical tools he has
at his disposal to create interesting, bold,
colourful images that produce a powerful,
and sometimes extreme, artistic statement.
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Otherwise, liking, subscribing and commenting
would also be greatly appreciated.
Until next time, thanks for watching and goodbye.
