Exclusive: Cinematographer Stuart Cameron Talks MAKING MONSTERS
Fresh off the release of Jacob Johnston’s Dreamcatcher, Samuel Goldwyn Films is adding another horror feature to their vast genre library: Making Monsters. The film has won awards at Shriekfest and Nightmares Film Festival. It has also screened at many other festivals including Toronto After Dark.
Making Monsters follows a social media prankster (Tim Loden) and his fiancée (Alana Elmer). They find their idyllic country weekend turns into the ultimate video prank where the stakes are life and death.
The trailer and stills are enough to give someone nightmares. So naturally, we wanted to shine a spotlight on the project. To learn more about Making Monsters, we sat down with the film’s talented cinematographer, Stuart Cameron. Below, he goes in-depth about his creative process and much more. Making Monsters is now on all VOD platforms.
And don’t forget to join us on April 7th for the next installment of our free virtual panel series, “Dissecting Horror”, with the creatives who brought us Making Monsters (including Cameron). Details below.
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Dread Central: How did you connect to Making Monsters? What initially attracted you to the script?
Stuart Cameron: The director and I had done quite a few shorts together, so the relationship was already established, but I was totally sold on the film from the first phone call when [Making Monsters director] Justin [Harding] walked me through the whole story in his usual intently detailed and overly enthusiastic way. When I first heard about the project there was no script, just an outline. I’m not sure what the timeline was. But I think the script went from outline to final version in 30 days which is an incredible feat.
DC: Were there any particular challenges, lighting-wise, that you overcame?
SC: The whole film was a challenge, especially from a lighting perspective. First, this film was shot on a micro-budget at a location that had very limited power and with a very modest crew and tiny lighting package. Most of the money was put towards makeup and special FX so that it could be seen on screen. And for the most part, the gear was donated to the cause by the crew. When we shot scenes like the car driving interiors, we had a grip and gaff, focus puller, and sound. But during other parts of production, I pulled my own focus and lit the scenes myself. And then came back to the monitor to check before picking up the camera to roll.
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One of the biggest challenges came from the story. I’m not even sure you’d notice it when watching the film, but from the moment the characters wake up into their new reality we live in a world where there is no power inside the church and therefore no motivation for light other than windows. That becomes even more difficult for the night interiors during this part of the story and for the FX shots, we did during this time that had to be shot very wide.
The biggest obstacle to this storyline was the amount of gear and the number of windows. There simply were too many windows and not enough light fixtures to create or even balance exposure across the wide shots. Our entire lighting package consisted of 2 litemat 4’s, 4 Qusar Crossfade 4ft tubes and an M18 and making an appearance now and then was a sky panel S30. So the solution was to use as much natural daylight and moonlight as possible. One of the advantages of indie films is that scenes can’t last forever. So we lucked out a few days with overcast skies where we were able to complete full scenes in similar natural light.
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In fact, for the most part, we were able to schedule around the changing weather to link similar natural lighting and weather together so that scenes had a seamlessness to them that otherwise would have been distracting and draw the viewer out of the story. The entire project was a balance of time, resources, scheduling and then aesthetics. All of the exteriors were done practically because of our crew size, but my experience in shooting commercials in remote locations with no crew helped us maximize what we were given and helped push the schedule around the weather which is another nice aspect of a small crew, small cast indie films – there is a nimbleness to them that doesn’t exist elsewhere that allows us to adapt, flip days and shoot with what we are given rather than trying to control it.
DC: It appears you shot a lot of scenes with a hidden, handheld camera. How did you approach mixing those “found footage” type shots with Steadicam shots?
SC: I think the idea was that there should be a very distinct visual difference between the hidden camera/ security camera footage and the rest of the film. The shots were shot with GoPro’s on c- stands as high as they could be and as wide as possible. This was sometimes mimicked by the A camera. But because lighting 14mm shots up high on sticks proved to be quite difficult with the tools we had available, the idea was abandoned quite early on. The other ‘found footage’ was done with an old Sony Handycam that had infrared night vision. This was also put up in a similar fashion on a c-stand for scenes that took place at night or it was handheld by the actor during the scene.
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DC: Did you have a specific set of guidelines already in place to follow, because Making Monsters falls into the horror genre?
SC: I’m not really sure. Because the speed at which this film was put together, we didn’t really have a chance to sit down and pull references for the movie. I actually spent a lot of time learning what we were doing as we went along. Because it had not all been sorted out in pre-production. I think that there is a great opportunity in horror generally to be creative. And because it has such a loyal following it allows you to create projects that would otherwise not be funded. There is always the push to be dark and to hide the monster in the shadows. Let the viewer‘s imagination expand on the reality of the imagery. But other than that I feel that there are no artificial boundaries.
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DC: Can you talk about your collaboration with the film’s director, Justin Harding? Did you two storyboard everything out before shooting began?
SC: Interestingly this project was not storyboarded, again, based on the speed that it came together. I had become accustomed to Justin doing full 3D previs animations. [He used] the exact focal lengths and field of view of the camera and lens package we would be using. [And all] in dimensionally accurate 3D renders of the spaces in which we would be shooting. He started using this workflow to fully visualize his films prior to production. So nothing was left to chance and we could move efficiently through the production phase. Also, this answered a lot of questions for post, editing, timing, and FX’s etc. I assume that because of the time commitment that a full previs would have required, it was not even attempted.
DC: Creatively, what was your favorite scene in Making Monsters? Why?
SC: This is a really difficult question, I think the basement scene would be the winner for me. The basement posed a lot of technical difficulties along with added complications because of the storyline. In the story, there‘s no power in the church at this point except for a generator running a computer. So the only sources of light in the basement are the small door and the computer screen. To add to this, the ceilings were very low and again we didn’t have a huge lighting package. And the sunset during our scene so we lost our doorway light very early on.
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What I ended up doing was hiding the Quasar tubes in the ceiling joists trying to make the light feel motivated by either the door or the computer, but it was quite difficult to sell this motivation, especially when the characters are drawn away from the computer by a gruesome discovery in the far corner of the room. But when I watch the scene back now, I’m quite happy with the consistency of the lighting throughout the duration of the scene which was shot during rapidly changing exterior lighting and over the course of a couple days, it’s not distracting and its believable which is a success on a project like this.
DC: You also work on a lot of commercials and short films. What are the major differences between working on a commercial as opposed to working on a feature film? Besides time.
SC: The main difference I find is in pre-production. In the commercial landscape, you are brought in later to the conversation, so a lot of decisions have already been made which generally isn’t an issue unless you are working with highly specific situations where time and money could have been saved by involving my perspective sooner. But for the most part, it’s a non-issue, just like you said, it’s just much less of a time commitment.
DC: Can you think of a shot with any of your previous projects, that has been particularly difficult and was very satisfying when you completed it?
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SC: Things that make shots difficult for me are when things outside of my sphere of control don’t play nice with how we have planned to achieve the desired shot. If it’s something we can control. There is always a solution and that is normally thought up through conversations on the scout or between the scout and the shoot day. Things like schedule, location, or weather which are generally outside of my direct influence are what make things difficult sometimes, but if you surround yourself with talented people there is always a collaborative and creative solution waiting.
When any project is completed it is inherently satisfying because for the most part you’re planning for the inevitable and at the same time preparing for the unexpected, so that you’re not surprised. I think that’s the great stuff you learn on independent films, everything that can will go wrong, and being ready and willing to adjust is the only solution.
DC: Cinematography-wise, are there other horror films in the past few years that have particularly stood out to you?
SC: To be honest. I don’t watch a lot of horror films.. they scare me.. lol
You can view Stuart’s other work here: http://www.stuartjamescameron.com/
Have you seen Making Monsters yet? What do you think of our exclusive interview with Stuart Cameron? Will you join our free virtual “Dissecting Horror” panel with the creatives from Making Monsters on Wednesday, April 7th at 6 pm (PST)? Let us know in the comments below or on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram! You can also carry on the convo with me personally on Twitter @josh_millican.
Categorized:Interviews News
