Lensing Longlegs: DP Andrés Arochi

The new movie Longlegs is a psychological horror film that follows
FBI Agent Lee Harker as she investigates a series of mysterious
murder-suicides. The victims, all families, leave behind cryptic
messages signed "Longlegs." As Harker delves deeper into the case,
she uncovers a dark connection to the occult and must confront a
terrifying supernatural entity. For cinematographer Andrés Arochi,
technical mastery is key, but it's always in service to the story.
“It has to come from something inside you that says, 'I want to
create this' and then you find a technical way to do it,” he says.
“For me it's always trying to be true to that instinct and to
whatever feels right, and when you do it, then you're talking about
yourself so it's easy to see yourself reflected.” Longlegs is
Andrés' first international feature. For the past 12 years, Andrés
has been working as a DP in Mexico. With no formal training, he
began taking photos of friends in the music scene at age 17. Soon,
he began creating projection video displays for concerts and
shooting music videos and commercials. This led to work on huge
music video and film sets as an on-set photographer, where he met
Mexican cinematographers Guillermo Garza (the cinematographer of
The Thicket), Alexis Zabé and Galo Olivares. Standing next to these
skilled DPs with his camera in hand allowed Andrés to learn
alongside them, and he would watch and ask questions, often copying
their settings on his camera to experiment. In his spare time,
Andrés would go out and practice the new techniques he learned,
shooting low-budget films and music videos for friends. Fellow
Mexican cinematographer Galo Olivares shot director Osgood Perkins'
Gretel and Hansel, and he introduced Andrés to Perkins when the
director was looking for a DP for Longlegs. Andrés was drawn to the
humor in the Longlegs script, and loved that some comedy existed,
even within a horror film. Unlike a lot of cinematographers and
directors, Andrés and Perkins didn't create a lookbook or speak in
depth about filmic references, such as Silence of the Lambs and
Se7en, which were influences for Longlegs. Instead, Andrés says,
“When we did talk about movies, it was more movies that had nothing
to do with the genre. We talked a lot about My Own Private Idaho,
Drugstore Cowboy—a lot of Gus Van Sant 1990s indie America
filmmaking. Elephant was an influence on the way we used
Steadicam.” One artistic reference Andrés used was The Son of Man
by artist René Magritte, a painting showing a man with his face
hidden by an apple. Andrés loved the idea of keeping the face of
Longlegs the killer hidden at first. Andrés chose to shoot on 35mm
film and in a 4:3 aspect ratio for parts of Longlegs that take
place in the 1970's. “Using film changes the emotion. Everyone
stays focused and shooting on film makes it necessary for everyone
to rehearse. So, I decided to shoot 35mm for everything in the
1970s and go with a 4:3 aspect ratio, then we did 2.39 and shot on
digital with the Alexa Mini LF for the 1990s.” During the Longlegs
shoot, director Osgood Perkins wanted the film crew to use their
creativity. “Oz was always encouraging the whole team, like do what
you feel, you understand the movie we're doing, just do the best
version of you,” says Andrés. “So I was very, very inspired, and
that created the space for us to create from our hearts using the
best tools we had.” Find Andrés
Arochi:http://www.andresarochi.com/selected Instagram:
@andresarochi Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras:
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