Capturing terror in THEM: The Scare with DP Brendan Uegama

The second season of the Amazon Prime horror anthology series THEM
takes place in 1989 and 1991 Los Angeles. LAPD detective Dawn Reeve
is investigating a horrifying murder. As she gets closer to the
truth, a dark and menacing force threatens her and her family.
THEM: The Scare explores themes of fear, dark family secrets and
the supernatural. Cinematographer Brendan Uegama was a fan of
season 1 of THEM, and got a call from his agent to meet with
writer, creator and showrunner Little Marvin about shooting season
2. As an anthology series, each season is its own standalone story.
Brendan and Little Marvin's guiding idea was not to make the show
look exactly like it took place in the early 1990's, and discussed
how to create a feeling of warmth, contrasted with the feeling of
terror in the shadows. Brendan decided to use just two lenses and
two focal lengths on an ARRI Alexa Mini LF, with everything
drastically changing look and tone for episode 7. On Episode 7,
“One of Us is Gonna Die Tonight” of THEM: The Scare, Brendan had
the opportunity to fully unleash his creativity. Little Marvin
decided to direct this episode, and he wanted it to feel utterly
horrific, using all of the tools they had at their disposal:
lighting, camera effects, and sound. They embraced using as much
red lighting as they possibly could throughout the episode. “We had
lights in different areas, and we had red from the toy store.” says
Brendan. “We had red flares, red cop lights. And Little Marvin's
like, 'Man, it would be cool if it was even MORE red.' So I started
adding red lights behind all the cop cars and uplighting things,
really going heavy with the red. And once we started looking at
that, we're like, 'Oh, yeah, now it feels like this is a
hellscape.'” Brendan chose to use a 4:3 aspect ratio exclusively
for episode 7 to make it feel like the walls are literally closing
in. After strictly using the same lenses and focal lengths
throughout the series, Brendan changed it up for almost half the
episode with a Petzval lens, which creates a unique, swirly bokeh
in the center of the frame. Along with the red lighting and aspect
ratio shift, it helped create a distorted, nightmarish look. (Hear
Robbie Ryan's discussion of using a Petzval lens on Poor Things
https://www.camnoir.com/ep248/) Brendan enjoyed the creative
opportunity to work on THEM: The Scare. “A huge part of it was the
overall excitement to make something great,” he says. “It was
exciting to push boundaries and not do formulaic television of any
kind.” Find Brendan Uegama: Instagram @brendanuegama_dp Hear our
interview with THEM season 1 cinematographer Checco Varese, ASC.
https://www.camnoir.com/ep136/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras
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