Building the world of Fallout: cinematographer Stuart Dryburgh, ASC, NZCS

The post-apocalyptic TV show Fallout is based on the 1997
videogame, which was a huge commercial and critical success.
Centuries after a nuclear war, Lucy (Ella Purnell) must venture out
of her sheltered underground Vault dwelling into the dangerous
Wasteland of Los Angeles to find her kidnapped father (Kyle
MacLachlan.) She encounters strange characters, including a Ghoul
bounty hunter (Walton Goggins) and Maximus (Aaron Moten) a member
of the militaristic Brotherhood of Steel. Cinematographer Stuart
Dryburgh is best known for his work on the 1993 film, The Piano,
for which he received an Academy Award nomination. It opened up
opportunities for him outside of New Zealand, and he frequently
worked with women directors like Karyn Kusama (Aeon Flux) and Susan
Seidelman (Sex and the City TV pilot.) Stuart also shot Bridget
Jones's Diary, The Runaway Bride, and the New Zealand indie film
Once Were Warriors. He particularly enjoyed working with director
John Sayles on the 1996 western mystery drama, Lone Star. Stuart's
cinematography captured the vastness and beauty of Texas. The low
budget forced him to use “poor man's process” an old film technique
used for staging a driving sequence. When Stuart read the script
for Fallout, he watched play throughs of the game to get an idea of
what it should look like. “I had some idea what the basis is,
because the game has been around for 30 years. I pulled a lot of
images and built a Pinterest board, which turned out to be
completely wrong, because I'd gone very atmospheric, very gamey
with my references.” says Stuart. “And Jonathan (Nolan) said 'No, I
don't want to do it that way. I want to play it real, not too many
tricks. There's going to be enough crazy stuff in this movie
content-wise- play it straight, and just make it nice.'” Fallout
creator Jonathan Nolan chose to shoot on 35mm film, using ARRI
cameras and anamorphic lenses. The show is set in three main
spaces, each with its own distinct color palette and look: the
underground vault, the wasteland, and the past, before the nuclear
disaster. The vault is lit entirely by artificial lighting and
Stuart worked closely with the art department to make sure the
visible lighting provided enough ambient light to shoot film. It
allowed the camera freedom of movement within the space. By
contrast, for the wasteland, Stuart leaned into the Western genre
the show evokes, balancing the washed-out, desolate surroundings
with the vibrancy of pre-war remnants. The wasteland was shot in
several different locations including Namibia, the Utah salt flats
and upstate New York. Find Stuart Dryburgh: Instagram
@stuartdryburgh Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com
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