Bringing 3 Body Problem to life: DP Jonathan Freeman, ASC

Jonathan Freeman, ASC faced a unique challenge on Netflix's sci-fi
series 3 Body Problem. The books, written by Cixin Liu, are
extremely intellectually dense novels. Translating them into
visually compelling television seemed like a daunting task. Show
creators DB Weiss and David Benioff had worked with Jonathan
previously on Game of Thrones, and they leaned into filmmaking that
was motivated by impactful storytelling rather than just "cool
shots." A key reveal moment in particular was achieved simply by
pushing in on a photo of one of the characters in the first
episode, revealing how the stories were interconnected. Together,
they decided on the look of the show and chose three distinct
visual styles for 1960s China, modern London, and the virtual world
of a videogame. The 2:3:5 aspect ratio and ARRI ALFA lenses helped
differentiate these environments. The lenses were prototypes that
Greig Fraser was developing on The Batman. “They had exactly all
that beautiful bokeh that you would expect, but the center was
optically pure,” says Jonathan. “They also had these chromatic
aberrations to them. These distorted, stretchy little bits in the
edges of the frame just looked funky and kind of otherworldly. I
just like the idea that it could be interpreted as sort of an
alien's point of view.” Filming the virtual world within a limited
physical space required innovation. Jonathan's "low-res volume"
stage concept used a massive wall of SkyPanels and strategically
placed lighting to create a realistic, immersive environment for
actors. “Each (panel) was almost like a pixel, so we created an
array of 110 feet by 45 wide wrapped around 180 degrees.” says
Jonathan. “It was a very complex system, but overall the intent was
to recreate these live environments the way you might be able to do
in a regular volume. Then, there was the lighting on top, similar
to the skylight, where we programmed animated lights to recreate
sunrise, sunset, dusk, and dawn. It was quite complicated, but we
were able to use a real space and transition in camera. It took a
lot of minds to put it together, but I thought it was really
successful.” Find Jonathan Freeman: http://freemandp.com/ Sponsored
by Hot Rod Cameras www.hotrodcameras.com Sponsored by ARRI:
https://www.arri.com/en The Cinematography Podcast website:
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