Griselda cinematographer Armando Salas, ASC

Netflix's gripping new series, Griselda, takes viewers deep into
the world of Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco. But behind the
drugs and violence is a masterfully crafted world, built by
cinematographer Armando Salas, ASC. Armando, known for his work on
Ozark, brings a unique perspective to Griselda. His approach to
color throughout the series tells a story that's more about
character than it is about the drug trade. “In the end, we're
making a work of fiction, and we really want to connect with the
audience,” says Armando. “And the things you know and hear about
Griselda Blanco is, you know, she's a killer, a psychopath. There's
not a lot of redeeming qualities when you're looking into the drug
wars in Miami at that time.” Even through all the death and
destruction in the series, director Andrés Baiz didn't want
Griselda to be too dark. He still wanted to find some joy and
absurdity within the story. Armando met with director Andrés Baiz,
who wanted to hire a local Los Angeles DP who also spoke Spanish,
since a majority of Griselda's script is in Spanish. Growing up in
Miami, Armando happened to know the story of Griselda Blanco very
well. He also worked on a 2006 documentary called Cocaine Cowboys,
about how Miami became the cocaine capital of the US. They did
careful location scouting around LA for places that looked like
Miami in the late 1970's and early 80's. Armando and Baiz wanted
the show to have the right period look. “We didn't take an
intellectual conceit, I wasn't only using lenses or camera
technology that existed at that time. We were really more
interested in finding the right feeling,” Armando explains. “And
so, we looked at a lot of photography from the period, we looked at
a lot of films from the period, we looked at modern films that were
doing a good job of recreating the period, but we kind of landed
our our own version. Again, it's really just like capturing the
vibe and building the world. And so we had a very aggressive and
unique approach to the LUT and the color characteristics of our
negative.” The Polaroid pictures Baiz took during location scouting
became a big inspiration for the color palette of the show.
Throughout the six episode series, Armando used color to help tell
a compelling character story. Griselda's world is full of deep,
rich colors as she's living the high life. In contrast, Armando
chose a bluer, more desaturated color for scenes with June Hawkins
(Juliana Aidén Martinez), the Miami PD intelligence analyst. As she
breaks the case and convinces law enforcement officers to go after
Griselda, she enters a world of color. “And on top of that, we
unleash the camera. We go flying down the sidewalk with her from
multiple angles. It's the fastest camera movements in the series.
And over the course of the series, her storyline and Griselda's
storyline meet, and the color, the glitz and glamour of Griselda's
world has been mostly stripped out at that point. June has come
into her own, and they meet in that world. The two arcs have now
connected, and it's one story.” Griselda is available on Netflix.
https://www.netflix.com/title/81133447 Hear our previous interview
with Armando discussing his work on Ozark and more.
https://www.camnoir.com/ep91/ Find Armando Salas:
https://www.salasfilm.com/ Instagram: @cinesalas Sponsored by Hot
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