The Creator cinematographers Greig Fraser ASC, ACS and Oren Soffer

Filmmaker Gareth Edwards and co-cinematographers Greig Fraser and
Oren Soffer embraced the unconventional while making the new
science fiction movie The Creator. From the camera used, to how it
was shot, to the visual effects, the team brought together film
techniques both new and old. It's rare to have two cinematographers
working on the same film, but Greig Fraser had a set date to begin
prepping for Dune and could not be on location in Thailand for
shooting The Creator. Gareth was the co-writer, director and camera
operator on the film, and Greig knew Gareth needed support prepping
the camera and lighting each location. Greig enjoyed the close
collaboration with another cinematographer while shooting the
series The Mandalorian and he knew having a second DP would be the
ideal situation for shooting The Creator. Cinematographer Oren
Soffer was brought in, and Oren, Gareth and Greig all prepped the
film together, discussing in detail how Gareth wanted to tell the
story. Once shooting began, Greig was tasked with managing the LUT
and screening the dailies in a Los Angeles theater, while Gareth
and Oren managed the day to day on set. Oren and Greig would talk
every day about lighting setups, and they both appreciated having
another DP around for feedback and ideas. With a collaborator, they
both felt like working on the film was less stressful and it led to
better creativity. As Greig told us in his interview with The
Cinematography Podcast in 2022, The Creator was shot on a Sony FX3.
The FX3 is a very affordable, small, lightweight camera that Gareth
was familiar with. It was easier for him to move around handheld,
explore his shots, and have the freedom to interact with his
actors. Gareth's approach to The Creator was documentary-style,
much like his first film, Monsters, but it was important to him
that it still looked composed like a film. The FX3 could deliver a
quality image at the level they needed for color grading and for
visual effects company Industrial Light & Magic to add VFX.
Oren points out that if a camera can deliver an image quality that
looks like what you want, and fits the technical specifications you
need, then any camera the director or DP chooses is the right tool.
The images shot on the FX3 did have a lot of digital noise at
higher ISOs, but this was a look they embraced for its similarity
to film grain. The tools a cinematographer uses will continue to
evolve and unlock more creativity. With advances in post production
and lighting technology, how the image is made matters a lot less.
The most important thing to consider is how does the audience
respond to the film? Is the cinematographer doing their job as the
storyteller? For his part, Greig likes to know about all the tools
available to tell the story, and he wants to have enough knowledge
about what's possible to pass on to a director when he's asked.
While shooting The Creator, Gareth would let the crew know the
general story beats they needed for the day, but he would not share
the shot list- it was a reference he kept for himself, so that he
could shoot on the fly in an improvisational manner. As the
operator, he didn't need to spend a lot of time explaining the
shots he needed to get, or rely on storyboards. Since the visual
effects were designed after the footage was shot, the storyboards
only acted as a reference. Gareth wanted all of the pieces,
including the action, to have the energy of spontaneity. Oren was
able to “set up the sandbox for him and the actors to play in. It
meant lighting more broadly, but we would know which direction he'd
be shooting, and augmenting it on a shot by shot basis with small
LED lights or a helios tube on a boom pole. It was like growing a
film in a pot of dirt in your backyard.” For the visual effects on
The Creator, Gareth chose to be very sparing in his use of 3D
special effects., spending the budget only when it was needed to
render detailed objects like the robots.