Cinematographer Ari Wegner, ACS on shooting The Power of the Dog, working with director Jane Campion

Ari Wegner, ACS became a fan of director Jane Campion after seeing
her short films in high school. Seeing those films opened Ari's
eyes to the possibilities of choosing filmmaking as a career.
Several years later, she had an opportunity to work with Campion on
a commercial in Sydney, Australia and found they shared a similar
working aesthetic. Campion contacted her next about shooting The
Power of the Dog, and wanted to work closely with Ari on prepping
the film over the course of a year. Most DPs only have a few weeks
to meet with the director, location scout, and prep the film. They
began with location scouting in New Zealand, Campion's home
country, searching for the right mountains as the backdrop. The
Power of the Dog takes place in 1920's Montana, so finding the
right location to build an entire ranch set was also important. Ari
and Campion agreed that the colors in the film should reflect the
natural environment of cattle, sun, dust, golden grass, and brown
leather. The color palette was key to unifying the look of the
film, from the costumes to even the color of the cows. Ari and
Campion spent the last month before the shoot storyboarding every
scene, in a cabin closer to the set. As the set was being built,
they would go to the location and walk through it to figure out if
the shots were going to work. The ranch house exterior was built on
location, while the interiors were built on a stage. The script
also required knowing exactly where the actor's eyelines would be
as the characters stalk and spy on each other, so Ari needed to
know the layout of the house very well so that the shots lined up
just right. Campion always uses storyboards as plan A, and is open
to things changing once the actors physically embody the characters
and find their own unique moments and flow. Ari often filmed
handheld in order to move in on the actor's faces to capture the
quiet moments, expressions and unsaid private thoughts of each
character. Ari's work on The Power of the Dog was just nominated
for an ASC Award. Find Ari Wegner:
https://luxartists.net/ari-wegner/ Instagram: @ariwegner You can
see The Power of the Dog on Netflix Find out even more about this
episode, with extensive show notes and links:
http://camnoir.com//ep156/ Sponsored by Hot Rod Cameras:
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