Lulu Wang Instagram – #Director Lulu Wang (@thumbelulu) and #DOP Anna Franquesa-Solano AEC (@annafranquesasolano) take us #behindthescenes of #Expats, shot with #Panaspeed lenses and serviced by #Panavision Woodland Hills.
Anna begins:
“We wanted to capture a sense of restraint, since the three protagonists are constantly making an effort to not let go or surrender to their emotions, knowing that if they do, they will get lost. It is this attempt to keep control over their lives that influenced much of the visual look—subdued and constrained.”
Lulu continues:
“Anna and I watched films together and also referenced photographers Michael Wolf and Christopher Anderson. We discussed how we’d visually represent this wound, this unseen thing. We also talked a lot about the contrast of the different worlds and spending a lot of time on the ground in Hong Kong gave us a lot of inspiration.”
Anna continues:
“The reason why I went to Panavision for this project is because they have some of the best glass in the world and they were open to work with me to develop and find the look. The Panaspeeds gave us the control over the image that felt appropriate for the look. After performing some tests, Dan Sasaki modified them to be less sharp, softening the bokeh, controlling the flare to a minimum, and having very subtle glare around highlights, so we didn’t need any filtration during the shoot.
We kept the look very clean, with no aberrations or flares to soften the reality that these women have to go through.”
Lulu concludes:
“The scale of EXPATS was far greater than anything I’ve done before, and it gave us a ton of runway to play with different visual languages and thematic ideas. It was important for us to be expansive without losing the intimacy or specificity for each character and their particular world.
I became a director because I wanted to tell stories that transport you to another world and into another perspective. What keeps me inspired these days is collaboration. I love how collaboration expands my worldview and it helps me to continue learning and growing.” | Posted on 15/Jun/2024 01:04:03
