Jeff Cutter (‘Prey’ cinematographer) on shooting night scenes with ‘nothing beyond firelight and moonlight’ [Exclusive Video Interview]
“The vastness of the locations and the beauty of the environment,” reveals cinematographer Jeff Cutter when asked what he most cherished about shooting the visually epic sci-fi action drama “Prey.” For our recent webchat he adds, “It was really untouched as far as the eye can see, 360 degrees, there’s nothing but the natural landscape,” he says. “We shot one of the sequences by a stream and we had to helicopter some of our equipment in. We shot at this amazing bluff or overlook that we had to hike up to and take a minimal amount of equipment. You stand up there, and these locations take your breath away.” Watch our exclusive video interview above.
SEE Exclusive Video Interview: Amber Midthunder (‘Prey’)
“Prey” was directed by Dan Trachtenberg from a script by Patrick Aison, the latest installment in the “Predator” film franchise, serving as a prequel to the first four films. Amber Midthunder stars as Naru, young Comanche woman is determined to prove herself as a hunter on the Northern Great Plains of 1719. She finds herself protecting her people from a vicious alien (the Yautja, otherwise known as the Predator), which hunts humans for sport, as well as from French fur traders mindlessly destroying the buffalo that her tribe relies on for survival. Midthunder leads a mostly indigenous cast including Dakota Beavers as Taabe and Michelle Thrush as Aruka, with former international basketballer Dane DiLiegro co-starring as the fearsome Predator.
Cutter, who worked with DGA-nominated director on Trachtenberg’s feature directorial debut (“10 Cloverfield Lane”), was keen to work with him again, this time in a completely different environment, shooting mostly on location, at night, and on First Nations land in the prairies outside Calgary, Canada. “Everything’s very naturalistic. There’s nothing beyond firelight and moonlight; there’s no other light sources,” the D.P. explains about the challenging night shoots, where he would only ever augment natural light with dimmed, low-level incandescent tungsten lights. “So, daytime it’s just the sun and then at night, you’re just dealing with these two sources for light. That was very exciting and also I felt like it was such a great tapestry for the film and a great backdrop, and to sort of really strip it all down. When I first read it, that was the thing that really got me excited and inspired.”
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