Neflix' Narcos Cinematography

[Hal Long]

Halfway through Stranger Things right now. Loving it. Very impressed with Tim Ives work there and on Mr. Robot.

 

[Rodrigo Prata]

To me it looks perfect. I used to have a house down in northern brazil and spent quite a bit of time down there. Simply I think the look is inspired by the continent where it´s shot, they use way more colours on everything down there. Nothing strange to have a house painted in pure green, red yellow or what ever. That goes for everything not only the houses then those strong colours are mixed with other stuff that is pure concrete or old tiles or bricks. Then you simply got a different kind of vegetation, the amazon is just around the corner to green is quite prominent and also all kinds of other colours. So simply I think the locations and environment where the film is shot is very well described in the camera work at hand. Just like florida keys has a totally different look than Los Angeles or New York.

I think everyone that has been in the area very much recognise the color palette. Also To me the rough camera movement and the mix of fixed cameras with rough handheld etc to me also goes with both the story and the scenery. South america is rough place with no even edges. The camera work to me goes very well with the setting. Just as House of cards looks very well with only smooth straight camera work with matched colors and perfect lightning in every shot, I think the guys doing Narcos try to be in the other end of that spectrum. To me the manage to still keep an organic feel to it and also with the grain and grit and some times long focus ranges they make it look a bit like 16mm from the 70´s without stretching it too far so to me they are close to perfect. Looking forward to see the second season.

Hello Bjorn,

Nice to know you have visited Brazil yourself. I`m from here. You are absolutely right about the colour palette in the show. It's very representative of what south america looks like.

What I don't like in particular is the color correction. To me it accentuates certain characteristics of the Dragon sensor that I don't like.

As for the handheld shot. Here in Brazil almost everything is shot handheld when they want to create a "cinematic" style. (I`m talking mostly about local TV shows, but goes for features and soap opera as well). It seens that it's the only way they can think of as how to create tension with the camera. To me, most times it just showcase the lack of understanding of visual language of most of our directors. So I must say that when I see Narcos, a part of me thinks that the handheld style is right for the show, but another part just think that it's a too obvious of a choice, and a lot of camera moves make no sense to me.

 

[Rodrigo Prata]

Stranger Things, which is very well shot, seems like it would create the wrong feel for Narcos. I suppose one alternative they could have gone with is shooting on Super 16, but perhaps cost and workflow came into play.

I absolutely agree that the "Stranger Things" look would not have fit "Narcos". It was just an exemple of something shot on Dragon that I enjoy very much what they did on the colour grade. (perhaps I expressed my self poorly when I said "Cinematography". What I really don't like in Narcos is the color grading)

I have heard most of the crew of Narcos speak several times here in Brazil and I know for a fact that given the chance, they would have shot the show on the Alexa. But Alexa is a no go for Netflix.