Strong visuals for Spanish thriller
The Platform was a high-concept thriller that broke records upon its release on Netflix in 2020. The streamer called it the most watched non-English Netflix film ever. Variety’s critic compared the minimalist premise to the plays of Samuel Beckett.
For the sequel, cinematographer Jon Sangroniz and director Galder Gaztelu-Urritia aspired to emulate the first film’s creepy atmosphere, while also updating and enhancing the visuals to today’s quality, definition and color standards. That led them to Hawk V‑Lite Vintage’74 Anamorphics, combined with the Alexa 35 camera system.
“I had long phone calls with Jon Dominguez, AEC, who shot the first film on Kowa anamorphics,” says Sangroniz. “He was generous with his answers. I knew that the Hawk Vintage’74s were right for this project, and Vantage in Weiden came through for us with a set.”
Tests comparing the Vintage’74s and the Kowas were performed using the costumes, sets and the handheld approach planned for the shoot, with and without a 1.6x extender.
“We all fell in love with the images from the Hawks and the Alexa 35,” says Sangroniz. “From that point on, there was no other way!”
The ruthlessly simple story is contained in a unique fictional prison – 333 floors of a building with a hole in the center, through which food descends. Inmates on the lower floors are more likely to go hungry, and chaos ensues. Shooting took place in Barakaldo, in Basque Country, among other locales in Spain.
DIT Nacho Platanoboligrafo helped craft images with a bit more distinctive color separation compared to the first film, and carefully controlled grain. Practical light, usually set at 6200 degrees Kelvin, added punch to the image, but was kept separate from the light falling on the actors, which was usually moving, dimming up and down and set at 5000 °K. Three different LUTs were designed with contrast and color temperature tending harder and cooler as the film intensifies. A constant choreography of light levels, camera movement, exposure and iris changes characterized the shoot. Many takes went on for eight minutes or more.
“The Hawk V‑Lite Vintage’74s were just amazing – the color and texture rendering, the exposure index where they start to glow and flare – and this is a film with tons of closeups on faces,” says Sangroniz. “The 55 mm was our perfect weapon in terms of texture and the ability to be very, very close, with slight barrel distortion providing a lot of dimensionality. The 55 mm was on one of our cameras for the entire shoot. The 28 mm was also extremely helpful.”
Sangroniz studied at Basque Country Cinema School before earning a Master’s degree in Direction of Photography at the prestigious ESCAC Film School in Spain. He’s been working as a director of photography for a decade.
“All of the people at Vantage were so helpful and friendly,” he says. “Barbara Weiss and Fabian Piehler were dedicated to making the project work with Vintage’74s, and I had a wonderful chat about lenses with founder and CEO Peter Martin, who also showed me some interesting new products.”
According to Collider, The Platform 2 was globally the most-watched movie on Netflix upon its release on October 4, reportedly viewed for more than 32 million hours in a single weekend.
Watch the trailer here.
images: IMDb, Jon Sangroniz
