Vantage Teams with DP David Luther on Season 1 and 2
Das Boot, the 1981 Wolfgang Peterson film, is a landmark in cinema history. Jost Vacano’s Oscar-nominated camerawork – famously accomplished with a handheld Arriflex camera he adapted for the project – instills a sense of dread in the audience, and is still referred to by filmmakers who want to communicate sweaty, claustrophobic intensity. Now, director of photography David Luther has been working on the second season of an updated Das Boot, a sequel series for television set nine months after the events of the original. This time around, Vantage One T1 lenses from Vantage play a central role in the cinematography.
Season 1, consisting of eight hour-long episodes, premiered in Germany in November of 2018 on Sky and made its U.S. debut on Hulu in June 2019. Shot by Luther in part with Hawk V‑Lite 1.3x Anamorphics and V‑Plus zooms, Luther’s work was honored with the Best Cinematography prize at the German Television Awards as well as the German Camera Prize, where the jury’s statement read in part: “Luther's camera work reveals a sensitive approach to the characters, subtly supporting the dramaturgical twists of a gripping story. In the harmonious interplay of camerawork and lighting design, Luther develops an independent, sovereign and modern visual language that respectfully commends the original and at the same time sets its own accents to present a contemporary reinterpretation and consistent continuation of the story.”
The show cuts between action in the sub and scenes of the Resistance in wartime France. That called for a dual approach to the cinematography. Luther and his directors discussed the original film extensively during preproduction, but were not slavishly devoted to a literal interpretation.
“In the submarine, it was very important to us to maintain the darkness,” says Luther. “Normally a submarine is painted white or a light color, but we kept it dark and somber, like a kind of sea coffin, in part to pay homage to the original. We mainly used Alexa Mini cameras handheld, in a documentary style at first, and often very close to the actors.”
For Season 1, Luther and his team spent 60 days of the 104-day shoot on a complex, gimballed submarine set, using Cooke S2 lenses and stayed with only two focal lengths – the vast majority on the 32 mm, and, to heighten the tension at key moments, the 40 mm. He controlled color temperature in a handful of basic moods including tungsten (approximately 2800 degrees Kelvin), and daylight (4800 degrees Kelvin) – mixing blue and red for scenes of panic or fear.
“The scenes on land are shot completely differently,” says Luther. “For Season 1, there’s more crane work with classical composition, and we shot on V‑Lite 1.3x Anamorphics. I used pearlescent filters and lots of gentle smoke in order to feel the beams of light. The land scenes are more classic, but at the same time, I wanted to keep them naturalistic so that the transitions from the sub to this different world are not too jarring. We knew the audience’s eyes would need time to adjust from the dark world in the boat to this brighter, more normal environment, and back again.”
There were some changes from Season 1 to Season 2, including new directors Matthias Glasner and Rick Ostermann. Ostermann oversaw portions of the season with director of photography Philip Blaubach, BSC. Technically, the most important switch was from Hawk V‑Lite 1.3x anamorphics to Vantage One T1 lenses. As a result, the 16X9 frame produced by the 1.3x squeeze factor and a 4X3 imaging area for Season 1 will change to 2:1 in Season 2. (Some viewers will see Season 2 in a cropped 16:9 version.)
“I like the V‑Lites because they have such nice depth of field,” says Luther. “They drop off so nicely. The T1s gave us more freedom on the Steadicam, which Mateus chose most of the time, and offered the ability to easily rack focus from the foreground to the background and back again if the scenes called for it. Also, with the T1s, we have the option to come even closer to the actors. The T1s are spherical lenses, and we don’t really open them up beyond 2.8½, where it becomes more of a specialty lens.”
On the T1s, Luther stays with the medium focal lengths – the favorite being the 40 mm, and nothing wider than 25 mm. Combined with the Arri Mini, they makes for a compact camera package, which helps when Luther is handholding in the smoky sub set for 12-minute takes that build tension. He carries an Optimo zoom in the package as well. All camera equipment is provided by the Czech branch of Vantage Film in Prague.
“The episodes look great,” says Luther. “I’m very pleased with the look. In Bavaria, we had a premiere screening of some Season 1 episodes projected on a massive screen, and I was nervous about how it would hold up. But it was amazing. It held up beautifully.”
Season 2 of Das Boot will be released on Sky Germany in April 2020 and is expected to begin airing on Hulu in the course of 2020.
Watch the trailer for season 2 here
images: Vantage Film/sky
