Cinematography Style: Shabier Kirchner

INTRODUCTION

After getting his first big breakthrough working with director Steve McQueen, Shabier Kirchner has emerged as a prominent, self-taught cinematographer in the world of festival and indie films. 

His photography mixes expressive but not heavy handed lighting, different formats, big close ups, handheld movement and naturalism to create an often dense, grainy, filmic look that evokes unconscious feelings from the audience.  

This video will unpack his work as a cinematographer a bit further by going over how he got his start in the industry, looking at some of his thoughts and philosophies on filmmaking and breaking down some of the gear he’s used to create images.  

BACKGROUND

“Images were always something that I was surrounded by. I was just immediately attracted to drawing and eventually photography as a way of expressing how I was feeling. In a way that I couldn’t really do with words or I couldn’t do with writing.”

Although the Antiguan born cinematographer struggled a bit in school, he developed an early love of photography. This was amplified by his dad who also loved photography, so much so that he had his own darkroom.

Here, Kirchner got to experiment with film and learn the basics of exposure and development. As he got older he began shooting a lot of what he was surrounded by, such as surfing and skateboarding. He slowly built a reel, which he would later use to apply to study a Masters in cinematography at the NFTS film school in London.

After making it to the final round of selection, he wasn’t selected. On his way from a job he landed in New York, where he managed to work as a trainee on a movie. The DP on that movie, Thomas Scott Stanton, immediately landed him the amazing opportunity to shoot 2nd Unit cinematography. 

After that he settled in New York, working on commercials, music videos, short films and indie projects for the next eight years.

One day he got an unexpected call from Sean Bobbitt, Steve McQueen’s regular cinematographer. Since Bobbitt sometimes worked with NFTS, he assumed it was in regard to his earlier application to the film school, however, it was something far better. 

He was looking to introduce a new cinematographer to Steve McQueen, as Bobbitt would be unavailable to shoot an upcoming series he was working on called Small Axe. This sparked another opportunity in his career. 

PHILOSOPHY

By breaking down the choices that cinematographers make, my videos may make it seem like cinematography is a very analytical process. But often it’s not at all. Many DPs internalise their years of practice and formal and technical training, then use that to unconsciously make decisions which dictate the visual language of a film based on what feels best. 

“Like, everything about this project I felt was done on a very unconscious level. It’s something that now looking back on it I feel that there is a lot of value to operating on your impulses and operating on your emotions. Things that you feel that you may not be able to quite put into words.”

This doesn’t mean that he doesn’t prepare. Depending on the project he may put together a collection of images from photographers that he likes, or conduct research through conversations with the relevant people or communities that the story takes place in. While at the same time shaping a perspective based on his own experiences. 

And, of course, he may put together a shotlist. For example, during prep on the first episode of Small Axe, he compiled comprehensive lists of shots for covering scenes - with as many as three different alternatives per shot.

The director, McQueen, dismissed this approach, preferring to work off conversations about the story and characters, which ultimately led them to finding the right visual approach for each episode in the series.

Kirchner also drew from the wall full of period reference photos that the production designer had gathered. This gave everyone a sense of direction of the look, which also fed into his spirit for open collaboration with the crew.

“I want everybody to have read the material. I want everybody to feel what it is that we’re trying to achieve. That, you know, everybody had agency. I think that’s a really important thing. And when you feel that happening throughout a whole crew, the reverberation of that is, like, intoxicating.”

This collaborative environment that he encourages also extends to some of the gear decisions that are made by his technical crew. 

GEAR

Fostering an environment on set where everyone, including the technical crew, is on the same page about the look helped when it came to selecting gear and designing lighting setups.

“I wouldn’t call myself the most technical of people and I’m, like, totally OK with that because I have so much trust in people like Ian and his crew. To go and be able to describe a feeling or describe an aesthetic or a quality of light and have someone like Ian take that and interpret it in a way that is achievable is really great. Here’s a photograph, you know, Eggleston took at night and this is the light and it looks like we’re underwater. What do you think?”

This led to a member of the lighting team proposing to the gaffer that they use ETC Source Four fixtures to create different pools of overhead light. These spotlights, often used in stage lighting, can be used to create crisp beams of light that can be spotted. This means that the spread of light can be controlled and dimmed. 

They were also easy enough to rig, as top down lamps, from the highest windows of the street facing apartments.

They were all gelled blue-green to mimic the silver allied Mercury vapour lights of that era, to create multiple, controllable top down pools of bluish light reminiscent of Kirchner’s reference photo.

When lighting, he often uses contrasting colour temperatures and fixtures, to create different pops of colour across the frame.

For example, in this interior he used super thin LED Lightmats which could be velcroed to the ceiling, diffused with an off-colour fabric and gelled with leaf-green, steel-green or yellow in different areas to break up the modern, perfect feel of LED light.

This overhead ambience lifted the light levels of the entire space, which was further accentuated by practical tungsten wall sconces to create a warm look. This warm interior light was offset by the cooler Source Four street lights that were rigged outside. 

Even for more traditional day interior scenes, which are often lit through windows with stronger, daylight balanced HMIs, he may add little pops of tungsten practicals in the background to contrast the cooler daylight feel with a homely warmth. 

“I have so much love for celluloid. I just think that there is something very special to it. The way it treats skin. But I also think that the process in which we work with film, as well. There’s a lot of value in that. To be able to think, like, in an economical way and not just sort of spin the camera and roll and roll and roll. To, sort of, really trust what you’re doing as well.”

When it comes to choosing a medium, he does love the look of shooting on film, but will also choose digital cameras like the Alexa Mini or a Sony Venice, depending on his practical needs or the needs of the story.

A great example is the five part series Small Axe. Each episode was shot on a different medium. He used the cleaner, wider perspective of the large format digital Sony Venice for one, the digital Super 35 Alexa Mini for another episode for its ability to roll for long takes up to 45 minutes. 

With grainier, 16mm film used to bring out a 1970s aesthetic, the textural, widescreen 2-perf 35mm film look to frame wider aspect ratio shots of a community, and the more stabilised, structured, taller aspect ratio in 3-perf 35mm for another episode.

Each choice of format brought a different look that better suited the story of each episode.

When shooting on film he used 500T stock from Kodak, 5219 for 35mm and 7219 for 16mm. This stock has a beautiful, higher textural grain to it, and - being rated at 500 ASA - is fast enough to practically use it for both day and night scenes. He’s even push processed this film at times to create even more grain.

Kirchner shoots this tungsten balanced film without using any correction filters - even when shooting in daylight. Prefering to correct the colour temperature in the grade, rather than in camera.

Like his choice of formats, how he chooses lenses is also dependent on the kind of look for the story that he is after. For example, he’s used the Cooke Speed Panchro 2s for their soft vintage roll off and warmth, the PVintage range from Panavison for their smooth, fast aperture, romantic look, and the Zeiss Master Primes for their modern, cooler, sharper rendering of detail which helped capture 16mm with a higher fidelity look.

Although the type of camera movement he uses does depend on the director and the story they’re telling, his camera motion often has a rougher, handmade feeling to it. 

Whether through his regular use of handheld, or even by choosing not to stabilise bumps by using software in post production. 

Instead, embracing the little imperfections that come from a human operated crane movement in a sweeping shot across a courtroom. 

CONCLUSION

“I took some wild chances on things that I didn’t really believe that I could do but I just did it anyway and I failed terribly. But if I could go back again and do it all again I’d do it the exact same way because failing is success. I’ve learnt the most from things that I didn’t succeed at 100%.”