Working as a Cinematographer on a Period Piece Short Film

Last year I worked on a short film called Rawhead Trail for the 100 Hour Film Fest. I only ended up filming half of the project, which wasn’t ideal for the final product, but I’m really proud of the footage I captured. The film is a historical piece, and we had a great location: a small shack from the 1800s in Marietta, Georgia. With period-appropriate costumes and some thoughtful art direction, the look of the film came together nicely.

I shot my portion using my RED Komodo X paired with Leica R lenses. That combination produces such beautiful images. You can check out a few of my favorite shots at the bottom of this post.

The interior of the cabin was supposed to feel dark and moody, lit primarily by an imaginary fireplace. To create that effect, I used one of my Gemini lights on a flicker setting to simulate firelight on the background. The director specifically asked for a look reminiscent of old folk tales, so I made the lights colorful and lit the scene a little brighter than I would if I was going for realism. For the key light, I used another Gemini set to the same color temperature but without the flicker. I didn’t want too much flickering to distract from the actors’ faces. We also added a cool-toned light streaming in through the window, and once we filled the space with haze, the beam of light gave the room a really eerie atmosphere. I wish I had a spotlight available to push the look even further, but at the time I didn’t own one.

After the shoot, I handled the color correction on the finished film. I also did a separate grade for my own footage because the director had a very specific vision: he wanted a 4:3 format with a heavy old film look. While that suited the tone of the project, I couldn’t bring myself to grade my footage with that same gritty texture. There was too much beauty in the image to cover it up. Color correcting the full film was a bit of a challenge. I shot on my RED, while the other cinematographer used an older Blackmagic camera with vintage Canon lenses. It was tough matching the two, and some of the shot from the Blackmagic didn’t give me much flexibility in post. But I worked with what I had, and the director was very happy with how everything came together.

Here is my color grade: