FIGHTING SPIRIT
Simona Susnea explains why series 2 of Apple TV+ period drama The Buccaneers offered “a wonderful opportunity for exploration and playfulness”.
The Buccaneers was my first period drama. I shot four episodes out of eight.
The episodes were very different in tone and took place in the UK and Italy. William McGregor and I established the season with episodes 1 and 4. Rachel Leiterman directed episodes 5 and 6. Episode 5 taps into the romance between Lizzie and Theo, and episode 6 takes a dark thriller tone, with Seadown locking Jinny away and killing his own brother. I enjoyed the visual range and made sure that episode 6, while getting darker, contrasty and more saturated, still had the feel of the Buccaneers world.
While set in the 1870s, we also wanted the show to have a contemporary feel and be led by the emotion vs the period look.
When I pitched my ideas, I suggested a more mature look for series 2. Nan becomes a Duchess and embraces responsibility over her heart, and uses her power to make a statement regarding women’s rights. I wanted the show to feel more royal, given Nan’s elevated status, while balancing out with the emotional side of Nan’s journey.
A standout scene suggesting Nan’s power and confidence is the red dress scene at the end of episode 1, arriving at the Black and White Ball. This is a scene that Will and I wanted to look almost like an advert and put Nan at the heart of it, where she’s centre-framed and lit with a golden light.
For series 2, I brought in references from Dutch paintings, which inspired me to bounce the key light, leave the blacks softer, and balance out how much detail I bring to the shadows.
Apart from the sets, which were built in Glasgow, we filmed in large-scale locations which were south-facing.
My gaffer built a scaffolding rig over our multiple castle locations. Tintagel Castle is a mix-up of four different locations, each bringing their own challenges. Where we didn’t need to rig onto the building because of its height or access, we brought in 40×40 frames hanging close above the windows, so I could control the sky and bounce the 18K HMIs, which were our main lamps for lighting interior locations.
I hardly ever brought lamps on set; we mainly lit through the windows and focused on the quality of light.
I also established three new sets–Conchita’s ground floor, first floor and bedrooms, and a 26-metre wedding marquee–and inherited the yellow bedroom set from season 1.
I lit the studio with a mixture of LED and tungsten lamps and asked the designer to build the sets without a ceiling so I could fit in soft boxes.
Conchita’s drawing room was lengthy, and I needed ambient light across it. I also wanted the floor clear of any lamps. We sometimes rigged smaller units off the soft box (Astera tubes or small Rifa lights) to bring in more fill on a face or a low-level backlight. We had an ensemble cast, so I often relied on the soft box as both ambient and a key light, with more light coming in through the window. We rigged six Dino Lights above the windows in the set, while using ECL lamps to light the translight. We had an additional 5Ks and 12Ks on stands for more intensity through the window.
In prep, I created a LUT for the show and tested LED sources vs tungsten. I wanted to give the faces as much glow, and I found that Fresnel tungsten lamps were creating beautiful warmth and made the faces stand out. I also shot a costume and make-up test, which Apple and the execs loved, so I fully embraced tungsten sources for the studio and some exteriors.
Episode 4 is mostly exteriors, and I lit a garden party shot across five days with Tungsten sources. I loved the 12-light Dinos for it. We embraced longer lenses for Hector’s garden party, and I also switched to the Alexa 35 for this section of episode 4.
Otherwise, the show was shot on the Mini LF, so I can frame the large-scale interiors easily. I used the Olympus M stills lenses as my main set and a Canon FD zoom, something I was keen to add to the show.
We especially used the zoom in episode 4 at Hector’s garden party and episode 5 for Lizzie’s chapel arrival.
For Italy, I ended up using the same LUT we created for the series, but made the scenes much brighter and warmer in camera, especially the exteriors. I also lit 90% of the exteriors for both the UK and Italy and worked closely with the AD to schedule based on the sun path and the mood we were after.
Episode 5 turns to Lizzie and Theo and their romance, so the episode’s tone was a lot softer, romantic, and we decided to stay very close to the actors and use as much movement to suggest their closeness, desire, and intimacy.
Episode 6 was a major gear shift in tone, where Seadown’s character inspired me to leave a lot of interiors underexposed or in shadow. We also had to craft the look of a Victorian mental asylum, where we mixed a cooler palette and soft, subdued light with the occasional LED tungsten hard light to highlight Jinny’s contrasting warmth as a character. Overall, there is a lot of colour in the show, but episode 6 has more saturation, especially in the blues and reds, particularly at the opera and Seadown’s house.
Rachel wanted as much drama in the scene and suggested we bring in an effect from the opera. We never reveal the opera on the stage, but we created a lighthouse effect that would spotlight Seadown and reveal Jinny when she breaks into Seadown’s box. This also added to the complexity of the day, particularly because we couldn’t prelight the location. Otherwise, I used balloons to light the opera, so the set-up is minimal and fast.
Shooting four episodes of series 2 allowed me to explore a variety of visual approaches and dive into several storylines, with their main characters. As a DOP led by character-driven narratives, this was a wonderful opportunity for exploration and playfulness. I got incredibly lucky to work with two great directors and our wonderful HODs in crafting the visual world of The Buccaneers series 2.
