Andor lensed by Christophe Nuyens
Serving as a prequel to Rogue One, Andor follows Rebel spy Cassian Andor’s formative years of the Rebellion and his numerous missions for the cause. Season two of the show was captured by Christophe Nuyens SBC.
Nuyens first got involved with Andor through a friend he’d worked with on Riviera in 2017. “David Meanti was a 1st AD and moved to the UK before becoming a producer,” begins Nuyens. “He worked on the first season of Andor. Originally, he tried to get me on the first season, but that didn’t work. Then on the second season, they offered me the first block and after a few weeks of work, I was also offered the last block. Suddenly, I was doing six episodes. It wasn’t originally my intention to be on that project for so long, but when I read the script of the second block, I was very impressed. The first block is episode four, five and six, which is not a typical Star Wars arc. It’s more about the growing relations between different planets. It was more like a spy movie but set in the Star Wars universe. Episode one, two and three of the last blocks were really Star Wars and I knew I needed to be part of this.
Joining a show for its second season isn’t without it’s difficult, though Nuyens was grateful for the prep time he had. “The first month of prep was about discovering the crew,” he explains. “There were lots of departments and I had to just find my way around all of those in the beginning, but from the moment I found my place and my marks, it was incredible. Everybody was in the same office working together: the art department, VFX and we could previs everything. We could also discuss the sets with our production designer, Luke Hull to optimise everything.”
When it came to shot listing, there were the occasional difficult shots which Nuyens and his team had to previs to ensure they were possible to achieve on set. “Then the day we had to shoot them we could really refine them,” he says. “We also pre-lit the sets before the sets were built. I already had light plans and my gaffer also had a long prep. He was in the office, next to me. If it wasn’t exactly what we wanted, then we could keep on looking. It was rare to have this time on a show. I really enjoyed the prep just as much as the shooting time.”
Several planets feature in Andor, old and new and capturing the numerous environments was all part of the process. “There were a few which were technically the most challenging,” says Nuyens. “Mina-Rau, the agricultural planet with the grain fields was one of them. They planted those fields especially for us and there was a window of four or so weeks when the crops were perfect. One day before we had to go out in the fields, the SAG strike started. That ultimately meant that we could only shoot with non-SAG actors, so for some scenes we shot with doubles. For reverse shots, we had to shoot five months later on a stage with all the crops. It was very challenging to make that all feel as real as possible and to light it in a realistic way. While we were shooting in the actual fields, we were measuring the colour temperature of the sky and sun for every shot. The DIT was noting all those values and for the stage, I had a ceiling with 300 sky panels and everything was LED, so we could really dial in those colour temperatures like they were on the real set. Hopefully you barely notice it. I notice it for some shots, but I think the majority of people won’t see it.”
A particularly challenging shot for Nuyens was the oner shot in episode six that was shot across four days. “It goes from a truck, through a tunnel and then another tunnel,” he says. There were three sets and a VFX set in-between. We shot with the Technocrane, then the camera had to be hooked off for us to go in the tunnel and then we had another Technocrane in the tunnel and we go through water. It was a very challenging shot. It’s not a oner like you see in some episodes of shows, where full episodes are being shot as a oner, although I’d love to do that someday. Another element of the show I loved was the quality of the scripts. We could be really precise. At the end of every episode there’s a cross cut: an edit of three things coming together and happening at the same time. It was written so specifically that it really helped with prep and the way that we were telling the story.”
The jet fighter dog fight sequences required long prep and lots of previs. “We shot those in 10 days, on a lot of stages. Part of it was shot in the hangar, which was a full stage. The walls of the set were against the wall of the stages and we used the entire stage. There were parts also shot on a gimbal five months later. Everything had to be matching lightwise and because we were working with LEDs we really relied on my DIT, who was writing all the settings down to keep it exactly the same to match it. For the stuff in the cockpit, we had so many shots and not a lot of time, so we decided on the gimbal to hard mount six cameras. We used two Venices, FX3s and FX6s otherwise there was no light coming through the window. We had to find ways because even on a show like Andor, you don’t have enough time or money and everything was very ambitious.”
Nuyens enjoyed the creative freedom that came with working on the show. “That was also the nice thing about creator, Tony Gilroy,” adds Nuyens. “He was very specific in his writing and so it was easy to understand exactly what he wanted. He’s not a person that is on set all the time and intervening. I had the feeling he trusted myself, as well as the director. On other shows, I’ve had more remarks than I have working on Andor, so there was a lot of freedom. I also redesigned the LUTs and changed the lenses and all of those things were fine as long they thought it was making the show better. Of course, we had to discuss those things, but I didn’t have the feeling I was limited in a creative way.”
Although stepping into a beloved franchise, Nuyens didn’t really feel the pressure of working within the Star Wars universe. “I think that was down to the time we had to prep it, so on set we were confident. We made a moodboard for every different set and planet. I discussed lots of references with the directors and we had loads, with very few actually coming from other Star Wars films. There were so many references that it’s difficult to point to just one. One I will point to, however, was the wedding in episode three. Our main reference for that was Macau in Skyfall and Memoirs of a Geisha. In the end we graded it colder and that’s where Tony did intervene because he doesn’t like too much warmth. I shot those scenes really warm like in Skyfall, but in the grade it’s colder. I’m still really happy with it and that’s the nice thing about using references: it’s a direction, but you don’t have to copy it.”
Overall, Nuyens worked on Andor for a year and a half, with the SAG strike delaying production. He used the Sony Venice 1 to capture the show. “In the first season they used the Venice with Panavision Cs and I wanted to use those, but they don’t cover full frame. Rogue One was shot on Alexa 65, large format and as this serves as a prequel, I wanted to also go bigger on our sensor. It was really difficult to find anamorphic lenses that cover full frame. I knew Panavision had Ultra Vistas, but I very quickly ran into difficulty as those lenses are made by hand and not a production series of lenses. There aren’t many of them around and we needed four sets of them. It was really hard to find them in the beginning, but we did eventually and I’m really happy with them.”
Despite not being the biggest Star Wars fan, Nuyens has seen all the movies and really enjoys the cinematic universe. “The creation of the world is so beautiful and it’s great to work with the sets and costumes and everything,” he concludes. “It was like a child’s dream to work on this. One morning I was in my house with my family. The morning sun would come through the window, making shadows on the wall. These little beautiful sparkles. I had an incredible light crew, especially my gaffer and rigging gaffer. I was talking with my gaffer, as I wanted to emulate the light in my house. So, we tried everything until we ended up with the same result. I really enjoyed having lots of time to experiment on this show that elements such as this were possible to achieve. There was also one wedding scene where we used a painted backing. We overexposed it and tried several lamps. That’s the only set where I used only Tungstens. It was an old school set and I was super happy with it. It’s not usually me, as I prefer to use LEDs. I also learnt a lot about VFX on this show.”
Key Crew
Russell Diamond – Key Grip
Iain Struthers – Camera Operator: b camera
Lee Daniells – Electrical Rigger
Neil Ashton – Electrician
Ben Emerson – Grip
Jonathan Spencer – Gaffer
Luke Harris – Lighting Technician: Main unit
By Oliver Webb