From 2nd Unit to Lead DP: Boris Abaza shares his experience over “Coeurs noirs Season 2”
Thank you Boris for taking the time being with us, Could you please introduce yourself?
I’m Boris Abaza, Paris based cinematographer, and like many others, former focus puller and camera operator for different talented directors and DP’s here in France, but also from other countries. All these past years working with them, with their personal approachs, methods and cultures of cinema, trained me and helped me to improve my own way to consider and to step into new projects. With them all, I learned how to build and fine tune an image, find the best tools to tell stories and accompany the directors the best I can. I guess this whole processing must have been like « deep learning » and unconscious all years long. But at some point, the big part of your creativity comes from you only: your own eye and personal references you built throughout the years and the many jobs finally meet what you learned from those talented guys.
(And there still is a lot to learn !)
As you directed the photography over “Coeurs Noirs” season 2, can you please tell us more about this project?
One of those Dp’s I worked with, was Tommaso Fiorilli. I basically started to work with him as 2nd unit Dp, on the first season of Coeurs Noirs, directed by Ziad Doueri (and Alain Sauma as 2nd unit director). It went well, and I guess Ziad, Tommaso and production were happy enough with what we shot: we initially had our unit planned for 12 to 13 days. But we ended up with a lot more, Ziad knowing exactly how to use our unit . For this 2nd season, even if they started prep, Ziad and Tommaso were eventually not available anymore. Thanks to our relationship with Mandarin Television and the job done on S1, production manager Philippe Chaussende and producer Gilles de Verdière introduced me to Frédéric Jardin, who had been chosen to direct this new season. Of course, there were some other Dp’s also interviewed, but we ultimately started prep with Fred.
Can you tell us about the artistic guidelines which were defined for this second season? Did you have any constraints or specific requirements?
Our discussions with production were, of course, to stick to the incredible energy and rythm, and to the initial mood of S1. But besides this, we had relative freedom to consider this new part. My feeling is, for an audience, when you’ve got almost the same very good cast, many same visual references (sets, typical military sets, vehicles or props, etc…) you’re almost ready to jump into another season without any difficulty. Anyway, even if we had in mind to do at least as good as S1, it was easy for us to use all what had been put in place before us. After a few chats with Frédéric, we wanted to keep this overall dynamic in the shots. And keep from S1 the handheld pace and nice steadicam shots (with some pretty sequence shots from Loïc Savouré, our steadicam and camera operator). But compared to the former season, we used maybe more other tools (helped by key grip Raphaël Jourdan): long dolly tracks or zoom shots, cranes, sliders, etc… Regarding optics: where the first season was almost exclusively shot on Optimos lightweight zooms, we decided to go with another set-up: we went with primes this time. Fred also likes the 24-290 which he uses a lot in his movies, for long shots from a distance, or using the zooming in or out, in his storytelling. I wanted something that could help to evoke the bright and contrasty light of Morocco (being Irak in our story), with pretty much vertical sun. But strangely, on recce, my initial feelings about this harsh light, slightly moved to something else: the contrast wasn’t that obvious. All the colors really, were mixed and faded, helped in that by the action of time: the sun altering the saturation, and the dust for example, adding a slight layer of ochre or yellow-ish color on buildings, cars or even landscapes. And basically, even if we shot contrasty situations, almost everything we shot tends to have more softness than I initially imagined. Tommaso initiated S1 with a nice yellow / green-ish look, enhancing the highlights, keeping them a bit colored, and all shot with a 2.40 ratio. With DIT Bryan Randell, and later colorist Charles Fréville, we decided to capture and render some more intermediate colors and shades, give more gradient to the highlights, and preserve skintones a maximum, in the middle of this oriented palette. One other main difference in the scripts: we had a lot more night sequences to shoot than in S1 ! Based on this, we decided to go Alexa 35, and Raw HDE, as they shot ProRes on Alexas Mini.
How long did you actually travel in Morocco, I can remember that the shooting duration was quite long? It must have been an amazing work and life experience!
We went to Morocco few weeks back and forth, prior to shoot, for recce and prep, alternating with prep in Paris. French crew spent like 12 weeks there, moving between Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech and Beni Mellal. We then came back to Paris for 2 or 3 weeks in studio, where we mainly shot the Operational Command Center, some basements, and parts of Sab’s different cells (some parts were shot on location). I really love Morocco and the crew we had: the 2 seasons were shot with almost the same people. I feel very lucky to have had Zouhair Seffir and Zak Badreddine (our 2 main focus pullers, and their assistants) available for this long job. It was not only fun with them, but also a relief, having so good technicians on this project. Same with sparks (local gaffer Driss Jail and his team), and Taoufik Benchay (local key grip and his guys).
Regarding the camera package, you ended-up choosing the Optimo Prime Series as well as the Optimo Ultra 12x, did this lens pack fulfill your needs and expectations?
Basically, besides the look to find, one of my concerns was to build a package that would be reliable for the many weeks in heat, sun and dust, and provide enough lenses for our 3 Alexas 35 and 1 FX6. Regarding lenses, I was looking for a not so heavy set-up (lot of handheld or steadicam), a good minimum focus (bunch of inserts of phones, computer screens …), long lens and extra long lenses to match what the scripts mentioned as a variety of military weapons viewfinders or binoculars. TSF Paris was our rental house: they let us spend time testing many different sets. At some point I had the opportunity to try out the Optimo Primes and IOP kit that I had never used before. We went through many different options available from the IOP system, combining filters in the center of the lens, on the rear, or in front… With this very interesting and useful flexibility, you can bring the lenses pretty much where you want. With Bryan, we really started to « build » a look from scratch that could match initial ideas (evolving during this prep !). It ended up with a combo of an internal uncoated filter (to enhance the sunlight, catch flare and wash out a bit the image), in addition to external PV filter Allure Black Soft 1/8 almost all the time in front, to break resolution a bit, and to help us to haze highlights (sun or practical lights), and soften sharp details in the frame. Depending on the shot and the cast, we could easily adjust diffusion in front in a more efficient way -considering our location (a lot of dust)- than a screwed filter on the back, that we wouldn’t easily swap without risks. Besides that, we had an Optimo Ultra 12x zoom in U35 mode, which is a really nice match to the primes. And if not long enough, we had a Canon 400/800 for super long lens shots, to fake military eyepieces for some of our shots. On the other hand, we additionally used a 14mm Athena, for car interiors, or wides in small spaces or on top shots. When technically everything runs well on set, when there’s no issue to mention -and it can happen a lot on demanding shoots-, you forget about the equipment. And that means also, the right choice was made for the shoot.
About the final look…
After Coeurs Noirs S1, Tommaso called for a 2nd unit on another job that lasted 2 seasons. At this time, we were among the few first to use these Alexas 35 on a TV show in France. After many months of shooting, Bryan, William Dumont (gaffer) and I, were used to what those cameras could bring, and had no doubt they were the right tool again here . During recce on location for all night sequences, I really was amazed by the mix of bulbs and their colors, that I could see in the streets, cities or even small villages: this is something I wanted to keep. One of our inputs in this season would be to add color to the palette of the episodes : with colourful night exteriors or interiors. And use the wide range of new sensors to reveal extra intermediate shades. As said, we decided to use the Alexas 35 with an embedded texture. Artificial haze in interiors helped us to give an extra push to the overall combined look, adding some structure and roughness to our situations. My feeling really is, this combo Optimo primes + Alexa 35 matched pretty well with overall art direction, and all put together made this season’s 2 visual look.
Are there some particularities about the lenses that you would like to highlight? what would you keep, what would you change?
I was surprised by the fall off, and the way the background fades out of focus: it’s subtle and pleasing. I won’t say I had a preferred lens, but we used a lot of the 28, 40 and 75. And shooting 2 cameras at the same time, all the wide range of lenses in the set was used constantly. The 200mm is also a good asset: usually this kind of focal length is out of the set, and barely with the same characteristics, but here we had those as well. The ACs were happy with the set, found it pretty compact and light, and easy to handle. I don’t remember any issue neither optical nor mechanical, despite the heat and dust. Another valuable point with the Optimo Primes: the accurate matching of our image throughout the 2 units, and all the primes. Easier and faster for us to grade on set, and of course later in post also. Jacques Ballard was 2nd unit Dp on S2. He told us, in between the days he came over to our set in Morocco, he had one commercial to shoot with Optimo primes as well. He was surprised by the way we added so much character to our set, and how the same lens could give two completely different looks. Again, the IOPs are a powerful tool to create your look . Talking about looks, I would love to test the oval diaphragm system again: during tests we had one in demo, and I liked it. Unfortunately, because of our 20+ lenses, and the reduced time before the shoot, it was not possible to leave France with all our lenses equipped with this tool.
This project must have been so demanding, shooting all in one shot, is there any anecdotic story you would like to share with us?
This shoot has a particular flavor to me and will surely remain as a special one. As you said, it was quite demanding for several reasons. But the cool thing is, when you’re far away from home, and when a bunch of technicians and cast, with a great mindset manages to create an intimate group aiming all together for the best , this is priceless!
