The Black Mirror episode “U.S.S. Callister” is a fan favorite on a lot of levels, especially for its spectacular cinematography. The episode’s Emmy-nominated director of photography, Stephan Pehrsson, created distinctive looks for the episode, which varied according to whether the characters were in the real or the virtual world, whether the captain of their ship was online or offline in that virtual world, and whether they all were on Earth or another planet (or two). Pehrsson broke it all down for SYFY WIRE.
What were your initial ideas about composing the shots in the different environments?
We wanted to make it as exciting and interesting as possible, and our main aim was to make sure we didn’t make the bad Black Mirror, because there have been so many good ones! [Laughs] The different modes came out of the script, because it was sort of written that we’re on a starship, it’s like the 1960s, it’s a bit cheesy, that kind of thing.
But shooting it like a TV show wasn’t specified in the script. We were going to shoot it completely differently, but after we dived into it, we realized that the right way to do it was to treat it like a 1960s TV show, shoot it in a 4:3 format with a static camera. So we presented that to the showrunner, and so that worked out. All the other looks developed out of that. We carried on with that 1960s look, but we had to make it an anamorphic way and with the bold color. And when he’s offline, the life goes out of it. All the color goes away in Tron mode, except for white and gray.
The exterior world, the director [Toby Haynes] wanted a real-world feel, so we went handheld there, as a way we could signpost to the audience where we are. And to a certain extent, in the virtual reality, when it’s in offline mode, the camera there goes handheld as well, so you still feel that sort of intense immediacy. And then at the end, we go to a J.J. Abrams-style Star Trek, and just made it flaring and exciting and more like a modern blockbuster.
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Source: Syfy