Johnny Derango on the cinematography and color grade of Flight Risk

Flight Risk is an action-packed suspense thriller centered around one main location: the inside of a small airplane. The story follows the journey of pilot Daryl Booth (Mark Wahlberg), who is transporting an Air Marshal (Michelle Dockery) and a flight-risk fugitive (Topher Grace) to trial in a small prop plane across the treacherous Alaskan wilderness.

Behind the scenes, the movie found cinematographer Johnny Derango teaming with director Mel Gibson to keep audiences fixated within the tight confines for the movie’s 90-minute runtime. Derango sought initial inspiration from earlier movies set in one location, and he and Gibson agreed that the movie’s aerial action needed to be grounded in reality. With support from Panavision Woodland Hills, Derango chose Panavision VA prime lenses, and he worked closely with Light Iron Supervising Colorist Ian Vertovec to strike a delicate color balance. As Vertovec explains, “For the DI, Johnny and I utilized Baselight’s Face Track feature, which allows perspective-aware warping of any shapes you apply to the face ‘mesh.’ This allowed us to fine-tune ever-evolving looks for a movie that was predominantly shot on a single volume stage.”

In the following interview, Derango offers a bird’s-eye view of the production, from prep through post.

Panavision: How would you describe the look of Flight Risk?

Johnny Derango: While prepping Flight Risk, Mel and I looked at quite a few films. One in particular that takes place largely inside a similar-sized aircraft caught our attention. Despite interesting photography, Mel did not connect with the overall look and feel of the film. It was clear to me that he was reacting to it being predominately shot on a greenscreen, and the over-stylization kept pulling him out of the story. I quickly realized grounding the look and feel of Flight Risk would be the key to our success. Mel and I wanted to craft a film that never took the audience out of the moment, distracted from the story, or called attention to the heavy use of virtual production.  

Were there any particular visual references you looked at for inspiration?

Derango: My research for this film predominantly centered around other movies that thrived in mostly one-location setting, films like Speed, Phone Booth and, most similarly, Locke starring Tom Hardy. Crafting a 90-minute film that stays compelling in a one-location environment is no small task.

What brought you to Panavision for this project?

Derango: In 2003, I shot my first 35mm feature on Panavision. My good friend and 1st AC on that film, Brent Boles, worked for Panavision and helped us get set up there. Twenty years later, it felt like the right time to come back. I had met with [Panavision’s senior vice president of optical engineering and lens strategy] Dan Sasaki when I was prepping Fatman, and I knew he was doing some extraordinary things with lenses. Dan’s constant innovation sparked a curiosity in me to explore which set of lenses could help me create the images I had been dreaming up.

What ultimately led you to choose the VA primes as your lenses for Flight Risk?

Derango: I’m a big fan of vintage glass and I love shooting large format, so that alone limited my choice of lenses. Add to this that I was shooting in a tiny airplane that was 15 feet off the ground, on a gimbal, with no removable sections, and now you’re looking at a very limited set of lenses that fit the criteria.

There were three main concerns that I had in making my choice. The first was that I needed a set that had a great close focus. We were in a tiny set, often inches from the talent with no way to back up. Second, I wanted something with character but that also delivered edge sharpness and negligible distortion. When looking down the line in a narrow-body aircraft, someone was always bound to be on the edge of the frame, so any distortion, softness or vignetting would have been a deal breaker. I generally like to shoot around a 2.8, so I needed to find lenses that checked all those boxes. Finally, when shooting in a volume, the faster your lens falls off the better, because it helps alleviate moiré issues. I did a lot of testing at Panavision, and the VAs hit the sweet spot for what we wanted to accomplish.  

How did you come to collaborate with Light Iron for the movie?

Derango: Our line producer, Jenny Hinkey, had an existing relationship with Light Iron and suggested them. She had sent me a link where I was able to read about each of their staff colorists and the work they had done. I was blown away with Ian Vertovec’s resume. I was especially drawn to the fact that he had colored Devotion and had done multiple films for [director] David Fincher.

In your early conversations with Ian, how did you describe the look and what you wanted to accomplish with the grade? 

Derango: Per my conversations with Mel, I sought to craft a look that was grounded in reality. I wanted to make sure the visuals never became so stylized that they would take the viewer out of the film.

Prior to principal photography, I had crafted a LUT that I was very comfortable with; I’m a big believer in creating a LUT that very closely resembles the final grade. When discussing the look with Ian, I let him know that I wanted to stay quite close to what I had created on set. However, I would need his incredible skill set to help even-out a couple of sequences that had changed dramatically between the time of filming and how they were edited into the final film.  

As you and Ian settled into the final color grade, what were some of your main areas of focus?

Derango: One of the most fascinating parts of this process for me was working in Baselight for the first time. Baselight had just introduced several features that we took advantage of. For me, eye lights are critically important, and I’ll go out of my way to ensure that I have them. Flight Risk was no exception. Mel is also a huge fan of being able to read the emotion in his actors’ eyes. [Using Baselight’s Face Track] Ian created wireframe masks that he applied to the actors’ faces and that moved with them. Within the masks, he was able to track the actors’ eyes. For much of the movie, we added these to lift the eyes to a level Mel and I really liked.

There was one sequence that I recall being quite a challenge and required Ian to work his magic. In the third act, the plane attempts a landing at a rural airfield. Mel had always envisioned the final sequence on the runway taking place at night. This proved difficult; I knew I would never have the firepower to light a Cessna as it came in over the mountains and approached the runway. The solution was shooting the approach of the plane at ‘blue hour,’ just before we lost all light in the sky. We would then need to grade the footage down and pull some shots up in post to make it all fall in line. We photographed 90 minutes a night over two nights with repeated passes to acquire this footage. In the final film, we make a gradual transition over roughly four minutes of screen time, from blue hour to straight night. By the time the plane has stopped on the runway, we are in a total night look, and the transition feels seamless. By altering the exposures on set and working alongside Ian, who knew exactly how to move the footage around, it made for a truly beautiful sequence.  

What inspired you to become a cinematographer, and what keeps you inspired today?

Derango: I went to film school intending to become a director, however, in my very first production class, I met Ronn Pitts. He was my instructor, a cinematographer and eventually my mentor. He changed my outlook on absolutely everything. I learned that as a cinematographer, you are just as responsible for eliciting emotion and telling a story. Through camera placement and movement and how you light a scene, you can genuinely, emotionally affect an audience. After one semester with Ronn, I knew that I wanted to be a cameraman.  

Today, it’s the material and collaborators that keep me inspired. I’ve recently found my way into making positive films that are full of hope and joy. Making films that inspire others and help to let them know that they are not alone in this world has become incredibly important to me.