The cinematography of Red One with Dan Mindel, ASC, BSC, SASC

Directed by Jake Kasdan, the holiday adventure Red One presents an international Christmas security crisis after Santa Claus (played by J.K. Simmons) is kidnapped. It then becomes the responsibility of E.L.F. agents Callum Drift (Dwayne Johnson) and Jack O’Malley (Chris Evans) to overcome any and every obstacle in their race to rescue Santa, aka “Red One,” and save the Yuletide spirit.

To craft a visual language that skillfully blends genres, Kasdan teamed with cinematographer Dan Mindel, ASC, BSC, SASC, a veteran of epic adventures ranging from the Tony Scott-directed Enemy of the State and Spy Game through Star Wars: Episode VII and Episode IX and this year’s hit Twisters. Here, Mindel shares in his own words how his use of Panavision optics helped him craft fresh action sequences while maintaining the movie’s core Christmas elements.

We’ve all seen lots of Christmas movies where Santa, the North Pole, and all of that stuff looks warm, comforting and fun, so we sort of approached that part of it with a sense of humor, taking inspiration from every single Christmas movie you've ever seen, and just throwing in, mixing up, and counterpointing with the action part of the movie, which we tried to bring a contemporary look and feel to. There's also a big 2nd-unit component with all the Dwayne Johnson stunts and action. I think it's fun, amusing, and the paradoxical elements are really interesting.

As we do normally, I decided to use Primo, T and C Series anamorphic lenses, and as I started working with them, I realized I wanted them to perform the way they were originally designed. For me, the selection of the lenses is basically the same for every movie. It's all about the texture that the lenses bring into the workflow. The last movie we did, Twisters, was shot on film, and the elements that are involved in that process clearly are not present [when shooting] digitally. So what I like to do is at least give the digital format the space and the benefit of having the best optics you can get to capture the images, knowing that we have to compensate in the post part of the process to take away any sort of unforgivable idiosyncratic behavior that's not predicted. That's why I like to use the same technology — I like to know that something is not going to disturb our balance. In the grand scheme of things, it's more about getting the story than the equipment, but that's understanding that the lenses are going to do what they're going to do. Story is king, and that's why we're there.

I’ve spent the last couple of decades doing big effects-driven movies. Visual-effects technology has developed another million times since I last used it, which is probably last year. It's just advanced so far that the camera department’s commitment to them, which is something I take really seriously, is enormous. They make us look good if we give them good material, and so I work very closely with the effects supervisor. That symbiotic relationship gives me so much freedom to do whatever I like as long as I keep those guys in the loop. If there is a situation where I need help from them in the sense that I can't get a crane out of shot, they'll forgive me and help me solve it out, which is very nice.

What brought me to Panavision is the lifelong support that they’ve given me from when I was a 2nd assistant. There's very little I can say other than that the proof is in the pudding. Dan Sasaki has backed me my entire career, and I try to reciprocate.

I started in the camera department as a trainee in my 20s. I knew I wanted to work in photography. I didn't know about moving pictures, but that's what drove me: the need to learn how that worked. Once I started as a trainee, I was so lucky to work with absolute world-class technicians and directors, literally off the street. I became enamored with the process of shooting, looking at dailies, correcting, reshooting, and laboriously making images that people can invest in. It's a process that I'm still learning, and I still have a tremendous amount of fun doing so. That’s kind of the reason why I like to use the same lenses over and over again, getting them to do what I want them to do.