What's it like to film a one-shot series?
Director of photography Matthew Lewis reveals the skills of his trade
Netflix
- Laura Rutkowski
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Matthew Lewis is the director of photography on Adolescence. He previously collaborated with director Philip Barantini on two continuous-shot Boiling Point films and a subsequent TV series.
A FRIEND IN PHIL
I ride mountain bikes, and I started making videos with my mates. I learnt a lot about camera movement through that. I studied film and television production at the University of Portsmouth and Phil Barantini starred in my graduate film. A year-and-a-half later, he wanted to direct a short film, Seconds Out, and he asked me to shoot it.
Matthew Lewis. Netflix
ONE SHOT, ONE CAMERA
There’s only one camera, a DJI Ronin 4D. It’s passed between camera operator Lee David Brown and me the whole time. There are no hidden cuts — sometimes we’re running and it’s like passing the baton! We also put it on the bonnet of a car and even clicked it onto a drone using a magnet on top of the camera. It weighs about 6.5kg and we hold it in front of us, trying not to drop the thing. It hurts! It has a built-in gimbal to stabilise the image, because I didn’t love the nauseating bumpiness of Boiling Point.
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ALL ABOUT ANGLES
We had about 12 weeks of prep. You’ve not got the same amount of control that you would on a normal job. It depends where the sun is at that time of day; you can’t light precisely, and you don’t want to see shadows or reflections. The locations and sets have to all be within
a certain radius, especially for car scenes.
Phillip Barantini, Owen Cooper, Ashley Walters, Stephen Graham on the set of Adolescence. Netflix
THE FLOORPLAN
I map the path of the camera and where everyone is going on a top-down view of the set. All the moves are planned and rehearsed, but you still need to think on your feet if something changes. The aim is for a one-shot to not be noticeable to an audience. Otherwise, you think, “Oh, this is a spectacle, not a story.” We want the camera to move with people. You just need that little something that leaps you across, like the camera turning with a person’s look.
IS THIS THE ONE?
We had ten attempts across a week of shooting each of the four episodes. It’s hard to stay focused and motivated when I know something hasn’t worked on camera, and I know it isn’t going to be the one. But I still have to get to the end, because nobody else knows yet. For three of the episodes, the last take was the one we used.
THE FINAL RESULT
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It has this bubbling level of tension and anxiety all the way through, because it’s so relentless to watch. It sucks you in as an audience — it’s like you can’t blink. I don’t think the one-shot has been fully explored yet. It has become a niche for us.
Authors
Laura RutkowskiCommissioning Editor
Laura Rutkowski is a Commissioning Editor at Radio Times magazine, where she looks after the View From My Sofa slot, and the "What it's like to…" column, which spotlights behind-the-scenes roles within the TV and film industry. She loves finding out how productions are made and enjoys covering a wide variety of genres. Laura is half-American and half-British and joined Radio Times in 2022. She has a degree in Psychology and a Master's in Magazine Journalism.
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