Eve Cohen, the cinematographer for the new Bella Thorne thriller Infamous, sat down with Pop Break to talk about the highly innovative and creative visual choices that were made in the film. These choices helped create a contrast between reality, and the fantasy that Thorne’s character Arielle is putting out to the world through her social media.
Cohen spoke about blending iPhone footage with professional cameras, and what went into filming some of the films most memorable scenes. Ultimately her partnership with writer and director Joshua Caldwell helped bring to life the vibrant and colorful world at the center of the film; a product of the life Arielle wants her followers to see.
I know you have collaborated with Joshua Caldwell in the past, how did that relationship get started and how did it lead to your involvement with Infamous?
Eve Cohen: Josh and I have been friends and collaborators over the years, just through the independent film community and Be Somebody was the first project that we worked on together and that was a feature film that he was hired to direct and sense then we have gotten to work on projects that he has written and directed and then Infamous was a script that he had been working on for a few years and at the time it was called Southland, an he had given that to me to read a while back and as soon as Bella came on board and everything got put in place, we started on that adventure and its been a great collaboration over the years.
Having watched the movie a couple of times now, the robbery montage is a standout for me but personally the house party scene and Arielle and Dean’s conversation around the fire towards the beginning were especially gorgeous so could you talk about what went into filming those scenes and if the house was already full of graffiti or did you have to do all of that, the lighting around the fire and all that went into that?
Eve Cohen: The majority of the film was shot on location in Oklahoma, and the house party scene was a house that was being torn down, there was nothing inside of it, it was very dirty and the production design team did an amazing job of creating all of the graffiti work inside of that space and bringing all of the house party furniture. It was supposed to be a scene where these kids find a house that’s been abandoned and have kind of wrecked it, so we found an abandoned house that we could film in and made it into that entire space.
The way that Josh and I work together is that I take a space that we are filming in and then plan out the entire area for what is happening there, so the bonfire scene is in front of that house and then the different rooms that we are going to be going into, I plan all of that out as one cohesive unit and then make sure that everything is fluid and that he’s able to track actors through different rooms if we want to and follow them through this space so it doesn’t feel like we are having to relight them through each room, so we lit the entire house so that the party scenes could really feel like you are inside of those spaces and really inside with the characters.
I had a really specific color pallet that I worked on with the production designer, so even though it feels kind of half hazard there is intention behind the different tones that are being used. When I wanted the campfire scene in the front, that was a scene where Arielle and Dean are really connecting for the first time and we wanted to make sure that scene was grounded in reality and really felt special to those people in that moment. We wanted to really figure out a way to enhance the excited feelings that these two people were having, and a sense of intimacy that they were having outside of the part and they were very complicated scenes to do and I’m really proud of the way that they turned out.
Talking about a specific color palate that you used, I know with the context of the film its supposed to be almost viewed as a social media feed through filters starting with Arielle’s bedroom and progressing throughout. Knowing that going in, did you prepare a certain way?
Eve Cohen: Josh and I read through the script together several times and went through and I earmarked scenes that were grounded in reality and scenes that were Bella’s fantasy a little bit and a little bit of foreshadowing of this social media thing that she gravitates towards and so these party scenes and her bedroom, these were all things that she controls where she is the most powerful force in that space.
The intention of those is to make them feel a little bit heightened a little bit filtered, not Instagram filtered but filtered through her view of this Infamy in a way, and then the scenes that are grounded in reality are more of those that are specific transitions that she wasn’t necessarily expecting or is a connection with a character that we really need to make sure isn’t distracting the audience from what is happening.
To be as invisible as possible while still supporting and enhancing the emotional tone of the scene. So the campfire was one of those, the scene in the diner together, certain scenes inside of the house where they are hiding out are other ones versus when she is going into the stores or in the house party and robbery scenes, these are her dream, these are her fantasy that we are getting to see played out.
A lot of the movie is filmed very up close, either right in the car with them, or during the robbery, so I imagine there is a lot of handheld camera and cell phone footage involved?
Eve Cohen: There were specific decisions made of when we were going to be really close to them and when we are going to be further away when we transitioning between cell phone footage and cinema camera footage and how we are integrating those. Similar to creating a color palate and creating her fantasy sequences we also created that transition into her iPhone world, into this is the lens through which she is seeing everything and through which her fans are seeing everything, so this is what they are getting to watch and incorporating that with standard cinema footage was a challenge in not making it too jarring and making it feel like more of a natural transition between them. Some of the stuff in the back of the car, there are certain constraints of using a handheld in the back of a car that feel claustrophobic because you know you can’t get out of those spaces with them, and a lot of the time that is what we wanted, we wanted to trap the audience inside of the car with them for the most part.
With that in mind was there anything that stands out as far as being particularly challenging to film, or something that stands out which you are most proud of after seeing the end result?
Eve Cohen: We did a one shot, very long master that is when they rob the first dispensary and Bella’s character takes the lead, and that was a lot of rehearsing and a lot of planning, and there were so many moving parts in the background. As the camera and the actors are going through the whole scene, I have crew changing things around for the return on the way out. They are moving lights, changing covers, changing something with casting a shadow, so you are changing the direction of it for the return so there were a lot of moving parts to that and I am really proud of the way turned out and I think that one master, the timing of it works and we really nailed it.
I do remember that because the shot starts from the outside with Bella doing a stylish walking up, and then going from there…
Eve Cohen: Yeah, exterior to interior to exterior again to into the car, to driving off. So not only are we timing everything inside but also exterior and car interior, and all of it at once.
Lastly, the final scene of the film with the crowd that has formed outside of the bank. If I remember correctly, there is child in the front of that group I believe with their parent and it seemed especially poignant and relative to the satirical nature of the whole social media obsession on display in the movie to where obviously Bella Thorne’s character isn’t a great role model for a kid but yet there they are front and center so I was just curious if that was discussed at all in regards to that scene?
Eve Cohen: No, that actually was not part of the conversation of who of those extras got placed in certain positions. I think we did a number of different shots based on what section of the crowd we are focusing on, so I actually can’t speak to that moment in particular, but I think that the point of that scene overall was to show the lunacy of her fans that they come to cheer her on during her demise. It wraps it all up for me and I still think there is a version of this film where this is just her fantasy, and maybe it’s part of that fantasy to have fans of every age range excited to watch her when in reality that’s just crazy.
