BAZ IDOINE
BRINGS FILMIC
EYE TO THOR:
LOVE AND THUNDER

Thor: Love and Thunder is the 29th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the sequel to Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Director Taika Waititi reportedly wanted to make a more romantic film than its predecessor, which he also directed. With a cast led by Chris Hemsworth and including Natalie Portman, Russell Crowe, Tessa Thompson, and Christian Bale, Thor: Love and Thunder would go on to earn upwards of three-quarters of a billion dollars at the box office. 

Director of photography Barry “Baz” Idoine was the perfect choice for the project, in part because he had just finished Season 2 of The Mandalorian, making him one of the most experienced cinematographers when it came to shooting on volumes – a technique that would be used on roughly 70% of Thor. His post process on The Mandalorian was almost completely remote due to the pandemic, which also made for a longer and less intense prep period on the new assignment. His camera package was virtually identical to that used on The Mandalorian – the ALEXA LF with Panavision Ultra Vistas lenses with a 1.65x anamorphic squeeze. That combination used just less than the entire LF sensor and delivered a 2.39:1 widescreen frame.

Barry “Baz” Idoine on set

“On The Mandalorian, we wanted a very cinematic look,” he says. “Star Wars IP has a very big-screen feeling that we wanted to continue. That also worked well for our purposes on Thor. The lenses are all handmade and bring a lot of character. They all have their own quirks. And the large sensor gives you the ability to shoot wider shots on longer lenses. You get more attractive closeups with interesting falloff whether it be wide or tight.” 

The volume would also be the same size and shape as that used on The Mandalorian, and the volume was run on the same engine. 

"PIX CONTINUES TO IMPROVE, AND I LOOK FORWARD TO HAVING THAT CONSISTENCY AND RESOLUTION."

“It was almost like I’d been doing two years of prep for this film,” says Idoine. “I didn’t need to go out and shoot a large amount of tests to find a different combination. What I had was working incredibly well. It felt like an excellent choice.”

Idoine says that Waititi’s perception of color had a major effect on the look. “Taika can see more color than the average person,” says the cinematographer. “He had a strong point of view about how bright he wanted the film to look – meaning gaudiness and poppiness in colors, with high contrast and high dynamic range, as opposed to literal brightness.”

Together with Dave Cole at FotoKem, Idoine created a new LUT to serve this vision, based on Kodak’s 200T 5213 film stock. “From that starting point, we wanted to play with contrast a little bit,” he says. “We blended the characteristics of 5213 and 5218 emulsions to create a bright, Kodak look with saturated primary colors, and accurate secondary and tertiary colors, because there were going to be a lot of those.”

Director Taika Waititi on set

Of course, Marvel’s post people had a say. Dailies colorist Fergus Hally and onset DIT Jay Patel also made key contributions. “Jay and Ferg got on incredibly well, and I was very happy with the dailies that we were getting,” says Idoine. “There was also quite a bit of work that we couldn’t see right away, and Ferg also created a look book as a reference. He spent time on stills in PhotoShop, grading them to a deeper degree and creating the most astounding guide, which was incredibly important.”

A second, specialized LUT was created for a scene shot at very high frame rates on the Phantom camera, used extensively on a particular fight sequence that was to appear immediately after an extremely colorful scene featuring Jeff Goldblum’s character. In testing, the sensor wasn’t delivering ideal color at the very high frame rates. 

"THE RESULT WAS A VERY GRAPHIC LOOK THAT SATISFIED THE COMIC BOOK GENES OF THOR’S BEGINNINGS IN THE GRAPHIC NOVEL."

“I proposed to Taika that it would be very heavily de-saturated, if not black and white,” says Idoine. “The result was a very graphic look that satisfied the comic book genes of Thor’s beginnings in the graphic novel. In the final version, the extremely colorful preceding scene was cut out, but I was very happy with the look of that desaturated scene as it turned out.”

Idoine comes from a film background, having worked with Steven Soderbergh on a half-dozen films, and later on the crew of Robert Elswit, ASC on landmark films like Michael Clayton, The Town, and There Will Be Blood, which earned an Oscar for cinematography. 

“Today, things do happen more immediately,” says Idoine. “Back then, we knew what the film stocks were going to do, and the set design was extremely important. But you needed experience, and a huge amount of testing to know what you were going to get. Now, with the onset tools for color grading, you can see what you’ve got and how you need to alter it. It’s a phenomenal change. Digital cameras have such a range of latitude that you’re shorting yourself if you shoot with a narrow window of exposure. We’re in a new world now, and there’s no sense complaining about it. Everyone can see what you’re doing, and that can be an issue. 

Director Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth on set

“But on the other hand, there is a better sense of collaboration with the director,” he says. “It’s better to talk about things onset, while you’re doing it. Let’s say we’re talking about an incredibly orange sky – now you can show exactly what that means, and be sure the director is on board. Taika could look at the monitor and agree that while it’s incredibly bold, it’s what we want. You can be sure you’re going down the same path together, which eliminates a huge amount of correction in post.”

Idoine’s large format choice has often been the ALEXA 65 or the ALEXA LF, both of which use CODEX Digital recording technology to capture and process images. 

“I’ve had a lot of success with the LF, and that’s primarily what I’ve used,” he says. “For me, the color rendition of skin tones is the most important thing. And from that follows the other color rendition and contrast ratios and exposure latitude. Like most cinematographers, I’m intrigued by any camera, but I’m very happy with the LF.”

Waititi, Idoine and the rest of their team also used the PIX production management platform to maintain smooth and efficient communication among departments. 

"...THE IDEAL IS COMMUNAL DAILIES SESSIONS, BUT GIVEN TODAY’S REALITY, AND THE LONG DAYS WE WORK, PIX IS HELPFUL."

“I think the color rendition on the newer iPads is pretty good,” says Idoine. “And it’s good that we’ve moved closer to standardization, as opposed to trying to learn a new system each time out. The ideal is communal dailies sessions, but given today’s reality, and the long days we work, PIX is helpful. The director or the producer can get an idea of what I’ve done without being pulled away from casting or script or whatever they’re working on. It works for checking the action, timing and camera movement of a shot. I do a lot of work in prep to make sure the density and color is right, but you can’t really count on seeing that accurately on every monitor in the heat of production. But PIX continues to improve, and I look forward to having that consistency and resolution.” 

Thor: Love and Thunder earned $300 million on its opening weekend, about $23 million of which was on IMAX screens. It’s currently streaming on Disney+ and other platforms.