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BRAVE, BEAUTIFUL
& TOTALLY RAW
How challenging the norms of filmmaking helped capture the real story of Cassandro.
PUBLISHED
APRIL 19 2024
Saúl Armendáriz was no ordinary Mexican wrestler. He dressed different, spoke different and fought different. So, director of photography Matías Penachino knew the biopic of this true one-off needed to look different too. Cassandro follows Saúl Armendáriz from his mother’s humble dwelling in El Paso near the U.S.-Mexico border to his superstar status in the Mexican wrestling world, where he eventually performs in drag and becomes known as “The Liberace of Lucho Libre.”
Director Roger Ross Williams had already made a documentary about his life, called The Man Without a Mask. Penachino came on board to help transform the story into a narrative feature starring Gael García Bernal.
Williams’ background in documentary shaped his working methods, and Penachino adapted his contributions to the director’s needs. That meant focusing his efforts on the visual approach while Williams concentrated on Bernal and the cast.
"WE DIDN'T PLAY THE ROLES THAT THEY TEACH YOU IN FILM SCHOOL"
“We didn’t play the roles that they teach you in film school,” says Penachino. “But every film crew is like a dysfunctional family. Roger knew where he was going, and he trusted the right people to help get there.”
Preproduction was meticulous, with nine weeks devoted to planning, storyboarding and testing. One very important early decision was to shoot with the ARRI ALEXA Mini LF in an Open Gate 3:2 format, enabled by CODEX in-camera recording, capturing images in a rich, ARRIRAW format. The 3:2 frame results in a squarer format, chosen to feel more like portraiture, and to echo street photography. The lenses were Panavision H Series. Penachino says the results were “expressive” and “insanely gorgeous.”
“It was clear to me that the movie was going to be 90% about Saúl’s face,” he says. “I started to envision images like those of Alex Webb and other street photographers whose pictures seem to cross borders and cultures. That was an aspect of our story. Saúl is from the border zone, and crossing borders is an important theme. That outsider perspective – to be related, but different – was important. So when I pitched the film to Roger, I made a thorough presentation, sequence by sequence, and showed him that for me, it had to be like medium format still photography – 100% transparent and honest.
"YOU IMAGINE THE FILM YOU WANT TO MAKE, AND THAT LEADS TO THE RIGHT TOOLS"
“The format is really beautiful,” he says. “The tools are for exploring and finding how to use them creatively. You imagine the film you want to make, and that leads to the right tools. On Cassandro my love for films and still photography helped lead to the format, but the project also required the experience to use those tools properly to express the right feeling throughout, in a range of situations.”
The Mini LF’s compact size was also helpful in the fast-moving, choreographed scenes in the wrestling ring. A distinction was made between life outside the ring, where the camera was calmer and steadier, and life inside the ring as seen by fans – “through the ropes” as Penachino puts it. There, and inside the ring, the camera was much more dynamic. The Mini LF was often rigged with two hand grips and a five-inch monitor and wired to a backpack carrying the batteries and the Teradek transmitter. The operator throughout was Alberto Ojeda.
“Often these wrestlers are experienced actors and very good at playing their parts,” says Penachino. “With a small setup, we had the ability to be more invisible, less ‘in their face.’ You don’t need much space, even when you’re caught against the ropes.”
Production was complicated by far-flung locations and sets – often shot during the rainy season – that nevertheless had to match across various times of day. Exteriors of the home of Armendáriz’s supportive mother were done on a completely built set shot with a backdrop but feel thoroughly authentic. Later, the elaborate costumes had to look appropriately spectacular. Complete control of color was essential.
"THE ABILITY TO SHOOT RAW CHANGED EVERYTHING"
“Shooting ProRes is not an option to me,” says Penachino. “When I used to shoot in ProRes, I had all these tricks to fool the sensor – using low contrast filters to make the Rec 709 less contrasty, for example. I couldn’t trust it. The ability to shoot RAW changed everything on Cassandro. The textures, the materials, the lighting and the atmosphere. And you can rely on the knowledge that you can fix things and make some decisions later. You don’t have to touch the color as you’re shooting. And now you can pop it into Premiere without any conversion. It’s really amazing.”
Penachino says that shooting ARRIRAW with CODEX expands creativity. “It’s a tool that really helps, especially exposure-wise,” he says. “On a commercial, for example, I can drop the ISO so the client can see something brighter and warmer. But I’m exposing at 640, knowing where the white balance is, and where the skin tones are. I can decide the amount of grain, or where I want the highlights. I know I can get the highlights back in post. It’s like a cookbook, which in ProRes you don’t have.
“It allows you to take so much out of the camera,” he says. “Let’s say I was doing 4200 white balance in the studio. Then we get to El Paso, and not everything fits that white balance. With ProRes, I would have to touch the color of the file itself. With CODEX and ARRIRAW, I can decide on the go, and trust that I have more room to work with in the future. Processing is super-fast – boom. Nobody complains. Everything is there. You can do magic.”
Colorist Jesús Dominguez was with Penachino on the set, helping to set the overall tone and grading dailies. In post, Penachino oversaw color with Nicke Cantarelli, spending five weeks in Sweden. They devoted a good amount of that time to the HDR pass.
“In HDR, you get everything back,” says the cinematographer. “The blacks, and the colors, the depth and the textures. It was amazing.”
Cassandro premiered at Sundance in 2023 and was release theatrically in September 2023. The film is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
The bold and beautiful approach has not only made the movie a fitting tribute to its hero, it’s made it a hit with audiences too, ensuring the legend of Cassandro will be celebrated for years to come.
All images are courtesy of Amazon MGM Studios. All rights reserved.