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Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was accomplished using the very latest and most powerful filmmaking technologies, including CODEX’s High Density Encoding (HDE), which streamlines massive data capture and manipulation – the start of the journey for spectacular visual effects, convincingly realistic New York City settings, and humane character portraiture. The resulting movie has grossed over $200 million worldwide since its March release, making it currently the ninth-highest-grossing film of 2024.

Director Gil Kenan brought a strong background in animation and visual effects, as well as experience with the franchise as he co-wrote Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) with Jason and Ivan Reitman.

Director Gil Kenan and producer Jason Reitman on set

"PEOPLE OFTEN MISTAKE THE ROLE AS BEING ALL ABOUT CAMERA, LIGHTING AND LENSES"

Perhaps counterintuitively, director of photography Eric Steelberg, ASC says that the continued evolution of the tools has made it possible for cinematographers to focus less on tech, which is handled more frequently by talented crew, freeing DPs to concentrate on the creative aspects of filmmaking, in close collaboration with the director, while coordinating the input of a growing range of departments. 

“People often mistake the role as being all about camera, lighting and lenses,” says Steelberg. “The truth is that it’s about language and sharing something emotive, something for which there aren’t any words. A very intense partnership is formed with the director. It’s hard to create something from scratch. Many aspects of filmmaking have gotten easier, but they’ve become more challenging narratively. Directors and cinematographers are leaning on each other more than ever. Directors are inviting my participation in new ways, which is great, because it helps me make new discoveries about myself and new achievements in my work.”

Steelberg initially broke through in the late noughties with Juno (with Reitman) and 500 Days of Summer – smaller independent films built on human emotion and interaction. On more technically ambitious endeavors like Ghostbusters: Afterlife, the Star Wars series Ahsoka and Frozen Empire, he tries to insulate the director from the giant apparatus behind the storytelling. 

“The machine changes sizes, but no matter what, you’re still going to be shooting two actors having a conversation, and that’s where the director’s attention should be,” says Steelberg. “In the case of Frozen Empire, we often had a puppet, and a puppeteer, and lighting effects, and special effects blowing out a window at the right moment, and maybe some slime shooting in. All those things have to happen – they can’t fail. What’s in front of the camera has to be perfect. Directors are of course aware of that, and it can mess up their process. I’m saying to the director, ‘Don’t worry about all that – we’ve got it all taken care of.’

Paul Rudd (Gary Grooberson), Carrie Coon (Callie Spengler), Finn Wolfhard (Trevor Spengler) and Mckenna Grace (Phoebe Spengler) on set

“That’s our job,” he says. “Sometimes I do wish it was as simple as getting a camera and a light and making some cool shots, and constructing a scene in an interesting way. But that has become a much smaller part of our job as director of photography.”

"IT MAKES MY WORK LOOK LIKE THE BEST VERSION OF ITSELF"

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was captured with ARRI ALEXA Mini LF cameras, chosen in part to facilitate camera movement through many New York City locations. The majority of the film was done on stages in the UK, including sets depicting the iconic Ghostbusters firehouse in Manhattan. The Mini LFs were usually paired with Panavision T Series lenses to help maintain consistency with previous entries in the series.

Steelberg wanted the dailies to look very consistent with the eventual finished images. 

“It’s in my interest to really nail down the look,” he says. “We made very few changes – Gil really liked the way the dailies turned out. We took second unit footage from New York, where DP Igor Meglic referred to our CDL values, and brought it into that same palette. Igor did a great job in getting it almost all the way there. Honestly, it was one of the easiest post processes I’ve experienced, particularly with major visual effects. That’s a testament to Company 3. We worked with them on Afterlife, and we were really dialed in and set up for success.” 

Stefan Sonnenfeld of Company 3 tailored a LUT adapted from Ghostbusters: Afterlife, which Steelberg fine-tuned using CDL values. Choosing a package similar to what he used on Afterlife meant that Steelberg could spend less prep time testing cameras and lensing and more time experimenting and perfecting techniques that supported visual effects. 

Mckenna Grace (Phoebe Spengler), director Gil Kenan and Logan Kimm (Podcast) on set

“That LUT also gave us much more range for color, which was very helpful when it came to the visual effects,” says Steelberg. “It mimicked the LUT from the older movie, yet it allowed a bigger container for color. The LUT worked really well with the ALEXA LF, the OpenGate with ARRIRAW resolution and the anamorphic format. When I saw that combination during testing, that was it. It makes my work look like the best version of itself.”

"HDE MEANT THAT WE WERE FITTING THE DAYS SHOOT ON THE 8TB CODEX TRANSFER DRIVES QUITE COMFORTABLY"

Digital Imaging Technician Ben Appleton made Steelberg’s life easier by ensuring the cameras and monitors matched and smoothing color differences between the lenses with offsets. Images were HDE-encoded right on site. HDE slims image data by 40% on average without sacrificing quality, thus saving time, bandwidth and storage and making high-photosite-count digital cameras more practical and affordable. James Eggleton and Delwyn Holroyd of CODEX were awarded a Technical Achievement Award at this year’s Sci-Tech Oscars for the algorithm, which works in the CODEX recording toolset. 

“The main unit usually had two cameras, but we often had a splinter unit not far away,” says Appleton. “We used the CODEX Transfer Drives to deliver a normal workflow. Data wrangler Lily Archbutt and I ran everything, including the splinter unit material from other stages, through my CODEX Data Manager, using the CODEX software. The Transfer Drives now allow for multiple formats, which we can collate. I generally pack up the entire day’s information with one Drive that goes to Company 3, where they run the LTOs and generate dailies. HDE meant that we were fitting the days shoot on the 8TB Drives quite comfortably.”

Appleton says that the CODEX Transfer Drive Dock has simplified and standardized the process for DITs. The CODEX Transfer Drive acts as a hardware encrypted drive, which maximizes security. 

“Eric is a very focused cameraman,” says Appleton. “He knows what he wants to get, and from his brief description, I develop the technical means to achieve that. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire looks like a complicated project, with all the visual effects, but in actuality it was very simple.”

Appleton is currently working with Bill Pope, ASC on How to Train Your Dragon. Steelberg is in post on SNL 1975, a depiction of the opening night of the iconic live comedy show, directed by Jason Reitman.