CAPTURING THE
THEATRE OF WAR

Rogue Heroes – also known as SAS: Rogue Heroes – debuted on BBC One in October 2022 and was an immediate hit. The Guardian called it “unmissable.” Often described as a throwback to swashbuckling adventure films, the six-episode series traced the creation of the British Army Special Air Service, based on the book by Ben Macintyre. Season 2 of Rogue Heroes will take the action from North Africa to the invasion of Europe via Sicily in 1943. A third season depicting the outfit’s heroics around D-Day and the Normandy invasion is rumoured.

Director of photography Stijn Van der Veken, ASC, SBC was behind the camera for all six episodes of Season 2, teamed with Stephen Woolfenden, a director he’s worked with often in the past. 

Bill Stirling (Gwilym Lee) and Paddy Mayne (Jack O’Connell). (Image: BBC/Banijay Rights/Robert Viglasky)

The schedule was comprised of 81 days, which meant about 13 days per episode. Roughly 60% of the shoot was planned for exterior situations, with a significant fraction of that taking place at night. Most of the exteriors were accomplished in Croatia, with most interiors done in the UK. A few scenes were also done in Italy. About 370 scenes were shot, with approximately 2,000 slates over two units. 

"I FOUND THE ALEXA 35 TO BE AN ABSOLUTELY EXQUISITE CAMERA"

ARRI ALEXA 35’s were augmented with Mini LFs, which came in handy for VFX plates and drone work. The ALEXA 35 incorporates the very latest in colour science along with a fresh approach to de-bayering and a sensor that works with 35-format lenses. The system relies on CODEX Compact Drives to dependably capture a rich, ARRIRAW image file.  

“I found the ALEXA 35 to be an absolutely exquisite camera,” says Van der Veken. “It looks fantastic. The colour science is way better than all previous ALEXAs, and the sensor has incomparable dynamic range. I wasn’t able to clip it once. With all the explosions and flames, I could shoot wide open at 1600 ISO, and pull all the flames into orange, while keeping the detail – impossible with any other camera. The skin tone rendition is fantastic, thanks to the higher pixel count and the fine detail in colour separation. In low light, the ALEXA 35 performs way better, with no noise.”

Footage was offloaded on set using Pomfort Silverstack, employing CODEX’s High Density Encoding (HDE) for the ARRIRAW files. On set monitoring was handled via Pomfort Livegrade, utilising FSI BoxIO LUT boxes, which allowed DIT Mark Glenister to fine-tune colour grading for different scenes and locations. CDL files and the Original Camera Files were sent to the Rebel Colour Lab for LTO backup and combined to create dailies and editorial transcodes overnight.

Reg Seekings (Theo Barklem-Biggs) and Dave Kershaw (Bobby Schofield). (Image: BBC/Banijay Rights/Ludovic Robert)

Van der Veken worked from a preferred LUT built by Ross Baker, senior colourist at Molinare Post in London. 

"CODEX GEAR IS OUTSTANDING - RELIABLE AND INCREDIBLY FAST"

“The setup was invaluable because it enabled us to experiment with different looks for various scenes and locations, as well as to ensure consistent lens matching,” says Glenister. “That helped make the assemblies and dailies look as close as possible to the final image. We also recorded all takes within Livegrade so that we could scan previous takes for scene matching.”

Glenister says that HDE boosted efficiency at every step and was especially helpful given the very mobile production. CODEX Compact Drives offer strong mechanical protection, efficient cooling and robust connection to the high performance NVMe SSD inside. 

“CODEX gear is outstanding – reliable and incredibly fast, which was crucial for this shoot as we were constantly on the move,” says Glenister. “The HDE option for downloads was especially beneficial, as it allowed us to minimise data size and storage requirements without compromising image quality.”

John Tonkin (Jack Barton). (Image: BBC/Banijay Rights/Robert Viglasky)

Van der Veken cites an example of how the ALEXA 35-ARRIRAW-CODEX system helped expand creative freedom while simultaneously increasing efficiency. It’s a scene that depicts a soldier contemplating a medal he’s received lit only by one match, a candle and a cigarette. 

"WE WERE WIDE OPEN ON THE LENS, USING THE CAMERA TO ITS FULL EXTREME"

“The Assistant Director asked how much time I might need to light this very dark room,” Van der Veken recalls. “I said, ‘Well, I’m ready now.’ We didn’t even rehearse. We were wide open on the lens, using the camera to its full extreme. The amplitude of the match goes from 1 lux to 100 lux. A lit match gets bigger and then shrinks and then stabilises, so it’s like a lightning storm on his face, in tune with his expression and his state of mind. The flame is not clipped. He lights the candle, reads a letter, blows out the candle and the image falls to black.

“I always try to find a naturalism in my lighting,” he says. “I don’t want thing to become too technical, especially for a real story like this. It’s about making the audience believe, and forget about the camera and the lighting, and get into that story.”

Rogue Heroes Season 2 will debut on 1st January 2025 on BBC One, BBC iPlayer, and MGM.

All images are courtesy of BBC. All rights reserved.