Leading DIT Arthur To is fortunate enough to regularly work with the top cinematographers in the world as well as use the latest cameras and technology as soon as it becomes available. In 2015 he worked with Emmanuel “Chivo” Lubezki ASC AMC on The Revenant, one of the first projects to use the ARRI ALEXA 65 camera with Codex recording inside, and in 2016 he worked with Bob Richardson ASC on Live by Night, again utilising the ALEXA 65. Other recent projects include The Nice Guys and Thank You for Your Service. He is currently shooting Bright with DP Roman Vasyanov. Although he hardly ever seems to stop working, we managed to grab a few minutes with this talented and busy DIT and chatted about his work on Live by Night.

What was your role on-set?
My role on this movie was to make sure that my monitors were always calibrated and true to what Bob would see in the DI suite. The confidence that comes with being able to trust a monitor’s accuracy is important for the DP since, in this digital age, there are so many varied monitors on-set which are all calibrated differently and have different ratios of highlights and shadows.

Regular communication with post facility SHED and Bob was important in identifying discrepancies between what we saw on-set and in dailies. Another aspect of my role was to maintain this level of confidence in a monitor by having various setups to adapt to the different shooting conditions. We did a lot of car and process trailer work, as well as muddy locations that required us to be very mobile. The ability to provide proper monitoring by adapting to the shooting scenarios without slowing things down is vital. On the other side of things, I would assist occasionally with iris pulls and essentially be the “gate check” for any issues before moving on.

What did you think of the ALEXA 65?
The ALEXA 65 is fantastic. I’ve had the pleasure of doing my last few shows with it, and am currently on another. We had no problems handling the amount of data. My loader Natasha “Moneypenny” Mullan was on top of it and there was never a concern (or even an overtime concern).

Tell us about working with Bob Richardson ASC?
I had fun. He keeps things interesting and light-hearted. It was a joy to watch him light with such large sources and I was surprised at how incredibly fast he works. He also made sure I always ate breakfast, that was important to him. All around, I had a good time bantering with him on and off set.




How about about working with SHED?
I appreciated that the focus of the workflow was on accuracy and simplicity. The priority was always to ensure that what we saw on the monitors, was what colourist Yvan Lucas saw in the colour suite, and what Bob and Ben saw in the dailies.

 
Review related products