Interview with DIT Kyo Moon

Apple TV's genre-bending supernatural horror-comedy Widow's Bay recently made Emmy history, winning a record-breaking 14 awards. Filmed primarily in Massachusetts, both on sound stages and on location in the picturesque Cape Ann region, the series continued the creative collaboration between director Hiro Murai and cinematographer Christian Sprenger, ASC.

Among those 14 Emmy wins was Outstanding Cinematography for a Half-Hour Series, awarded to Sprenger for Episode 6, Our History. Directed by Ti West, the episode transports viewers back to the island's colonial past, revealing the genesis of the dark events and supernatural forces that continue to haunt the community.

To give the episode a distinctive, almost standalone visual identity, Sprenger turned to the large-format ARRI ALEXA 265, paired with a rare set of vintage Todd-AO spherical lenses dating back to the 1950s. Rediscovered in the archives of the American Society of Cinematographers (ASC), the lenses had been painstakingly restored and rehoused for modern cinematography by Zero Optik, working in collaboration with the ASC and Keslow Camera. Our History became the first production to use the newly restored lenses.

Behind the scenes, DIT Kyo Moon supported Christian Sprenger’s ambitious cinematography, working with the ALEXA 265 and CODEX recording media. Kyo’s previous credits span film and television and include The Holdovers, A House of Dynamite, The Minecraft Movie and Amazon MGM Studios’ current release Love of Your Life, also shot with the ALEXA 265, where he took over for the US portion of the shoot from DIT Arthur To. 

We spoke with Kyo about the production, the camera and data workflows, and the experience of working on this EMMY award-winning episode.

Putting a human (and canine face) to DIT Kyo Moon

"WIDOW'S BAY WAS A PERFECT STORM OF CREATIVITY, LEADERSHIP, AND EXECUTION FOR A NICHE SCRIPT"

What’s your background? How did you get started in the entertainment industry?

My start was in photography. My mother gave me her Minolta SLR at the beginning of high school. We were overseas in Nairobi, Kenya. It was the perfect medium for me, for a very special time of my life. A little later on, while doing my undergrad in Montreal, I helped run a dance school and I met a lot of dancers and artists. I would shoot their portraits and performances for their portfolios and also for mine. I’ve always been into computers and I’ve learned enough video engineering and RF along the way. Things keep changing in such interesting ways, as does my passion for the camera/colour/workflow side of filmmaking.

Tell us about Widow’s Bay? Have you worked with Christian Sprenger, ASC before?

Widow’s Bay was a perfect storm of creativity, leadership, and execution for a niche script, all to achieve a tone that worked better than we could have imagined. It was truly a pleasure. It was the first time Christian and I had worked together, but after a very short while it didn’t feel like that, it felt like we had collaborated for years. 

On set for episode 6 "Our History" of EMMY award-winning Widow's Bay

The tasks of a DIT can be quite varied. What does your work as a DIT involve?

I see my work as supporting the creative force behind the cinematographer’s photographic vision in whatever way I can. As a member of the camera team, as well as an on set representative of post production, I try to adapt my expertise in photography, workflow, video, RF, data etc to whatever the demands or needs are, whether they be technical, artistic or otherwise.

What does a typical workflow look like for you from camera capture through to editorial or dailies? Or is there no “typical workflow”?

The usual workflow for anything narrative is supporting the photography in camera as much as possible and simultaneously livegrading the log image for all on set to see. I find it very fulfilling to help shape the live image as the creatives lead the story telling on set. I also enjoy finding new looks at the end of the day to better find the tone of the script, given the new found moments discovered on set that day. Helping manage the digital asset and the colour that goes with it for the creatives is different for every job, and I learn a new way to support that process on every job. The culture of a production and the philosophy that is set forth by the creatives will always be the driving force behind what we do to create and support stories.

Were your episodes shot with the ALEXA 265? If so, were there any unique challenges? 

All but one episode was shot on the ARRI ALEXA 35 (1-5 and 7-9). Episode 6, Our History, was shot on ALEXA 265 and it was a great experience. One challenge was that our schedule did not allow much prep. We had to swap the ALEXA 35 camera package over at 2am after a long shoot day to be ready to shoot the ALEXA 265 the next morning. The 265 worked flawlessly and the colour was consistent with the 35. The data side of things was also just as streamlined, utilising the always reliable CODEX CompactDrives and a CompactDrive Reader.

"MANAGING THE MEDIA WAS SURPRISINGLY STRAIGHTFORWARD THANKS TO CODEX HIGH DENSITY ENCODING"

What was the specific data and colour workflow for the episode, Our History?

We shot A265 RAW and processed with CODEX High Density Encoding (HDE) and offloaded using Silverstack. Despite the increased volume of data, managing the media was surprisingly straightforward thanks to CODEX HDE and fast SSD RAID storage. It really didn't feel any different from our usual ALEXA 35 workflow.

I use Pomfort Livegrade to colour on set. I also use BMD Resolve quite a bit when we want to see what is possible in the final colour. Filmbox and Livegrain are also great tools for on set looks but we didn't use them on Widow’s Bay.

Kyo Moon in a challenging location for Widow's Bay

What about your DIT cart? Anything special?

I use two carts for most long form work. The main cart is Innovativ-based and customised to natively support 3 x 25" OLED monitors. It is expandable on each side for multi-camera work. My second cart is a smaller, upright solution for breakaway situations. It can easily fit in tight spaces, process trailers, video vans and can easily be carried into challenging locations like New York City walkups, rough terrain, a moving subway or anywhere else so that I can be close to set for my DP. For data transfers I always have a CODEX CompactDrive Reader on my cart, even when we do most of the data management on the camera truck - I prefer the CompactDrive Reader TB3 version obviously, but the CompactDrive Reader USB-C is great to check something on a laptop if I need a lightweight setup.

Tell us about the vintage lenses that Christian chose to use with the ALEXA 265?

The Todd AO's are absolutely beautiful. Alex at Zero Optik did an incredible job, collaborating with  Greig Fraser ASC ACS, bringing them back to life after a long hiatus of seeing no light! The last films that used them were classics like The Sound of Music and Dr. Zhivago. Very special lenses. Smooth falloff with soft flares and consistent look and colour across the range of primes made them a perfect fit for Christian's palette on Widow’s Bay. Christian's approach and execution is incredibly well designed and thoughtfully prepared. He had references from past inspirations for Josh our gaffer, Frank our Key Grip and I, but would also put his own touch on everything. In my career thus far, I'm not sure that I have experienced prowess as refined as Christian's sense of cinematography for the purpose of story, tone and the vision of the script, at the same time making it interesting, beautiful and graceful. Christian is a treasure.

Are there differences between working on a feature film and a television show?

I think features and TV can be almost identical as far as the experience on set, and it’s also possible for them to be entirely different - It all depends on the show and who is producing/leading/crew. I can say however, that with good leaders and good people, any project can be a pleasure, no matter how challenging.

Widow's Bay on set

Finally, where do you see yourself in five or ten years time?

Five to ten years is a long time in our world! I can’t be certain about any predictions but I think much will change on the post processing side. What I think will stay relevant is the need for learning new ways to support visual storytelling, both on the technical and philosophical side. I am also keen to see what technological advancement CODEX will bring to the industry.

Kyo is currently working on The Best of Us for Paramount and will return to Widow’s Bay season 2 in early 2027.

The F1 Onboard Camera Team, Abu Dhabi Grand Prix 2023

"WE NEEDED VERY FAST HIGH CAPACITY SSD RAIDS AS WE WERE GENERATING ON AVERAGE 80TB OF DATA PER RACE WEEKEND!"