Robbie Ryan first decided he wanted to become a cinematographer after commandeering his
father’s Super 8 camera at the age of 14 to shoot a short film.
His record behind the camera includes working with a range of esteemed directors, who have
been drawn to his adaptability as well as his eye for using natural light, in a stripped
down, textural style which provides an authentic representation of characters on the screen.
In this video I’ll take a closer look at Ryan’s approach to photography by going
over his philosophy on creating images and the gear which he uses to do so.
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Ryan was born in Ireland.
After finishing school he attended an art institute where he took a course on cinematography.
After graduating, he headed to London where he began working in the film industry.
He’s worked on a selection of projects, such as commercials and music videos for Daniel
Wolfe, but is probably most known for his work on feature films for directors such as:
Ken Loach, Andrea Arnold and Noah Baumbach.
Robbie Ryan’s approach to how each project is shot is flexible depending on the director’s
working style and any visual requests they may make.
For example, when working with a director like Ken Loach, whose films are rooted in
social realism, the cinematography needs to be simplified and economical.
Other directors such as Yorgos Lanthimos require a more experimental and provocative visual
style.
“I think being a DP you have to be attuned to whatever a director wants, whether they
really want you to create a visual look and do whatever you bring to it, or on the Ken
level, you kind of adapt to whatever Ken wants to do, and try and see what he’s thinking.”
“He’s been doing it for so long now that he kind of has a set approach to making a
film, so as a DOP you sort of slot into that style.”
Many of the directors he works with like to make films where their characters are rooted
in the real world.
To visually build up this realism, a lot of Ryan’s lighting is fairly natural and simplified
which tonally suits the language of the films.
Part of this simplistic philosophy which permeates his work can be found in his hands off approach
to pre and post production.
For certain Ken Loach films he claims to have only been present for 3 days of prep work
and completely absent from the grade.
“I’m a real anti-prep and anti-post kind of guy.
It goes down to when you shoot on film - this is the film-digital argument, right? - you
kind of got it in the can.”
“You’ve done it, you’ve shot the thing, and if you shoot film for what film is lovely
for...you don’t need to do a heck of a lot to it in post; all you’re really doing is
balancing it and giving it a tiny bit more contrast.”
His preference for shooting on film stems from this principle of simplicity.
As the look when shooting on film is baked into the negative already it minimizes the
amount of post work required, whereas having a digital image with tons of information in
the file opens up the amount of ideas about what is possible after the image has been
shot.
He finds the texture which is inherent to film visually pleasing and natural.
Part of being able to get away with minimal prep also comes down to his approach to working
with crew.
He’s a big proponent of finding crew members who he trusts, delegating them the work and
then relying on them to deliver.
Once such crew member he frequently collaborated with is colourist Rob Pizzey, who he entrusted
with the grading of many of the films he’s shot.
His preference for simplicity and naturalism also comes through in the way that he lights.
He enjoys working with natural light and likes to use it as a starting base, only choosing
to supplement it with sources if it’s necessary for lighting continuity in a scene or to elevate
the light which naturally occurs.
He likes subtly backlighting characters and has a preference for shooting locations where
light falls behind the characters in frame.
The quality of his light is usually soft, like that of natural ambient light.
This can be achieved by bouncing light, putting it through diffusion or by using softer sources
with more spread such as LEDs or Kino Flos.
He did this on The Favourite.
For period accuracy and a natural ambient lighting look, The Favourite was shot with
almost no artificial lighting and extensively used the light which naturally fell through
the windows of the set.
Certain night scenes however did require added lighting to have enough exposure to be able
shoot.
For one night dance scene, Ryan used a Blanket-Lite from KinoFlo which was rigged overhead to
provide a soft, ambient fill.
The Blanket-Lite comes in a 6x6’ size and features extended KinoFlo tubes rigged to
a frame with a silk in front of them.
Their large area as well as the layer of silk diffusion produces an evenly spread, soft
glow.
To add more a realistic fill, his team came up with a creative solution.
“We made all these candle rigs where we would get a load of candles, stick them together,
and wrap a reflector around them.
We went through a few models.”
“The first model - Candleholder 1.0 - was great, but what we didn’t realize was candles
melt really quickly, and we would end up with this huge tray full of melted wax.”
As mentioned, he has a preference for shooting on 35mm film, although for some films, such
as American Honey he had to revert to shooting digitally on the Arri Alexa XT due to budget
constraints.
When shooting on film he also favours Arri cameras, such as the Arricam Studio or Arricam
Lite for 35mm or the Arriflex 416 for 16mm.
He’s used different film stocks in the past such as Fuji Eterna stocks (Eterna 400T),
but, now that there is only one company left that produces 35mm stock, he likes to go with
Kodak’s 500T - with it’s increased textural grain.
He’s shot on a variety of lenses over his career such as Arri/Zeiss Master Primes and
the Canon 11-165mm zoom for 16mm.
However his go-to lenses are the spherical Panavision Primo lenses, which he’s used
extensively when shooting 35mm.
For The Favourite he used very wide angle Primo lenses, the 14.5mm and 10mm, and even
went so far as to use the extreme and rare Panavision SF6 T2.8 fish-eye lens.
This remarkable piece of glass has more than a 180 degree field of view.
As the lens saw so much, no ND filters were able to properly cover the lens.
This meant that Ryan was forced to use the low ASA 50 Daylight film stock from Kodak
for exteriors so that they could still shoot at an acceptable stop without using filtration.
True to his simplistic approach, he often sticks to traditional grips rigs such as a
tripod or a dolly with a fluid head.
He likes to operate the camera and will go handheld to inject an energy and motion into
the image if the story warrants it.
He’ll also use a Steadicam on occasion or a gimbal rig, such as the robust Double Helix
which is able to take the weight of a heavier 35mm film camera when he wants a stable tracking
shot with actors.
Robbie Ryan’s approach of being adaptable enough to suit the needs of the different
directors which he works with has made him a popular contemporary cinematographer in
the world of features.
Despite this adaptability, he has also drawn directors who appreciate the style which he
brings to the table, such as his use of film, naturalistic lighting and stripped down, textural
visuals.
It’s his philosophy on images, combined with his technique, which has endeared him
to directors who favour capturing social realist stories.
Although his passion for being on set and creating images started at a young age, it
still continues on to this day.
I hope you enjoyed this edition of Cinematography Style.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the video along with any suggestions for future DPs
you’d like to see featured.
Until next time, thanks for watching and goodbye.