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THE RITUAL // Q&A

avid Bruckner, known for his directorial

contributions on horror ﬁlms like V/H/S (2012)

and The Signal (2007), presented his latest ﬁlm

The Ritual at the Toronto International Film Festival in

September. It’s his ﬁrst ﬁlm as the sole director. The

Ritual — coming to Netﬂix on February 9th, follows a

group of friends who go on a hiking trip in northern

Sweden six months after the death of their mutual

friend. They soon discover that the woods aren’t as

peaceful as they appear. In fact, the group is being

stalked by a supernatural entity.

// CINEMATOGRAPHY //

Award-winning director of photography Andrew

Shulkind, who worked with director Bruckner on

Southbound (2015), was intrigued by the ﬁlming

challenges he anticipated on The Ritual, in particular,

shooting in near-darkness and developing battery-

powered lighting solutions that would read as realistic

on screen. Here, Shulkind talks about shooting o

the beaten track in the wilds of Romania, how they

designed their lighting kits with limited power, and how

he managed to get clean, low-light shots for the ﬁlm.

Q // Sound & Picture

How would you describe the look of this ﬁlm?

A // Andrew Shulkind

It’s a movie that we approached as a drama as opposed

to a horror ﬁlm. It’s scary and there are all of these classic

horror elements, but the idea wasn’t to approach it as

a schlocky B-movie. The idea was to make it a subtle

character drama. With most horror movies, there is

some plot or subtext, but it’s not the main element. This

‘The Ritual’: DP Andrew Shulkind and

Composer Ben Lovett on Netﬂix’s

Intriguing New Horror Tale

February 5, 2018 // Sound & Picture // BY JENNIFER WALDEN

PROFILES // VOL. THREE // 17

Summary of content (8 pages)

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THE RITUAL // Q&A ‘The Ritual’: DP Andrew Shulkind and Composer Ben Lovett on Netflix’s Intriguing New Horror Tale February 5, 2018 // Sound & Picture // BY JENNIFER WALDEN D avid Bruckner, known for his directorial contributions on horror films like V/H/S (2012) and The Signal (2007), presented his latest film The Ritual at the Toronto International Film Festival in September. It’s his first film as the sole director.
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film is different. It’s really about a group of friends confronting how their relationship has changed as they became adults and what happens to the classic ideas of manhood once you’re faced with a challenge. To serve director Bruckner’s vision and the humanity in his movies — which are all done with this level of detail and richness, we wanted a nuanced look and subtle tones for The Ritual.
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THE RITUAL // Q&A We did also use the Alexa because we were shooting in Romania in extreme conditions. There is no panacea, and in some cases, we needed the robustness of the Alexa in really freezing environments. Also, much of the camera support that we had — Mini Libras, jibs, and a bunch of stabilizing equipment that we needed for some of the shots, we needed the weight of the Alexa Mini. We also had access to the new Canon C700, which we needed for shooting high-speed stuff.
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Q // What was the most challenging scene that you had to shoot on The Ritual? A // Andrew Shulkind This was a hard movie, no doubt about it. We shot on a mountain at 8,000-feet elevation, and it was freezing and raining. There were scenes where we had a surprise, freak snowstorm and so we had to broom snow off the trees so that it didn’t ruin shots — and they were wide shots.
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THE RITUAL // Q&A not next to a road. We were a 30-minute hike into the woods. So part of our solution was using balloon lights on generators and other smaller sources. In the case where we weren’t able to use the flashlight, I brought some Litegear light ribbon and had my electrics staple it to yardsticks. We used a lantern battery to power each yardstick locally and we positioned these off in the woods so that we wouldn’t have to run cables. We had about ten of them.
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range that left us in the grade. // FILM SCORE // The Ritual may be a horror film on the outside, but it’s really a film about tested friendship and changing relationships. Just as that concept is woven into the fabric of the story, that theme is also threaded musically throughout composer Ben Lovett’s score. In the film, a group of friends reunites for a hiking trip following the death of their friend Robert, which was witnessed by a member of their group.
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THE RITUAL // Q&A involved with and I was very excited to have them perform the score for The Ritual because they bring more to the music than just playing the notes. They have a unique voice as an orchestra and I felt like they really understood where I wanted to take it.
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THE RITUAL // Q&A Q // What parts did you play on the score? A // Percussion, mostly. I used whatever I could get my hands on. Anything you hear that isn’t strings or horns is me playing. There are only two sounds in the score not recorded in London. The first is a hundred-year-old reed organ I have at home that you pump air through with your feet; it’s very spooky and primitive sounding.