DANCING QUEEN
By Iain Blair
Cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw ASC and director Gia Coppola go way back. Coppola hired her to shoot Palo Alto, the 2013 indie-drama and festival favourite, before they then reteamed on the love-triangle drama Mainstream (2020). Their latest collaboration is The Last Showgirl, a poignant drama about an ageing Vegas dancer, Shelly (Pamela Anderson, in a revelatory performance), who suddenly finds herself out of a gig when her long-running show abruptly closes.
But Arkapaw and Coppola’s long history together isn’t just a professional one.
“Gia is one of my best friends and like a sister to me,” explains Arkapaw. “We’ve been working together since 2011, on fashion films, music videos, commercials and features. At this point we have an unspoken language, and I know exactly what she loves, likes and dislikes.
“She trusts me with the framing and lighting and always gives me her favourite photography references before each project. I always operate the camera on our films and she likes to sit right next to the camera. That way every decision we make we can discuss right away and figure it out in the moment. So, this time around it was like hanging-out with your best friend for 18 days in Las Vegas while also making a movie.”
In terms of her visual approach, the DP reports that her biggest references “are the photographs Gia sends me. She always shares a photo album with me and we both add to it during prep and shoot. She likes to create a feeling through texture and mood, and we both appreciate a softer, dreamy palette. We wanted to shoot 16mm film, so that was our strongest visual choice. It was important for us to have the nostalgia, saturation and density that analogue film provides.”
The DP and her AC did a lot of testing in prep. “I always work with Panavision and mostly shoot Anamorphic,” she says. “Unfortunately, there weren’t any lenses I loved for the 16mm format, so I worked with my rep Mike Carter and Dan Sasaki to create something special for this project.
“I am very particular with how my lenses perform and resolve, and things like field curvature, flares and fall-off, so Dan and my focus puller Ethan McDonald and I work very hard to make sure the lens is exactly what we want. Dan is a genius and he and I are in sync now after working together on my last four films. He knows my sensibilities and gets what I’m after.
“My team at Panavision and camera team are a huge part of my R&D process in prep, and I did two rounds of testing with Dan and watched the prints at Fotokem as well as a DCP at Panavision. Each round we made some modifications until we found the sweet spot.”
Arkapaw’s favourite part of prep is picking the lenses that will be “the eye of the story. The lenses and the lighting are both characters in the films I shoot. Not many films are shot in Anamorphic on Super 16mm. It was important to use that format in this medium and have a 2.39:1 aspect ratio. Las Vegas can feel like a fishbowl when you visit and live there. The characteristics of these lenses help push that idea forward.”
With such a tight shooting schedule, the DP didn’t want the lighting “to be cumbersome or get in the way of executing quickly. I also enjoy working with my gaffer Brian Bartolini and only using one light that is the hero source, which lights the scene beautifully, whether it’s a lamp, bulb or par can.
“We also didn’t have any budget and my crew was minimal. I brought all my crew with me to Las Vegas, and we wouldn’t have been able to execute the film in 18 days without them. We used a lot of practicals and existing sources in locations, as Las Vegas is great for providing that texture already. For me it’s always about what light you take away, not what light you add.”
“We don’t over-cover scenes and we shoot with one camera”
Vegas may provide a glamorous backdrop and oceans of neon, but it also presents plenty of challenges, especially for a small indie film.
“The biggest challenge was our budget and trying to execute some bigger ideas with minimal resources,” Arkapaw reports. “This film wouldn’t have happened in the way that it did without my wonderful crew, my vendors that helped us and our assistant director. I met our AD Jason Lombardo on some commercial jobs I shot and thought he would be a great fit for Gia. Everyone was on-board with our vision and helped Gia and I execute it in 18 days. Gia and I are very economical when it comes to our shot list. We don’t over-cover scenes and we shoot with one camera.”
Arkapaw shot on Super 16mm, Kodak 500T pulled one stop, with an ARRI 416 and Panavision’s 16mm bespoke Auto Panatars.
“I only did one scout with Gia and my crew before we started shooting,” she states. “Ultimately that didn’t matter because the main location was changed by the producer at the last minute. So, we scouted the locations again the week before we started shooting. Not an ideal situation but on a film of this size you always have to roll with the punches.”
Her dailies LUT was created by the final colourist Kostas Theodosiou at Fotokem.
“My wonderful dailies coloruist Jon Rocke and I were on the same page as far as the grade and I was very happy with how all my dailies came out,” she notes. “The final grade was very quick as we matched the dailies. When I shoot film I want the final DI image to be as close to the film print density and colour as possible.”
How tough was the shoot? “Every shoot is difficult whether you have two million dollars or 200 million,” she stresses. “It’s about the people making the film and how they all work together. I am fortunate, as I often choose to work with my friends. Filmmaking is not an easy process and often you are away from your family. It’s important that I work with people I like, admire and trust. That allows me to do my best work and in turn the work is more fulfilling.”
Ask her which scene was the most difficult for her to shoot, and she says “I don’t really look at things as difficult or not difficult. Everything can be difficult in filmmaking. I make the best out of everything in front of me, and the approach becomes, how can I best tell this story while also making it visually captivating? The most difficult aspect of shooting small films is you don’t have as much time. Time is money. So that’s when you have to get creative and be more economical with your storytelling.”
The film co-stars Jamie Lee Curtis as Annette, an ex-showgirl who’s now reduced to being a waitress, and Arkapaw reports that one of her favourite scenes is when Annette goes over to Shelly’s house after Shelly gets back from a date.
“Annette tells this story while the ladies are having a drink in her living room, and I loved the lighting in the room and how Jamie was laying on the couch with her head right by the warm practical light, and Pam was at her feet sitting on the floor,” she explains. “It was a beautiful scene and it felt very genuine and layered. It’s always nice to see those scenes come together and it ends up just being a simple locked-off camera.”
“It was important to have the nostalgia, saturation and density that analogue film provides”
Like the shoot, the grade at Fotokem was fast and efficient. “Kostas and I graded the film in one day as he matched the dailies grades which I loved,” she notes. “I’m currently working with Kostas on my latest film Sinners which we shot on 65mm.”
The project reunited her with her Black Panther: Wakanda Forever director Ryan Coogler and makes her the first female cinematographer to ever shoot a feature film in IMAX 65mm and 65mm large-format film.
“Shooting 16mm right before that production was so fun,” she adds. “They are very different formats but I approached them with the same attitude towards exposure. I want the film to sing and ring true to the negative when it comes time to final grade.
“This film will always be an important one because it was made in exactly the way that the director and I set out to make it,” she sums up. “Gia wanted to make a small film where we had full control to carry out our vision. We didn’t have any monitors on-set, there was no video village and we had minimal crew. We wanted to make another film that was similar to the way in which we made Palo Alto – something intimate and personal.
“I know Gia was very happy with the shoot and outcome, which makes me happy. She’s like family so if she’s happy, I’ve done my job well. It feels great to see all of the people appreciating Pamela’s performance. She deserves all of the praise as well as the rest of our amazing cast. Creatively it’s very satisfying to make a beautiful little film with your friends.”
