Interview: Cinematographer Mia Cioffi Henry on ‘Superior’
Superior, the feature-length directorial debut of filmmaker Erin Vassilopoulos which made its world premiere at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival, centers on twin sisters Vivian (Anamari Mesa) and Marian (Alessandra Mesa). Vivian is a housewife leading a tranquil, peaceful life with her husband Michael (Jake Hoffman) when their lives are suddenly thrown in a tailspin after the arrival of the more outspoken and wildly ambitious Marian (Alessandra Mesa), the lead singer for a rock band. While Marian originally says she is there to record new music in a peaceful environment, she is actually on the run from a dark and mysterious past, one that is brought to the surface by the appearance of the mysterious Robert (Pico Alexander) who threatens the new life she has built for herself.
Stylish, unique and bold, Superior is a stunning, gorgeous movie anchored by distinct visuals captured by cinematographer Mia Cioffi Henry, who captures the film’s ‘80s setting in a more muted method compared to the neon-drenched aesthetic most have come to associate with the era these days. We spoke to Cioffi Henry about her phenomenal work on the project and much more.
Can you tell us how you became involved with the project? You also did the cinematography for the short film that Superior is based on as well, correct?
Erin Vassilopolous and I first met at NYU Grad Film school. We were assigned to work together in a crew for our first projects, and we just connected from there. I ended up shooting all of her films while in school including the 2015 Sundance short Superior. We had so much fun creating that world, collaborating and solving film problems back then. It felt like this awesome opportunity to play and experiment with our voices. I remember waking up on the second or third morning of the shoot and feeling like a cinematographer for the very first time. When Erin and Ale started writing this continued world for the feature, I did not hesitate to jump back in. I already knew the characters and aesthetic so well, it was a delight to grow from there.
The film is set in the ’80s and a lot of the camerawork and the visuals really felt like they were from that era, especially the long zooms. Were there any films or filmmakers that were direct inspirations to your work on this project? Were giallo films by any chance an influence?
I’m not really a big fan of watching horror films, but I really love making them! They afford so many chances to do things that are stylized, impressionistic or just fun. Erin and I love a slow zoom and looked for the places we could use our zoom lens on Marian and her perspective. She is feeling hunted and closed in on, what better way to express that than a long zoom in! Some of our biggest film references were Antonioni, Il Deserto Rosso and L’Aventura for color, setting and staging.
You also provided the cinematography for The Surrogate, another fantastic film. The visuals in that film were so incredibly different to Superior, which was much more expansive and colorful. How do you approach your work on any project? Do you start off by immersing yourself in the script? Is it at all influenced by the moods and emotions of the characters?
Whether doing something stylized or naturalistic, I always start my process in the same way. I really want to know the ‘why’ of things. My background originally was as an actor. I really loved preparing for roles by delving deeply into the background and motivations behind characters. As an actor you are always looking at the subtext of scenes too. That’s how I approach my work as a DP as well. If the camera is a character, what is their perspective on the scene, the other characters, the location. How should the audience feel about what is going on and then how can I with the camera support or contradict that. The Surrogate was all about lighting a space for the actors to move and play within the scene, and then my job as camera operator was to capture and react to those movements and emotions. On Superior we wanted to tell a story with the lighting and camera movement and have the characters fit inside of that. Since there is so much less dialogue in this film we rely on the subtext the actors are playing and the mood and tone that we are setting with the lighting and movement. If we are in a dream sequence, how do we know that? What can we do to push the visuals into an unsettled version of reality? My job is to communicate the script to the audience and hopefully they will feel the choices we make on camera, with lenses and lights more than just being drawn to how they look.
While you are filming, do you prefer to watch filming on a monitor or a viewfinder, and why?
I was trained on film, and when you shoot film the only person who knows what is going on with exposure or focus is the one looking through the viewfinder. We shot this feature on 16mm so there is a lot of trust that the director and team has in me that we are getting it right in front of the camera. When I operate I like to look through the viewfinder because I feel more connected to the image. Looking at the monitor can feel passive and disassociated from the image.
The camera and the lighting really capture the tone of each scene and mirror the journey of the characters. The flashbacks or visions Marian has, in particular, were really so very striking and while they were dark in both tone and lighting, they were still able to fully capture our attention. What was your approach to those scenes in particular in terms of colors and lighting?
In the short there is a moment where Marian has a sort of dream fantasy, suddenly the nighttime interior is filled with a kind of fantastical moonlight. We wanted to do a play on that in the feature and have moonlight shooting through every window of the first floor. In the DI we got to really play with the color and tone of that light and throughout the film it subtly changes and gets more contrast-y in the dream sequences, pushing the shadows into more fall off. Erin and I are not afraid of darkness and contrast, but we also wanted to protect our actors’ faces because the performances are so beautifully nuanced, so it was a bit of a dance in the grade.
I noticed a difference in how Marian and Vivian are framed, particularly in close-ups. Marian’s world gradually becomes more and more constricting while Vivian’s is more wide and expansive, which I guess mirrors their psyche and state of mind. How did you approach the scenes of Vivian compared to the scenes of Marian when it came to lighting and camerawork?
It is true, Marian is hiding, changing her appearance and trying to stay under the radar, where Vivian is finally leaving the house and connecting with a wider world, even if it is just the teenager running the ice cream shop. There is not a tone of long lensing in this film on the whole, we like to see the scenes, the background, the context often. We live in a lot of two shots and mediums much of the time too. When we go into close ups, we wanted to have earned them and have them really mean something. We pulled our zoom lens off the truck only a handful of times, but they were all very purposeful and planned out from the beginning if not written straight into the script. Working with Erin is so fun because as a director she really understands the power of lenses and how they can change the perspective on a character. Rarely do we ever disagree about a focal length for a shot because we have talked so much about how much the audience should know or understand in any given moment and lenses are such a big part of that for us.
I noticed a lot of coordination between some of the shots and some of the costumes when it came to lighting and color, particularly the scene of Marian arriving at Vivian’s house in the beginning. Did you work closely with Allison to figure out a mood or a color scheme? What was that process like?
Allison, Erin, Maite [Perez-Nievas], our production designer, and I talked about color a lot! Color is so important to our collaboration. We love to think about our work in terms of the aesthetic themes, but also the honest moments. The visuals might pull your attention into the world, but the truth in the writing and performances is going to be what makes you feel something leaving the theater (so to speak). We never make visual choices for the sake of the look though, they need to come from somewhere specific. Allison and Erin wrote a beautiful color story with the costuming. There is an evolution of the characters that can be plotted through the color red that starts in the first frame and finishes with my favorite shot from the film at the climax. We are told all along that the color red is important because of how delicately it is used in the set dressing and costumes as well as the lighting and that took a strong vision from the director and thoughtful collaboration from the creative department heads. I have a secret background in the wardrobe department, so it is such a pleasure to be able to photograph such carefully thought out looks that in themselves tell a story.
Superior premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 31, 2021.