How ‘Daredevil: Born Again’ Cinematographer Shot the Cargo Ship Fight Using Flying Drones While Floating Down the East River
“Daredevil: Born Again” Season 2 doesn’t hold back. Its first episode, titled “The Northern Star,” skips ahead in time and right off the bat, Matt Murdock’s alter-ego vigilante Daredevil is back in action.
It’s darker and grittier than ever.
Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, has been voted in by the people of New York City as mayor. Visually, it’s a darker and grittier world. When Murdock learns a cargo ship carrying military-grade weapons is headed to Fisk’s free port, he steps in to intercept it, and a fight breaks out as he takes on the ship’s crew. The action is executed as a single continuous shot that ends with the vessel sinking.
Cinematographer Hillary Fyfe Spera’s first reaction was: “We’re sinking a ship in New York Harbor.” Her next question was how they were going to pull it off.
The waterways of New York were familiar territory to Spera, and she knew collaboration was key. Her first port of call was finding a real tugboat and cargo ship company in Staten Island that provided water vessels for shooting around New York City.
Speaking with Variety for Inside the Frame, Spera explains, “We used them to collaborate as to what our possibilities are because we wanted to shoot this on an actual ship in the East River, in the harbor that would be somewhere between Brooklyn and Manhattan.” The Manhattan backdrop would anchor the storytelling and tell audiences where they were. The view of the Brooklyn Bridge at night was a cherry on top.
As with Season 1, the creatives wanted to shoot everything in-camera as much as possible, and aside from filming on the waterways, they would shoot on the deck of a real cargo ship. But that posed logistical challenges. “We’re shooting on a live waterway. We can’t shut it down. It’s at night. There are tides, wind and currents,” Spera says.
On the day of the shoot, Spera and her team loaded the camera gear on the ship and floated the ship from Staten Island to the river, docking it at an angle to have the background that they wanted.
Her proudest feat was getting a building on the East River to change its light display. “It’s a glass building that has a concert venue on top, and I’ve been looking at it for years. We were looking across the river. And I thought, ‘It would be cool if we could ask them to put all red on that building when we shoot.’” And they obliged. “This one source has a little hint of red that reminds us that we’re in the world of ‘Daredevil,’ and that lends to the story.”
Lighting posed another challenge. Spera and her gaffer, Charlie Grubbs, looked at real ship lighting. “We mounted a lot of practical sources on the ship so that we could shoot in almost 360.”
But the lightbulb moment was when they realized how they tackled aerial lighting. There was no way they could light from the water side, so they decided to “fly lights on drones.” She explains, “We needed it because it was a continuous oner and had the light travel with us.”
Spera and her team worked with Monster Remotes in New York and their drone division. But there were restrictions. “There were weight restrictions, and you could only go 12 minutes per flight.” The sequence was five to six minutes. “We trained the drones on the path of the choreography, trying to get the backlight throughout as if it’s coming from Manhattan or from the bridge.” Spera adds, “We did five or six takes.”
In prepping for the scene, the show’s action director and stunt coordinator, Philip J. Silvera, also returned after working on Season 1. “His prep is extensive in a way that’s very camera-friendly,” Spera says of their collaboration. “He builds worlds out of cardboard boxes, and he knows what every box represents, and walks me, the operators and our lighting team through it.”
As for her camera and lens choice, Spera used the same camera and lens package from the first season: the ALEXA 35 with G-Series and T-Series Panavision lenses.
“We used a macro anamorphic 55 prime lens. It’s got a beautiful singular flare ability that’s very warm and allows for very close focus.” That allowed her to get close to her subjects to create an intimate and personal feeling. She adds, “The idea of shooting the show anamorphic was to give it scope and scale and evolve it from the look it previously had.”
“Daredevil: Born Again” Season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.
Watch the scene above.
It’s darker and grittier than ever.
Wilson Fisk, aka the Kingpin, has been voted in by the people of New York City as mayor. Visually, it’s a darker and grittier world. When Murdock learns a cargo ship carrying military-grade weapons is headed to Fisk’s free port, he steps in to intercept it, and a fight breaks out as he takes on the ship’s crew. The action is executed as a single continuous shot that ends with the vessel sinking.
Cinematographer Hillary Fyfe Spera’s first reaction was: “We’re sinking a ship in New York Harbor.” Her next question was how they were going to pull it off.
The waterways of New York were familiar territory to Spera, and she knew collaboration was key. Her first port of call was finding a real tugboat and cargo ship company in Staten Island that provided water vessels for shooting around New York City.
Speaking with Variety for Inside the Frame, Spera explains, “We used them to collaborate as to what our possibilities are because we wanted to shoot this on an actual ship in the East River, in the harbor that would be somewhere between Brooklyn and Manhattan.” The Manhattan backdrop would anchor the storytelling and tell audiences where they were. The view of the Brooklyn Bridge at night was a cherry on top.
As with Season 1, the creatives wanted to shoot everything in-camera as much as possible, and aside from filming on the waterways, they would shoot on the deck of a real cargo ship. But that posed logistical challenges. “We’re shooting on a live waterway. We can’t shut it down. It’s at night. There are tides, wind and currents,” Spera says.
On the day of the shoot, Spera and her team loaded the camera gear on the ship and floated the ship from Staten Island to the river, docking it at an angle to have the background that they wanted.
Her proudest feat was getting a building on the East River to change its light display. “It’s a glass building that has a concert venue on top, and I’ve been looking at it for years. We were looking across the river. And I thought, ‘It would be cool if we could ask them to put all red on that building when we shoot.’” And they obliged. “This one source has a little hint of red that reminds us that we’re in the world of ‘Daredevil,’ and that lends to the story.”
Lighting posed another challenge. Spera and her gaffer, Charlie Grubbs, looked at real ship lighting. “We mounted a lot of practical sources on the ship so that we could shoot in almost 360.”
But the lightbulb moment was when they realized how they tackled aerial lighting. There was no way they could light from the water side, so they decided to “fly lights on drones.” She explains, “We needed it because it was a continuous oner and had the light travel with us.”
Spera and her team worked with Monster Remotes in New York and their drone division. But there were restrictions. “There were weight restrictions, and you could only go 12 minutes per flight.” The sequence was five to six minutes. “We trained the drones on the path of the choreography, trying to get the backlight throughout as if it’s coming from Manhattan or from the bridge.” Spera adds, “We did five or six takes.”
In prepping for the scene, the show’s action director and stunt coordinator, Philip J. Silvera, also returned after working on Season 1. “His prep is extensive in a way that’s very camera-friendly,” Spera says of their collaboration. “He builds worlds out of cardboard boxes, and he knows what every box represents, and walks me, the operators and our lighting team through it.”
As for her camera and lens choice, Spera used the same camera and lens package from the first season: the ALEXA 35 with G-Series and T-Series Panavision lenses.
“We used a macro anamorphic 55 prime lens. It’s got a beautiful singular flare ability that’s very warm and allows for very close focus.” That allowed her to get close to her subjects to create an intimate and personal feeling. She adds, “The idea of shooting the show anamorphic was to give it scope and scale and evolve it from the look it previously had.”
“Daredevil: Born Again” Season 2 is now streaming on Disney+.
Watch the scene above.