How To Shoot Romantic Comedies Like 'Zoey 102'

Zoey 102 | Official Trailer | Paramount+

The benefit of going in cold was that I read a fantastic, and subversive, romantic comedy that would appeal to anyone while honoring fans of the original show. It made me think of the classic romantic comedies that defined the genre, like My Best Friend’s Wedding, shot by legendary cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs.

Zoey 102 tells the story of Zoey Brooks, who worries she may have peaked in high school and goes to great lengths to prove to her friends, who she has avoided for years, that she has not–causing a great deal of hilarious chaos and disruption along the way before ultimately bringing the gang back together.

A key driver of this disruption is the misogynistic and very phony reality show she works on. In the movie, we frequently cut to the reality show footage, with a pivotal scene rapidly intercutting between the reality show and her best friend's wedding. I had my inspiration for the project: to create a modern take on classic romantic comedies, and then flip it on its head to create a contrasting reality show look.

My first step in building the style for a project is always to get into my director's head until I know what they want without them having to say anything. Nancy Hower has a fantastic vision and we worked through the script in great detail, breaking it down by character development and seeing how our visuals could support that. We put together a shot list for the entire film, along with reference images from films that influenced us and floor plans to help schedule our days.

One of Nancy’s biggest influences was the moving masters of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and we planned out elaborate shots that would flow through the space while simultaneously reinforcing the characters and the story. In the opening, we begin with helicopter shots of the twinkling Los Angeles nightscape, setting up our location. Then, in an apparent single take, the camera sweeps over the buildings and wipes through a rooftop, where we merge it with a technocrane shot that reveals the outdoor seating of an opulent restaurant. It drops down and pushes through the open glass doors, where it detaches from the crane and, guided by operator John C. Lehmen, is carried on a Ronin gimbal through the bustling restaurant to introduce Zoey on a date gone terribly wrong.

As she tries to retreat, she bumps into a group of waiters, setting off a chaotic chain reaction of flying champagne and cake, which were filmed at 1000 fps on a Phantom camera, visually reinforcing how her character, though well-meaning, accidentally brings chaos wherever she goes.

I grew up in South Africa, and as a kid, I was always reading books and doing art classes. As I read I would see pictures in my head, and I would try to get them on paper or canvas through oils, ink, charcoal, etching, and lithography. When I began to dabble in photography, I discovered an affinity for using lights and lenses to create these images, but I was still drawn to the techniques I had studied, particularly the German Expressionist group “Der Blaue Reiter” that would use color and shape to build emotion.​

As a cinematographer, I love manipulating the image to guide the audience into a feeling of subjective empathy with the main character, mirroring their happiness or sadness, anxiety, or confusion. In my recent sci-fi feature Ultrasound (which premiered Tribeca 2021), I took subjectivity to extremes to mirror the hypnotized character’s confusion as to which world was real. This expressiveness applies in a wide range of genres I work in including horror and, of course, comedy.

For Zoey’s world, I wanted a heightened feel that would be cinematic, warm, and comforting, a world that viewers and fans would want to spend time in. I built this look by shooting with Alexa mini LF cameras combined with classic style Cooke S8 prime lenses, bringing them close to the actors and primarily shooting with a single camera. I added further to the soft roll off of the lenses and shallow focus of the large sensor by adding Schneider Classic Soft filters and used a widescreen aspect ratio like the classic romantic comedies.

I worked with production designer Jeremy Cassells to add warm natural lights to the interiors. A great example of this is the rehearsal dinner. Our cast sat around a long table filled with flickering candles, and above it were hanging lights with tungsten filaments and glass panels. This practical lighting created a beautiful warm look, and since it was built into the location it allowed Nancy and I to move the camera freely.

In contrast, the reality show needed to be big and expensive, but also cold and alienating, a place where a callous producer manufactures fake love stories for money. To do this, I shot from far away with multiple handheld cameras and modern sharp Angenieux Optimo Zooms. Instead of the soft warm lighting I used LED lights with cool colours. The big finale had a huge recreation of the reality show house on set, and gaffer Tommy Sullivan filled it with purple and blue colour chases on the walls, glowing strips of pink neon, and contrasting yellow light beams sweeping through the haze.

My favorite touch in this contrast was to switch between the widescreen format for the cinematic look and 16x9 for the reality show, just as a comic book changes panel shapes to tell the story. My colorist Ian Vertovec helped take this even further by adding a subtle film grain to the cinematic parts, while denoising and adding video sharpness to the reality show.