Colm Hogan shot Christy (dir. Brendan Canty, Berlinale 2025) in Cork City using a philosophy of portrait-style lighting with a single source: the sun. No bounce boards. No fill lights. No negative fill. No outdoor artificial light. Just the sun positioned where he wanted it, at the time of day when it was there. The camera was a Sony Venice. The lenses were Blackwing Tribe 7, characterful glass with a distinctive optical signature. The aspect ratio was 3:2, an unusual choice that places the frame between widescreen and standard television, giving each face more vertical space.
Hogan told IndieWire: 'Every individual in the film we treated as portraiture. We enhanced that again with our 3:2 aspect ratio and single-source lighting. We used no outdoor lighting, bounce boards, fills, or negative fills. We just chose to shoot at the right time of day when the sun was where we wanted it to be.' This statement is worth analyzing because it reveals a cinematographic philosophy: the camera does not impose lighting. It waits for the light that serves the story.
This approach requires flexibility. If the sun is not in the right position at the right time, the shoot waits or moves to a different location. It is the opposite of conventional studio-based cinematography, where the DP designs the lighting and the production adapts. Here, the production adapts to available light. This is constraint-driven cinematography—the constraint of the sun's movement becomes the generator of visual language.
The 3:2 aspect ratio decision is crucial. Standard cinema formats (2.39:1, 1.85:1) emphasize horizontal space. They make the frame wide. A 3:2 ratio is nearly square, emphasizing vertical space. Combined with the single-source lighting and portrait-style close-ups, the result is a film that treats each face as a study. The face has room to exist in the frame. The light is not flattering in the conventional sense—it has hard shadows, high contrast—but it is honest. You see the person.
Cork City provided the locations. Hogan noted: 'North Cork City is such a cinematic place so everywhere we pointed the camera gave us something new.' This is not flattery of the location. It is observation. A cinematographer who understands light and location will find that locations offer visual possibilities if they stop trying to impose predetermined ideas. Hogan pointed the camera and Cork gave back images.
For cinematographers interested in how to work with natural light as the primary language rather than as a constraint to overcome, Hogan's approach on Christy is instructive. The decision to use no outdoor artificial light is not a budget decision or a documentary choice. It is a cinematographic philosophy: the world as it is lit contains everything the film requires visually. The cinematographer's job is to find it and frame it.
No bounce boards. No fills. No outdoor lighting. Just the right time of day. Hogan called that approach. And Cork City gave him everything.
Gear Recommendations
- Sony Venice | Adorama – B&H Photo
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