I am also very excited by Seamus McGarvey's appointment. We had a whole additional news article shining a bit of a spotlight on some aspects of his cinematography style ready-to-go for the front page of NarniaWeb a couple of weeks ago, but it got de-railed by a certain little news story which came out of nowhere...  😂 😭

It wasn't the most in-depth of analyses, as the images very much do the talking, however I'm definitely keen to steer the conversation back towards the overall filmmaking journey, and will be super keen to hear what people's takes on him are.

For example, although Greatest Showman isn't his prettiest film (certainly nowhere near as beautiful as Atonement), it definitely contains one of the most "Magician's Nephewy" sequences I can think of in recent cinema (the children exploring the old abandoned house) so I think it offers a tantalising vision of what MN could potentially look like:

https://youtu.be/fCElqWdviUI?si=RzQMJh-qpodsvBtQ

Yes, The Greatest Showman definitely has that “Magician’s Nephewy” sense of discovery, great pull, but I keep coming back to Atonement too when thinking about what McGarvey might bring to The Magician’s Nephew. His cinematography there captures the period so vividly: the texture of the light, the soft edges of memory, and especially his use of green throughout. It lends everything a kind of haunted beauty; something that feels incredibly fitting for places like the Wood between the Worlds. That tone of quiet magic and emotional gravity is exactly the kind of atmosphere I’d love to see in Narnia.

And while Gerwig took a very different route with Barbie, her work on Little Women actually feels quite aligned with Atonement; elegant, intimate, painterly. So I’m really hoping she leans into that style for The Magician’s Nephew, especially since it’s such a rich, mythic story at its core.

And yes, totally agree; while the casting conversations are interesting and debatable, what really grabbed me, when reminded of this announcement, was the chance to start thinking about the filmmaking itself. That’s what I was hoping to open the conversation up to; how visual language, style, and tone might evolve under Gerwig and McGarvey.

I love this new article from @icarus. The quotes from Seamus McGarvey are really promising! 

"The lovely thing about the prep that I’ve got on this film that I’m about to embark on Narnia with Greta Gerwig. And the lovely thing is that I’m at a very early stage. I’ve got six months of prep, which I’ve never had before. And it’s a very intricate film, but it’s precisely that visual cohesiveness and sharing between all the departments, all our ideas, so that eventually they’re kind of coming together. And I think that will make it a visually very strong film because we’re constantly bouncing off each other. – Seamus McGarvey"

His body of work is really impressive, and I love that he's had an entire six months to prepare for The Magician's Nephew. If his previous projects look as incredible as they do with less time to prepare, just think what he'll have in store for Narnia!

The news that Seamus McGarvey will be shooting the film on VistaVision is definitely a happy compromise between not shooting on IMAX, and not having that cheap Netflix-y digital look.

I really have to imagine then that if they are going to the effort of shooting on film, then they will also be making an effort to capture as much "in camera" as possible, and hopefully to use natural lighting wherever possible (Interestingly though we've seen almost no evidence so far about any location shooting - only studios).

I think one of my biggest criticisms of Walden LWW overall is that it's got a lot of unnecessary green screen work, and even when they are shooting in real locations the over-use of rigged lighting gives everything an overly bright and flat look to it.

I'm by no means a cinematography expert, so probably can't explain it in any more detail than that, but I feel like it all contributes to the somewhat fake look of Narnia in LWW... though they definitely improved upon this aspect in Prince Caspian somewhat.

You perfectly captured what I wanted to comment in the "Improve the first two Walden films" thread, but I couldn't find the words. That overly bright, flat, fake look of Narnia in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe has always bothered me! I bet Andrew Adamson's background in animation led him to use it quite often. 

I cannot wait to see the combined efforts of Greta Gerwig and Seamus McGarvey in The Magician's Nephew. I feel confident that the production design and the cinematography will be amazing. Gerwig's practical effects in Barbie and McGarvey's compositions as a whole really excite me! 

@silverchair 

That overly bright, flat, fake look of Narnia inThe Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobehas always bothered me! I bet Andrew Adamson's background in animation led him to use it quite often. 

This could also be related to Don McAlpine as a cinematographer.  I remember him talking about how working with children, you can't be as specific about hitting marks to make the perfect shot because you just want them to enjoy the experience and be focused on acting and being in the moment rather than getting distracted by technical concerns.  For this reason he used more forgiving lighting that might not look as beautiful but should capture better performances.

...

I think this might be the video of the interview (but he doesn't go into as much detail as I thought I remembered he did):
https://youtu.be/0EXi0mcFOMQ?list=PLRzqXH8K0HzHl1ixXF1a9_VwqxxbAkdGo&t=259

Either way, it did lead to some flat lighting as you and @icarus pointed out.

Posted by: @davidd

For this reason he used more forgiving lighting that might not look as beautiful but should capture better performances.

To be fair, there are lots of good reasons why you would use flat lighting and uninteresting cinematography in a movie like LWW - for instance that it's much easier to insert digital VFX into a shot where everything is lit evenly across the frame, rather than having to try and get your computer generated add-in to interact with the natural light and shadow already captured on the film.

There's also, as you say, lots of reasons pertaining to working with children which means it's easier, safer and cheaper to shoot on a soundstage with artificial lights, rather than shoot outside in the snow, with natural light. ... Thus even when you do manage to get the odd outdoor shot, the easiest way to get them to match visually is to use the same lighting set-up as the studio scenes.

Another example is in the opening scenes of Prince Caspian where you've got this really unconvincing day-for-night shot of Caspian riding his horse over the hills of Narnia. The practical minded part of me acknowledges that shooting anything at nighttime is hugely difficult, dangerous and expensive, and that day-for-night shots are a common workaround for most films... But there is still that part of me that winces every time at how unconvincing it all looks.