For Your Consideration: Cinematographer Jason Raswant

This Post is in a series of posts that is directed at the members of the IAWTV/Streamy Awards. The content will highlight different members of the Compulsions team. These are meant for both awareness and as a guide to showcase what each individual brought to the project.

From Producer Michael Tohl: Jason had limited equipment, limited crew, and tough conditions to work in.  We shot all eight episodes in July, and two of our days were particularly tough on him and his crew… when we shot our warehouse scenes.  Lighting an empty space the size of three football fields with a lighting package smaller than one  typical on a student film is hard enough.  They were using practically every single thing they hand to light each shot one at a time.  Having a “skeleton crew” means less hands on deck to move that heavy equipment around for each shot, and running it around such a large space is tiring.  That makes it hard to keep up with the shooting schedule.  We had a “diffuser” (similar to a fog machine) to create “depth” and “texture” in the background, and that created swamp like humidity.  And to push the crew to the edge, we had to keep the air conditioning off to keep the sound from getting ruined, and from blowing the diffusion around.  The crew was quickly fatigued, and it took all their heart to keep going.  So aside from his creative talents that can be seen on screen, what you didn’t see was how he remained strong (but not mean), calm (but not lazy) and constantly thought on his toes to keep his crew from losing heart.  It takes some serious leadership skills to keep a crew moving on schedule, and doing quality work under such harsh conditions!

Taryn O'Neill looks on to a bleeding Seth Caskey in Episode 6

From Director Nathan Atkinson: Here’s the thing about Jason, I think he was given a budget of something like $600… and then we cut it back. Because he has such a great eye, he was able to take his pocket change budget, call in dozens of one time favors, and make it look like a studio had picked us up and we shot it for seven figures. Simply amazing. The camera we used (Sony EX3) is a camera that many feature films use as “crash cameras” – cameras that are cheap enough to destroy… just as long as you get the shot from them first. But, with Jason, you’d never know it. Again, you can have the flashiest gun in the world – but if you don’t know how to shoot it, you’re just going to hurt yourself. Jason’s skill, his attitude, and his almost magical skill of taking next-to-nothing and making it look like a million bucks, not only makes him the best candidate for this award – it makes me want to work with him again, and often.

A silhouetted Craig Frank in Episode 6

From Creator Bernie Su: From day one Jason was the first pick of both Nathan and Michael for this project and I certainly feel fortunate to work with someone so driven and talented in his craft. I was always impressed from his use of shadows in a scene, below is the first scene from Episode 6, one of our most complex scenes as far as coverage. Take special note of Jason’s incredible use of shadows in contrast with the lighting in each shot. The depth and layers added so much to the “grittiness” that serves the sequence so well, and like Jason stands by, “serves the story.”

Please consider Jason Raswant from Compulsions for Best Cinematography in the 2010 Streamys.