Sculpting Light: Ben Grant’s Cinematic Approach on ‘Dead Whisper’

Hello, FilmmakersWorld community! 🌟
Today, we’re excited to introduce you to the talented Director of Photography, Ben Grant. He recently shared with us an exclusive breakdown of his incredible work on his latest feature film, Dead Whisper.

Based in Los Angeles, Ben Grant is a Director of Photography with a bold and imaginative approach to cinematography. A Massachusetts College of Art and Design graduate, Ben has applied his fresh perspective to various projects, from feature films to commercials, music videos, and documentaries.

He’s collaborated with top brands like Netflix, Instagram, and Jack Daniels, and worked with renowned artists such as Michael Bublé and Jason Derulo. His latest feature, Dead Whisper, is now available on Apple TV and Amazon.

Beyond his impressive commercial portfolio, Ben Grant participated in the prestigious ASC Vision Mentee program in 2022-23, where he was mentored by Larry Fong, ASC, further honing his craft.

In Dead Whisper, Ben Grant’s cinematography enhances the eerie, supernatural themes of the film, using lighting as a key tool to set the tone and create a haunting atmosphere.

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Below, we delve into the technical breakdown of some of the key scenes, offering a glimpse into his creative process.

Bar Setup – Ben Grant’s notes.

The bar setup was a very simple one. We wanted the look and feel of a warm, dim, coastal New England bar and we were fortunate enough to find a location that fit the bill. It was filled with sconces and practical lights for ambiance so we really just needed to focus on the characters’ key lights. When our main character sits down, all of the other patrons disappear, leaving him alone with a mysterious bartender. 

We made a 4×4 toplight out of Litetile wrapped in a full grid. The team then skirted it to prevent spill in other parts of the bar. We grabbed a plate of the bar so in the wide shot we could remove it later as the ceilings were not particularly high. The 4×4 served as both character’s key lights and we brought in smaller sources for edge lights to give a little separation and prevent them from falling into blackness in the profiles.

Demon Office

This scene occurs near the end of the film where the villain is in his demonic form. It’s the first time we’re seeing him in this stage and we wanted to keep him hidden in shadow until coming into a tighter shot for the reveal. In Act 3, as the character descends into more and more surreal scenes, we want to reflect that in the lighting.

That being said, the setup was relatively simple. This entire film we leaned into a bluer moonlight and this was no different. We Utilized full CTB on our HMIs and would match with our sky panels and Novas when necessary. I wanted an overhead hard beam backlighting our villain and gaffer Rowan Lupton and KG Owen King rigged a menace arm with a source 4 for our toplight. When we came in for a tighter shot we brought in a single titan for fill.

The reverse angles on Elliot were also quite simple. Just a litemat 4 with full grid and a honeycomb keying from a high ¾ angle. The practicals behind him were on a dimmer. That’s it! The Litemat created a beautiful gradient on the bookshelf behind our character.

Greenroom location – Ben Grant’s notes.

In The Greenroom location, our character Elliot wakes up after getting knocked out in a field. He’s in a completely new location and it’s the first time we are in the villain’s estate. We wanted this scene to feel a little warmer and be in direct contrast to the scene prior which was colder and bluer. Almost to give a feeling like what he had just experienced was just a dream.

We keyed directly through the sheers with 3 of our 4k pars on the three large windows. This gave a really nice sidelight to our characters in the wider shots, and it didn’t feel too harsh thanks to the sheers diffusing them. For the mediums and close-ups we wanted to clean up the image a little more. So we flew in an 8x of full grid to soften up the light, and some neg to increase the contrast ratios. The room behind the green room had a chandelier that looked exactly like a halo when framed behind our villain’s head. Framing that was discovered the day of and ended up being a favorite shot of the crew!

Historian Office – Ben Grant ‘s notes.

With this location, the windows were set up to create basically a giant large sidelight. We pushed x2 M40’s through full grid and diffed again through sheers. On the smaller windows, we lit up with our skypanels, The output provided a stronger eye light to our villain character which I quite liked. These windows appeared a lot in the background so they also helped sell the motivation for the key light(We only see the big windows once at the end).

We needed a little extra output from our keys so we used a litemat 4 boomed overhead for a little daylight push. We supplemented the tungsten practicals with titans for some hair/edge lights. I like mixing color temps but it can sometimes cause challenges and mess with the image, but when it’s done subtly I think it creates a great look.

Library location – Ben Grant ‘s notes.

The library location was one of the tougher challenges of the entire shoot. Given the size and layout, paired with the required blocking, it gave us limited options on approach. It was a sensitive location as well so we weren’t able to physically rig to anything. The library was built into a hill so we could fortunately reach the second-floor windows with our lights from the outside quite easily. We started with a key of x2 M40’s through 12×12 of the full grid on the window.

Given the size of the space, it wasn’t going to be enough output we needed as the characters started on the opposite side of the room. The team put two 2×8 lite tiles rigged together to create a 4×8 overhead. We wrapped it in an 8×8 diaper to make it act as a big softbox. The lightweight Litetiles let us boom with a menace arm since we couldn’t rig to anything. This helped raise overall ambient levels inside the space and gave flexibility in the blocking of the characters.

For our wide shot, we grabbed a plate before the overhead was brought in so it could be removed in post. If we needed to make something feel more directional we’d fly in a litemat and some neg to create some more shape on the characters’ faces. We also replaced all the first-floor fixtures with titans for more control and color consistency as well.

Main Hall

The goal was to utilize the path of the sun at the beginning of the day to bring on the large light shafts and introduce a sense of surrealism as this is a large turning point in the film for our main character. After the wide, we swung the full grid onto the windows in front of our Key to soften the light on up the actors for the remainder of the scene. We had our strongest sources in the center on our actors and tapered off in output towards the background. M40’s were the biggest lights our budget would allow and gave us just enough level to compete with the sun as the day progressed.

We didn’t have any fixtures or frames inside as we wanted to be able to show off as much of the location as possible and didn’t want to worry about hiding sources. We were moving pretty fast and lighting the space allowed us to shoot anywhere in the room without having to do big lighting changes.

Ben Grant ‘s extraordinary eye for detail and passion for visual storytelling shines through in every frame he creates. His ability to craft unique and memorable cinematography has solidified his place as one of the most talented DPs working today.

Thank you fam for reading, if you wanna learn more about the work of Ben Grant, go check his Instagram page and his website, and in case you missed our previous mag piece, go check it out!

Much love!
FilmmakersWorld Team

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