Marcell Rév

TVPS: Hi. How are you? How’s your quarantine going?

MR: Hi! I mean, it's fun because I get to spend some time with my family, but I'm ready to work.

Nice. So getting into it, where does your story start?

I'm from Budapest and went to film school there as well—the University of Theatre and Film Arts. It's a 5-year cinematography class. It was a long 5 years, but it was really beneficial, I had great teachers, and there was only 8 of us in the class. I think the reason why film school has its advantages is that you can experiment without any consequences. It’s a great playground.

After graduating from film school, I started to shoot movies locally in Budapest. I did this movie called White God, which went on to get a little bigger than foreign language movies typically do.

That’s actually how I met Sam Levinson, who is the creator of Euphoria. He watched the movie and reached out. He was starting this new film at the time, Assassination Nation. It was funny because 10 minutes into that call, he offered me the job.

Budapest doesn't sound like a long way from here, because in LA people are from all over the globe, but getting from Budapest to LA and working on features here was a pretty long way to go. Looking back to my university years, I wouldn't have imagined this.

Is there a big difference between working on set in Europe versus the US?

Like on a surface level? There are some differences in terms of how you communicate, how things are structured. For example, pre-production is way shorter in the US than in European movies because everyone there is local—we’ll prep movies for like 6 months, or a year. But in the US, when you go to Louisiana, and half of your crew is brought in from out of town, you have to pay for all those people, so you can’t afford that extra time. So that’s a little different, and some positions are a little different, but the core of what I do and how I collaborate with directors is more or less the same.

Assassination Nation was my first US film, but before I started on Euphoria with Sam, I did a movie with his dad, Barry Levinson. It was Paterno for HBO with Al Pacino, and we shot in New York. It was like a dream come true.

How does your role vary from pre-production to filming to post-production?

Pre-production, for the most part, is spending time with the director—discussing scripts, just kicking around ideas. It’s less official than how it looks—they’re just really exciting conversations. For instance, since Sam is the writer and director of Euphoria, he has the power to change certain things in the script. So he’ll come up with an idea, and that will morph into a really creative conversation that involves multiple aspects of shooting, not only just the lighting or the shots. Since he has a lot of visual ideas, I get inspired by them as well.

Then there are certain things that you have to lock in on, like scouting locations with the production designer, working with a storyboard artist, hiring the crew... all these things so that Sam can spend more time on writing. He also has a really good understanding of visuality, a sense of what we can achieve with certain equipment, and how time-consuming something will be. So that makes this process easier.

Of course, when you meet a new director, you have to establish a language between the two of you. I think a big part of the job of a DP is to deeply understand what someone wants to create.

At this point in pre-production, are you having any conversations with the rest of the crew?

Yeah, of course. I spend a lot of time with the production designer, Jason Stewart. We’ll sit down and tell him the idea of the scene, and also if it’s a set that we’ll carry for multiple scenes or multiple episodes. It’s a lot of back and forth—he’ll have an idea, come up with a floor plan, then we have another idea, so we’ll modify that a little bit, then he’ll come back with a new design, etc. It's always an evolving conversation.

Then there’s a lot of creativity in lighting. So with Dan Durr, our gaffer, and Jeff Kunkel my key grip, the 3 of us spend a lot of time together figuring out certain lighting setups or camera moves. In Euphoria there are a lot of complicated lighting and camera moving situations, so I rely a lot on their creativity.

Then I’m also working with my first AC, Norris Fox. So before shooting, when I’m choosing equipment, like a certain lens or camera, I always discuss it with my first AC. Just in terms of technical questions like depth of field, whether he's comfortable with a certain lens, whether he has a better suggestion for something, or recommendations for certain filters, because these guys are shooting 24/7. They’re spending way more time near cameras than I do because they're not in prep, so they might have a better knowledge of equipment to use.

How do you go about hiring the crew?

It depends on the job, but it’s really simple for the most part. For example, if I'm going to Louisiana to shoot a movie. I look up recent movies that were shot in Louisiana, and if I like the film, and I’m looking for a gaffer, I’ll look them up and see if they’re available.

What are your responsibilities on set?

I think it's hard to tell what my main responsibilities are because there aren't really any straight lines for this. What’s in the image? For the most part, yes. But when it comes to a color on the wall, partially.

What we're creating is teamwork, so my responsibility is a common responsibility with some other people. Is it my responsibility that the actor feels good on set? Yes, partially, it's my responsibility to create an environment where they can feel comfortable, and they can do their job in the best way. Also, for example, the framing is my responsibility, but also that's a common responsibility with the director. And the lighting and the camera movement, for sure. Then also to deliver something on time, so that's time management, and running a set.

What about in post-production?

I’m pretty much just involved in coloring—sometimes it’s just me and the colorist, and then sometimes the director attends the color grading as well.

When I'm shooting in the US, I usually work with Tom Poole, who's at Company 3 and is a great colorist. So before we start shooting, he’s the one developing a look-up table according to what look we are going for and what kind of camera and lenses we are using. This is essential, so on set, we can look at an image that is really close to what we’ll end up with on screen. In post, we’ll sit in a dark room and fine-tune, but I usually like to solve things on set, or before we start shooting.

Do you have any advice for someone just starting out?

For any young person starting to work in this field, I think it's important to realize this... you should have fun.

It's serious and hard work, but at the same time it will become your life, and you should enjoy what you're doing. Maybe it's not the most fun to be out in a forest on a cold winter night, but you're doing something exciting.

If you have no experience, and it’s your first time on set, you're maybe not doing the most creative job. But just knowing from being there before, I have always tried to enjoy myself, meaning that I’m deeply interested in what I’m doing. No matter what you're doing on a film set, I think it's the most interesting work environment. I think you should just pay attention because I think the best way to learn is to watch other people shoot or just to be on set.

Last question! Is there anything you’re doing during this time that you’re enjoying?

In Los Angeles, we went into shelter in place the week before we were set to start shooting Euphoria Season 2. So we’re able to take more time prepping now and have a little more time on those tiny details which we usually don’t have—really storyboarding it out.

So I could come up with a totally detailed mood board and storyboard for each location and scene. And that’s a rarity, especially in television. So we have time to revisit certain ideas and let them evolve into better ideas. And you can get into the details, like really deep into the details, and let those evolve, too. I think this will also make us quicker on set because we’ll have a better plan.