One Piece Netflix Live-Action Cinematography
Come on board and bring along all your hopes and dreams! The journey that Monkey D. Luffy (Iñaki Godoy) and his band of fellow misfit pirates experience was another journey to create. No one knows that better than cinematographer Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, ASC who stopped by Filmmakers Academy to share her experience on the One Piece Netflix adaptation.
The filmmakers hopped around Cape Town, South Africa, and constructed fleets of ships to bring the anime sensation to life! Keep reading to learn more about the cinematic process of One Piece, and what it takes to successfully adapt an anime for live-action audiences.
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ADAPTING ONE PIECE NETFLIX LIVE-ACTION SERIES
Adapting the wildly popular seafaring anime series of 25 years was a titanic feat. Especially when it comes down to the expectations of a highly loyal fanbase. Others attempted to adapt manga and anime into live action to only be panned by their target audience. So, Nicole Hirsch Whitaker’s success story wasn’t guaranteed.
“It was definitely scary but I knew — because Marc Jobst, the director, who I’d worked with before was an amazing storyteller — that he was going to make the storytelling key. And it wasn’t all going to be about just trying to do something fantastical.”
Hirsch Whitaker fell in love with the scripts upon reading them, describing them as “really wonderful.” They spent the better part of a year developing the look of the One Piece live-action series. This involved a rigorous prep process on the ground in Africa.
ONE PIECE LIVE-ACTION CINEMATOGRAPHY
The mix of fantastical imagery with realistic is what gives the cinematography of One Piece its charm. The style of the ships is larger than life and delivers the style that the series’ fanbase desires.
Part of what helped sell the cinematography was Hirsch Whitaker’s approach. This was done in part by reinventing a certain lens and making the camera movement feel as effortless as an anime show.
It took an incredible amount of planning, plotting, and troubleshooting to achieve the final look. Many conversations were had between the lead creatives who found inspiration in whimsical films like Slumdog Millionaire.
At the end of the day, Hirsch Whitaker understood they weren’t telling a story that was necessarily happy.
“Because at the root of One Piece, it’s sad,” the director of photography explains. “These kids are all orphans and or they’ve had horrible childhoods and then they’ve come together to find a family.”
CAMERA MOVEMENT
They wanted to make sure the One Piece remake was first and foremost about character over camera movement that might take audiences out of the story.
“We were very cognizant to make sure that when we did use cranes, or we did do things that were really sort of out there camera-wise that it was for very specific moments,” says Hirsch Whitaker. “And then the rest of the time, it was really as Marc says, ‘A person and a camera,’ so that you didn’t have that disconnect of when you have a tool that you feel like the tool has taken over the camera movement. That you wanted it to feel connected to the person who was actually operating.”
According to Hirsch Whitaker, about 80% of the show was shot on handheld or on a line with a Ronin for shots that involved stuntwork. Only very rarely did they opt for the Technocrane. Due to the nature of shooting on a ship, however, they used cable cams.
All in all, though, Hirsch Whitaker felt liberated picking up the camera and going. This freedom was part of their visual language, after all, and helps the audience engage with the characters.
OCEAN CINEMATOGRAPHY
To help them orient themselves on the open waters, the One Piece production used a Frogman and flotillas. They also used three different tanks to create the illusion of the ocean.
The top tank was open so they could place and rotate smaller boats as the sun moved. Most of the time they had a small Technocrane or Scorpio on one of the rafts, so they could pickle in and capture parts of the boats.
The camera operators could also jump in the boats. The only thing that made them so tricky was that they were small. By comparison, the large ships were all dry dock except for the Baratie, which was constructed in another tank.
All the boats at Windmill Village where Monkey D. Luffy grew up were in the water. In fact, the village itself was built in the water, making it a mishmash to control it all. For example, managing the wind was a challenge in and of itself. There were days when they couldn’t even fly blue screens, making it a tricky game of patience.
“Marc’s a very patient director,” laughs Hirsch Whitaker, “and he knew that we needed to be clocking ourselves as the day went on.”
Overall, Hirsch Whitaker describes it as “definitely hard” but in the end “it worked out great.” Sometimes the boats were not pointed in the right direction. They tried some overheads on their wide lenses but then got a call saying they couldn’t do that because every shot would then be a VFX shot. So, they ended up rescheduling shots so they could use the sun.
HAWK ANAMORPHIC LENSES
In order to use the wide-angle lenses, Nicole Hirsch Whitaker had to leverage her relationship with the good people at Hawk and convince Netflix to foot the bill for five sets.
When Hirsch Whitaker began talking to director Marc Jobst about the show, they initially wanted widescreen anamorphic lenses to help convey the distortions of anime. However, as Hirsch Whitaker notes, anamorphics don’t have close focus so you can’t go close and far. So, they soon rolled anamorphics out.
Then, they considered spherical lenses but they didn’t feel right. So, they started to talk about the MiniHawks which they had previously shot on Jupiter’s Legacy for a fantastical sequence. Marc absolutely loved them and they knew that the Hawk lenses used in a large format could take them to another level.
CREATING A NEW KIND OF ANAMORPHIC LENS
So, nine months before they began shooting, they got on the phone with Netflix after Hirsch Whitaker spoke with Hawk about it.
“Obviously, I called Peter Martin and Wolfgang and we had done projects together, but I’ve only ever done anamorphic projects with them, and then used the MiniHawks on certain projects like as a second lens or second set of lenses. So, I knew that the large format anamorphics obviously wouldn’t work. So, I asked if they would create a set of large format MiniHawks, and they were like, ‘Huh, okay. We’re gonna go see if we can figure that out.’”
When the peeps at Hawk called back a few weeks later, they said they could do it but Netflix had to approve it. Marc and Hirsch Whitaker had a long conversation with the Netflix executives and a couple of dozen phone calls later, they approved it. Hirsch Whitaker and her team didn’t get the finished MiniHawk lenses until two weeks before they started shooting. There were two sets at first and then the rest trickled in throughout production.
ADDITIONAL LENSES
In addition to the Hawks, they used a 14.5mm MasterBuilt lens, a couple 12mm Laowa lenses, and an 8mm fisheye.
What’s fascinating about the 14.5mm MasterBuilt is not only doesn’t it have any distortion but it’s actually wider than a 14.5mm.
As far as the Hawks, Hirsch Whitaker asked for something wider, and the furthest they could provide her with was a 24mm.
TUNE INTO PREMIUM FILMMAKERS ACADEMY PODCASTS
This was only a segment from the full interview with Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, ASC. You can watch the full episode as a Filmmakers Academy All Access member or listen for free wherever you get your podcasts!
ABOUT SHANE HURLBUT, ASC
Shane Hurlbut, ASC is not only a director of photography, he’s an innovator who trailblazes new technology and finds creative ways to systematize it into the filmmaking process.
Hurlbut is one of the forefathers of the digital revolution and the first to turn affordable cameras into movie-making powerhouses! More recently, he reimagined pre-production with the Insta360 camera during the tech and location scout. Not only was it an essential tool during the pandemic, but it streamlines collaboration and saves the production money. This is an absolute MUST for directors of photography.
Learn more about Virtual Scouting & Prep with a 360 Degree Camera!
