Planet of the Apes Sequel Motion Rapture by Cinematographer Michael Seresin

Cinematographer Michael Seresin’s recent work on Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is “stunning, especially when we are following the apes swinging through the trees and across girders,” the Birmingham Mail declares in a review.

“Forget motion-capture, this is motion-rapture.”

The Los Angeles Times declared the movie “a visual feast”.

“Dawn’s vision of masses of intelligent apes swarming the screen as masters of all they survey is even more impressive than it was the last time around and reason enough to see the film all by itself,” the publication said.

Seresin, 72, told the International Cinematographer’s Guild magazine: “[Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes is] definitely a low-key, dark film. And the big thing for me was how to make that feel not artificially lit. I used a lot of single-source lights and deep shadows. In a world where there’s no electricity and no lights, you have to justify where the light comes from. That’s a matter of using your imagination, and saying, “Okay, we’ve got a couple of airshafts coming down – let’s pour some sunlight down there. And maybe that hits the water and then bounces back up.”

Weta visual effects supervisor Academy Award-nominee Dan Lemmon also worked on the film, the sequel to 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

Seresin is also a winemaker. He founded Seresin Estate in Marlborough in 1992.

Original article by Graham Young, Birmingham Mail, July 16, 2014.

Photo by David James/Weta Digital.