Shooting OPJ on Réunion Island: a light camera set-up facing tropical light

I joined OPJ in season 4, alongside director Elsa Blayau, who had already worked on season 3. The series has a strong visual identity, and it comes first and foremost from the way we use the camera.

A series shot handheld

Our producers, Stéphane Meunier and Muriel Alorend, have always wanted us to shoot handheld as much as possible, to stay mobile and keep our technical set-up light. That is OPJ's DNA.

On top of the handheld camera, we use drone shots, which are more contemplative, crane shots when we want to combine the actors' performance with an aerial movement, and Ronin-stabilised shots for scenes where we want to soften the raw feel of handheld.

Light equipment, cinematic ambitions

We shoot on Sony FX9, FX6 and FX3 cameras with Sony G photo lenses, a configuration usually meant for documentary work. Being so light, it lets us shoot in locations out of reach for a conventional crew: rock pools, waterfalls, ravines.

But the ambitions of OPJ's directors and cinematographers are cinematic. We express them through the shot list, our camera moves, our framing, and the lighting whenever we can control it.

Taming tropical light

Tropical light is very particular: mostly overhead and hard. In the southern hemisphere the sun is in the north and its path is reversed compared with mainland France. To make things easier, we always shoot during the austral winter, a drier season when the sun sits lower in the sky. The downside: shorter days. We are prepping before sunrise and wrapping after sunset.

• Around midday, we favour interiors or locations sheltered under the tree canopy.
• The rest of the time, we shade the actors or, when that isn't possible, we work against the light.
• In scenes with a very wide playing area, we embrace the hard tropical light, usually scheduling them at the very start of the day or as the second-to-last scene.

Night falls very quickly, which sometimes gives us cold sweats. My experience of this light and of such changeable weather has always helped me land on my feet: there are very few retakes on OPJ. And if something goes badly wrong, an even more mobile C unit, directed by Pierre Cueille, steps in so that we never miss a shot.

Saving time without losing quality

• Operating the wide shot myself. We always shoot with two cameras: keeping the wide lets me watch all my lighting continuity and reproduce it throughout the scene.
• Anticipating the sun's path. During scouting, I pay close attention to the shooting times to avoid traps, working closely with the first assistant director.
• Watching the weather. Clouds remain the big unknown. I rely a lot on Windy, which is fairly accurate and sometimes makes me change plans completely. In the tropics, you have to be very responsive.

At the Maïdo, above the void

I loved shooting a scene at the Maïdo in season 4. We were on the side of a cliff, with an actor harnessed above a drop of more than 1,000 metres. With Elsa Blayau, we went over the shot list again and again so that every step happened in a precise order. Every crew member who had to approach the edge was secured by a team of rope-access technicians.

It was very cold, we were at an altitude of 2,000 metres, and we had a clear sky and a lot of luck with the weather. An exhilarating experience, and professionally the best you can do on OPJ.

See also: OPJ season 4, “Bianca” and OPJ season 6, “Despite Herself”.