IVÁN ORIZAGA
SPECIAL FEATURES: Behind "All Grannies are Witches"
In this section, I include the collaborations I made for the Huitzilli Films Facebook page, which can also be found on My Instagram, where I share some insights about the creative process behind the cinematography of All Grannies Are Witches (Yolanda Orizaga, 2019). But before discussing each still, it’s important to highlight the visual references provided by the director.
The two key films that shared the visual style the director wanted to achieve for this short were Чучело (a 1984 Soviet film) and Bycicle Thieves (1948). From those two films, we began a conversation to add more visual references.
Since the story of this short film takes place in 1953 Mexico, we carried out research on the types of shots used in Mexican cinema during the Golden Age (wide, mostly static frames). We drew inspiration from Emilio “El Indio” Fernández and his long-time cinematographer, Gabriel Figueroa.
The challenge was to create an image that would transport the viewer to rural 1950s Mexico without falling into clichés such as black and white or the 1.37:1 aspect ratio. That’s why we combined different styles: while the composition (framing and camera movement) was inspired by Mexican films from the Golden Age, the image texture (colour palette and lighting) aimed to emulate 1980s Soviet cinema, whose visual textures are almost painterly.
Due to budget constraints, we didn’t shoot on Super 16 mm — which would have been the ideal scenario. However, even though the film was recorded entirely in digital 4K, we aimed to avoid the excessive sharpness typical of modern digital video. Instead, we pursued a softer, less saturated look. That’s why we chose the Blackmagic Production Camera, which, combined with Zeiss Distagon lenses, allowed us to achieve the type of imagery the director had envisioned from the very beginning.
Porch Scene
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ || 5000ºK
ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 24mm
The first scene we shot was the porch of the house, where we used a 24mm lens for the wide shots and a 50mm for the close-ups.
From the moment the script was conceived, the idea was always to recreate a sense of loneliness and melancholy through the visuals. We planned to shoot the exterior scenes just before sunrise to preserve, as much as possible, a soft and delicate light.
However, due to production delays, we started filming around 8 a.m., and by then the sun was already quite strong. To diffuse the light, we used a thick white diffusion cloth that had originally been set up in case of rain. Its density proved extremely useful in achieving the look we wanted, as it helped us—without any additional equipment—to recreate the colour temperature and softness of an overcast morning.
Playtime The Girl, The Flower and The Granny
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ || 5000ºK
ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 50mm
This is the playtime scene. We were very lucky when shooting it, as the sky began to cloud over. Although there was still some sunlight when we started with the wide shots (which we later had to match with the rest in post), the day soon became completely overcast.
That’s why we didn’t need any additional equipment other than a simple 1m x 50cm polyboard. The sun was positioned to the right of the camera, so we placed the protagonist on the left to keep her face perfectly exposed, while the other girls were positioned with their backs to the sun. This made the antagonist’s face two and a half stops underexposed, allowing us to play with the classic cliché of a subtly darker antagonist contrasted against a more “luminous” heroine.
The polyboard helped recover that half stop which, if left as it was, would have made the image lose its natural feel.
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ || 5000ºK
ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 50mm
The scene with the girl, the flower and the granny was filmed in the same location as the playtime scene. The truth is, this shot wasn’t planned — the director was simply giving a few instructions to the young actress. But since she would later play the role of the grandmother, I decided to take the opportunity to capture that grandmother - granddaughter interaction.
Alejandro Gómez, the camera assistant, rolled the camera and we captured a few seconds that ended up in the final cut. The absence of an eye light to bring life to the girl’s eyes was precisely due to that brief moment of improvisation — but as Cartier-Bresson once said, one must seize the moment.
It would have been far more regrettable to lose this scene than to have missed the eye light, because in cinema, storytelling matters more than any technical detail.
Going Outside
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ || 5000ºK
ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 24mm
The shot of the girl stepping out of the house with the tin mug was done using the same approach as the previous scenes — making the most of natural light. The sky had cleared up a little, and in the upper part of the frame we can actually see areas of pure blue. Fortunately, a few clouds were still covering and diffusing the sunlight, so only minor adjustments were made in DaVinci Resolve to match this shot with the previous ones. The purple flowers in the lower right corner weren’t originally there; they were added by the Art Department, and although it may seem like a simple detail, I believe it greatly helped to frame the action.
Country road
Originally, the scene was going to be filmed on the paved road shown in the second image. However, we realised that location was far too busy. We were fortunate during the technical scouting, as we found an alternative that turned out to be much better — a dirt country road that not only reinforced the rural atmosphere but was also just a few steps away from the main location, meaning we didn’t even have to do a company move.
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ || 5800ºK
ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 24mm
In this location, we continued working exclusively with natural light, but most of the photographic work took place during the colour correction stage.
In the short film, we have two very similar scenes set on this dirt road, but they represent two different moments in the story. The challenge was that, since both were filmed one after the other, they looked visually identical.
Therefore, in DaVinci Resolve, we favoured warm tones for one of them, while the other was graded towards cooler hues (though I’m not showing that one here, as I don’t have the still).
Night Scene
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ || 3200ºK
ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 32mm
This scene got us into a bit of trouble. First, because it was the last one we shot — it was already 11 p.m., and everyone was exhausted, especially the little girl (her day had started at 7:30 a.m.). We had just finished the main scene — the witches one — and the camera department was asked to get everything ready as quickly as possible, since the girl no longer wanted to continue filming. Brenda’s parents (Maribel Gonzalez and César Montes De Oca) were a huge help; while we set up the equipment, they managed to convince her to act in that final scene.
To top it all off, it started raining just as we had finished setting up a 1K Fresnel aimed at the window. We had to take it down immediately and place it under the porch roof, using it only to light the trees and simulate moonlight in the wide shot — a result that, between us, I wasn’t entirely happy with.
Under all that pressure, instead of sticking to the original lighting plan, we decided to use a Kino Flo as the key light, fitted with daylight tubes, the grid, and nothing else. The problem was that the walls of the location were white, so the Kino’s light spilled everywhere. Unfortunately, there was no time to flag it properly, so I asked Daniel Orizaga (key grip & gaffer) to use the Kino’s own barndoors to cut the light as much as possible, while Alejandro Gómez (camera assistant — who, by the way, operated the camera for this scene) turned off two of the Kino’s four tubes to reduce the light intensity.
Despite all our efforts, in the end there was no choice but to cheat a little in post. The excess light bouncing off the white walls, which ruined the illusion of the space being lit by moonlight, was ultimately corrected with a vignette in DaVinci Resolve.
Anyway, along with the still from this scene, I’m including two lighting diagrams — one showing how it was originally planned, and the other showing how it actually turned out.
The Train Tracks
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ 5200ºK || ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 24mm & 50mm
The train tracks scene was filmed in Calpulalpan, Tlaxcala. It took place the day after the main shoot, but once again we were very lucky — the weather and lighting conditions were exactly the same as the day before in Españita.
A curious anecdote is that, while the weather actually helped maintain continuity, it was us who slipped up — if you watch the short film closely, in the previous scene the protagonist is wearing a different dress and no sweater; plus, the tin mug she’s holding is a different size.
Thanks to the continuity of the setting, it was a minor mistake that went unnoticed by most viewers.
I’m adding two stills — the wide shot and the medium shot — as well as a behind-the-scenes photo.
The Kitchen
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ || 5400ºK
ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 32mm
This is a very good example of the importance of collaboration between the Art Department and the Cinematography Department. The director’s intention was for the grandmother’s kitchen to look as if it had come out of a painting. Since the location originally had white walls, it was practically impossible for the cinematography alone to achieve the desired result.
The Production Design team then had the walls painted, built the entire kitchen set, and added props — mainly traditional Mexican kitchen utensils — in accordance with the established colour palette.
While the Art Coordinator (Ernesto Orizaga) was working with the set dressers, I was designing a few lighting setups for the set. Since we didn’t know what the weather conditions would be on the day of the shoot, I planned to place a 5K HMI aimed at the window and diffuse it with an 8x8 Babenette silk.
For budget reasons, it wasn’t possible to get the HMI, but instead we had something far better — that soft sunlight which stayed almost constant throughout the entire shooting day. We didn’t hesitate to make the most of it, and only used a Kino Flo, bounced vertically against a white wall (and a small section of the white ceiling), which helped us reduce contrast and recover detail in the darker areas [you can see the lighting diagram and behind-the-scenes photos].
o shoot the reverse of the parents entering the kitchen with the girl, we simply moved the Kino further back and closed the barndoors slightly, allowing us to maintain the same aperture throughout the entire scene.
A rural classroom.
The main character walking at night in a rural classroom. To achieve this nocturnal look, we white-balanced the camera to 3200ºK. As the key light, we used a Kino Flo with daylight tubes, diffused through an 8x8 Babenette silk.
The “moonlight” coming through the window and the door was recreated using two 2K tungsten Fresnels, each fitted with Full CTB filters (as shown in the lighting diagram). The colour of the bricks and the girl’s face was slightly adjusted in post to prevent it from looking as if a filter had been placed directly on the camera.
In the behind-the-scenes photo, we can see how the set originally looked and how crucial the lighting was in giving this scene the right atmosphere.
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ || 3200ºK
ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 32mm
The Magic Door
Blackmagic Production Camera 4K || Apple Pro Res 422 HQ || 2800ºK
ISO 400 || Zeiss Distagon Lenses 32mm
This is the frame that was selected for the official poster. It represents the transition from the real world to the witches’ magical realm. Our protagonist crosses that threshold once traversed by Lewis Carroll’s Alice, Del Toro’s Ofelia, the Pevensie children of Narnia, and many others before her.
It was a scene whose visual concept posed a major challenge, especially given the limitations of the low budget. During my conversations with the director, I struggled to come up with cinematographic proposals — how complex should the lighting be, for instance? I was terrified of ruining such an important scene.
"Don’t overcomplicate lighting,” says cinematographer Geoff Boyle in an interview for CookeOpticsTV. And as my Cinematography teacher, Dinorath Ramírez, used to remind me, “The more lights you add, the more problems you create.” Taking their advice to heart, I went for the ever-trusty Kino Flo and a 1K Fresnel. We added a ¼ CTO gel to the Fresnel to give it a touch of warmth, while keeping daylight tubes on the Kino.
We white-balanced the camera to 2800°K so that the fill light would appear bluer, creating stronger colour contrast against the tungsten source. The Kino was diffused with a Babenette silk and controlled with a flag; then we placed a gobo to prevent the nearest beams from becoming overexposed.
These few elements, combined with the smoke machine, produced a very satisfying result that — judging by the feedback we received — truly captivated the audience.
.jpg)
The Witches’ Scene
The composition of this scene directly references the films of Emilio “El Indio” Fernández. It’s a dreamlike moment in which I once again played with the combination of different colour temperatures. For the key light, we used the Kino Flo with its four 5600°K tubes, and for the back light, a 1000W tungsten Fresnel.
For the “moonlight” effect coming through the window, we used a 500W photolamp (6000°K), and for the “embers” effect, we used a 100W household bulb (around 2500°K), which gave a more reddish tone to a small area without affecting the entire back light — something that would have happened had we placed a CTO gel on the Fresnel.
Finally, we used a gobo to soften the intensity with which the Kino was hitting the main action. Although that area — where the girl stands before the grandmother — needed to be brighter, the difference in exposure compared to the background (where the other witches were) was originally about five stops. Either the girl and the grandmother were overexposed, or the rest of the witches were lost in the blacks. The gobo therefore helped reduce that contrast, creating a more natural transition from the brightest to the darkest areas, and ensuring that while the audience focused on the girl–grandmother interaction, they could still perceive the choreography of the other witches that enriches the scene.
I would like to thank the director, Yolanda Orizaga, and Huitzilli Films for the opportunity. To stay updated on this short film, I invite you to visit Huitzilli Films’ Facebook page.
