In each location I knew how and when the sun would hit it and how we could minimize our footprint.įor the process itself, we had explored 16mm, using anamorphics, all locked off, redirecting sunlight, etc., and so what is seen on screen is the result of being open with each other and finding it together, always in communication with production vis-à-vis what’s logistically possible and in regards to how an audience should respond to each image. The aesthetic of the film was carefully calculated over the years. The explorative process we had over the years feels a bit like a luxury today, but I cannot imagine shooting Dos Estaciones in any other way. Guerra: We wanted to create an image that felt authentic to this place and that would tonally match the many subtleties in the film itself. Perhaps this process eased us all onto each other, but it felt and continues to feel like that was the only way to make the film.įilmmaker: What were your artistic goals on this film, and how did you realize them? How did you want your cinematography to enhance the film’s storytelling and treatment of its characters? I think that the reason they trusted me to shoot Juan Pablo’s feature narrative debut was the flexibility-not just that I lived nearby, but creatively I could work with no lights or grip truck, that I was open to discovering the film alongside everyone and that this process excited me. Shooting the natural world and running exercises with Teresa, the writers would be there and they’d use this to inform the script and so the entire process was this beautiful symbiotic cycle. Juan Pablo works in a very flexible way, so we’d go on these bi-annual scouts with the camera for the next three years. It was an unusual situation where all of us established the foundation, and this openness allowed us all to find the film together. I was there on the first scout in June of 2017, with Teresa Sánchez (the lead) and with the producers and writers.

The special thing about Dos Estacioneswas that I was a part of the conception process. I had never shot a scripted feature, he had never directed one and so, on some level, this felt like an exciting challenge to take on. Through working on this film, we really got close and found that our artistic tastes and desires had become very similar.

He had brought me on to shoot a few things here and there, but I joined the film later on in production. We collaborated as director-DP on Caballerango, a documentary he directed set in the same region as Dos Estaciones. Guerra: Juan Pablo and I have known each other for almost 20 years. The film was shot by Gerardo Guerra, who discusses executing complicated setups with limited personnel, learning the finest details of the shooting locations and walking the line between documentary and fiction.įilmmaker: How and why did you wind up being the cinematographer of your film? What were the factors and attributes that led to your being hired for this job? Red dirt, blue sky and green agave mark the landscape of Jalisco’s highlands, and they also form the basis of Juan Pablo González’s Dos Estaciones, which follows the heir to a struggling tequila factory as she attempts to reinvigorate the business in the face of plagues and floods. In Cinematographers, Interviews, Sundanceĭos Estaciones, Gerardo Guerra, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival 2022

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