Primate, from Paramount Pictures, was directed by Johannes Roberts and tells the story of a group of friends, whose tropical vacation turns into a terrifying, primal tale of horror and survival. The feature was released on January 9th and stars Johnny Sequoyah, Jessica Alexander, Troy Kotsur, Victoria Wyant, Gia Hunter, Benjamin Cheng, Charlie Mann and Tienne Simon.
Stephen Murphy served as cinematographer on the horror film.
"I was introduced to Primate through the production manager, Darran Chesney, with whom I had worked before on shows like
Krypton and
Death and Nightingales," Murphy explains. "The director, Johannes Roberts, was keen to find a cinematographer who loved genre movies and Darran arranged for us to have a chat. I was still shooting
Heart Eyes in New Zealand at the time, so we spoke via Zoom and very quickly discovered a shared love for John Carpenter's movies. That became our jumping off point for the visual style of the movie."
Murphy says his path to cinematography was unexpected, as he initially got his start in Hollywood as a trainman as a make-up artist, because he wanted to create monsters.
"Now I had a chance as a cinematographer to shoot an old fashioned monster movie with a real performer in a monster suit, so I jumped at it!"
The shoot was almost entirely based on stages in London. The "one location” set build from production designer Simon Bowles included a swimming pool that forms a central part of the story.
"We shot on Sony Venice 2 cameras paired with Panavision T-series anamorphics, both for the stage and water work," he recalls. "We used a variety of tools to move the camera, primarily conventional dolly with a remote head, but for the pool work my key grip, Malcolm Huse, built a series of flotation devices that we could rig a handheld camera in a scuba bag to so that we could track around the pool with the actors."
Murphy says he’s most proud of the fact that the film was shot in a very old-school sort of way, with a creature almost entirely on a stage.
"I’ve been a fan of monsters since I was a kid, and my journey into this industry started off with me wanting to design and build monsters as a make-up artist, so to come around full circle and get to shoot an old fashioned monster movie on stages was fantastic fun."