‘The Continental: From the World of John Wick’ cinematographer Pal Ulvik Rokseth: 1970s New York was ‘very visual and beautiful; ugly, but beautiful’ [Exclusive Video Interview]

Ray Richmond
·4 min read

Sometimes when you’re a cinematographer, the goal is to produce the richest and most exquisite possible look. Other times, it might be the opposite. The latter was the case for Pal Ulvik Rokseth, the Norwegian-born DP who was tasked with producing the most downscale view of New York City possible for the three-part Peacock miniseries “The Continental: From the World of John Wick.” For this 1970s era prequel, Rokseth’s marching orders were to take the contemporary look and style of the four John Wick movies starring Keanu Reeves and turn them upside-down while exploring the origin of he iconic hotel-for-assassins centerpiece of the John Wick universe. He was tasked with capturing re distinctively grimy and decrepit look of the city in the 1970s, replete with trash-filled streets, steam churning out of the sewers and graffiti everywhere. It’s dark and messy and shadowy by design.

“Yeah, we wanted to create this (using) a little bit of a different approach on New York,” Rokseth says. “I remember reading an article about the smoke pollution in New York in the 70s, and how it had one of the highest death rates. Also, the New York garbage strike (of 1968) was integrated into this universe. If you look at imagery from that time and era in New York, it was nasty, it was gritty. We wanted to capture that a little bit. Also, it was a dark universe (by design) because it was nighttime. But it was really fun making that era in time, because it’s very visual and beautiful. Ugly, but beautiful.” Rokseth spoke to Gold Derby as part of out “Meet the Experts” TV Cinematographers Roundtable. Watch our exclusive video interview above.

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SEE‘The Continental: From the World of John Wick’ teaser trailer: Check back in to the Wickiverse for a three-part Peacock event series [Watch]

Rokseth adds that, yes, the Wick movies achieved their greatness in large part “with their modern style look. It’s neons. It’s high contrast. It’s glossy…We wanted to show the origin in the Seventies before it evolved into the Wick films that we know today. How would that look? We based a lot of the look on tungsten light, basically just glowing bulbs. That was the base approach. Then we had to complement that with some ambient light for this huge set that we built in Budapest. That was also quite a challenge, because I’ve never worked with those kinds of big, hanging, overhead lights before. You have to scroll through American Cinematographer and see how they do it in the big movies.” He found inspiration in such 1970s Martin Scorsese films as “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver.”

“You pick up stuff (from them),” he says. “(They’re) good inspiration.”

Capturing the lightning-quick action sequences (read “violence”) in the “Continental” scripts was another test of Rokseth’s talents. That’s where his productive working relationship with directors Albert Hughes and Charlotte Brandstrom came in handy. “Albert makes this great operational style guide in very big detail (about) how he wants the camera to operate,” Rokseth points out. “It’s very detailed, which is fantastic to read and so inspirational. He’s also a really good collaborator. Albert gives the people around him to evolve and try out new stuff.” As for Brandstrom, “She was fantastic to work with on set, and we also had much more of an intuition together and much more blocking.”

SEE‘John Wick: Chapter 4’ rave reviews: It stands above ‘the past decade’s worth of action films’

It was also a kick for Rokseth to handle the cinematography on a project with Mel Gibson playing a key supporting role. He observes, “I was amazed that he was so interested in everything we did. Actors come and go on set, but he just stayed all the time, all day. He would just hang out and watch. I think he was genuinely interested in (the filming) and it was fantastic to see his interest in the craft.”

All three installments of “The Continental: From the World of John Wick” are streaming on Peacock.

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