ComingSoon had the opportunity to speak with Fernando Argüelles, ASC.
The acclaimed director of photography discussed his work on Fear the Walking Dead and The Princess Switch 3 as well as what led him to his profession. Arguelles’ main body of work has been in television and notable credits include Prison Break, Hemlock Grove, and Scorpion. At present, Arguelles is in pre-production for the DC Comics TV pilot & series The Swamp Thing.
Jeff Ames: What led you to become a director of photography?
Fernando Argüelles: Since an early age, I was interested in images, especially paintings. I loved art classes with painters and their work. I tried painting but I was not happy with the results so by default I started an interest in photography. I got a still camera, Yashica, when I was 16 years old and started to shoot photos. It was like a new world. I also went to the movies very often, and it was a magical moment to sit in a theater and watch the stories with moving images. I got hooked, afterwards I tried to go to cinema school.
What was it about Princess Switch 3 and Fear the Walking Dead that made you want to work on it?
Most of my work has been drama, suspense, and horror. I haven’t done a romantic comedy before so the idea of photographing a glowing, dazzling comedy was extremely attractive. Besides, I like director Mike Rohl’s work, and working with Vanessa Hudgens was a plus. The script has her playing three different people and it was quite funny so I decided to do the movie.
I was in Scotland when my agent called to tell me that Fear The Walking Dead was interested in hiring me. I hadn’t watched the series before but I was very interested to work on a series related to The Walking Dead.
RELATED: Interview: Vanessa Hudgens on Playing Three Characters in Princess Switch 3
What was the most challenging aspect of Princess Switch 3 and Fear the Walking Dead. How did you overcome that?
For The Princess Switch 3, shooting at the large number of locations was the biggest challenge. The weather was also another important factor. We had many beautiful huge mansions, palaces, small and medium-size castles to light for daylight and night time. The scope of the rooms was made up of 4×8 feet windows and we had to build special scaffolding, plus multiple cranes outside to light the sets when there was daylight. All of these places are old and historically important so we couldn’t put any lights attached to the walls or ceiling, we used everything with stands inside and hid them with Christmas trees. In Scotland, you only have a few hours of daylight in the winter, usually 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. so we needed lighting to create our sunlight, it was a very large undertaking.
Fear of the Walking Dead Season 7 is a new concept of the show starting after a nuclear explosion. To create this new world, we had to create a massive amount of VFX on location, exteriors, and interiors, the logistics were massive especially for the exterior shooting. We created a total new look for the show considering the new nuclear world. I did extensive tests until finding the right colors, contrast, and framing for the show.
Do you have any fun, behind-the-scenes stories about the making of Princess Switch 3 and Fear the Walking Dead?
After every scene in Princess Switch, we had all the actors, extras, etc., dancing. Sometimes the director joined the dance, other times even members of the crew did. It was hilarious.
We shot Season 7 of Fear the Walking Dead in Austin, TX starting in the summertime with very high temperatures. Our zombies had to be cooled off after every scene because they were dressed in heavy clothes. We had a line of zombies being chilled by special fans with water moisture coming out, it was a surreal experience.
What were some of the things you learned from Princess Switch 3 and Fear the Walking Dead that you’re excited to apply to future endeavors?
During the filming of The Princess Switch, we dealt with daylight on location. For cinematographers, daylight is one of the most difficult situations to cope with. In Scotland, every day was overcast, so there was not much direction of the sun if any, but the duration of daylight was an issue.
In Fear the Walking Dead, we dealt with all the elements for the VFX during exterior shooting, plus combining those exterior elements with inside or interior sets.
Do you have any other projects coming up that you can share with us?
In preproduction of a pilot entitled Firecracker directed by Deran Sarafian, to be shot in Iowa and Los Angeles in January, but I can not give any more details at this moment.
