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by Filmmaker Staff in Cinematographers, Interviews, Sundance on Jan 23, 2025 grease spray can
David Jacobson, Pee-Wee as Himself, Sundance Film Festival 2025
Filmed before his death in 2023, Pee-wee as Himself, an episodic project from documentary filmmaker Matt Wolf, chronicles the life and legacy of performer Paul Reubens via intimate interviews and a wealth of archival material.
Cinematographer David Jacobson discusses his involvement on the project, including meeting Wolf at their alma mater, the influence of technicolor on the shoot and incorporating Errol Morris’s Interrotron technology for the interviews.
See all responses to our annual Sundance cinematographer interviews here.
Filmmaker: 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?
Jacobson: The director Matt Wolf and I have been long time collaborators ever since our NYU days, but never on a project of this scale. After years of working together I had earned his trust, but sometimes it’s just being in the right place at the right time. That’s the difference between booking a job or not. My family had recently made the pandemic inspired move from New York to LA. Since most of the film would be shot in LA, I was top of mind. Sometimes things just work out!
Filmmaker: 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?
Jacobson: Paul Reubens’ aesthetic world was referential of classic Hollywood, and his story is very much a classic Hollywood story, so we really leaned into that visual language. Sometimes with documentaries a heavy handed visual approach can detract from the story and feel inauthentic, so I had to practice a lot of restraint in order to respect all the footage that would be cut along side my images. Matt and I spent time discussing how to integrate the interview footage (which was my primary contribution to the film) with the archival and verite so the film felt cohesive. There was a lot of video from the ’80s and ’90s as well as 16mm film from the ’60s to contemporary times, and all that had to work together.
Filmmaker: Were there any specific influences on your cinematography, whether they be other films, or visual art, of photography, or something else?
Jacobson: Pee-wee as Himself is an intimate portrait of a Paul Reubens and we wanted the cinematography to mirror that. Our film influences were the classic technicolor looks of Pollyanna (Paul’s Favorite movie) and Valley of Dolls. The work of Errol Morris is one of my greatest inspirations, and I thought his Interrotron would be perfect to create intimacy both visually and on set. It took some convincing for both Paul and Matt, but they ended up loving it for the interviews.
Filmmaker: What were the biggest challenges posed by production to those goals?
Jacobson: Interrotrons can be a real drain on production. They require lots of space, sound proofing, a teleprompter operator and many more resources that can be difficult on documentary budget. We put a ton of time into scouting to find the perfect locations that balanced the mid century look we wanted with the footprint necessary to do our camera setup. We also needed lighting to be consistent for the hours and days we interviewed Paul which required tenting out these real locations. All this was needed to create an intimate environment where the director and participant are unencumbered by all the distracting elements around them.
Filmmaker: What camera did you shoot on?
Jacobson: We shot on an Alexa Mini.
Filmmaker: Why did you choose the camera that you did? What lenses did you use?
Jacobson: When Matt and I first discussed a classic Hollywood look, I knew that Panavision was going to be the perfect partner. I reached out to Rik DeLisle over at Panavision Hollywood who was thankfully into the project and a big Pee-wee fan. He was incredibly generous, giving us an assortment of lenses to test out. When we settled on Panavision Super Speeds, he made sure they were always available to use even though our doc shooting schedule was extremely erratic. We went with the Alexa Mini, because it’s simply the most flexible camera that strikes a perfect balance of aesthetic, size and cost for this particular project. We went with the Panavision Super Speeds, because they had the most beautiful softness and texture that made the image feel timeless to us.
Filmmaker: Describe your approach to lighting.
Jacobson: Matt and I worked hard to find locations and shoot at the right time of day so that we would only need to augment what was already naturally looking quite good. It didn’t always work out that way, but I would plan to use the same key light for almost every interview in order to have a baseline of consistency across all the interviews. From there, we would balance everything out with background enhancing the architectural elements or whatever brought visual interest to the frame without making things too source-y. When thinking about ratios, we would always return to our visual references or compare interview on set to make sure things were feeling cohesive.
Filmmaker: What was the most difficult scene to realize and why? And how did you do it?
Jacobson: Because of a participants schedule, we had to shoot her interview in this crazy windowed Hollywood Hills home at sunset. Maintaining the look throughout this interview was impossible, but I had to do my best. I whispered on coms to my Gaffer, David Sheetz, between each question to dim each light by mere percentage points as I watched the waveform from behind camera. By the end of the interview the sun was completely gone, but the whole thing was miraculously useable.
Filmmaker: Finally, describe the finishing of the film. How much of your look was “baked in” versus realized in the DI?
Jacobson: We were blessed to be able to finish the film at Harbor under the brilliant eye of Joe Gawler. He was a dream to work with. After we shot a lighting and lens test with Paul, Joe took an initial pass so we could all discuss the look. It was so useful to be able to have these creative conversations about color at the beginning of filming—so rare in documentaries! Joe output a shooting LUT for us. I would toggle between Joe’s LUT and my own stretched out Alexa LUT that I use for most of projects. Once we were in final color, a lot of work went into refining our initial look and adding grain and softness to all the Alexa footage so it would match the archival footage.
Film Title: Pee-wee as Himself
Lighting: Skypanels, Aputures, LiteMats, Asteras, Lustr 2s
butane gas can Color Grading: Harbor Post / Joe Gawler