In the Netflix feature Incoming, four freshmen face the greatest challenge of their young lives – their first high school party. The feature was written and directed by John & Dave Chernin, and was shot by cinematographer Ricardo Diaz.
Diaz’s previous work includes All Fun and Games (2023), Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022), Strangers Things (Season 4) and Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty (Season 2, Episode 3). He shot Incoming with a Sony Venice 2 camera, using 4K 6:5 framing with a 2.39:1 aspect ratio in the Sony X-OCN XT profile. He used Atlas Orion anamorphic primes and Hawk Class-X anamorphic zooms.
When depicting high-school life, warmth, color and contrast were essential for the look of the film. For night scenes, it was important for the coolness to complement the warmth. The goal, he notes, was to avoid a generic clean look and instead capture the messy and lively nature of that time in one’s life.
“We designed Incoming with a focus on performance,” says Diaz. “The lighting, lensing and blocking were all intended to create visually rich scenes while leaving room for the actors to fully utilize the frame for comedic effect. We drew inspiration from great-looking comedies, like Superbad and Bridesmaids. However, we also aimed to convey the imperfectness of youth. That’s why we intentionally sought to give our visuals more personality, embracing imperfections and aberrations through the use of anamorphic photography.”
Lighting was provided by FAB Lighting and MBS Equipment Co. Console and networking infrastructure was provided by M&R Lighting, while lighting balloons came from Airstar.
