Cinematographer Aakash Subramaniam, WICA faced a conceptual challenge: how could he make a film about dying that doesn’t feel like one? The film, “Our Weird Selves” is a quirky, heartfelt dark comedy, which Aakash completed as part of his master’s thesis at New York Film Academy, along with writer/director Marco Felipe. The short has been warmly received at festivals including California Indies, Citrus and Moondust Helsinki Film Festival. The film’s success hinges on its careful irreverent handling of an extremely difficult time in a relationship—navigating the impending death of one partner. To give “Our Weird Selves” its raw, unfiltered look, Aakash chose to mix ZEISS Supreme and Nano Prime lenses.
“Our Weird Selves” follows Charles (Foster Manley) as he brings his wife Bridget (Anquanizia Hall) home after she has spent over a year in the hospital. Just as they begin reconnecting, she notices a brochure about euthanasia slipping from his jacket pocket, forcing them to confront a reality neither of them is prepared to face.
Despite this grim premise, the film earns its title — darkly funny, unexpectedly tender, and shot with an intimacy that pulls the audience close enough to see actual pores on an actor’s face. “It was really important for me to capture my actors in their rawest form,” explains Aakash. “I wanted to capture the skin texture, the imperfections, and the details that make them real. A lot of people do shy away from it, but I think that’s where reality kicks in.”
“Our Weird Selves” is all about not hiding the grit, from the sniping between Charles and Bridget to the rich visual detail that imbues the story with personality. During prep, the team tested several sets of lenses and when Aakash tried the ZEISS Supreme Primes, it just clicked. “When I put on the Supreme Primes, the director tapped me and said, ‘This is the lens I want to shoot with. No other lens.’”
The duo was struck by the restraint and optical performance. Aakash elaborates, “What stood out to me immediately was how well it held detail without feeling clinical. The Supremes felt less like they were shaping an image and more like they allowed me to see the world the way I see it — without adding any bias to it.”
Aakash opted for the Supremes for the two-person scenes where Charles and Bridget share the same frame. A significant portion of the story takes place at their dinner table — a dynamic back-and-forth interspersed with detailed shots, cutaways and small camera moves that give much of the sequence the energy of a tennis match. The cinematographer used the Supreme’s close focus to get intimate without losing presence, as if to immerse the audience in the relationship rather than becoming voyeuristically distant.
For the cutaways, like a comedic punch to a trashy mystery paperback, and for solo shots of Charles that are rich with details, Aakash switched to ZEISS Nano Primes. “The Supremes are like an elder sister to the Nanos,” he describes. “I found the Nanos to even be a tad sharper, which gave it this observational quality I was looking for.” This quality is evident in the extreme close-up work on Charles: tight shots on lips, eyes, and hands that give insight to his interiority. “In spite of being long lenses, they have incredible close focus,” Aakash continues. “You can put the actors right there and get all these details. I was so impressed by that.”
Aakash pushed both lenses, shooting over a third of the film wide open at T1.5. For the emotional scene of the couple together on the couch, he added a diopter for the extreme close-up of Bridget whispering in Charles’ ear. “I was worried everything would be a blur and I wouldn’t get the textures we wanted. To my surprise, everything was in focus and it was beautiful. I didn’t lose the actor’s skin tone; I kept the textures and the feelings of the moment.” He adds, laughing, “And my first AC did not hate me for it.” High praise on any set.
Anquanizia’s performance as Bridget is the gripping epicenter of the film and the cinematography works hard to match her character’s spirit and vulnerability. The unflinching closeness of the lenses and the absence of softening filtration emphasizes her dignified but charming screen presence.
“When choosing a lens, the most important factor is whether it will let me tell the story in the truest form — sharpness, color, skin tones, texture,” the cinematographer reflects. “I wasn’t looking for a lens that had personality for the sake of it. I was looking for something that lets me observe truthfully. ZEISS gave me that.”
“Our Weird Selves” continues on the festival circuit, with wins for Best Cinematography at the Moondust Helsinki Film Festival and the Citrus Film Festival, and 11 nominations to date. It is also screening across Australia at the National Indian Film Festival of Australia (NIFFA).
Aakash, now based in Mumbai and a member of the Western India Cinematographers Association, shot the film on a Sony Venice 1 with a four-lens Supreme Prime kit and a six-lens ZEISS Nano Prime kit.
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