The commitment to authenticity went beyond just camera placement and included a deliberate effort to avoid staged setups. We actually even measured our kids’ heights to have a range of where we wanted the camera to be.” Danilo Guardiola is Nico and Mia Fernanda Solis is Lupe. “If you see any pictures of the behind the scenes of any of the camera operators, cameras are always by the belt, at the kids’ heights. The majority of scenes involving the children maintained a low angle. This deliberate choice, driven by the narrative’s focus on the trio of main characters – Paloma, Lupe, and Nico – shaped the film’s language, with particular attention to the camera’s positioning. The cinematographer honed in on the central theme of portraying life through the lens of the children. We wanted the film to really be about the kids.” Eugenio Derbez is Sergio in ‘Radical.’ Courtesy Pantelion Films. In this film, we tried to be as restrained as we could. Not because we’re trying to make it look gritty but simply because we didn’t want it to be distracting. We actually tried to desaturate colors quite a bit. Those were the only colors that we gave an intentional meaning to.” Commenting on the almost muted shades of the film, he elaborated: “We tried to be very minimalistic…we intentionally avoided saturated colors.

“Blue symbolized possibility, while red conveyed the opposite. Mateo Londono on set of “Radical.” Courtesy Pantelion Films. A meticulous color correction process sought to unify them, ensuring a seamless portrayal of the film’s visual narrative. Scenes involving adult actors followed a more classic construction.”Īlthough the film unfolds in Matamoros on the Texas border, the actual shooting occurred in Veracruz, Mexico, where the waters of the Gulf of Mexico vary in moods - from Caribbean-like hues on some days to a more muted, brownish tone on others. “One of the most important aspects of the look of the film is that it’s spontaneous, and we did not want to kill that spontaneity, especially working with the kids.

This flexible approach allowed a balance between structure and spontaneity, which is particularly crucial in Zalla’s story about “(Chris) has a fascinating way of building characters, through the use of details…and I made it part of the visual language of the film.”įor strategic planning, a shot list guided the process, focusing on blocking rather than storyboarding. Londono deployed vintage lenses and minimalistic lighting to create an authentic visual palette to bring Radical to life and integrate personal insights with Zala’s well-defined vision for the script. Ĭrucial to the success of Radical is cinematographer Mateo Londono ( The Valet, There Are No Saints), who shaped the rich visual narrative on display in Zalla’s film.

The teacher, Sergio Juarez Correa (Derbez), aims to teach his students lessons that will help them navigate the difficult world outside the classroom, with their school situated along the Rio Grande across from Brownsville, Texas, a place where extreme violence is common thanks to the drug wars happening all around them. Such is the fact-based story that unfolds in Radical (in theaters now), led by Mexican star Eugenio Derbez ( Coda, Instructions Not Included) in a film directed by Chris Zalla ( Blood of My Blood). A maverick teacher challenges the norms at an elementary school in the border town of Matamoros in northern Mexico.

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