The Incredibles

As seen in the October 2024 issue of ICG Magazine
By David Geffner
Photos by Zack Dougan / FOX

Local 600 Director of Photography Anka Malatynska knows a thing or two about tight-knit, location-specific communities that thrive on adrenaline-fueled action sports. Born and raised in Poland around family and friends who chased big-mountain climbing, Malatynska discovered a similar passion for the natural world via a like-minded community of wave-riders. After fine-tuning her camera and lighting skills in the indie/documentary world, she landed work on the Hawaii-based I Know What You Did Last Summer and NCIS: Hawaii, and made Hawaii her home. When the opportunity arose to shoot a new John Wells episodic for FOX, based in and around surfing’s most hallowed ground – O’ahu’s North Shore, aka the “Seven-Mile Miracle” of ocean breaks that include Haleiwa, Sunset, Off the Wall, and Pipeline – Malatynska was, in surfing lingo, “beyond stoked.”

“I was aware of Ke Nui Road, the [HBO] pilot John had done, and had heard he might be returning for another project,” she shares. “So, I had my agents seed the idea that I’m based in Hawaii and would love to be involved if possible. I got an email, pretty much out of the blue, from my agent saying [Producer] Joe Incaprera had asked if I would be interested in coming over from NCIS to this new show about lifeguards on the North Shore. I loved NCIS and the whole group of people on that show. But my feeling is the riskier road is the more fulfilling one.”

Those risks included tackling a show that grew from 12 to 19 episodes, and a director (Wells) who wanted an all-handheld indie vibe, for an action drama that required two simultaneous camera teams – land and water. Working a 7-day episode schedule, the series is 100 percent day exterior and subject to Hawaii’s rapidly shifting natural conditions of sun, clouds, rain, wind, mud and waves. And, by the way, every episode would feature at least one dramatic rescue (and often more) in and around the ocean with the actors mostly doing their own stunt work. 

“John and [Showrunner] Matt [Kester] wanted to faithfully depict this amazing lifeguard community on the North Shore, the ‘other Hawaii,’ if you will,” Malatynska continues. “And they went after that look straight away in the pilot, with transitions and B-roll that included chickens on set and following around North Shore trash trucks. That was all shot by Kilani Villiaros, a young woman who moved up to full-time B-Camera operator on this show, and who, like everyone else on the team, was local to Hawaii.”

Showrunner/Writer Kester (Forever, Animal Kingdom), who has lived and surfed on the North Shore for most of his life, says the Ke Nui Road pilot he and Wells did in 2022 for HBO was based on the “Junior Lifeguard program on the North Shore, and I thought it was a great story,” Kester says. “I wanted to tell it as a YA [Young Adult] show because my kids were in the Junior Guards. Ke Nui Road didn’t go to series, but FOX saw what we had shot and loved it. They asked if we could rework it as an adult action drama, which sounded great – as long as we could do the rescues in a way that accurately represented this community, because otherwise, what’s the point? The respect for lifeguards on the North Shore is off the charts. They certainly don’t do it for the money. They’re real-life superheroes, selfless and more than willing to risk their own lives to save others.”

Kester says the way to convincingly simulate rescue scenarios in life-threatening conditions – without putting a production team in real life-threatening surf – was to “have people like [On-Water Producer/Director] Brian Keaulana, [Local 600 Director of Photography] Don King and [Director] Loren Yaconelli [ASC] all working together,” he describes. “With water and land units shooting at the same time, it can be difficult to maintain continuity, as the water footage is always dynamic and in motion. Our answer was to always keep the land coverage in motion, as well as shooting handheld and working all-day exteriors, both of which helped keep the overall look as seamless as possible. Loren is a producing director who’s also a DP, Don [King] has spent his entire career shooting in heavy water, and Anka Malatynska is super creative and open to new ways of working. Together they formed this incredible team that made the show what it is.”

Yaconelli, who was focused on directing when the Ke Nui Road pilot was shot, is well-acquainted with the style Wells wanted for Rescue: HI Surf. “Having worked on five seasons of Animal Kingdom,” she describes, “I know John likes to have that grounded, gritty feeling where you’re right there with the characters. So, it was important to always be in the perspective of our lifeguards, and when you’re handheld you’re able to do that in a visceral way. But we also had to get all the story beats the network wanted. Balancing those two things can be challenging if you haven’t worked in that style. There was a learning curve. But I was comfortable with John’s approach.”

Moving to the director’s chair in 2019 on Shameless (a show she also shot), Yaconelli says she always approaches the material with a DP’s brain, “in that whatever I read on the page I see visually in my head. That will never change,” she continues. “The advantage is that it gave Anka and me a shorthand; we could talk about shots and blocking and know we’re speaking the same vocabulary. Even if styles are different, as mine and John’s are, my feeling is that if you can control the blocking, you can control the photography. So, I was very specific with Anka about the blocking, and that helped push the show in a direction I wanted to go as a storyteller.”
Malatynska smiles when she recounts, “I often say the limitation is the gift, and this show took that to the nth degree! The goal was always to scale back on production resources and be as nimble as possible. John’s philosophy was all about creating this 270-degree field of view where the company could turn and shoot in any direction, very quickly. Our conversations in prep would always end with John saying, ‘That sounds like a great plan, Anka, but I really just can’t wait to get to set and see what we discover!’” 

Yaconelli, who directed Episodes 3, 8, 11, 13 and the finale, adds, “I have experience working on the water from my time on Animal Kingdom, but this show took water work to a completely different level. There were many times I was directing from the back of the Jet Ski and asking [the driver] to move close to the actors so I could talk with them, and then quickly having to move over to where Don King was to work with him. We had monitors in Otter Boxes, but if you stared too long at them you’d get motion sickness! We also had a floating dock anchored off-shore, and I could direct from there. But the Jet Skis were the fastest way to work on the water. Really it came down to having great storyboards, and trusting Don and Brian to get what we needed.”

King, whose skills in the ocean place him in a highly select group [ICG Magazine, Tunnel Vision, July 2011], says his goals in the water were much the same as Malatynska’s on land. “The style of the show was to be as intimate as possible with our hero lifeguards, while still showing a lot of their environment,” he describes. “Many TV shows I’ve done live in that tight close-up, and then go in for wider coverage. The beautiful part of this approach was that I was able to be really close with the actors in the water, but on a wider [prime] lens so we can see the danger around them.” 

The wide-and-close approach also plays into King’s strengths as a DP/operator. “Because,” as he adds, “if I’m not right there in the water I can’t truly see what’s going on. I was injured later on in the season – not related to the series – and that was a learning experience – and a bit frustrating. It’s hard to communicate with operators while they’re in the water, and you’re on a boat or the ski. It’s hard to convey the nuances of the shot you’re trying to achieve. Fortunately, I had great people like Dave Homcy and Vince Lucero to rely on when I couldn’t get in the water. Operating on the surface in the wave zone is a subspecialty of the underwater camera world, and it brings both challenges and rewards. It’s a dynamic environment, and if you do it right you can get beautiful results.”

Another unique aspect of shooting a TV series on the ocean is what King describes as “spending way too much time trying to capture a shot you’ve fallen in love with. For a show like this, where the water scenes are all about dramatic and intense rescue efforts, we’re looking to be in the most difficult environment we can find, often right in the impact zone, and get the scene in as few shots as possible. That’s why working with Loren [Yaconelli] was so great. She’s really good at making a judgment call of the shots we need, but even more importantly, not wasting time on the shots we don’t need. Loren’s worked in the water and knows it’s an environment where you just can’t control everything. What the ocean gives you is what you’re going to get.”

King and his team – including B-Camera Operator Lucero, 1st AC Will Wacha, Key Grip Alan Mozo and longtime Oahu-based Operator Homcy – used custom water housings from AquaTech and Water Housings Hawaii, a Hydroflex bag with remote FIZ control, and, thanks to Wacha and Mozo, always had cameras in multiple lens configurations ready to go. The footage they captured was high-energy, high-octane rescues, set in the ocean but sometimes bridging land and sea (as in Episode 2 when a teenage girl falls into a mountain stream and is swept all the way out to the ocean). The rescues involved multiple cameras, a full posse of Jet Skis, and pinpoint coordination to maintain a safe “set.” 

Malatynska’s land footage, while also dynamic and fluid, more intimately traces the personal ups and downs of the lifeguards when they are out of the water. They include the station’s captain, Harlan “Sonny” Jennings (Robbie Magasiva); his experienced second-in-command Emily “Em” Wright (Arielle Kebbel); Emily’s one-time flame, now engaged to another woman, Will Ready (Adam Demos); single and always on the prowl Laka Hanohano (Kekoa Kekumano), and the two rookies vying to prove their worth – Hina (Zoe Cipres) and Kainalu (Alex Aiono). Shot all handheld by A-Camera Operator Ruben Carrillo (relieved occasionally by Homcy) and B-Camera Operator Villiaros, the land unit’s footage often feels more Wong Kar-Wai than action sports.

The strength of scenes like those in Episode 1, where Sonny walks along a path to visit a memorial for his deceased nephew (whose drowning haunts Sonny’s dreams), or a quiet conversation at the end of Episode 2, where Sonny and his teenage daughter talk about the nephew’s passing, rested on the shoulder (literally) of Carrillo and his roving camera. Born in Mexico to artist parents, Carrillo shot news in California in the mid-90s (covering the Northridge Earthquake and the O.J. Simpson trial) before moving to Hawaii. He started doing narrative work in 2010, day-playing on Hawaii Five-0, and says the large amount of handheld work on Rescue: HI Surf played into his strengths of having shot sports and documentaries in Hawaii for more than 25 years. 

“To get that intimate, raw feeling John and Anka wanted, the camera had to be really close to the actors most of the time, and usually from that character’s perspective,” Carrillo recounts. “Anka chose the RED RAPTOR with Panavision VA Primes and Angénieux 15-40-millimeter, 30-76-millimeter, and 45-120-millimeter zooms, and I spent almost the whole season on the 35- and 50-millimeter primes, switching to the zooms for the action sequences.” Carrillo employed the RAPTOR in underslung low mode (nicknamed “Heavenly” by the crew), as he says it provided the most flexibility “from high to scraping-the-floor low,” he adds. “[Shooting underslung] allows me to really feel the action and highlight what I feel are the most important moments.”

For the Episode 1 scene, Carrillo saw a shot during a rehearsal that he pitched to Wells and Malatynska. “I wanted to walk in Low mode, slightly behind Sonny, and allow the backlit flowers to cross in between the two of us as he approached the memorial to place a lei for his nephew,” he continues. “Robbie Magasiva was dialed-in, with his emotion and intensity driving the movement of my shot. Operating is like a dance, and this was one of those moments where the synergy between actor, camera location and light all flowed seamlessly.” Carrillo was the only camera covering the Episode 2 conversation with Sonny and his daughter. It was the beginning of the season when the show’s style was still new to him. “We were doing low-mode shots, and I had not acclimated to full-time hand-held,” he remembers. “But we all knew it was an important scene because it set up a lot of the understanding behind what drives Sonny’s behavior over the next several episodes.  

As Wells and Malatynska wanted the camera framing and movement to bring the viewer deep into the scene, Carrillo says, “we ended up underslung hand-held at 80 millimeters in extreme close-ups. I remember my muscles burning and sweat dripping down my face because I hadn’t become accustomed to this amount of hand-held work. I also don’t use any kind of support for the camera as it limits the amount of flexibility I have in my range of movement. In my opinion, using a rig changes the movement and makes the hand-held feel slightly more mechanical.”

Carrillo heaps generous praise on his focus puller, 1st AC Nigel Nally, noting that “we had so many scenes shot on primes at T/1.4 and very close to the talent. It was a lot of shallow depth-of-field work, and both Nigel and [B-Camera 1st AC] Brandon [Ho] hung in there and nailed it. A lot of it is good communication so the AC knows what the operator is going to do. But there’s also an intuitiveness that develops as the season progresses. Pulling focus is one of the most difficult jobs on any set, and I have to give Nigel and Brandon huge props. They did an excellent job.”

Given the scaled-down production and Wells’ desire to have a full field of view in day locations, Malatynska’s lighting options were limited. “Ninety-five percent of the show was natural light, so it was mainly about having the right approach to the light we had,” she describes. “Of course, when I’m working outside, I gravitate toward side and back light. If we have to use top or frontal light, it’s for the grittier scenes. But I also felt the need to protect our actresses – who were working without much make-up – by putting them in backlight whenever possible and keeping the interior light levels down. By episodes six, seven and eight, I sensed that FOX was okay with that approach – until I got a note around episode 11 that if we don’t want them to blow out the windows in post, I needed to pick up the ratios. [Laughs.] John always wanted us to try new things, so then I was like: ‘OK, we’ve tried the new things, now we need to find a balance with the old things.’”

Working on the North Shore in the winter, Malatynska goes on to explain, “means the sun is typically low, and you have this beautiful arc of light where the mountains are always backlit and the ocean is always front lit. We were only supposed to shoot through the spring, but with the added episodes we ended up going deep into the summer, when the ocean is backlit. More accurately, by 9 a.m. the sun is already overhead, and it’s top-light all day long. We’d try to go inside to counter that, but sometimes we had to embrace light that’s not flattering, as it was hard to avoid in July.” 

Carrillo adds that “with the show’s all-day exteriors, and shooting mainly on primes, Anka was looking to capture a lot of nice flares. Artistically, the lens flares seemed to pair well with the North Shore vibe. Of course, modern digital sensors have a lot of latitude and bit depth that played a big part in allowing us to shoot these high-contrast scenes where the brightest and darkest areas of a shot were fairly extreme. There were definitely certain shots where we were in a dark interior setting and Anka asked me to avoid windows or white walls, and we would develop the shot around that.”

As Kester noted, one of the show’s biggest asks was maintaining continuity between land and water. In fact, the series opens with some intense water footage at a Pipeline packed with surfers, while a young Florida tourist stands on the sand with his board, preparing to surf one of the world’s most dangerous waves for the first time. Clearly shot on different days and times, it sets up the series’ most obvious visual obstacle – trying to seamlessly marry the water and land footage.
“Wind, clouds, sun, tide, waves – everything changes quickly in Hawaii,” Yaconelli explains, “so maintaining continuity is always going to be a challenge. That’s why working with the storyboard artist to have a clear idea of what’s needed is so important. You can’t schedule for the weather, and both Anka and Don were pretty good sports in that respect. The best you can hope for is it will be cloudy on both days you’re in a scene, and then it will look great, or you hope it’s sunny for the underwater work so the light streams through. We had days on the North Shore with rain, and if it wasn’t too heavy, we’d keep shooting.”

Malatynska says she knew her work would need to mesh with acquired footage, i.e., heavy surfing action/wipeouts at Pipeline. “Originally, I had planned to use the Panavision DXL because I thought that sensor would be a bit more forgiving with all the natural daylight,” she recounts. “But I knew Don had designed custom housings for the RAPTOR for his water footage, and it was a much lighter rig when put together than the DXL, so that became the choice moving forward. I wanted to shoot everything at 8K even though FOX’s deliverables are 4K, and we ended up with a baseline of 5K. I would sometimes expand the functionality of the Panavision primes by going to 8K to get a wider field of view. We’d still process at 4K, but doing that sort of expanded my prime set – using a 24 millimeter at 8K instead of a 21 millimeter helped smooth things out because every shot is moving.”

In the water, Homcy says the commitment (by Wells and Yaconelli) to have “more people working to make things run smoothly was impressive. We had two cameras every day I was there,” he describes, “and a third camera as a back-up body so you could literally drop your rig off and grab another without losing any time. Loren and John also made sure the storyboards were dialed in so we could just look at a board and know: ‘This is the shot we need to get.’ Not having a board is like a game of telephone, and the intent gets lost in translation as word is passed down from Ski to Ski.”

Homcy references a water scene, with Kebbel doing her own stunt, that had surprising benefits. 

“I shot a cave rescue scene where Arielle comes down to rescue a free diver – a stunt player – who’s gotten trapped. The stunt diver was on a two-minute breath-hold, and I was on scuba tucked way back into the cave. Arielle dove down, struggled to free the diver, and bumped her head on the top of the cave as she was pulling him loose. She reacted on camera and it was all real. I was worried the head bump would be an issue, but she did four more takes and killed them all! And it’s her face and her reaction to the environment that I got in full close-up, in a cave, in the ocean.”

King shares a similar feeling about shooting actors who do their own stunts. “It’s rewarding,” he states, “because you’re not limited in your movement or coverage. You see the emotion on the actor’s face, and the action they’re doing in the water, and you don’t have to fake it by shooting a profile or behind a stunt double. Of course, the actors all varied in their abilities. Kekoa [Laka] is a lifeguard here in Hawaii, so he looked great on camera during all the rescues. Some of the others took more time and grew more comfortable as the season progressed. Brian and the stunt team would provide added training on their days off, and that added a lot to the show. Robbie [Sonny], the lead actor, set the tone, as he would come down on his day off, train on the Jet Ski, watch what we were doing, and demonstrate a commitment that, I’m sure, inspired the entire cast.”

Of course, even with the world’s best water team, “the ocean is,” as Kester points out, “not a safe environment. You need to be absolutely rigorous when it comes to safety protocols,” he insists. “And, thankfully, Brian Keaulana is the best in the world when it comes to shooting in the water. His entire career, post-lifeguard, has been devoted to ocean and big-wave safety; he pioneered the use of Jet Skis in the line-up. For every shot where you see one or two picture Jet Skis, there’s a flotilla of Jet Skis behind that, followed by a marine safety boat.” Kester praises the show’s water operators. “Don King, Dave Homcy, Vince Lucero and Alan Mozo are so comfortable in large, dangerous surf,” he adds. “In many ways, they’re also part of the safety crew. They’re able to keep our actors and the rest of our crew calm because they’ve encountered every situation imaginable.”

Homcy agrees, noting that “there was a 100 percent effort to make sure the water unit was supported, right down to special FX having hot tubs on the beach after we came out. There were days you’d spend 10 hours in the water, and even wearing a full suit, you’d come out cold and beat. But with Brian Keaulana, you know you’ve got the best of the best always watching your back, so I never worried about being safe on this show. They never compromised, in any way.”

King says having “one of the top lifeguards in the world running the water unit for a show about lifeguards is pretty cool. Brian’s philosophy, and I share it, is that you can only manage risk in the ocean, not eliminate it. That means reducing as many distractions as possible, scaling down the crew to the most experienced people, and being aware of what’s happening around you at all times. With the right protocols, we can create what looks like a dangerous situation that’s actually very safe.”

Yaconelli notes that “this was 19 episodes of a network TV series where not a single gun was fired and no violence, other than the occasional fistfight. The big rescue in episode three [with two kayakers stuck on a reef as waves pour in and the lifeguards have to swim them out] was so memorable for me because it was my first time in the water with this incredible team. The footage Don got looks really dangerous, but we were literally a dozen feet away from the actors, working in this keyhole that felt completely safe.” Yaconelli also points to a drone [implemented by Brian Keaulana], that was employed every day overhead for shark safety. “Not only did it keep our water team safe, but one day the drone spotted a tiger shark near some swimmers, none of whom were connected to our production. Within moments, four of our Jet Skis were racing out to have them clear the area.” 

Such real-life rescues were not uncommon. Malatynska recounts the team shooting a scene at Three Tables (between Waimea Bay and Sharks Cove on the North Shore) “and our set lifeguard ended up saving a snorkeler.” There was also an incident where “a beginning surfer began flailing for help, and Robbie, who was in his lifeguard wardrobe, started directing him to safety,” she adds. “Arielle was first on the scene to a motorcycle accident, and used all the training Brian and his team had provided to calm the guy down until EMS showed up on the scene. It was crazy how many actual rescues our company ended up participating in during this show.”

Safety was also a priority out of the water – North Shore sand is notoriously heavy, making the potential for injury (particularly for a camera operator working long, hand-held days) ever-present. As Carrillo describes: “Working on the North Shore of Oahu in the sun and running through deep sand all day is physically exhausting, but having the support of a great camera team and dolly grip helps tremendously. There were days when I was tracking a lifeguard who was racing down the beach on a quad, while I was shooting from a quad, and then we would both jump off mid-shot and race on foot to continue the rescue. The adrenaline I get from getting to do my job in these circumstances usually surpasses the amount of fatigue that comes from shooting them. And our EP’s would always offer rooms at the end of the day if I was too tired to drive home, which speaks to the show’s high regard for safety.”

Keeping safety top of mind not only comes from working regularly in unpredictable terrain, it’s also a habit practiced by crews fully dedicated to their craft – and their fellow members. As Yaconelli recounts: “I had one scene that ran five pages, and we played it as one connected scene. Ruben hung in there take after take, the camera always on his shoulder, and did an incredible job. Kilani came up day-playing on NCIS, and this was her opportunity to be a full-time B-Camera Operator. I pushed for her because I don’t see enough female operators, and I felt like she could step up to the position, and she did a great job. A big part of capturing the North Shore community was the vignettes and transitions in each episode, and we would just send Kilani out to find that footage. What she came back with was unique and special – she brought a lot of value to this show.”

As Malatynska describes: “Hawaii is not a place that’s 15 crews deep. Producers need to come in with a great deal of respect. If you mistreat people or compromise safety in any way, you’re going to have problems.” Malatynska adds that while “local knowledge is obviously super important, given all the challenging location work, I also think people don’t realize how incredibly high are the skill levels of the union members. We were able to pull the show together with a fully local crew, and that was a big part of what Matt and John wanted to do with this show. There’s also a level of personal respect that’s different from other places I’ve worked. This is an island, and the people you work with are your neighbors. Crews here take that to heart.”

Malatynska, who gave up her non-local status after leaving NCIS, says being a local DP in Hawaii and hiring an all-local crew is much different than “a DP who comes in from the mainland, has the UPM or line producer hire everyone, and then leaves after the shoot is over. There’s not the same level of connection. I leaned on our key 1st AC Nigel Nally, who I had worked with on I Know What You Did Last Summer, to put together our crew. I knew how great he was from that experience and always thought if I get a show based here, he would be the first one I look to for help.”

King, who describes Rescue: HI Surf as the crown jewel in a career already overflowing with quality experiences, says Director Wells and Showrunner Kester “set a very positive tone from day one, and when it comes from the top like that, everyone buys in. They gave us seven months to hone our techniques and take things to a higher level than we ever had and do it on a regular basis.

“I’m so proud of the ICG members that live and work in Hawaii,” King concludes. “It’s not just knowing every part of these islands; the quality of work and the efficiency is world-class. I’m lucky in that I get to travel and work with different camera teams, and everyone is really good – the standards in the industry are very high. But as far as I’m concerned, the Hawaii guys are at the top. Besides their versatility, it’s their great attitudes. The crews here are special.”

Local 600 Crew

Main Unit
Director of Photography: Anka Malatynska
A-Camera Operator: Ruben Carrillo
A-Camera 1st AC: Nigel Nally
A-Camera 2nd AC: Kanoa Dahlin
B-Camera Operator: Kilani Villiaros
B-Camera 1st AC: Brandon Ho
B-Camera 2nd AC: Geoff Lau
Loader: Blane Eguchi
Digital Utilities: Kristina “Zaz” ZaZueta, Kino Carrillo, Craig Sakai
Still Photographer: Zack Dougan

Water Unit
Director of Photography: Don King
Camera Operator: Dave Homcy
A-Camera 1st AC: Will Wacha
A-Camera 2nd AC: Jeff Makarauskas
B-Camera 1st AC: Tom Haley
B-Camera 2nd AC: Bailey Nagy
Loader: Josh Trotter
Additional 2nd AC: Keoki Saguibo