Q&A w/NYFA Alum Wara Pornkulwat, DOP on Episode 4: "The Vow", on the Netflix horror anthology series “Terror Tuesday Extreme”

NYFA One Year Cinematography Alum Wara Pornkulwat recently worked as the Director of Photography on Episode 4: "The Vow" on the Netflix horror anthology series “Terror Tuesday Extreme”. 

In this Q&A he spoke to us about his career and his experience working on the show.

NYFA Alumni Network: Can you tell us a bit about yourself, where you're from, and what brought you to New York Film Academy?

W.P: My name is Wara Pornkulwat, I’m a cinematographer from Thailand. I took a 1 year Cinematography class at New York Film Academy Los Angeles on 2017 to explore how the industry in US works.

NYFA Alumni Network: What projects have you worked on since graduating? Have you won any awards or been showcased in any festivals or competitions?

W.P: I’d worked on various projects from commercials to narrative in Thailand. The USC thesis film I shot for my best friend since undergraduate got selected to Creative Artist Moebius 2022 and one of our friend showed that Thesis to the showrunner of Terror Tuesday Extreme at Brandthink Cinema Thailand.

NYFA Alumni Network: Tell us more about your work on the Netflix horror anthology series “Terror Tuesday Extreme”. How did the project come about and what was your experience like being the DOP on episode 4 "The Vow"?

W.P: It was an anthology series inspired from the horror stories from the Terror Tuesday, the late night radio show in Thailand. Our episode explores the relationship between the young couple that holds on their own secrets, and the sacred being that protects the faithfulness of the vow between the couple.

NYFA Alumni Network: What influenced your choice of camera and lighting?

W.P: We, me and the director, came up with the classical visual story telling by moving when it’s necessary. The philosophical decision behind the camera, lens, and lighting, was to create the very non-stylized look and try to keep it natural as much as we could because I believed that they would give the audience the sense of honesty and doesn’t force feed the audience by the visual elements in the picture. 

Therefore, when it came to color palette, we tried to be meticulous on the color that we were going to use to convey the dynamic of the relation between two characters throughout the story. I opted the Arri Alexa 35 and Leica Summicron-C for this project because of their incredible dynamic range of the camera and the unstylish look but still gives the truthful rendering of the color from the Summicron-C.

NYFA Alumni Network: What did you learn at NYFA that you applied directly to this project and others?

W.P: I learn how to light the environment from three ASC members that taught me on the campus at the time; Anthony Richmond ASC, Jacek Laskus ASC, and Suzi Medencevic ASC. All of them are very meticulous on their crafts and helped me to develop my own tricks about naturalistic look.

NYFA Alumni Network: What are your favorite parts about working as a Cinematographer?

W.P: To create the images that moves the audience or submerge the audience to the environment that we designed is my favorite part of working as a Cinematographer, and it’s so satisfying when I see people mention about how they feel about the atmosphere of the film, that means my cinematography wasn’t overwhelming and support the world that we tried to recreate.

NYFA Alumni Network: Are you currently working on any future projects?

W.P:  I’m currently taking a Cinematography discipline at the American Film Institute to further my vision on narrative storytelling.

Check out the trailer for the Netflix official "Terror Tuesday: Extreme" : 

NYFA congratulates Wara on all his success!