Saltburn
SOC Creative Spotlight

A Conversation with Ossie McLean, ACO, SOC & Linus Sandgren, ASC, FSF
Hosted by David Daut

After her debut feature was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay (for which it also won), writer/director Emerald Fennell’s follow-up to Promising Young Woman has been highly anticipated. Saltburn, in turn, is lavish and provocative, featuring terrific performances and striking cinematography with dramatic use of color and shadow in its 1.33:1 Academy ratio frame.

In this Camera Operator Creative Spotlight, we were joined by A camera and Steadicam operator Ossie McLean, ACO, SOC, and cinematographer Linus Sandgren, ASC, FSF, for a live discussion about their work on the film, from the challenges and benefits of shooting in a narrower aspect ratio to detailed breakdowns of specific scenes, including Oliver’s lonely birthday party that ends in a violent confrontation.

Social misfit Oliver Quick finds himself enamored with his attractive, popular, and wealthy Oxford classmate, Felix Catton, and begins a campaign to integrate himself into his group of friends. Eventually, Oliver is invited to spend the summer at Felix’s family’s sprawling estate, Saltburn, where his obsession continues to deepen and fester. Saltburn is written and directed by Emerald Fennell and stars Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Alison Oliver, and Archie Madekwe.

American Fiction
SOC Creative Spotlight

A Conversation with Ossie McLean, ACO, SOC & Linus Sandgren, ASC, FSF

Hosted by David Daut

BEHIND THE SCENES OF SALTBURN

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Ossie McLean, ACO, SOC

Ossie McLean’s credits include the films Saltburn; No Time to Die; Slow West; Doomsday; and The King’s Man, among others, and 32 episodes of the series Outlander.

Linus Sandgren, ASC FSF

Linus Sandgren is a Swedish Cinematographer who resides in Los Angeles. He studied graphic design and illustration at Bergh’s School of Communication and film at the Stockholm Film School. He began his career as a Cinematographer in 1999. Sandgren’s work on his debut feature film Storm (2005), earned him a Guldbagge for Best Cinematography (Swedish Film Institute Award). In 2012, director Gus Van Sant hired Sandgren to lens his feature film Promised Land (2012) and, since then, he has photographed highly acclaimed films like La La Land (2016), First Man (2018), and Babylon (2022), which were all directed by Damien Chazelle; No Time To Die (2021) by Cary Fukunaga; and American Hustle (2013) and Joy (2015) by David O Russell, to name a few. Sandgren was honored with the Academy Award and the BAFTA Award for his work on La La Land. He also received BAFTA nominations for his work on First Man and No Time To Die.

David Daut

A writer and critic for more than a decade, David Daut specializes in analysis of genre cinema and immersive media. In addition to his work for Camera Operator and other publications, David is also the co-creator of Hollow Medium, a “recovered audio” ghost story podcast. David studied at the USC School of Cinematic Arts and works as a freelance writer based out of Long Beach, California.

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