By Adrian Pennington

The third collaboration between cinematographer Jean-Philippe Bernier, CSC, and director Adam Rehmeier is a romantic crime thriller evoking nostalgia for Americana. Starting out in rural Texas and structured as a road movie, Carolina Caroline inevitably invites comparisons to the iconic Badlands and Bonnie and Clyde. It stars Samara Weaving, Kyle Gallner, Jon Gries, and Kyra Sedgwick.

Bernier says the creative process was less about assembling a library of visual references and more about chasing a feeling. “Usually, I do a lot of research, and we go through tons of material,” says. “But on this film, it was more about a vibe. The emotional core of the film is thinking the summer will go forever. But then it ends really fast and really hard.”

Unlike the coming-of-age Midwest dramas Dinner in America and Snack Shack that Rehmeier wrote, this script was written by Tom Dean. “It resonated with me, but it felt like a new world,” Bernier says.

One unexpected influence came from At Close Range, the 1986 crime drama starring Sean Penn and Christopher Walken. “Emotionally, there’s something in it that connected to Carolina Caroline, especially around family dynamics and younger people getting involved in crime.”

Bernier also revisited Kathryn Bigelow’s Point Break, studying its dynamic action coverage and visceral camera operating. But Terrence Malick’s Badlands remained a key touchstone. “It’s very Texas in its feeling and color palette,” he says.

Five weeks of prep in Kentucky were essential to finding the film’s visual soul. “Adam and I love to shot-list everything, getting as close as possible on paper to what will be the final edit. In the office, we had small 3D-printed figurines so we could work out overhead plans and blocking like it was a board game. It makes the process really collaborative and interactive.”

He spent a full week just scouting locations. “It’s a road movie that’s supposed to travel from Texas to Carolina, but everything was shot in Louisville, Kentucky, and the small towns around it. So a lot of prep time was just Adam, Francesca [Palombo, the production designer] and I scouting, scouting, scouting.”

Snack Shack was shot using the Panavision DXL2 system paired with classic Xtal Express anamorphic lenses and the T Series 37-85. While Bernier loved the imagery, the package didn’t necessarily suit Rehmeier’s fast-moving production style. There were 92 locations on a 25-day schedule. “Everything was kind of slow for Adam,” Bernier says. “Swapping lenses with vintage anamorphics takes time.”

For Carolina Caroline, which featured numerous vehicle sequences and tightly staged character moments, Bernier says, “I wanted to stay very close to the actors and make things feel intimate and personal, so I wanted the smallest package possible.” The answer was Red V-Raptor [X].

“I’ve been a Red user since the Red One days,” Bernier says. “With the kind of fast action and movement Adam likes, taking advantage of the global shutter sensor in the V-Raptor [X] became a no-brainer.”

The camera’s ability to maintain image integrity during aggressive handheld work, rapid vehicle photography and gimbal moves proved essential. He paired the camera with DZOFilm Pavo 2x anamorphic lenses, a choice that surprised some crew members.

“I ended up discovering these DZO lenses online,” he says. “They were mostly being used by content creators rather than the film industry. The lenses were tiny, close focus was great, and they worked perfectly with Red’s electronic variable ND system.”

Without the need for traditional matte boxes and physical filter changes, exposure adjustments became nearly instantaneous. “It made everything faster and more fluid,” Bernier says. “It almost felt documentary-style in the sense that the camera disappeared around the actors.”

Equally important was the infrastructure built around the camera. Using Ignite Digital hardware, the crew could transform the V-Raptor [X] from a studio configuration to hand-held or gimbal mode in under two minutes.

“We actually timed it,” Bernier laughs. “At the end of the day, the biggest time savings came from the camera system itself. When actors are really in the moment, you don’t want to stop for five minutes because you need to swap filters or recalibrate the camera.”

Drawing inspiration from still photography and classic film stocks, Bernier, Rehmeier and the production designer built a palette dominated by bold primary colors. “We were all very attached to strong reds and blues — almost like the American flag palette. We wanted rich color density while still maintaining whites that felt genuinely white. We were able to push things to be a little more contemporary while still keeping a 1970s vibe, especially in how we played with color.”

In particular, he liked a colorful scene set at the laundromat at night in the rain. “The green neon mixing with the car headlights just looks beautiful. Sometimes it just feels good to create something that’s simply pretty, you know?”

When it came time for color timing, Bernier teamed with Light Iron senior colorist Ian Vertovec. Bernier and Rehmeier had previously collaborated with Vertovec on Dinner in America, We Need to Do Something and Snack Shack.

For Carolina Caroline, Vertovec and Bernier drew from the visual language they’d already established. “A few years ago, I had sent JP a LUT I affectionately called ‘poplook,’” notes Vertovec, who works on FilmLight Baselight. “It was my take on a big-budget popcorn movie aesthetic — glossy, bold and commercial — and JP really loved it. When we later worked on Snack Shack, he gave me some reversal slide film references he’d shot on a location scout. I immediately responded to the way the reversal stock had such high contrast and this striking amount of what you could call ‘black clip.’ It clipped the blacks the way digital photography clips highlights. So we combined poplook with the reversal reference to create the look of Snack Shack. For Carolina Caroline, we pushed that process even further by adding a golden scrunch to the skin-tone hues to make the overall palette feel more romantic. It was primary colors; Americana; southern; warm; and red, white and blue.”

“On these movies you don’t get weeks and weeks in the color suite anymore,” Bernier says. “Maybe six days total. So if the look isn’t already there, you’re in trouble.”

The same philosophy extended to location work, including one of the film’s most challenging sequences aboard a moving train on a real tourist railway in Kentucky. “That train sequence was honestly one of the hardest shooting days I’ve ever had,” Bernier admits. “Once you leave base, you’re on the tracks. Lighting changes constantly depending on the direction of the train, the sun and everything. It was chaos.

“Looking back, it was worth it because it feels real. All the imperfections make it feel authentic,” he adds. “With cameras these days you can do so much. But when you’re actually there on-set, you see every imperfection. Then you get into the grade, and suddenly it feels like how it used to feel. It feels real. All the things that might not look polished to my eyes, or to a general audience, just feel right.”

Bernier concludes, “Everything is so clean now, especially with virtual production. So having those little imperfections, that slight roughness, was actually a good thing. It gave the images a kind of lived-in truth.”

Adrian Pennington is a UK-based journalist, editor and commentator in the film and TV production space. He has co-written a book on stereoscopic 3D and edited several publications.