Clubhouse Conversations — Society of the Snow

In this episode, cinematographer Pedro Luque, SCU and director J.A. Bayona are joined by interviewer Armando Salas, ASC to discuss their work on Society of the Snow — the survival thriller based on the book by Pablo Vierci, which explores the true story of the Uruguayan 1972 Andes flight disaster.

Society of the Snow follows the Old Christians Club rugby union team as they travel to Chile on a flight whose path takes a harrowing turn — crashing into a glacier deep in the Andes mountains. Of the 45 passengers on board, 16 survive, and are left to brave brutal conditions and take drastic steps to withstand the crisis.

In this interview, Luque and Bayona discuss their approach to working with an ensemble cast; how they planned and executed the film's plane-crash scene, which is filtered solely through the passengers’ perspectives; their frequent use of a Laowa Probe Lens during production; how they used color and composition to contrast the characters' pre-departure world with their environs in the Andes, and more.

Pedro Luque, SCU is a cinematographer whose feature credits include Don’t Breathe (2016) and its sequel, Don't Breathe 2 (2018), Look Away (2018), The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018), Antebellum (2020) and Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin (2021).

J.A. Bayona is a director whose credits include such features as The Orphanage (2007), The Impossible (2012), A Monster Calls (2016) and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), as well as the series Penny Dreadful and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.

Armando Salas, ASC is a cinematographer whose credits include the series Mr. Mercedes, Ozark, The Old Man, The Terminal List and the forthcoming Griselda.

You’ll find all episodes in our ASC Clubhouse Conversations discussion series here.