Shooting on KODAK 35mm, DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom served up an erotically charged game, set and match for Luca Guadagnino's 'Challengers'

Captured on KODAK 35mm film by Thai DP Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, director Luca Guadagnino's Challengers takes audiences into the competitive heart of professional tennis, as three ambitious players become embroiled in a love triangle involving lust and the ruthless desire to win at all costs.

Told in non-linear episodes over the course of 13 years, the story follows Tashi (Zendaya), a failed tennis prodigy turned coach, who has transformed her husband Art (Mike Faist) from a modest player into a world-famous grand slam champ. To jolt him out of a losing streak, she pressures Art to play at an ATP Challenger event in New Rochelle, NY – close to the lowest rung on the pro-tennis tournament ladder. Passions soon run high when Art stands across the net from the once-promising, now burnt-out Patrick (Josh O'Connor), his former best friend and Tashi's former suitor.

Well-received by critics and at the box office, the film has been noted for the way in which its colorful camera work explores the muscularity, sexiness and frailties of human physiology, all while tennis-balls get convincingly smashed, expensive racquets are battered into splinters and sweat drips in slow-mo. The three leads underwent extensive tennis training for several months before filming commenced, coached by American tennis pro Brad Gilbert, who also acted as a special consultant on the film.

Challengers represents Mukdeeprom's third film with Guadagnino as director, following Call Me by Your Name (2017) and Suspiria (2018), which the DP also shot on Kodak 35mm film.

"When we discussed the visual treatment of the film, Luca was quite clear that it was a subjective movie, focusing on the relationships and rivalries between characters in a love triangle," says Mukdeeprom. "Away from the tennis court, he wanted it to feel natural, as if we had brought the camera to each location to film what we found there, with nothing artificial, but with a certain vibrancy of color.

"He did not know much about tennis, and when it came to depicting the matches, he certainly didn't want to make a typical sports film, where the cameras objectively follow the players. For him the action scenes were a chance to reflect the changing emotional and personal dynamics between the protagonists at key moments, rather than showing them just playing tennis."

Mukdeeprom says a key reference was The Color of Money (1986, dir. Martin Scorsese, DP Michael Ballhaus ASC) for its close-up shots of pool balls being played, along with wider visuals of the players in the pool hall environment. There is also an homage to the tennis scene in Strangers on a Train (1951, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, DP Robert Burks ASC) in which everyone is watching the match play back-and-forth, except for the brooding lead, who is shown staring intently ahead as the camera zooms in.

"As I don't know much about tennis either, Luca and I decided to storyboard the action scenes, which was a first for us. We collaborated with Brad Gilbert, who initially coached the actors about playing tennis, and then helped us to choreograph their rallies and movements around the tennis court.

"As those storyboards developed, we worked out different camera positions, moves and blocking that would depict the vigorous athletic energy of tennis, along with more intimate shots that would convey the changing emotions of the characters towards one another in the heat of battle."

Apart from a short stint in New Rochelle, New York, to shoot authentic cityscapes and establish the film's suburban setting, production on Challengers took place in different towns and cities around Massachusetts, including Boston, East Boston, the Back Bay, Framingham, Bedford, Beverly, Lynn, Braintree, Canton and Norton. Filming began in May 2022 and concluded in June.

Mukdeeprom framed Challengers in 1.85:1 aspect ratio, using ARRICAM LT and ST 35mm cameras and Zeiss Super Speed lenses, capturing in 3-perf on 35mm KODAK VISION3 filmstock. An ARRICAM 235 35mm camera was flown on a drone to capture the cityscape of New Rochelle. The camera and lens package was supplied by ARRI Rental in New Jersey.

"Although we briefly considered telling the story by using a variety of frame formats – 4:3, 1.85 and widescreen – we concluded that such a technical approach would have been too fancy and would get in the way of the emotions we wanted to convey," says the DP.

"The Zeiss lenses look natural with film and, as they're fast, T1.3 across the whole range, I knew they would be good for shooting in different low or available light situations. This was really helpful, as I did not want to have to compensate by over-lighting and lose the reality of the scene."

Just as he had on Call Me by Your Name and Suspiria, Mukdeeprom shot Challengers using just one filmstock, namely KODAK VISION3 500T Color Negative Film 5219. Film processing was done at Kodak Film Lab in New York.

"I love KODAK VISION3 filmstocks, and the 5219 500T is my favorite," he declares. "It has beautiful fine grain, and its texture is seductive to the eye. It also loves color and is great with different skin tones, which were both of great importance to the look and feel of this film.

"On a practical level, the 500T is sensitive enough for shooting dark interiors and night-time exteriors, and you can film daylight exteriors by using ND filters. Sometimes I went super heavy on those, sometimes to an ND12. Also, using just one stock kept things simple for my camera crew and the team at the film lab. Most of the exposures were regular, but I did some push-processing at the lab, by one or sometimes two stops, for some of the night exteriors.

"While there were a lot of flashbacks, from the outset my approach was not to change anything in the look of the filmed image, but to let the haircuts, costume and props carry the idea about the story travelling between different time periods."

Mukdeeprom's crew included Bianci Butti serving as A-camera operator, and Terrence Hayes on B-camera. David Romano headed the grip team, with Frans Weterrings III ICLS working as the gaffer.

Scenes away from the tennis court were mostly single-camera set-ups. But the tennis matches generally involved two cameras, one on a crane, the other either on the dolly or operated handheld.

"For most of the scenes that take place off or away from court, I kept the camera moves very simple and straightforward, although we did execute some long single takes for some of the pivotal romantic scenes," he explains.

"For the tennis matches, it was all about being able to move the camera at significant speed and to have dexterity in our framing. During prep I arranged a test day with the grips in a covered tennis court and experimented with Steadicam, dollies on tracks, dollies on wheels, and a crane, to see what would work best. In the end we didn't like the effect of using Steadicam, and went with a Technocrane and a regular remote head for A-camera, plus a dolly on wheels as the second/B-camera. We also operated handheld for some of the closer and more unusual shots."

Speaking about the commendable authenticity of the tennis playing in the movie, Mukdeeprom says, "We tried shooting the actors hitting real balls, but as they are not professional players it was difficult for them to control their shots and impossible to have play that precisely matched the action in the script. So in the main, the actors held racket handles and swung their arms with professional intensity, and the racket heads and balls were computer-generated."

Challengers was lit using standard ARRI HMIs and Tungsten fixtures, in combination with Creamsource Vortex8 fixtures and DMG line LEDs, supplied by Red Herring MPL Inc, supported by MBS.

"The philosophy behind the lighting was for the overall look to be natural, perhaps slightly heightened in color saturation, and I took my cues from the ambience of our interior and exterior locations. I wanted it to feel as though the camera had been dropped into regular real-life situations. So it was all about supplementing the existing light we found, and bouncing soft light into most day sets. With our three leads, it was wasn't difficult to make them look good, although we did make sure Zendaya always had a little more beauty light."

The biggest challenge was filming the three-set tennis match between Art and Patrick that features throughout the movie.

"This match, which takes place during a sunny afternoon, was actually shot over the course of several days and at different times of day. Due to the size of the tennis court and the complication with the existing grandstand seating, we were unable to control the light by covering the set using butterflies on cranes.

"So Frans Weterrings and his lighting team came up with the solution of having a pair of Magni scissor lifts with two 100K SoftSuns on each. These helped to extend our shooting day and, during overcast days, gave us some lighting direction to match the days when we had sunshine. Also, we were often shooting at high speed, and the SoftSuns are great they because they are flicker-free up to 10,000fps."

Reflecting in the experience of shooting Challengers, Mukdeeprom say, "It was fun, because Luca makes it a good experience for everyone. I am very happy the movie has been well-received and that people enjoyed my cinematography. I really enjoy shooting it on film. There's something about the way the filmstock is constructed and developed that gives depth and the sense of reality that you cannot get in any other way."