'September 5' Cinematographer Markus Förderer Rose To the Challenge Of Lensing Action Inside a TV Studio [PODCAST]

Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 is one of those films where their crafts don’t draw attention to themselves. The artisans supporting Fehlbaum’s taut direction and the fantastic ensemble cast so convincingly orient the audience within the world of the 1972 Munich Olympics that one almost takes for granted this isn’t a documentary. Everything from the expert production design to the razor-sharp editing to the mood-setting cinematography collaborate to faithfully recreate a critical point in journalism history.

In particular, Markus Förderer’s cinematography helped heighten environmental intensity by subtly leveraging effects stemming from period equipment used for the film.

“I had seen Apollo 11. It came out a couple of years ago. It featured footage that they found shot on 65 millimeter about the moon landing, which looked stunning. There’s so many shots in the control rooms, and you see the monitors are flickering like crazy. I showed this to Tim Fehlbaum, the director,” Förderer explained. “I was like let’s not fight it, but use it as a means of storytelling because it creates tension. When you see that flicker, it creates tension. I did tests and I did deep research in neuroscience, the studies about how light flicker or light pulses affect the mood of the viewer.”

To create this anxiety-inducing effect, Förderer installed a series of lights just above the period television monitors into which the actors would watch recreations of on-screen action. For example, they stare transfixed as the film’s recreation of the iconic shot of the masked Palestinian terrorist emerging from the Israeli suite in the Olympic village. While the shot reveals itself, Förderer increased the flicker effect stemming from the installed lights, subconsciously heightens the audience’s fear induced by the moment.

Förderer shot most of the film using a hand-held camera. That allowed him to navigate the set and capture the intensity of the actors’ reactions to the unfolding horror. The close-up camerawork even allows some of the action seen on the monitors to reflect on characters’ glasses within the steely grey, monitor-lit environment largely void of natural lighting.

Here, in an interview with The Contending, Förderer further dives into the process of lighting the space to reflect the many monitors that decorated the ABC studios. He also talks about recreating period footage seen on televisions throughout the film using actual ABC footage as inspiration. He also talks about working with the production design team to recreate period cameras and period-specific shots to further orient the viewer within the intensity of these world-changing moments at the 1972 Olympics.

Click below for my full conversation with September 5 cinematographer Markus Förderer. September 5 is now playing in New York and Los Angeles. It opens nationwide on January 17, 2025.