The “Chief of War” finale, Episode 9 on the Apple TV+ series, is called “The Black Desert.” And director Jason Momoa does not hold back when it comes to just how “black” and “desert”-like that setting is for the show’s climactic, 30-plus-minute battle between the forces of Hawaii and Maui.
The clash sees Cliff Curtis’ spurned chieftain Keōua, now high on his own supply as the chosen of the volcano Gods, on the one side; then, Kaina Makua’s reluctant, good-hearted king Kamehameha, and Jason Momoa’s vengeful chief of war Ka’iana on the other. The massive armies square up on a desolate lava field, which is not exactly the kind of place you’d want to fight with very sharp spears and minimal padding.
It’s also not necessarily the kind of place you’d want to drag a film crew for eight days of shooting intense crowd and stunt sequences. But series cinematographer Matthew Chuang told IndieWire the location the “Chief of War” team found was simply undeniable as the place for the battle where the Kingdom of Hawaii truly came into being.
“We were scouting possible locations for this, and we came across this lava field — this huge lava field on a cliff by the side of the water. I don’t know if you’ve ever been on a lava field before, but it’s like walking on the moon,” Chuang said. “It’s so jagged, and the ground has these peaks and cracks, and it’s really sharp. If you put your hand on the lava, you could cut yourself.”
It took the location scouting team about 30 minutes to walk into the spot around Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park where they would eventually film, in fact, because the ground was so sharp. But Momoa especially pushed for them to find solutions to work and get power to the location safely, so that the show could visually underscore the importance of the battle in Hawaiian history. “He wanted to shoot that on Hawaiian land, you know?” Chuang said. “So they got geologists to come in and looked [at the location], with production, at how we could get our gear in there, and they kind of made it possible.”
With geological information about the safest places to film and how to get gear in and out, though, Chuang and Momoa still had to test a lot of camera and, especially, lighting equipment to ensure that they could withstand the marathon, all-day, and into-night battle sequence. Chuang made the correct story decision for the show to embrace a naturalistic style overall, building frames that continually envelop the characters within the landscape or set them starkly against it. But it meant that during the battle shoot, the production had to really divide and conquer in order to get the coverage they needed.
“We had five units going at the same time. Jason brought in [the other ‘Chief of War’ directors] Brian Mendoza and Justin Chon to help him direct certain sequences. We sectioned off the lava field for different areas to have the forces stand off, then colliding, then a section for certain characters to use, and we split it off that way,” Chuang said. “It was a huge undertaking.”
Momoa, who leads Kamehameha’s forces from the front, had to balance spearing and pummelling his way through Keōua’s army on camera with coordinating other units following other characters through the bloody scrum. You’d expect this to require a huge amount of planning and communication between the camera and stunt teams, and it did. But, reflecting on the experience, Chuang was struck by how getting the scale of the battle right took a full-court press from the entire “Chief of War” crew.
“It was all planned out, but at the same time, incredibly crazy. Everyone on the crew, from costumes to makeup to stunts, were all happening all along the same time. All the PAs and transport — everyone needed to come together to make this possible. Sometimes, we would start at 3 in the morning and prep at night. Then, as the sun was coming up, we’d start shooting all those sequences.”
The brutality of the black desert is a big part of what makes the sequence feel so visually distinct; it sharpens as the light changes, then grows dark and fiery and almost infernal as night falls, and as the combatants have to wail at each other by the glow of lava coming forth from the Earth. Chuang said that when it comes to the lava-work, visual texture allows the camera and the action to breathe a bit — to not need the kind of shaky-cam or quick movement that forces a sense of intensity. Instead, it comes from the environment and the actors onscreen.
It’s a visual approach Momoa responded to even before Chuang got the job. “The key [to shooting the lava] is to have fog and smoke and atmosphere to light. One of my biggest influences in general is this photographer, Todd Hido. His stuff is this quiet, moody, memory-based work. When I was talking to Jason about coming to shoot the show, we’d just met for the first time over Zoom, and I mentioned Todd. He was like, ‘Oh, I love Todd! He’s a friend.’” Chuang said.
Todd Hido was not the only friend of the show on “Chief of War.” Just as the Apple TV+ series was gearing up to shoot the Episode 9 battle sequences, Mokuʻāweoweo, the summit caldera of Mauna Loa, erupted for the first time since 1984. The production needed to halt for a day to make sure the air quality was safe and it would be safe to film.
“We went out there and started scouting anyway, and it was actually a really great prep day because everyone could get there and settle. But yeah, that volcano hadn’t exploded in like 40 or 50 years, and then the day that we finished [shooting], it stopped erupting,” Chuang said. “Jason and the Hawaiians thought it was a sign from the Gods, like a blessing, you know? So that was really amazing.”
“Chief of War” is available to stream on Apple TV+
