‘Daisy Jones and the Six’ cinematographer Checco Varese on capturing the ‘70s rock scene for a modern audience [Exclusive Video Interview]

Cinematographer Checco Varese had an interesting challenge when it came time to shoot episodes of the Amazon Prime Video limited series “Daisy Jones and the Six.” The Emmy Award winner for “Dopesick” had to recreate 1970s Los Angeles but here in modern times.

As Varese tells Gold Derby in an exclusive video interview, there’s a sense that Los Angeles hasn’t changed that much in the last 50 years. That’s not really true.

“There were no ramps for people with disabilities, the sidewalks were not painted yellow, or blue, or anything. You could park anywhere, there were no meters, and the traffic lights were different. The street lights were different…. There is nothing that looks like the ‘70s,” Varese says. 

So the show, about a fictional rock band rising to global stardom in the 1970s before quickly losing it all, required Varese to use some tricks and subterfuge – particularly in an early scene where Daisy Jones (Riley Keough) walks across the busy Sunset Strip to the world-famous Whisky a Go Go.

“Somebody said that the budget for 130 period-appropriate cars and the visual effects to change everything was going to be impossible,” Varese says. “So we came up with this idea of… doing a Steadicam shot around her, where everything is out of focus – all the cars you’re seeing, you’re seeing the 70s? No, no, no, my friend, those are cars built yesterday. There are a bunch of Teslas in there, a couple of Porsches, and whatever. Storytelling tricks.”

Born in Peru, Varese’s career as a cinematographer dates back to the 1990s, when he shot music videos for Dave Matthews Band and The Verve Pipe. He says “Daisy Jones” sparked his interest because of the dichotomy it presented with its characters: rock stars who perform for thousands of people each night who also have these quiet conflicts within their personal lives.

“I was fascinated by the human interactions and the human drama involved in it – the fragility of the characters and the way they deal with this fragility in private,” he says. “Then they step on stage, and it’s brilliant, and it’s like nothing has happened.”

“Daisy Jones” primarily takes place in the 1960s and 1970s, but Varese says he tried to approach the era with the modern audience in mind. 

“I have this theory that you shouldn’t bang on the audience by making it black and white, because it’s in the early ‘60s or making it with like scratches in the negative,” he says. “I wanted to make it as contemporary as possible in terms of look, with the patina of this timeless 1970s realism or naturalism – nothing is natural in a film set, but everything is naturalistic.”

He adds the hope was to make the audience feel in the presence of the band as much as possible.

“The actual events that the audience is witnessing should look more like as if you were there with the band rehearsing,” he says. “So I don’t know if we accomplished that. But that was the intention.”

All episodes of “Daisy Jones and the Six” are streaming on Amazon Prime Video.

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