{"id":82492,"date":"2025-09-24T05:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T05:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/82492\/"},"modified":"2025-09-24T05:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T05:34:08","slug":"chief-of-war-finale-battle-scene-explained-by-cinematographer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/82492\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Chief of War’ Finale Battle Scene Explained by Cinematographer"},"content":{"rendered":"

The \u201cChief of War\u201d<\/a> finale, Episode 9 on the Apple TV<\/a>+ series, is called \u201cThe Black Desert.\u201d And director Jason Momoa<\/a> does not hold back when it comes to just how \u201cblack\u201d and \u201cdesert\u201d-like that setting is for the show\u2019s climactic, 30-plus-minute battle between the forces of Hawaii and Maui.<\/p>\n

The clash sees Cliff Curtis\u2019 spurned chieftain Ke\u014dua, now high on his own supply as the chosen of the volcano Gods, on the one side; then, Kaina Makua\u2019s reluctant, good-hearted king Kamehameha, and Jason Momoa<\/a>\u2019s vengeful chief of war<\/a> Ka\u2019iana on the other. The massive armies square up on a desolate lava field, which is not exactly the kind of place you\u2019d want to fight with very sharp spears and minimal padding.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jessica<\/a> \"Protestors<\/a> <\/p>\n

It\u2019s also not necessarily the kind of place you\u2019d 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 \u201cChief of War\u201d team found was simply undeniable as the place for the battle where the Kingdom of Hawaii truly came into being.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were scouting possible locations for this, and we came across this lava field \u2014 this huge lava field on a cliff by the side of the water. I don\u2019t know if you\u2019ve ever been on a lava field before, but it\u2019s like walking on the moon,\u201d Chuang said. \u201cIt\u2019s so jagged, and the ground has these peaks and cracks, and it\u2019s really sharp. If you put your hand on the lava, you could cut yourself.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

It took the location scouting team about 30 minutes to walk into the spot around Hawai\u02bbi 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. \u201cHe wanted to shoot that on Hawaiian land, you know?\u201d Chuang said. \u201cSo 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.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Te\u2018Chief of War\u2019 Apple TV+<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had five units going at the same time. Jason brought in [the other \u2018Chief of War\u2019 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,\u201d Chuang said. \u201cIt was a huge undertaking.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Momoa, who leads Kamehameha\u2019s forces from the front, had to balance spearing and pummelling his way through Ke\u014dua\u2019s army on camera with coordinating other units following other characters through the bloody scrum. You\u2019d 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 \u201cChief of War\u201d crew.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Jason\u2018Chief of War\u2019 Apple TV+<\/p>\n

\u201cIt 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 \u2014 everyone needed to come together to make this possible. \u200aSometimes, we would start at 3 in the morning and prep at night. Then, as the sun was coming up, we\u2019d start shooting all those sequences.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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 \u2014 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a visual approach Momoa responded to even before Chuang got the job. \u201cThe 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<\/a>. His stuff is this quiet, moody, memory-based work. When I was talking to Jason about coming to shoot the show, we\u2019d just met for the first time over Zoom, and I mentioned Todd. He was like, \u2018Oh, I love Todd! He\u2019s a friend.\u2019\u201d Chuang said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cliff\u2018Chief of War\u2019 Apple TV+<\/p>\n

Todd Hido was not the only friend of the show on \u201cChief of War.\u201d Just as the Apple TV+ series<\/a> was gearing up to shoot the Episode 9 battle sequences, Moku\u02bb\u0101weoweo, 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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\u2019t exploded in like 40 or 50 years, and then the day that we finished [shooting], it stopped erupting,\u201d Chuang said. \u201cJason and the Hawaiians thought it was a sign from the Gods, like a blessing, you know? So that was really amazing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cChief of War\u201d is available to stream on Apple TV+<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The \u201cChief of War\u201d finale, Episode 9 on the Apple TV+ series, is called \u201cThe Black Desert.\u201d And…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":82493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[265],"tags":[9809,55074,18,117,19,17,4101,55075,128],"class_list":{"0":"post-82492","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-apple-tv-plus","9":"tag-chief-of-war","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-jason-momoa","15":"tag-top-of-the-line","16":"tag-tv"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=82492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/82493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=82492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=82492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=82492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}