Cooke Panchro/i Classics bring the Cooke Look® to King of Boys: The Return of the King.

To shoot the sequel to the acclaimed political thriller King of Boys, cinematographer Kagho Idhebor chose the Cooke Optics Panchro/i Classic to help Nigerian director and writer Kemi Adetiba achieve her vision for the project.

The original King of Boys feature film, also written and directed by Adetiba, follows the story of Alhaja Eniola Salami, a businesswoman and philanthropist with a chequered past and a promising political future. As her political ambitions see her outgrowing the underworld connections responsible for her considerable wealth, she’s drawn into a power struggle that threatens everything she holds dear. Details about the sequel are shrouded in secrecy but will provide a long-awaited continuation of the gripping story.

“I was introduced to Kemi through another director, Tope Oshin. Kemi asked me to shoot the promo trailer for this sequel, and a working chemistry developed during that shoot that led to us embarking on 62 days of principal photography for King of Boys: The Return of the King, her third feature film project and the most interesting, longest and toughest project I have attempted in my career,” said Idhebor.

Major references for the look and feel of the film included City of God and The Godfather, with the requirement for a stylised and filmic look. “There were lots of times Kemi would whisper to me, “This scene is so warm, please can we make it colder? Because death is cold and it is easier for the audience to empathise if the look is right.” “That opened up a new door to experimenting more with the cyan blue suggested by the Gaffer, Kayode Abolade, and I found that combo with the red gels and haze created a beautiful motif for some characters,” he recalled.

Idhebor’s collaboration with the director was an interesting one; since Adetiba was also the scriptwriter, her thought process was there on the page, but she also liked to improvise on set. “We crashed into some of the locations on the day of the shoot and we were faced with working things out on the spot – which I loved a lot because it was a big test to our creativity,” he said. “I think some people are born to face the blank pages and they excel regardless. We would talk through the scenes and the shots and I would come up with suggestions for movements and compositions.”