DP Gareth Paul Cox On Using Panasonic's VariCam On MTV’s “Siesta Key”

DP Gareth Paul Cox chose Panasonic’s VariCam 35 to capture the natural beauty of their Florida setting.

Over ten years ago, MTV’s Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County and its spin-off, The Hills were huge hits amongst Generation Y. Part reality show, part narrative soap, both series glamorized the lives of the young and beautiful in Southern California. Now, MTV’s new docu-series, Siesta Key, takes the tried and tested concept and moves it to Florida, following a new group of young adults confronting issues of love, heartbreak, betrayal, class, and looming adulthood as they spend the summer together in their beautiful hometown.

Since the show has no scripts and the cast are non-actors, Cox and team wanted to shoot in a documentary style with a cinematic look. Having worked in narrative films, commercials, and documentaries, Cox had to pull techniques from all those genres. “Our young cast were not used to having cameras around so there was a learning curve,” reveals Cox. “We knew going in that we needed to be able to follow reality and to understand that we can’t miss certain moments. We wanted to create an infrastructure and a style visually speaking that supported that.” “With every project, there are always high ambitions on where you want it to end up,” says Cox. “You always have to make certain sacrifices and compromises to make the reality happen, which was very literal on this project.” Siesta Key airs on MTV on Mondays 10/9c.