The biggest decisions Jenkins and Laxton made before production began were to shoot in Florida, especially the Liberty City neighborhood where the action takes place, and to shoot in anamorphic. That latter decision, says Laxton, “came intangibly.” “We didn’t have discussions about [shooting in anamorphic],” he says. “But it just felt right. It makes sense just of because how large the story feels, how nuanced and bold and strong. We wanted to capture the characters in a way that was large and impactful.”

On "Moonlight," Laxton (whose wife Adele Romanski was also one of the film’s producers) and Jenkins began by putting photographs and clips in a Dropbox folder, from Spike Lee’s "Clockers," Kar-Wai Wong’s "Happy Together," Andrea Arnold’s version of "Wuthering Hights," Sally Potter’s "Ginger & Rosa" and various photographers found on Tumblr. For the camera, Laxton chose the ALEXA Plus. “Skin tone was of incredible importance,” he says. “We wanted to make sure our black-skinned actors would look natural and interesting skin tone. We were lighting them with a style that was more realistic than flattering and we wanted the skin tones to feel warm and not harsh. ALEXA gives a grace and softness to skin, and that was very helpful to us.”

“Also, we were filming in a lot of nights, so light sensitivity was very important to us,” he adds. “I was pleased with how ALEXA handled low light. In some scenes, we could actually render the night clouds. It was partly due to the ambience of a Florida night, but to be able to make out clouds at night was pretty amazing.” Laxton did lens tests at camera house Cineverse, and ended up picking the Vantage Hawk V-Lites.