Page 15 - Fujifilm Exposure_33 Magnificent 7_ok

TION, EDUCATION
A
THE DP VIEW
Fujifilm Motion Picture • The Magazine • Exposure • 13
ANDREW DUNN BSC
Mainly because of the cost we decided to shoot on Super 16 with the view of blowing it up to 35mm. The last time I’d done that was with Stephen Frears on Liam (2000) – which was also the last time I’d used Fuji. We knew we were going to shoot a lot of material because most of the scenes have at least eight characters in them and so we (that’s me and Gerry Vassbenter) used two cameras for almost every- thing we shot.
I like to have a continuity of “look” in a film although the style might change according to the story we’re telling. Film speeds were an issue here because our lighting budget was negli- gible; we weren’t so much lighting as adjusting practicals. Mind you,
I find it very exciting working with minimal resources, cheating time, circumstance and even God.
For this, we tested about 10 differ- ent stocks. As I’ve said, ASA speed was an issue because I knew we’d be in some rooms at certain times of the day which would get dark. I could have changed stocks for interiors and exteriors but I didn’t want to do so for the sake of continuity. Therefore we went for the higher speed stock, tested various things and settled for the Eterna 500. It was amazing. I had intended, if time had permitted, to shoot some stuff and take it right through the process including blowing it up to 35mm so I could see how it looked. That wasn’t possible so I just had to go on instinct and the way the stock looked initially projected. It just felt right.
Although there is much you can now do afterwards, I don’t really sub- scribe to the “we’ll just fix it all in post” theory. I think that’s lazy. You should try and create the image on the day the best you can albeit within the limitations set down for you.
In this case, because we were shooting on the hoof, as it were, there were the occasional times when with certain exteriors, we simply couldn’t wait for the light because, for instance, we had no overtime.
There was one particular shot with a group of schoolboys at Fountains Abbey where, for example, it went from very bright sunlight into shade. The Eterna 500 coped amazingly well with that, and I know the stuff will all be there when we are involved in the digital intermediate process. ■