Page 14 - Fujifilm Exposure_31 The White Countess_ok

SAM MCCURDY
“I shot the whole of the film on the Fuji Reala 500D 8592...
The Reala 500D just stood up so well. I chose to stay on the daylight stock throughout to keep everything very warm.”
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thought, ‘why the hell isn’t anybody giving these people money to make it?’ It was the easiest script in the world to read; perfect box-office cinema. And yet when Neil finally got the money to make it, we all had to go off to Luxembourg to shoot it because we couldn’t get the budget here.”
No such problem for The Descent - whose cast includes Norah Jane Noone, Shauna Macdonald and Natalie Jackson Mendoza - with a consider- able degree of interest surrounding Marshall’s follow-up project after the success of Dog Soldiers.
Not that the budget this time round was exactly infinite. Said McCurdy: “We had to be particularly ingenious with the cave sets. Each tun- nel was probably no more than 20-25 feet in length. We were forever taking one tunnel section and turning it upside down into another one.
“I shot the whole of the film on the Fuji Reala 500D 8592 and it was also for me the first time on a feature that we did digital intermediate for the whole of the post production. We were also shooting three-perf as well. The Reala 500D just stood up so well. I chose to stay on the daylight stock throughout to keep everything very warm. The amount of actual daylight we had in Scotland was terrible so we still needed the speeds. Naturally, this kept my loader very happy.”
McCurdy has clearly acquired quite a reputation for photographing
big screen terror. Before joining up again with Marshall, he was in Cornwall shooting Cold And Dark, an Alien-style action movie for director Andrew Goth. He’s likely to pair up again with Goth later this year on The Wretched, slated to film in Mexico with Chow Yun Fat starring. He’s also due to light several episodes in a new help- ing of Sky One’s Buffy-like series, Hex.
“And touch wood,” McCurdy added, “Neil and I will also continue working together in the future. He’s the sort of director for whom I want to give absolutely everything I can – physically and mentally. He likes to move the camera around a lot, really be ‘in there’. The caves were espe- cially hard work, lots of crawling around doing hand-held in four-foot high spaces.”
Back at Pinewood for the longest period of time since his apprentice- ship there more than 15 years ago, he reflected on his career path.
“That time did me the world of favours. Anyone who aspires to being a member of the camera department needs that basic training. For me, it was Pinewood, be it fetching tea or loading a hundred and one different kinds of camera. The toughest training of all is to get film set time and you tell straightaway who’s been around sets. Or not.
“For a cameraman to step straight from film school on to a set to light a movie is such a difficult task. Whether
you’re good at it or not is often nei- ther here nor there. You need to be able to deal with people - be they stroppy sparks or those props boys who’ve been doing it since they were about 12.”
There was however an extra cause for satisfaction this time round in leafy Bucks: “The biggest difference between then and now was that on The Descent, I had my own parking space with a name tag on it.” That’s progress. ■ QUENTIN FALK
The Descent, due out later this year was originated on 35mm Reala 500D 8592; Killing Time and Preaching To The Perverted were also originated on Fujicolour Motion Picture Negative
Photo main: Chilling action from Director Neil Marshall and DP Sam McCurdy’s collaboration, The Descent; right l-r: on location; Neil Marshall directing The Descent; Dog Soldiers in action;
a scene from Preaching To The Perverted (photo: courtesy Moviestore Collection)
12 • Exposure • Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video