Page 12 - Fujifilm Exposure_41 Happy-Go-Lucky_ok

HAPPY-GO-LUCKY
“Vivid is not only exciting way it resolves colour but also in its low grain structure and the fact that it’s so very sharp indeed.”
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And for the veteran cameraman, film life regularly goes on way beyond Leigh. In the past couple of years he’s worked for John Sayles (Honeydripper), Barry Levinson (Man Of The Year) and, since Happy-Go-Lucky, Gurinder Chadha, for whom he shot Angus, Thongs & Full-Frontal Snogging, likely to be one of this summer’s UK box office favourites.
As you read this he is currently filming Richard Linklater’s Me & Orson Welles, a period coming-of-age piece, starring Zac Efron, Claire Danes and Christian McKay, in the Isle of Man, Pinewood Studios and on location in London and New York.
about Gilbert & Sullivan [Topsy-Turvy]. With Naked, I remember him saying to me, ‘this is going to be a contempo- rary but rather Dickensian journey through the heart of London at night.’ That’s the springboard from which we then sort of leap into the unknown.” We always then subsequently test the ‘look’ of the film with only this to go on, but without knowing specific details about the actual content.
What was the germ of the idea this time round? “A film about ‘a viva- cious, colourful, optimistic young woman and her friends in a contempo- rary London that’s both exciting and fluid’. When he first told me this, I said to Mike, ‘let’s do it widescreen’. We had considered the format on previ- ous projects and even tested it but had always eventually shied away.
“But this seemed to me an ideal opportunity to use it, and make it our first widescreen venture togeth- er. He thought that’d be great, took it on board completely and we went forward with that idea in mind and also for everything – clothes, colours and so on – visually vivid, fresh and very now”.
Which, perhaps a little serendipi- tously, is where Fujifilm’s new ETERNA Vivid 160T stock then came in.
Pope recalled: “I already had in my mind this thing about the film’s look being vivid even before I discov- ered that Fuji were about to launch the stock so that’s rather amusing, really.”
After extensive testing, Pope was the first to use Vivid on a feature film; Happy-Go-Lucky – whose typically ensemble cast includes Sally Hawkins (Best Actress at Berlin), as the irrepress- ibly cheerful Poppy, Eddie Marsan, Alexis Zegerman and Kate O’Flynn - and, subsequently, he used it again soon after on Chadha’s film.
Noted Pope: “When I recently went to an HD preview screening of Angus, Thongs, it confirmed to me just how good the Vivid 160T stock really is; not only in the exciting way it resolves colour but also in its low grain structure and the fact that it’s so very sharp indeed.”
Meanwhile, back at the ‘process’... “When Mike’s finished the five months or so of working with the actors and creating their characters, he writes down a sort of thumbnail scenario of proposed scenes and though we use this for our ‘prep’, it gives no indication of the real direc- tion the film’s heading for.
“This was certainly the case with Happy-Go-Lucky where none of us,
including Mike knew where this film was leading, how it would all turn out in the end. We really had no idea of where the film was leading right up to its denouement.
“This is what evolves during the filming; with shooting alternated with Mike rehearsing and devising the next scenes, and in that way, it’s very organ- ic. As the end of our schedule drew near, this resulted in a great deal of speculation amongst all of us, and for me clearly illustrates how much respon- sibility Mike carries when he makes a film this way and just has to deliver.
“It’s also a testimony to how strong and complete those characters are that he and the actors have created that during these ongoing improvisations and rehearsals as the story unfolds; they are able to really dig deep, come up with the goods and make it happen whatever the pressure.”
How does this challenge – of course, every film he does is, Pope rightly points out, a “different challenge” – compare with non-Leigh projects?
“It’s more difficult because I am not, as we’ve said, always in the know about everything that’s going to hap- pen. At the time of shooting it’s more spontaneous for me because he’ll present a scene, we’ll look at it then tackle it. I’m always having to think on my feet about how I will make it stylis- tically part of the film we’ve shot thus far so it doesn’t jar.
“I also operate as well because for Mike, what I do is just one job; it’s non-separable. He directs meticulously through the camera as well, and is a master of choreography within that frame and of the actors’ business. In the end, of course, it’s all about inflec- tion and performance.”
Says Pope: “People often say that Mike’s films feel spontaneous – but that’s what we’re always trying to achieve. It’s not easy, not as though we’re suddenly whipping out the cam- era and waving it about. There’s a hell of a lot of aforethought to give it that feeling that we’re just ‘capturing’ it.
“I think it’s often a lot to do with where the camera is placed and how it engages the action; obviously in the lighting I try to set up a realistic but heightened world where every- thing’s believable.”
What, of course, you can’t legis- late for is the weather, and shooting on Happy-Go-Lucky coincided with last year’s stinker of a summer. Not that you’d notice it from watching what looks like a consistently sunny film.
“The weather,” sighed Pope, “was appalling. Yet when we started doing ‘prep’ and going round looking at vari- ous locations, it was gorgeous. The bad weather set in just as we started, and my dreams about it being vivid and colourful seemed on some days to be evaporating. I had a pretty tricky job on this one to sustain its sum- mery, colourful look. You need the light and for a really good emulsion like the Vivid 160T to be able to react to that light.”
Not that Leigh had ever anything but complete faith in his long-time col- laborator. There are, Leigh said, three great things “about working with Dick. First, apart from being a great cine- matographer, he’s also a brilliant oper- ator. I’m sure his experience in the early days of working as a documen- tary cameraman still stands him in good stead.
“Second, there are DPs who are good and, indeed, some who are great, but they don’t necessarily have a rap- port with the action – meaning the content, the performance, and the nuance of what’s going on. Dick’s total- ly there.”
And the third thing? “I can’t remember now,” laughed Leigh. ■ QUENTIN FALK
Happy-Go-Lucky, to be released in the UK on April 18, was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA Vivid 160T 8543 and ETERNA 500T 8573
Pope also last year earned an Oscar nomination and - for him, per- haps even more prestigiously - an ASC nomination for his dazzling work on the period, fantastical romantic thriller, The Illusionist.
The stuffy, claustrophobic turn-of- the-20th Century Vienna world of The Illusionist couldn’t, however, be much further removed from the contempo- rary London of Happy-Go-Lucky con- jured up by Leigh and Pope as well as other familiar names in the ‘stock com- pany’ such as costume designer Jacqueline Durran Hair & Make-Up designer Christine Blundell, and Ist AD Josh Robertson, not to mention produc- er Simon Channing Williams who “miraculously” (says Pope) weaves the budget and schedule. Production designer Mark Tildesley, better known for his work with Danny Boyle and Michael Winterbottom, was a first-timer.
There is famously no script. So how does this unconventional process begin for Pope?
“Way before Mike goes into rehearsals, he always gathers both me and the other heads of department together and sows the germ of an idea about the film’s subject matter.
“For instance, he may say to us, ‘this is a film set in 1950 about abor- tion’ [Vera Drake], or, ‘it’s set in 1887
Photo inset above: a scene from Happy-Go-Lucky (Photo: Simon Mein)
10 • Exposure • The Magazine • Fujifilm Motion Picture
The Mike Leigh DVD Collection, showcasing 10 of the writer- director’s films including Vera Drake, All Or Nothing, Topsy-Turvy, Secrets & Lies, Career Girls, Naked, Life Is Sweet, High Hopes, Meantime and Bleak Moments will be available from April 7.