Page 36 - Fujifilm Exposure_25 Jean Francois Robin_ok

stockslot
THE MAGIC OF MONOCHROME
How black and white film perfectly fitted the bill
S ometimes the most complex problems can be seen in
purely black and white terms. This thought evident- ly occurred to Growth Films when they pitched their idea for a commercial to bespoke
tailor Timothy Everest.
The plan was to shoot the
‘Perfectly Fitted’ ad on 35mm Fuji 80 ASA type 71112 black & white stock. “The main appeal was the lack of
grain,” explains DP Gary Young. “Most black & white stocks are much more grainy than colour film stocks, so most people suggest that you shoot it in colour on a low ASA, a 50 or a 100 for instance, and then remove all the chroma in telecine.
“I personally think you don’t get the same look because black & white film works in a completely different way. The grain structure is completely different.”
Using an Aaton 35mm camera, Young and his director Laurence Thrush found the stock gave them exactly what they required, even
though they encountered one or two unfamiliarities along the way.
“Black and white stock differs technically to that of colour,” says Young, adding, “it was well worth it because the results were amazing.”
A series of vignettes demonstrate the central concept behind the ads, showing things that don’t fit and things that do. A car reversing into a space that’s too small, a child struggling against being put in a supermarket trolley and an unlucky loser in a game of musical chairs are some of the scenes representing those moments when life is less than straightforward.
Then the stylishly cut suits are given the star treatment as examples of everything coming together perfectly.
“Black & white gives it a classical look,” says Young, “and it helps focus attention on the suits themselves rather than the colours or the fabric design. We shot these scenes very cinematically, with no cuts, where one shot says it all.
“And we wanted to keep very high production values whilst doing that,
so rather than using helicopter shots and huge cranes we tried to choose simple, real events that you could quickly understand. Then you finish the whole piece with this suit that fits like a dream. That was the idea.”
With the design of the commercial informed by the work of photographer W. Eugene Smith, the simplicity of the idea seems to be the key to its suc- cess. And the client, Young reports, is delighted with it.
“We decided to go for more of the journalistic approach that is associat- ed with Eugene Smith,” he continues. “And so we were very conscious of not moving the camera, for example, so they are like still frames. The action happens within them.”
Major technical differences were minimal, with black & white stock not needing the time and attention of other stocks when it comes to dealing with colour temperatures. There were, too, other advantages.
“If you have a very cold light, like daylight or an HMI light, it will give a
much cleaner image than a tungsten light which is a little bit grey. I bal- anced the whole thing to daylight, so I could hold the contrast between whites and blacks, and just let the mid tones look after themselves really.”
If shooting on black & white has become something of a lost art that is a shame. But if Gary Young’s experi- ence is anything to go by then it’s something every DP ought to try his hand at from time to time.
“This is definitely a stock,” he reports enthusiastically, “that I’d use again.” ■ ANWAR BRETT
34 • Exposure • Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video