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head of Alfred Hitchcock that is to dec- orate the gate of Gainsborough Studios.
“I asked him to sculpt the statues because that’s what my dad does,” says Donaldson. “The only thing I had written into my contract was that I would keep all three statues.”
After shooting got underway three sculptures were produced – one for general usage in the course of filming, one that cries and one that floats because it winds up in the River
Mersey. Another obvious, and poten- tially controversial, aspect of the Madonnas is that they are somewhat more busty than the traditional sort of religious statues.
“The statue of the Madonna does have big nipples,” says Boswell, who shrugs aside the notion that this might cause offence. “Those sort of people who might be upset by that would probably be unhappy with the movie anyway.
“We have a statue of the Virgin Mary which is being taken back and forward on skateboards, shopping trolleys, in the back of a car and finish- es up in the Mersey.” ■ JOHN MILLAR
The Virgin Of Liverpool
was originated on Fujicolor Motion Picture negative
THE DP VIEW
JAKOB IHRE
W hen you’re shooting in different locations,
you’re never going to get everything 100 per cent well-executed in
terms of the lighting and camera. But that lack of perfection can
give a good feel to the film and make it more organic. It can make the film feel more ‘alive’ by, say, not always having the light placed in exactly the right way or hitting the actors in all the usual textbook places.
So, in a sense you’re playing up the imperfections. 0ften when you see a film that’s been shot in a stu- dio it all looks fantastic but perhaps just a little too well composed, too neatly done.
We were filming in this bingo hall and had a power failure. We still had our generator and our lights but some of the ‘practicals’ went off and there was nothing we could do about that.
In the story our actress starts singing to this karaoke machine. She’s shy and hesitant – at that moment everything’s still lit – then there was the power failure and, sur- prising as it might sound, I was rather happy with that because she then began to look more lost and not as confident in this different kind of lighting.
Later in the story, she’s karaoke- singing again, the ‘practicals’ are now working and she looks much more confident. The contrast looks great for the film and communicates the story in a visceral way... but it’s something I wouldn’t have dared to do if I’d actually tried to plan it that way. It was really pure luck. ■
Photos main: Ricky Tomlinson and Johnny Vegas in The Virgin Of Liverpool; above: cast and crew on location
Fuji Motion Picture And Professional Video • Exposure • 11