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Kenneth Branagh completes Listening, his second short film
BEATING
Ten years after making his first short film, Swan Song, which earned an Oscar nomination in 1993, Kenneth Branagh has just completed his second. Apparently the idea for Listening came while Branagh was shooting his latest role as Professor Gilderoy Lockhart in Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets.
Together with David Barron who has produced Branagh-directed fea- tures like In The Bleak Midwinter, Hamlet and Love’s Labour’s Lost, he speedily set up Listening soon after the latest Potter had completed production.
A 23-minute drama, co-starring Frances Barber, Paul McGann and Nanette Newman, it’s set in a silent country house retreat where a woman is convalescing emotionally only to discover that she’d quite like to become physical with another guest she’s just met at the rural hideaway.
According to Barron, who also served as one of the executive produc- ers on the Potter film: “There’s virtual- ly no dialogue. It’s very visual.”
On board again to help realise that predominantly visual brief was veter- an cinematographer Alex Thomson BSC who had previously worked with Branagh on the 70mm Hamlet and Love’s Labour’s Lost.
“I decided to use the Fuji Reala 500 Daylight stock. We shot it with no dif- fusion on Cooke Anamorphic Crystal Express Lenses which used to belong to Joe Dunton years ago and on which I must have shot at least a dozen films. I had, however, never used the Reala before although I had seen a demo reel which I quite liked.
“The reason I decided to go with it was because I was expecting dull
weather at this time of year and a lot of the action took place under trees, so I figured the 500ASA would be useful.
“In the event we had quite a lot of sunshine and although it’s tough for the operator – in this case Nic Milner who did a brilliant job, incidentally – when neutraled down it worked very well and, of course, in the dull weather it was beautiful.
“I was delighted with the pastel quality of the film; it deals with the green hues extremely well and the autumnal colours looked great. But most important of all, the flesh tones of the artistes looked completely natural.
“Another reason I wanted to use the stock was because most of the night interiors (shot on location) were candlelit and I thought the daylight stock would give me a nice warm flame on the candle. Which, of course, it would have if I’d shot it that way.
“But, being me, I changed my mind and put on an 82C (Blue) filter on the camera so that the light outside the windows turned slightly blue repre- senting cold moonlight (instead of blacking out the windows for night) and warming up the light supplement- ing the candle with C.T.O.
“I was using Kino-Flo with daylight tubes to light the picture and a touch of HMI, however I also used uncorrect- ed tungsten light in conjunction with it and found they mixed together extremely well, then I found out that’s what the stock is famous for!
“All I know is that it looks great – and that was good enough for me,” Thomson added.
Listening shot for six days entirely on location in Berkshire. Barron said it would probably be completed before Christmas and is likely to do the round of festivals next year. ■ QUENTIN FALK
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