Page 10 - Fujifilm Exposure_49_King's Speech_ok

➤ It was very simple: a slide projector and a boy was showing some slides of the universe in a classroom and we had some storyboards which said ‘shot of screen, shot of boy, shot of class’.
“Then I thought we could put a back projection screen in, put a camera behind the screen and then physically just push the screen out of the shot and track forward. When you cut round you just have your normal screen in a classroom on a tripod. It was a lovely shot to start on.”
Alongside a cast that includes Damian Lewis, Bob Hoskins and Alice Krige. Liverpool legends past and present Kenny Dalglish, Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher also make cameo appearances.
Just as these figures loom large in any story set against that particular football club, so the psychological horror themes of Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark, co-starring Katie Holmes, Guy Pearce and Bailee Madison, and filmed in Victoria, Down Under, sit in the shadow of an equally impressive figure, Guillermo Del Toro.
The talented Mexican filmmaker has won legions of fans for films like Hellboy and Pan’s Labyrinth, so when his name is attached as a co-writer and producer to a project like this expectations are inevitably raised. The film’s director, Troy Nixey, came from an animation background so relied heavily on Stapleton, while Del Toro lent a hand too.
“He’s such a magnificent person in every respect that it was a real
pleasure to have him around,” says Stapleton, “and something that could have been problematic actually turned into a very creative threesome. Every morning we met and figured out what we should do.”
In a film where the mood is so closely controlled by the use of light and shadow, where a young girl’s nightmares of horrific creatures lurking in her new suburban home are brought vividly to life, Stapleton recognises that the cinematographer bears an even greater responsibility.
“One of the things you read on the net about the ETERNA Vivid 500T is lots of cinematographers who say ‘Oh my God, the blacks are brilliant’. Well, we’ve always heard that before, but it is true in this case that the blacks of this particular
stock are really exceptional. But for me what’s even more exceptional are the whites. Troy was a beam of smoke maniac; he was a big Blade Runner fan so it was all about beams and drips and all that sort of stuff.
“When we started looking at the set plans I realised there were very tall stained glass windows, in the classic horror house style, as well as lots of big bookcases and tiles, so you wanted the moonlight beams coming through the window. It’s very easy to do that in the day, because it doesn’t matter if the window gets really hot or blows
out white.
“But of course, when you try and do that for night you want a moonlight beam, but what you’re up against is the fact that the window is going to get too bright to look like real moonlight. So one of the tests
I was doing in pre-production was to take various stocks and just have a stained glass window in a darkened studio.
“We shot a big light through it and put a maquette of the nasty little creatures on the table. The test was very simple – beam of light; stained glass window; scary creature. I sat with the colourist in Melbourne and asked him to see how much tone he could retrieve.
“The astonishing thing was the ETERNA Vivid 500T was way better than anything else we tested in actually retaining detail in that window so that when we graded the film I was able to isolate each window and keep the beam of light.
“I needed the power of the light to get the beam but then had to go to the window and make it look much darker so it didn’t look like there was a bloody great light out there. That was a triumph for the stock.” ANWAR BRETT
Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark and Will, both opening in 2011, were originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA VIVID 500T 8547 and ETERNA 250D 8563
WILL AND DON’T BE AFRAID OF THE DARK
“THE BLACKS OF THIS PARTICULAR STOCK [ETERNA VIVID 500T] ARE REALLY EXCEPTIONAL. BUT FOR ME
WHAT’S EVEN MORE EXCEPTIONAL ARE THE WHITES.”
Photo main: Perry Eggelton and Damian Lewis in a scene from Will; above l-r: shooting Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark; Stapleton on the set; Guy Pearce and Katie Holmes in the film
8 • EXPOSURE • THE MAGAZINE • FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE