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THELASTFURLONG
DP TIM FLEMING ISC, WHOSE WORK INCLUDES HIT TV PRODUCTIONS LIKE SILENT WITNESS, HUSTLE, MOSES JONES AND LUTHER, REPORTS ON HIS LATEST FEATURE, AN OFFBEAT TEENAGE LOVE STORY SHOT AROUND WICKLOW AND MEATH IN HIS NATIVE IRELAND
I was invited to meet Agnés Merlet, director of The Last Furlong by James Flynn, producer at Octagon Films,
“co-producers with the French production company Fidelít. I had been the cinematographer before on two films for James - the Oscar-nominated live action short The Door - which Agnés had seen and liked - and the feature, As If I Am Not There, both adapted and directed by Juanita Wilson.
I met with Agnés, who co wrote The Last Furlong with Nick Murphy, in London and we had our initial discussion about the script. I had seen and loved Sons Of Shark, one of Agnés’ earlier films, which was very poetic and moving.
Agnés is very instinctive and allows the cast and heads of department engage fully and express themselves; she has a great instinct and when something’s not quite right will keep everyone going until we’ve broken through it.
The story is somewhat fantastical: a love story about two teenagers who are outsiders. The Girl (Rachel Hurd Wood) has just been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and The Boy (Harry Treadaway) is cursed with
a genetic power to kill when threatened or fearful.
When I came on board, the intention was to create a somewhat vfx-laden fantasy film but as Agnés and I prepped we settled more on bringing the story back to a more naturalistic form: still needing some vfx but not to the same extent as
“THE STOCKS BEHAVED BRILLIANTLY AND I’VE USED THEM MANY TIMES NOW ON BOTH 35MM AND S16MM.”
originally suggested in the script. They had been intending to shoot digitally but I felt the story would be better expressed with the texture of film. I proposed 2-perf’ 35mm but the budget wouldn’t stretch to this so I then settled for S16mm.
I also felt the story was better served at 2.40:1 aspect ratio so suggested we shoot Hawk anamorphic 16 Lites. I hadn’t had the opportunity to work with these lenses before though I had wanted tousethemonAsIfIAmNotThere but there wasn’t a set available during that shooting schedule.
I called Andreas Teichner at Vantage GmBH to confirm they had a set available this time, and they did. John Leahy at the Production Depot then stepped in and supplied from Vantage and serviced us ably throughout.
We shot two Arri 416s; I operated A- Cam and my good friend and colleague Conor Hammond the B-Cam.
The story requires three time periods so I chose four Fujifilm negative stocks to denote these: ETERNA Vivid 160T and ETERNA 250T, half corrected with an 81EF, for the period work, and ETERNA 250D for contemporary time, which is the bulk of the film.
Our boy lives in a cabin in the backwoods, a moody setting at the best of times, so I used Reala 500D for this location. The stocks behaved brilliantly and I’ve used them many times now on both 35mm and S16mm.
James McGuire, my Gaffer, helped hugely with his great experience and intuition for film. When testing
the lenses, it became apparent that shooting wide open allowed the anamorphic effect become really present, so as often as was practicable we did this and much credit goes to my 1st assistants Eoin Keating and Andrew O’Reilly.
We had an underwater sequence where our boy throws himself in the river and our girl jumps in to try to save him. This was achieved very simply with two scubacams for our 416s at the river where they enter the water, and a small tank for some close up work then, finally, a swimming pool for mid and
looser moments.
The river was muddy with lots of debris which we recreated easily in the small tank but weren’t allowed to put any particles in the swimming pool so I used a tobacco No 1 filter to help align the colour and placed cami-nets over black in the pool to create some texture.
The film has vfx posted by Filmgate in Sweden who are also production partners. A 2k post workflow will see me grading in Paris in December or January.
Filmgate were unhappy about the choice of anamorphic lenses and they insisted the vfx shots be shot on spherical lenses. This became a sticking point for a bit but we resolved it by sending mapping tests of the lenses so allaying their concerns.
We still did shoot some fx shots on spherical and I was assured by Andreas Hylander at Filmgate that the spherical vfx would knit seamlessly with the anamorphic glass. Unfortunately we didn’t have an opportunity to test this, so I look forward to being surprised.
This was a beautiful film to work on and I look forward to seeing it out in the world. Production design was by Didier Naert and costumes by Pascaline Chavanne, while the clapper loader was Seán
Leonard, grip John Dunne
and camera trainees, Eoghan Fleming and Aisling Graham.
FIRST PERSON
FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE • THE MAGAZINE • EXPOSURE • 35
The Last Furlong, to be released in 2011, was originated on 16mm ETERNA Vivid160T 8643, ETERNA 250T 8653, ETERNA 250D 8663 and Reala 500D 8692
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Photo top: DP Tim Fleming ISC; above; scenes from The Last Furlong