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xplains screenwriter Stuart EHazeldine, making his feature directing debut with Exam: “A lot of people simply assumed
we would just shoot it like a play, in HD, but I wanted to do the exact opposite.
“This is a symbolic tale, with characters who function as human archetypes, so I wanted it to be as big and cinematic as possible. I wanted to shoot on 35mm and frame it in widescreen to make the most use of the room and allow two heads to sit comfortably in the frame.
“Tim Wooster, my DP, had operated and been Second Unit on big Hollywood movies like Wanted and Cold Mountain, so I knew he could deliver. I showed him the kind of noirish directional lighting references I had in mind and he ran a bunch of tests with lenses, lights and gels and produced a very slick, accomplished look for the film.”
Confirms Wooster: “On a personal level, I knew there were many cool lighting looks we could give it to make the script work. We could show four completely different styles in one film.” The set itself was a single room, built on a soundstage, with several lighting systems and a two way mirror at one end.
“We saved a bit of time,” says Hazeldine, “because we never had to move, but keeping things fresh on set was as much a challenge as keeping the story interesting had been in the writing phase.
“Figuring out how to shoot under four different lighting conditions, and at one point with water, was a challenge that required a lot of trial and error. Having a big sheet of reflective glass at one end of the set was something we had to shoot intelligently around too.”
Starring, among others, Colin Salmon, Jimi Mistry and Luke Mably, Exam, filmed over 26 days at Elstree Studios, follows an octet of candidates vying for a top job with a mystery corporation.
Wooster was not fazed by the production’s demands. “I never had any problems with the one-room concept,” he says, “because so much happens in the time given to the candidates to find the answer that I knew we would be able to keep things moving.”
As well as the physical limitations, there was also the issue of shooting to create a realistic, 80-minute timescale.
“As for the real-time shooting,” says Wooster, “I knew it would be tough, as I’d shot Second-Unit on the Stephen King adaptation 1408, on which we had many separate sets
[also at Elstree] of the same hotel room but in many different states of disrepair.
“We had to shoot that in real time too. But you just need to think about it, and then you make it work: nothing is impossible.”
Exam, due for release in December, was originated on 35mm Fujicolor ETERNA 500T 8573
HOW DO YOU MAKE A PSYCHOLOGICAL THRILLER ABOUT EIGHT PEOPLE STUCK IN ONE ROOM CINEMATIC AND AUDIENCE-FRIENDLY?
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Photo top: DP Tim Wooster; above: scenes from Exam FUJIFILM MOTION PICTURE • THE MAGAZINE • EXPOSURE • 11